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Sometimes design weeks can really burn you out. You start each day fresh, but as you’re assaulted by one fabulous chair or sleek table or spectacular lamp after another you start to fade out. Full disclosure: I’m not in Milan this week but I bet that if I was and I was starting to zone out, Hilla Shamia‘s “Wood Casting” would snap me right out of my design induced stupor.
Shamia is an Israeli product designer who works mainly with metal and has only recently begun to introduce wood into her pieces. Her first products featured a range of metals in varying states of rust and decay, but now her products use mostly shining aluminum fused with the warmth of wood.
Her “Wood Castings” (shown here) are made using a whole tree trunk. Molten aluminum is poured directly into the wood, burning the exterior. A plank is then cut lengthwise, flush with the metal base. The final result are unique, one-of-a-kind pieces, their shape and fusing determined by the type of the wood and the pour of the molten metal itself.
