Big Stitch Tunisian Crochet Rug

Vegitated Furniture: A Green Growing Room Divider

www.dornob.com

"Waterproof" - Porcelain Vase :)

products design

Kiikku White Planter

products design

This beautiful walnut ladder plant stand with four ceramic pots is absolutely sublime and it's a great way to bring the plants indoors.

4 removable ceramic pots with clear glossy finish
Solid walnut frame
Ceramic parts dishwasher safe 

Flowerbox Art

(images via:flowerbox)

These flowerboxes are not so much a gadget as environmentally friendly. They are made from cardboard boxes and come in a variety of colors. They come with holes in the back so you can hang your flowers on the wall with ease. Your flower or plant fits inside a white metal cup that is designed specifically for these boxes. You can add a splash of color, flowering plants or green foliage, to decorate your wall as well as start a conversation when your guests spy your eco-friendly flowerbox.

Gig 4track furniture

Spiral Island

 I am collecting bottles for an own floating island. I need some volunteers :) I have 1 bottle/day. I need 250.000 bottles for this project. So let me know if you are available on 4th of July 2693. :D

So you think you know how to upcycle? Well one man, Raishee Sowa, took upcycling up a notch and created the self-sufficient Spiral Island. The island floats off the beaches of Quintana Roo Mexico and is held afloat by recycled bottles. Raishee (former carpenter, musician, artist) collected the bottles locally by hand around Cancun until he had enough to begin construction of his personal paradise. By binding them into bundles using old fish nets and placing bamboo and salvaged plywood over the top to make a surface, Raishee then began piling sand atop from the shore. The 250,000 or so plastic bottles and over three years work now support an island roughly the size of a basketball court, although he is constantly upgrading with hopes of floating out to sea and living in his own “country.”


Reishee has planted mangroves for shade and for sustenance he has added such vegetation as bananas, tomatoes, almonds, lemons, and palm trees of course. The repurposing doesn’t end there, he also fashioned a washing machine out of an old drum that rolls in the waves, he collects rain for fresh water, and has constructed a solar cooker for his meals. Not only is this a great story that sparks the imagination the lessons Reishee has taught us about the ability to create useful, unique, and sturdy living alternatives from the discarded objects around us is amazing. To be a self-sufficient entity (let alone on your hand made island!) takes diligence, care, and effort. However, with some thought and patience the simplest effort to reuse and repurpose can go along way.  www.greenupgrader.com

A Law Impact Woodland Home

I love earth houses. This is one of them was built by Dale Simon.

"You are looking at pictures of a house I built for our family in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour).
The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.

Some key points of the design and construction:

• Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
• Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
• Frame of oak thinnings (spare wood) from surrounding woodland
• Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally and aesthaetically fantastic and very easy to do
• Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
• Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
• Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture (compared to cement)
• Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
• Anything you could possibly want is in a rubbish pile somewhere (windows, burner, plumbing, wiring...)
• Woodburner for heating - renewable and locally plentiful
• Flue goes through big stone/plaster lump to retain and slowly release heat
• Fridge is cooled by air coming underground through foundations
• Skylight in roof lets in natural feeling light
• Solar panels for lighting, music and computing
• Water by gravity from nearby spring
• Compost toilet
• Roof water collects in pond for garden etc.

Main tools used: chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really. Oh and by the way I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around inbetween. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverence and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.

This building is one part of a low-impact or permaculture approach to life. This sort of life is about living in harmony with both the natural world and ourselves, doing things simply and using appropriate levels of technology. These sort of low cost, natural buildings have a place not only in their own sustainability, but also in their potential to provide affordable housing which allows people access to land and the opportunity to lead more simple, sustainable lives. For example this house was made to house our family whilst we worked in the woodland surrounding the house doing ecological woodland management and setting up a forest garden, things that would have been impossible had we had to pay a regular rent or mortgage. To read more about why we did it and why this is an important option to meet the challenges of climate change and peak oil, click here.
Would you like to learn more about this sort of building and gain practical experience? Why not join us on another exciting building project. There will be opportunities for everyone of all abilities and areas of interest. Click here for more details."

The first blog post

This is my very first blog entry. The first and hopefully not the last post.

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves. (Thomas A Edison)