Dutch graduate designer Pascal Smelik has made an aluminium table cast from hot wax poured into cold water.
The technique is the same as the one Smelik used to design the wine glasses we wrote about yesterday.
Smelik squirts hot candle wax into water using a large syringe, then drains the water and fills it with gypsum.
He then puts the mould into an oven to remove the wax before casting the aluminium.
See our earlier story about Smelik's wine glasses. Here's some text from the designer:
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The inspiration for my product is the idea that every product has a unique shape. I have made a big injection needle which i can fill up to 2 liters of hot candle wax. When I spray this candle wax in a bath of cold water, the wax hardens out and gets bizarre shapes. I can draw in the bath with cold water.
The first liquid hot candle wax that comes in contact with the cold water becomes solid and wants to float, so bizarre shapes grow out of the bucket to the water surface.
I have drawn a crutch on this way. But more interior products are possible. After i have drawn the crutch, I let the water out of the bath and fill it up with a gypsum mixture. When i have done this the whole mould goes into an oven, to stoke out the wax.
After this i fill up the mould with liquid aluminium, when this hardens out i break open the mould and my product is born.