Riva 1920

'The Earth Table' is made from prehistoric Kauri wood set in resin. The table is made by Italian furniture maker Riva 1920. Kauri (Agathis Australis) is a type of conifer that grows only in Sub-tropical New Zealand. They are the worlds biggest tree in terms of trunk volume and grow to a height of 70 meters. Most of them were felled by English Colonists, the remainder are under government and legal protection.

Valerio Vidali II

It has been over a year since I featured Italian illustrator and designer, Valerio Vidali's toys. Here are some of her new works featuring more sculptural fish incorporating found woods.

Beatrice Cordara

Playing with tree rings Beatrice Cordara has made this series of stools and benches or occasional tables using  linden wood, veneer, nickel-plated steel. Beatrice studied Product Design at the Politecnico di Milano and then Contextual Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

Manoteca II

Two mini 'wandering' libraries by Manoteca.

Manoteca I

Bologna-based designer Manoteca creates incredibly stylish one of a kind,  upcycled pieces of functional furniture. This desk one made from window shutters.

I really like the idea that in every object is held somebody's life.
I hope that who is going to possess an object will think about that and take good care of it.
Manoteca is a little house in a park, a lab where old and abandoned things are hosted, reinvented and reassembled.
They are all one-of-a-kind, handmade and treated with natural paints.

TobeUs 100%

TobeUs initiated a project that started off as friends and expanded to 100 Masters of Italian design, all taking the basic components of a TobeUs car to create their own design. 100% TobeUs is being exhibited at the Toronto Design Festival this January.

"100% TobeUs, an exhibition about the value of the mindful use of objects and the diea the toys are important, so important that is better when they contain ideals and hopes for a better future, in which consumption will become thought and choice. One hundred international designers, between the most important in the world, accepted to play with TobeUs, creating a unique collection of one hundred wooden cars, designed with fantasy, simpleness and the wish to give a message of sustainability and joyfulness to adults and children." Matteo Ragni

TobeUs I

TobeUs is the design venture of Matteo Ragni a father who grew tired of seeing his children abandon or break new toys within a few hours of having them. His vision became clear a vision of "toy cars made of wood; strong and sweet-scented, beautiful and clever because they are planned by skillful and passionate designers."

Manifesto:
To be able to give a toy to a child that will age well, and last for years.

To put something in a child’s hands that is made completely from scented wood.

To give adults and children time to use an object, to mark it, become fond of it, repair it, lose it and find it again.

To speak to children about conscious consumerism: “Look, this will age. You can throw it away without worrying about pollution, it can be reused. It is made in Italy by adults who are paid a fair wage. If you are cold, you can burn it.

”For the pleasure of trying to find awareness in design: the block of wood is always the same, but two lines turn it into a distinctly different car.

Livio de Marchi.

Incredible carving by Italian sculptor Livio de Marchi who carves incredible things from all sorts of wood. This is a selection of Livio de Marchi's raincoats but he has carved many other things including a selection of car boats for his native town of Venice.

Alessandro Busana

Oblique cut furniture by Italian designer Alessandro Busana is a shift in focus where instead of being a box a place where items are stored and concealed, here with the act of a slice the inside is revealed, no secrets . . .  just good design.

Frances Cocitterio

 Designed by Frances Cocitterio Swallow is a versatile design made up of multiple copies of two elements made from ash and beech.
"Swallow is in fact made up of two pieces of wood processed in different ways, alternated and put together in order to create an infinite number of furniture combinations.

Ash is used for the female section and the beech for the smaller male section
Swallow can be manually assembled by simply slotting it together.
Like in children's games , the customer can easily create the shape they want with their own hands without the need for glue or screws."Frances Cocitterio

Aron Demetz II

Carved to perfection and then charred these are Aron Demetz haunting figures.

Aron Demetz I

Aron Demetz is an amazingly skilled and talented sculptor and particularly a carver. In his latest works Aron has taken immaculately carved figures and created distressed areas.
Perfecting tradition and then destroying the perfect beauty created to reflect more honestly the human condition.

Mario Ceroli II

There are reoccurring themes within Mario Ceroli's works here we have butterflies created with layers of wood veneers and hinges, beautifully clumsy and strong, the antithesis of the creature they portray.

Gaetano Pesce I

 

Gaetano Pesce who's career has spanned more than forty years is an architect and designer. Pesce trained initially in Venice before living and working in Strasbourg,  Pittsburgh, Milan, Hong Kong and then New York. Gaetano Pesce's innovations are consistently groundbreaking and traverse boundaries between art, design and industry. His award winning design is constantly fluid, defying definition, responding to the needs of the time we live in.

Paola Nava

Just released for 2012 the solid cedar wood globe chair with metal base, designed by Paola Nava for Riva 1920 a chair that really celebrates wood.(Thanks)

Marco Stefanelli

Wow! I love these pieces made for the Brecce Collection 2012 taking wood that has reached the end of there lifecycle as drift wood and waste from saw mills and building sites and giving them an amazing reincarnation by combining them with cast resin embedded with LEDs.

"I wanted to take inspiration from the research of natural objects that, in some ways, have reached their final step in the life cycle. They are for example sawmill’s outlets, pieces of urban architecture, logs carried by the river, firewood…
I have tried to give these pieces a second chance, tempting to make the light come out from the material and to amplify the sensorial experience." Marco Stefanelli

Matteo Thun I

 

 

Matteo Thun's  Briccole Venezia - Hardwood table is made from sections of the Briccole or tree trunk, they maintain the original shape  and features of the tree trunk meaning that each table is unique. The crossover legs are fixed sideways up through the table top, they are designed like this to reflect the llagoon Venetian landscape.