From Our Sunday Afternoon Wok

Here is a shot of one of the Wok Lights we built from the cast-offs we found in a local Chinese restaurant supply house dumpster one Sunday afternoon. This was a joint project with artist Staci Southwick of Functional Steel Objects.

From the Firehouse to Your House

When Elvis & Kresse met the London Fire Brigade they fell in love ... with a pile of old fire hoses. Here are a few samples from the line of handbags they've created. Check out their website, it's well worth a visit.

From Mondrian to Rietveld

A nice reclamation furniture line by Schubladen. If Piet Mondrian and Gerrit Reitveld had walked into my local thrift store with a saw, some glue and some paint, they might have happily walked out with a few of these.

From a Little Light Reading

These hanging fixtures are, I feel, the most successful from a series of about ten from designers Michael Bom and Antoinet Deurloo. While they rely on the physical structures of the books to create their three dimensional forms, both lamps have achieved something more than just demonstrating the novelty of shining a light through a printed page.

From Thirft Store Shelf to Department Store Window

Three really lovely ideas from Sander Lucas. How many countless shelves of abandoned pieces of porcelain have you seen like this at your local thrift store? This concept is worthy of being cycled back up to the department store shelves again for sure.

From my Christmas wish list

I've been watching the evolution of the Frietag brothers' business for about 10 years now. Markus and Daniel have come a long way since those first messenger bags. One of this year's designs has made my Christmas wish list - by the end of the year who knows what else they will have created from used truck tarps to temp us. Go Freitag!

From the Fashion Circuit

I've seen a lot of ideas for using discarded circuit boards and other electronic components in new product designs. Some of Betsy's Violets New Vintage accessories are managing to go beyond the 'hey look what I made out of some trash' aesthetic and are emerging as a tasteful line of abstract 'techno-deco' jewelry.

From Sink to Tank

Hopefully the roads, built in part from crushing the many old porcelain water hogs out there, will lead more people to these sleek new reclaimed water sink/toilet combos by Buratti & Battiston for Roca. When you wash your hands, the 'grey' water that heads down the drain is reclaimed and used for the next time the toilet is flushed - brilliant!

From a Built-in Destined for the Landfill

An early 1900's built-in buffet cabinet was, unfortunately, a must-go element in a recent kitchen I designed and built. Rather than send it to the landfill, we reclaimed the materials to use as elements of a new illuminated breakfast nook table.

From the Headlines

While traveling in Southeast Asia in 2005 we met many craftspeople working with recycled newspaper. It's fantastic to see that in 2010 Colin Lin is turning headlines into headlines.

From Bic to Chic

I've been sketching designs for and making furniture and modern lighting from reclaimed materials for over 20 years and I'm wondering now how many disposable ball point pens I've thrown away in that time - a chandelier's worth of them? Three cheers for the folks at enPieza for this signature piece! There are so many materials out there to rethink ... from what I've found, the lights seem to be going on everywhere.