Static Bubbles by Nendo for Carpenters Workshop Gallery

Japanese designers Nendo will present three new projects for Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris next week, including this series of lamps, vases, bowls and tables made by heating agricultural nets.

The designers used heat-forming to shape the netting, which is normally used to cover fields of fruit and vegetable plants to protect them from wind and birds.

Other work on show will include twelve tables with tops made of free-flowing glass and five tables made by blowing glass into metal frame then allowing it to settle on the floor as it cools.

The work will be on show at 54 rue de la Verrerie 75004 Paris from 21 January until 3 March.

Photos are by Hiroshi Iwasaki.

Here's some more information from Nendo:

Farming-net collection for Carpenters Workshop Gallery

A collection of sculptural objects made by heat-forming agricultural nets ordinarily placed around fruit and vegetables to prevent them from harm by wind and animals.

The nets are stronger than organdy but more flexible than wire mesh.

Using them as a sculptural material allowed us to evade the traditional necessity of combining structure with a separate surface material, to create a thin membrane that stands independently, but also floats gently on a breeze.

The flower vase and bowl wrap the air like a furoshiki Japanese wrapping cloth.

The lamp softly emits light, in the manner of a traditional Japanese paper lantern. The multiply-pleated table are reminiscent of the surface of Japanese shibori (tye-dying) textiles and hand-made paper.

The action of gently wrapping something and close attention to the texture of the surface endow these objects with the very particular sense of expression found only in Japan, since ancient times.

Overflow collection for Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

Glass is formed when a free-flowing liquid hardens in place, creating a unique form.

We placed plate glass into a frame with one section missing, and turned the sheet into molten glass by progressively heating it so that the molten glass would run from the missing section. By hardening the glass again at just that moment, the edge responds to surface tension, creating a table like a pool of water. The collection's twelve tables vary in the amount of glass that overflows the frame and the position of the overflow.

Innerblow collection for Carpenters Workshop Gallery

A collection inspired by the way professional glassblowers draw a lump of molten glass onto the tip of a metal pipe and create form by expanding the glass with their breath, blown down the metal.

After expanding the glass in a square metal form, we left the glass in place rather than removing it and flipped over the form to create a table. The metal form becomes the table's legs and the glass, flattened through pressure against the floor, its flat top. Each of the five tables is different.

We raised one metal form during blowing to create an edge that swells over like a loaf of bread. Another table was created by several glassblowers blowing into one form simultaneously.