The house in which I spent my formative years was a creaky, Victorian affair packed to the brim with a strange collection of dusty antiquities. All my attempts at affecting a rebellious minimalism resulted in a sense of mourning for my abandoned nest of detritus, and eventually I came to accept my magpie tendencies.
One such fellow magpie is Mr. A.R.M., the founder of The Secret Society of Odd Acquisition, a group who devote themselves to amassing a strange collection of wonders and learning their secrets. Mr. A.R.M.’s antiquated archive of macabre delights is framed in the age polished wood of Trundle Manor — a nefarious, and thus perfect, abode. Not content to simply collect, the members of the S.S.O.A. produce conglomerations of their strange googaws in the form of custom crafted jewelry, photos of which are viewable after the jump along with images of Trundle Manor itself.
I’ve featured my fair share of unobtainable designs here on Ectomo, loudly preaching the gospel of DIY approaches to the prohibitively expensive (or simply non-existent) designs of which I’m so fond. Sadly, not everyone has access to the tools, materials, and workspace required to give form to their dream creations. That time is over my friends.
A Parisian art collective calling themselves Le Cartonnistes utilize cardboard to create all manner of furniture, ranging from simple shelves to beds to entire room sets. While it may seem a questionable load-bearing source material, the technique used to form the structures that will eventually become furniture insures the stability of the creation — to a reasonable point of course.
The technique requires a bit of trial and error as well as accuracy within millimeters, but the oaths with which you’ll purple the air as you make mistakes (and learn valuable lessons) are all worth it when the TV box covered in a sheet being used as a coffee table actually becomes a coffee table, and a damn fine one at that.
I highly encourage each and every one of you to try your hand at this. The only limits to your swank boudoir now are the bounds of your own imagination.
Amazon has a whole book of these fantastic lurid magazine covers, It’s A Man’s World.
They run the gamut from Man attacked by Animals, Man attacked by Fish, Man attacked by Nazis, and Man attacked by Hippies.
The greatest, however, is an image of a mad Nazi doktor sawing off a girl’s arm, his “special” assistant is bringing him the freshly removed (and bandaged!) arm of a gorilla, which is seen sulking morosely in a cage in the background.
Comment by Haux — April 24, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
Too right you are friend Haux. This is quite possibly the best image I’ve seen a while which, considering the madness I deposit here on a regular basis, is no mean feat. It’s A Man’s World is currently available for ridiculously cheap; having just purchased a copy I suggest you do the same. A high res version of the above image is available upon request.
I grew up in a small town in southern Delaware called Milton. The town now boasts a population of 1,657, which was lower when I lived there years ago. There were a ton of antique stores crammed with all manner of dusty, random junk that I absolutely loved. We had a farmer friendly grocery store and a number of small, family-run shops for whatever else you might need. When news of a corporate chain moving into a lot of vacant land began to surface, there was an incredible uproar from community members. At the time I couldn’t understand it, anything new that came to town meant something to distract from my “boring” days of hanging out on my favorite felled tree by a peaceful, quiet lake in my tiny, picturesque Victorian town.
One of my favorite things about scouring the internet for fantastic furniture with which to fill my meagerly furnished home (or as is more often the case, bemoaning the lack of dosh that prohibits me from doing so) is analyzing the pieces that catch my eye and making mental notes of how they are constructed so as to attempt my own (far less expensive) reproductions. Such is the case with the Reel Rocker.
How Reel Furniture can charge $870 for this in good conscience is beyond me. It’s simply a massive wire spool converted to recliner/rocking chair, and to be honest looks a bit uncomfortable. But I’m an enterprising young fop, and don’t balk at the idea of a bit of work to replicate (and improve) on a design, so away it was filed as a possible project should I find myself with time and the scraps I need.
Granted, this design might not seem appealing as it is, but imagine a few coats of stain or paint, a bit of burgundy brocade upholstery, upgraded stops, polished fixtures over exposed bolts and suddenly this otherwise laughably expensive piece becomes something you can be proud of. Keep in mind I’m no enemy of craftsmanship, some hideously expensive pieces are justifiably priced, but making obscene gestures at my wallet by way of overpricing is a sure fire way start my gears to turning.
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
