Knitted chair....sounds interesting right!!!!

I really never thought that the age old practice of knitting can be applied so ingeniously to create innovative & beautiful design furniture. I really found this chair so intriguing that I decided to feature it here, for me this represents 'new art'!!!

The wooden chair seen here is a furniture made by knitting pieces of wood together using yarn. It was a brainchild of Designer Emiliano Godoy who decided to take the homely craft of knitting to a new level thereby creating a piece of art which can also be used. The chair resembles a tortoise shell or soccer ball with its geometric segments comprising a sturdy whole. The segments are made of aircraft plywood which are knit together with cotton rope & it is this process which gives the sturdiness, making it sustainable.

The chair, brought its designer great fame by receiving a Bronze leaf award at an international design fair & for sure it was well deserved. No doubt it is something intricate & difficult to create, but it just shows what amazing things can be achieved by pushing one's boundaries!!!

Imagine creating furniture from live plants!!!

This is exactly what designer Asif Khan has done when challenged by the Design Museum in London to create something special using local plant life. He thus used the plant Gypsophila (commonly known as Baby's breath) which was allowed to bloom into something beautiful & aesthetic to sit on!!!!

The plant's natural ability to interlock, was taken advantage of & this enabled the designer to use it for his specific purpose. Once the plant was in bloom, it was harvested, woven & then placed into pre-designed molds to be freeze-dried over several weeks. After the subsequent hardening, each piece received a coating of linseed oil resin to lock its shape into place.

The artist called this series of furniture 'Harvest' & it not only makes use of unconventional materials but is also beautiful, harmonious & merges the interior with the exterior world.

By using this kind of furniture, it might help to relieve the guilt we feel when using wood from cut & felled trees. At the same time it also helps us give back something to nature in exchange for what we have taken from it!!!!