...by its cover

As our reading becomes digital and the paper book becomes obsolete, I'm seeing more and more artists using old books as raw materials. Brian Gennett is one of these, and his mosaics stand on their own as stunning works of art. It's not until you look closely at the details that you see the raw materials--book covers and end papers. Click through to his site for more furniture, objects, and even tile. Each piece is sealed with layers of poly acrylic.

Thanks to Design Sponge for highlighting this work.

Images from Brian Gennett. Via Design*Sponge.

Shards of glass

My beloved Oakland has a crime problem. As I warily parked my car in a neighborhood where the sidewalks sparkled with the evidence of previous car break-ins, I had a bad feeling. My instincts proved right, and I returned to my car to find my front seat littered with broken glass and the contents of my glove box. By the next day, the window was repaired, the car was freshly vacuumed, and I was moving on.

Going through this process, I kept visualizing all that broken glass and its artistic potential. Today's post features the work of Ellen Blakeley, who specializes in beauty made from shards. My favorites are the ones with images imbedded behind the glass. Enjoy.

Note to locals: Ms. Blakeley occasionally teaches at the Institute for Mosaic Art, if you are inspired.

Images from Ellen Blakeley (top = New Yorker tile; all others = Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy mural and details). 

Electric slides

Our local reuse center always has bins of vintage slides. I've seen other slide lamps, but nothing so fantastic as this Film lamp by Davide Groppi. They use LED bulbs and can be linked up to form long, candy-colored strings of awesome (or black and white, depending on your choice of slides).

Images from Davide Groppi. Via This Is Colossal.

Slate-ish

Just discovered, Slate-ish, which is a triple green product (I just made that up--It's not a technical term.) 

1. Slate-ish is made from construction scraps instead of new materials
2. The source material (Richlite, Paperstone) is already an eco-friendly material, which builders and architects are using to gain LEED points in their projects.
3. The company has a buyback program (or a buy program) where they will gladly buy your countertop scraps to make them into tiles.

The tiles look like slate, but are actually a combination of paper and resin, laminated and pressed into a solid form. The material is durable, often used in countertops and skateboard ramps. The tiles are cut from the scraps leftover from construction projects--sink cut-outs, oddly shaped corners, anything too small or strange to be useful. 

This might be perfect for our new fireplace, which has been languishing unfinished without tile for far too long. If I can only decide on a design--trendy hex, long strips, triangles?

Images from Slate-ish.

It's a doggy dog world*

If you're a crafty DIY type, you should know about the amazing team and HomeMade Modern. They regularly post easy, well documented, and industrially styled DIY projects for you to add to that list of "I'd like to make that!" Fond of simple materials--concrete, plywood--they come up with some really interesting and modern shapes and provide enough detail for you to modify the projects for you own needs. In this case, easy instructions to size the cubby to fit your own particular size dog. Currently on their site they have several projects using faceted shapes, but I wanted to share this fantastic dog house.

I don't have a dog, but if I did, I would be so tempted to make this charming pet bed for him.

*Before the pronunciation police get onto me, I know the traditional phrase is dog-eat-dog, but this is one of my favorite mis-stated cliches. 

Images from HomeMade Modern. Via NOTCOT.

Drink up!

This stunning Brazilian garden is further evidence that you can make beautiful modern design out of almost anything (even plastic soda bottles), provided you are willing to use enough of them.

Images from This is Colossal. Via NOTCOT.

Out on a limb (twig?)

Tricia found this great image on Pinterest, but the source link was broken. I managed to track down a credit (thank you Google image search) on a Czech website.

I don't know anything about it, but thank you Tomáš Vacek of STUDIO VACEK for designing such an interesting twiggy modern bench.

Image from Pinterest. Via Tricia.