DESIGN_The Swedish-Chilean designer Anton Alvarez is able to join two different objects togheter to create another. He created an externalised joint that would enable him to combine a big range of different materials that normally would require very time-consuming methods of joining them together, and at the same time, to create a decorative pattern formed by the different colours of the thread.
His Thread Wrapping Machine is a clever contraption that revives the forgotten joining techniques with an innovative method: the elements are passed through counter-rotating wooden rings, each with eight spools of tread attached to its outer rim. As the rings turn, the glue-soaked threads wind themselves tightly around whatever components are inserted, creating a solid join and a decorative surface in one. The result is captivating: every piece is unique.
The Thread Wrapping Machine from Anton Alvarez on Vimeo.
“The Craft of Thread Wrapping was born with this tool that I designed and manufactured. It is a new way of making that has originated from years of my own personal research, beginning with my background in cabinetmaking and leading into my years of conceptual and process-based design research."
This is the The Craft of Thread Wrapping: the wrapping of the different pieces have to be made in a certain order.
"There are many different tricks that I am discovering and I am constantly developing my skills. I am finding new ways and methods of how to use the machine and how to join pieces with the tool. It still feels exiting to work with it. I am constantly developing my skills.
I am slowly getting better, working as much as I can to learn more about the possibility of this craft. As a craftsman the only way of gaining more skills is to work with your craft. Spend time with the material and your tool. I did not start off creating functional objects with the wrapping machine, instead I was trying to freely work with the new tool and see what was possible. For now, I am creating objects of furniture, but see the potential of the machine as limitless – expanding the technique to develop built environments, architecture and conceptual spaces.”
Photo ©: Märta Thisner | Paul Plews
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