Each and every day we interact with furniture and lighting extensively, often taking for granted the careful detail and precision that go into designing these products. Most of our days are spent in a piece of furniture, while most of our nights are illuminated by lighting fixtures—yet we rarely consider how crucial a role these designs play in our lives. Comfort, beauty, creativity and subtlety are the foundations for inspiring furniture and lighting design. Appropriately, all are considered for our Furniture & Lighting category, in which we ask for, "furniture and lighting products or systems for private, public, commercial or industrial use".

Our Jury Captain for the Furniture & Lighting category this year was Luca Nichetto, Founder of Nichetto Studio. Joining him on the Jury Team was Constance Guisset, Founder of Constance Guisset Studio, Hanna Nova Beatrice, Editor in Chief of Residence Magazine, and Shu Wei, Founder of ZaoZuo.

"The feasibility, the innovation and the functionality," are the three criteria Jury Captain Luca Nichetto considered when evaluating the submitted projects. "These connect for us what is good design in the lighting and furniture industry, and is something I am looking for when designing my own projects."

Core77 would like to express our deepest gratitude to the entire Furniture & Lighting Jury Team for recognizing the following projects:

Perhaps the most important aspect of design is its ability to change existing paradigms and alter established ideologies—both on a cultural and societal level. Design, in general, possesses a tremendous capacity for global improvement—be it for environmental, humanitarian or social causes. This idea of designing for the betterment of our world, both on a micro and macro scale, has become a pillar of contemporary design and a promising step in the right direction. To celebrate this, for our Design for Social Impact category, we asked our entrants for "projects specifically designed to directly benefit social, humanitarian, community or environmental causes."

Leading our Design for Social Impact category was Emily Pilloton, Founder of Project H, with John Bielenberg, Partner at Future Partners and Maria Guidice, VP of Experience Design at Autodesk rounding out her Jury Team. The team's principle judging criteria were: Impact, Authenticity and Craft.

In addressing the honorees, Emily Pilloton admired that, in both the Student and Professional categories, the winners were "unexpected," adding that "they were both really surprising and delightful and came from the heart. They felt very genuine, scrappy and highly successful."

John Bielenberg continued: "The ones we selected combat this idea of design elitism. This was inclusive design."

Maria Guidice noted that the entries represented design as a democratic act. "Using very human-centered design techniques that can be applied and shared by anybody. You don't need a degree to be creating these amazing solutions," she said. 

"Maybe that's the greatest act of design for social impact: design doesn't just belong to designers," concluded Emily. "The things that we saw that we were so wowed by actually came from non-design offices."

Core77 would like to express our deepest gratitude to the entire Design for Social Impact Jury Team for recognizing the following projects:

Affording younger generations the opportunity to learn facets and principles of good design at an early age is paramount in ensuring that design has a promising future. By effectively educating youths in design practice, the next wave of designers have a chance to not only carry on the legacy of those who came before them, but improve upon it. For our Design Education Initiatives category, we asked our entrants to provide, "any educational class project, curriculum or institutional level program or tool that furthers the practice of design education or education about design."

Leading the Design Education Initiatives team this year was Pradyumna Vyas, Director of the National Institute of Design. Accompanying Pradyumna on the jury was Hrridaysh Deshpande, Director of DYPDC School of Design, Shashank Mehta, Activity Chairperson at the National Institute of Design, and Srini Srinivasan, President and CEO of Lumium. Upon reviewing each entry, Mr. Vyas felt that, "all the entries are very innovative, and it was difficult to pick a winner, because they were competing with each other."

The Jury Team highlighted five criteria they considered when reviewing the entries: "Problem solving/intent, stakeholder usefulness, relevance for the world, creativity/idea, and execution/efforts taken."

Core77 would like to express our deepest gratitude to the entire Design Education Initiative Jury Team for recognizing the following projects:

Consumer product design has a simple mission: to give the people what they want. To successfully navigate this mission, however, designers must travel complex avenues. Every factor must be considered—visual engagement, environmental impact, manufacturing cost—in order to appeal to the broadest array of consumers. Ultimately, designing a consumer product is about creating a luxury that feels like a necessity to the target audience. With this in mind, we asked our Consumer Product category entrants for, "final products designed specifically for individual use across a variety of environments and purposes, including but not limited to home, work, leisure, sporting, health and hygiene."

The Jury Captain for our Consumer Products category this year was Jon Marshall, Director of Design at MAP. Joining him on the Consumer Products Jury Team was Emily Brooke, CEO and Founder of Blaze, Heather Martin, Vice President of Design at Smart Design, and Hyuntaik Lim, Product Director at Samsung Design Europe.

In explaining the judging criteria, Heather Martin told us, "Sometimes I found myself questioning whether the product really was the answer to a problem that was existing in the world. Some of the entries produced a product, and we questioned as the judges: Is that really necessary? Could it be in another way? Could it be done through software? Through a phone? Maybe we don't actually need the product, it doesn't need to exist. So we asked ourselves a lot of questions around 'are we just adding more clutter to the world?'"

Addressing the work overall, Jury Captain Jon Marshall praised: "The quality of the work was just incredible and the communication of the work and the photography of the work was better than I'd seen in previous judging experiences."

Core77 would like to express our deepest gratitude to the entire Consumer Product Jury Team for recognizing the following projects:

Commercial equipment could reasonably be considered the unsung hero of industrial design. When designing a remarkable commercial equipment product, functionality must supersede trendiness, while practicality takes precedence over flashiness. Commercial equipment products impact lives in a number of ways: increasing safety, streamlining efficiency and improving health. Specifically, for our Commercial Equipment category, we asked designers for: "Equipment and systems designed for public, commercial, industrial, medical and scientific use".

Jim Kraimer, Director of Design at Crown Equipment Europe, captained the Commercial Equipment Jury Team this year. Accompanying him were Bruno Saint-Jalmes, Head of Creative Design and Concepts at Airbus, Jaime Moreno, Founder and Creative Director at Mormedi, and Robert Sachon, Head of Design at BSH.

Jury Captain Jim Kraimer admitted that in evaluating the entries it was very "tough to choose" which projects to honor.

Core77 would like to express our deepest gratitude to the entire Commercial Equipment Jury Team for recognizing the following projects:

Our environment is a significant part of who we are. It shapes us—and often even defines us. With this in mind, every structure encountered in our everyday lives— from the smallest kiosk to the tallest skyscraper—goes through a considered design process. Designers are aware of the impact their designs have on day-to-day life, aware that they are not only crafting a structure or an installation, but an experience for others. Considering this, for our Built Environment category, we asked designers for "spatial design as it relates to physical interiors, exhibitions or installations, either permanent or temporary, for private, public, commercial or industrial purposes."

Leading our Built Environment category as Jury Captain was Arthur Huang, Co-Founder and CEO of Miniwiz. Joining him on the Built Environment Jury Team was Andrea Simitch, Associate Professor at Cornell University, Giorgio de Mitri, Creative Director at Sartoria Comunicazione, and Hartmut Gaßner, Founding Partner of Gaßner, Groth, Siederer & Coll.

In addressing her criteria, Andrea Simitch said: "I was looking for a sense that the constructive aspects of the works related to their forms. The mood or the atmosphere, the effect that emerged from some sense of material of construction that was innovative, that transcended a veneer of theatricality."

Hartmut Gaßner added: "Is there progress, is there development, is there an increase of using the materials from post-consumer waste to use it again?"

Giorgio de Mitri continued: "Either you push the envelope, then, you know, you to give to an idea something that was unprecedented, then I respect it."

Jury Captain Arthur Huang summarizes their criteria by stating: "We're always looking at whether the concept can be precisely implemented. We're always looking for something that is better for the environment or better for someone else."

Arthur also commented that many of the projects use ideas recycled from years ago, but are "being redone or being revisited", and that "sometimes it's executed even better than 10 years ago, sometimes even more enhanced with the technology than before".

Core77 would like to express our deepest gratitude to the entire Built Environment Jury Team for recognizing the following projects.

After nearly two months of careful deliberation, the final results are in. Your Honorees for the Core77 Design Awards 2016 have been chosen by our dedicated Jury Teams and are ready for the big reveal!

In our sixth season, 190 projects were honored, with work submitted by designers from around the world. As per previous years, our 14 categories had a decidedly international feel, with a highly diverse field of honored entries.

Presiding over the judging process for the Core77 Design Awards 2016 was a multi-national panel of design experts comprised of 54 individual jurors, split into teams of three or four. Our jurors hailed from 15 unique countries, giving this year's Awards program an exceptional global presence.

The jurors were particularly impressed by the emphasis on research driven projects this year, as well as the clever simplicity of many design solutions. Additionally, they admired the trend of socially and environmentally conscious design that has become a cornerstone of the field over recent years.

The honoree announcements also kick off the public voting for the second annual Core77 Community Choice Prize. This relatively new addition to the Design Awards program asks the global design community to vote on their favorite honored entries between today and June 26th. A grand prize winner, the project that receives the most votes over all across all 14 categories, will receive airfare and accommodations to attend the 2016 Core77 Conference in Los Angeles, California. Anyone who votes in the Community Choice Awards will be automatically entered into a drawing for one of three free tickets to attend the 2016 Core77 Conference.

Browse through all the honored projects, and be sure to have your voice heard by voting for your favorites!

Here's a problem we didn't expect Jimmy DiResta to have: Needing to house fast-growing chickens. The chicks he and girlfriend Taylor recently acquired to populate their upstate farm have rapidly grown into chickens, and they're getting too big to live in the house. Solution? Build them a chicken coop.

A predator-proof chicken coop, naturally. The flightless birds will require a fox-proof dwelling, so Taylor designs one, then Jimmy and Taylor build it. I'm digging the time-saving stacking method Jimmy uses to keep the framing square. (Oh, and if you're wondering why the camera angle looks odd when he's up on the roof, it's because with both hands occupied, Jimmy had to hold the camera in his mouth.)

Like a piece of toast popping in a toaster, the Day Maker makes an energetic start to the day when an iPhone alarm goes off. And if you’re not quite ready to rise, sleep on effortlessly by putting the phone back down, activating the apps sleep function.

One of the blogs I regularly read is Robin Wood's blog. Robin (whom I don't personally know) is a maker of wooden bowls and plates, made with a foot-powered lathe, and he is passionately interested in preserving traditional crafts in England. Not just the tools of the craft, but the know-how and lore that make it possible to proceed. 

Woodworking, and the stuff we promote is just one facet, maybe the most popular facet of craft, and working wood is just one of the hundreds of apprenticed crafts that have disappeared. An interesting question to ask is "who cares?" I think there are at least two answers to this. 

Series of bowls by Robin Wood

1. Craft is a touchstone to our roots—to something real and, in most cases, something local. Just look at Robin's bowls.

They are production work, but hand production work. Each is slightly different. Because of the cost—being more expensive than a plastic bowl from the local big box store—and because you had to make a decision to buy that bowl from a person rather than an anonymous entity, it says something about you. It feels different in the hand than something mass-produced, and it can never be exactly duplicated. Chances are you won't have that many special bowls and if you are like me, familiar objects provide comfort and anchor you in place. 

I've used the same left-handed wooden spoon for over 20 years to make pasta sauce with. I can still remember buying it at a huge crafts show at The Armory (possibly, don't remember, made by Barry Gordon ) which I went to with my parents. It will wear out one day but until then I use it, I feel connected to my past, and being left handed it's the perfect tool for me to stir my sauce with. 

2. Stuff made by highly-skilled craftspeople may be the only place for economic development in the future. What I mean is that in the "First World" we are faced with increasingly cheaper, imported consumer goods that basically become commodities. At the same time there are fewer and fewer jobs out there with any meaning. There is no middle to the market. Goods are increasing on the low end (sometimes marketed as high-end, but a fancy label isn't a guarantee of something actually fancy) or really high-end. The internet makes it possible for a small manufacturer to precisely reach a worldwide audience. It therefore seems to me that many people, finding no interesting jobs in the mainstream market, will try their hand at some craft. 

Since I think there are enough consumers who like traditional stuff, this will be a growing market. We have seen this in the hand tool world with the recent and huge revival in high-end hand tools, mostly by small vendors. (To learn more about this, read economist Paul Krugman's discussion on "Will Technology Make Workers Obsolete?" or "White Collars Turn Blue.")

So anyway, I am following Robin's blog and and happily amazed that his group is starting to have a little traction. I wish we had this sort of foresight in the U.S. Craft programs have disappeared from schools all over the country and it strikes me that we are doing ourselves and our children a real disservice with that.

__________________________________________________________________________

This new "Tools & Craft" section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of  Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.

Technology Will Save Us, the London-based tech-for-kids company, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new wearable device (a slight departure from the DIY kits they are known for). Inspired by the potentials of learning by doing (and playing!) the Mover Kit offers an intuitive way for kids to learn the fundamental principles of programming, electronics and computational thinking. "While kids are avid consumers of technology, they can find creating and making with it complex and scary. Kids who might want to get involved in making with digital technologies are getting left behind," says TWSU co-founder and CEO, Bethany Koby. "Mover Kit is about educating kids through play and also addressing the ever-present problem of our gender gap." 

Straight out of the box, the kit contains a core unit (which looks a bit like a bicycle bell), a circuit board, an accelerometer, a magnetometer and eight RGB LED lights. Once the kit is put together (the team estimates only a 15-minute assembly time), the toy is basically a blank slate for kids' imagination's to run wild. 

The Mover can be programmed to animate an endless list of games and activities. "We designed Mover Kit alongside children and tested prototypes with over 300 kids," says Koby. "They showed us that they were most excited about technology that they could wear and that responded to activities." One child built a robot costume and programmed his Mover to light a string of LED lights when he walks. Another turned his gadget into a compass, programming it to light up only when he is moving North. Others use them as bike lights. The Mover gives kids the opportunity to flex their creative muscles without constraint—first imagining the use, then creating the object and rules to make it happen.  

Some kids use the Mover to activate their fantasies—like this pretty awesome lightsaber—while others use their Movers to keep tabs on their daily routines, like the kid who programmed his Mover to light up after two minutes of tooth brushing. 

Once the kit is built, it can be easily reprogrammed through an accompanying online platform called Make. Featuring a simple, block-based interface, kids learn the basics of coding through a basic "if this, then that" logic. There's also an open-source platform where kids can browse and download preprogrammed modes designed by other children. That's the only time kids interact with a screen during the process—once their Mover is programmed it becomes a part of their daily lives. "We don't want this to be something that needs a screen, it's something you do in the world," explains Koby. 

The Mover Kit is currently in it's last week for funding on Kickstarter and is set to release later this year—support the project here.

When Atari released the PONG arcade machine in 1972, it was meant to simulate a game of table tennis. This will be hard for the Call of Duty generation to comprehend, but here's a ten-second clip of what the game looked like in action:

Now Daniel Perdomo, a tinkerer from Uruguay, has succeeded in building a prototype of a physical version of the game. He's maintained the square—actually cubic, since we're talking 3D—"ball," rectangular "paddles," and same visual aesthetic. I figured this was just going to be a dressed-up air hockey table and was pretty surprised with what Perdomo came up with instead:

The Table PONG Project took Perdomo and his girlfriend Majo Martinez Lombard two years to complete. Now that they've proven their prototype works, "We are looking," they write, "for a hardware incubator to make it a reality."

This is written for those readers who are new to furniture design but are interested in learning more, either as an aspiring designer or as a consumer with a critical eye.

________________________________________________________________________

While furniture has been built from wood for millennia, natural wood presents problems for mass production. Wood expands and contracts with changes in humidity, requiring clever (and time-consuming, thus expensive) design and construction tricks to prevent joint failure. You can learn more about this topic here.

That's why manufacturers like using plywood and particle board. These engineered woods are not susceptible to wood movement, come from the factory reasonably flat and will not warp to the degree that natural wood will.

However, seeing the edges of plywood or particle board is widely considered undesirable, for two reasons. The first is that it's simply considered ugly.

The second is that manufacturers may not want you to know that they're using plywood or particle board. Thus they glue edge-banding, or thin strips of veneer with adhesive on one side, to the exposed edges in order to give the visual impression of a solid piece of wood.

How Can You Spot Edge-Banding?

It's easy. Natural wood boards have three types of grain: Face grain, edge grain and end grain:

The giveaway for an edge-banded board is that you'll see edge grain where you ought to see end grain, as seen in the photo below. Edge-banding is not a new practice, by the way, and you'll even see it on vintage pieces of furniture. For example, here's a shot of one of my sewing machine cabinets, manufactured by Singer in the 1950s.

The face grain runs towards the camera on the top surface, meaning we should see end grain on the edge that's facing us. Instead we see edge grain running left to right. Look for this grain-disconnect and you can tell real wood from engineered wood every time.

How Can You Apply Edge-Banding?

Applying edge-banding manually used to be a pain in the butt. You had to use an iron to melt the adhesive and basically steam the stuff on, and it was easy to get the level of heat incorrect, screwing up the adhesion. Nowadays there are far easier methods to apply edge-banding. Here are two options:

If you've got deep pockets, buy a Festool Conturo. We covered that machine in detail here. It's amazing at what it does, but at $2,800 - $3,200 it's also prohibitively expensive for anyone who doesn't produce furniture or do installations for a living.

For those looking for a more affordable entry into edge-banding, I can recommend FastCap's FastEdge system. I bought into it last year after seeing videos by two esteemed YouTube makers, Ron Paulk and Izzy Swan, endorsing it. First off, here's Paulk explaining the merits of FastCap's system versus the old way of doing it:

Here's Swan showing you how he uses it, and the workshop station he built to make the work go faster:

Note: Core77 is not officially endorsing FastCap's system; we have no arrangement with them and I personally purchased their materials for my own projects. I did not announce myself as a member of the press nor receive special pricing or treatment—in fact there was a shipping error that I had to call them three times to correct. I paid full retail, breakdown below:

In short, I like their system because I find it easy to use, and I was willing to invest in the tools.

Edge-banding pros among you: Do you have recommendations for your own methods and preferred products? Help the noobs out and share the info!

Experience Leads are the nerve center of our design process and take a hefty share of responsibility for the success of large-scale projects. Experience Leads oversee an interdisciplinary team (including Visual and Interaction Designers, Content Strategists and Copywriters, Developers and more) through research, strategy development, concepting, product definition and design.

When you design a product, you never really know how it's going to be perceived. The second it hits someone else's eyeballs, your design goes through the filters of that person's experiences.

So let's talk about looking at a design critically. Not "critically" in the manner of a troll, but as in analyzing a design's merits and perceived faults. First we'll look at this piece with fresh eyes, the way a "civilian" might. Then we'll examine it from the perspective of someone with a bit of a design background.

This is the Luno EGB2 Record Console. The Mid-Century-Modern-inspired piece contains a built-in sound system including a turntable, amplifier, subwoofer and two-way speakers. It also features a minibar with gold-rimmed glasses and storage for 150 LPs.

Luno - EGB2

I love that this vintage-looking piece recalls a time when moments in our lives could center around interacting with a piece of furniture. You can imagine coming home from a hard day, flipping the lid open, selecting a record, placing in on the platter, pouring yourself a whiskey. If you're a record owner, the EGB2 is something you'd save up for and keep in the family. This would be the centerpiece of a room.

Luno - EGB2

Luno - EGB2

Luno - EGB2

Luno - EGB2

Now let's take a closer look. The description states:

The beautiful Mid Century inspired design…effectively evoke[s] the luxurious style and modernist design of the Mad Men era. Each EGB2 is crafted by finely skilled artisans in the USA using American Walnut and would undoubtedly be a conversation piece based on it's [sic] stylish design alone.

Even if you don't have a design background, chances are high that you know walnut is considered a premium wood. The piece is described as being made of walnut and mentions no other materials, so your perception of this piece is that it's made of a premium material.

But if we look closer, we see this:

Luno - EGB2

As we mentioned in the post on edge-banding, there is a grain disconnect here. These pieces have been edge-banded, indicating that they are probably walnut-veneered plywood or particle board. That's hardly illegal—there is no FDA for furniture demanding that you disclose the "ingredients" of all furniture pieces—though it does bug us when this admittedly common practice is not disclosed in the product's description.

Anyways, here is the part I'd like to ask those of you with design backgrounds about. It concerns these arches:

Luno - EGB2

To a layperson, they merely seem a decorative element. But to a Mid-Century Modern aficionado (which I am not) or to anyone forced to sit through a History of Furniture Design course (which I was), they represent something else. Please look at the photographs below, which are of pieces created by furniture manufacturer Broyhill in the 1960s:

Broyhill - Brasilia

Broyhill - Brasilia

Broyhill - Brasilia

Broyhill - Brasilia

That's Broyhill's Brasilia line. It hit the market in 1962, with furniture inspired by the (then-new) architecture style of Brasília, Brazil's capital.

Brasília

Brasília

Brasília

Herman Miller logo, 1940s

The parabolic arc was already a visual staple of the time—heck, Herman Miller had had it as part of their logo (left) since the '40s—but Broyhill really ran with it here, incorporating two opposing arcs as a motif across a wide variety of furniture.

Broyhill - Brasilia

Broyhill - Brasilia

Broyhill - Brasilia

Broyhill - Brasilia

That the Luno piece was inspired specifically by the Brasilia line is not in question, nor is it illegal. My question to you is, ought the designer of the EGB2 have said "Broyhill-Brasilia-inspired" rather than "Mid-Century-inspired?" Or are the arches, as distinctive as they are, completely fair game?

Perhaps Luno can't be faulted at all. The Brasilia line first appeared in 1962. In 1963, Broyhill competitor Kent Coffey, also based in North Carolina, released their Perspecta line:

Kent Coffey - Perspecta

Kent Coffey - Perspecta

Kent Coffey - Perspecta

Kent Coffey - Perspecta

Kent Coffey - Perspecta

Kent Coffey - Perspecta

I think this is why issues of design copyright can be so tricky. I can imagine the absurdity of lawyers trying to discuss these arches in a court of law. Yet if I were the Broyhill designer and later spotted the Luno piece or the Perspecta line, I'd surely do a double-take.

Two questions for you:

1) If you were the Broyhill designer, what would you think after seeing the Kent Coffey and Luno pieces?

2) If you were the Luno or Kent Coffey designers, what would you say to the Broyhill designer if pressed on the similarities?

While coffee tables can be designed to store all kinds of things, some coffee tables—along with side tables and stools—are designed specifically to hold magazines. 

Rform's Pi collection has both a bench and a stool/side table with space for magazines. This is easy-to-reach storage for those who have trouble bending down toward the floor, where some other tables have their storage space. The one drawback I can see is that magazines might get shoved toward the back where they would be harder to see (and retrieve).

Umbra's Magino stool, designed by Karim Rashid, has that close-to-the-floor storage space: fine for many people, but not those with trouble bending down that low. Because it's clear acrylic, the top magazine on each side is visible; that's nice for those who work best with storage that doesn't hide things away.

The Collecteur from Christian Lessing, with its two powder coated steel pieces, has an adjustable height, going from 40 to 59 cm. The Collecteur has a removable cushion, so it can serve as a stool or an end table. One downside: As the stack of magazines grows, it might become increasingly hard for end users to pull out the ones they want. And thinner magazines without a spine won't work very well in this type of piece.

The Woodieful Chair, which also serves as an end table, had a successful Kickstarter that got funded in May. The slots provide for magazine storage when it's oriented as a table. 

The Woodieful can also store magazines when it's being used as a chair. However, this piece would be a bit cumbersome to use for magazines if it was frequently re-oriented—changing between a chair and a table—as the magazines would need to be removed and replaced.

Tables designed to hold magazines often use slots in the top surface for this purpose. The acrylic Wave Table, a prototype from BEdesign, provides this type of storage. However, the very limited tabletop space would make this impractical for many people.

But the Wave Table has one notable feature: It can be turned on end, and seemingly still provide storage (on what would then be the side, not the top).

The Mag coffee table from Ali Sandifer provides a lot of tabletop space along with nice angled storage for a limited number of magazines. The angled approach helps keep magazines upright even if the storage space isn't full.

The coffee table from Brigada would work for end users willing to trade some tabletop space for more magazine storage. The slots have varying depths, which would be nice for those whose periodicals aren't a single size. But for others, the deepest slots may be a bit too deep for comfort.

Lots of freestanding magazine racks use a leather sling; Roderick Vos takes this design approach and incorporates it into a table. This design will annoy some end users because the magazines will not stand up straight and may tend to curl; others won't mind that at all.

Another design approach involves using a rack that the magazines get placed over, as with the WF Magazine Side Table from Joshua Howe. End users who are in the midst of reading a magazine could keep their places, which some may appreciate. However, this design may be a bit hard on the magazine's spine—a possible concern for those who intend to keep the magazines after they've been read.

The magazine coffee table from Kimba Hills would be good for end users who are very visual and want to readily see the magazines being stored.

The Paper Table from Ligne Roset, designed by Nathan Yong, is marketed as a magazine rack/occasional table, but it doesn't look like a very practical table. It's also less space-efficient with its storage than some other approaches, but it is another design that would work well for those who work best when they have everything within easy eyesight.

Levenger's No-Room-for-a-Table Table uses the accompanying large basket to provide magazine storage that fits into narrow spaces. However, if there's no space for end users to stand beside the table (so they can only access it from the front), it will be hard for them to see what's in that basket; they'd have to pull it forward.

Even as municipalities mull banning them, plastic bags will probably remain an indispensable part of our lives. Our usage of them goes way beyond the handled variety given out at stores: We buy food packaged in plastic bags, save leftovers in Ziplocs, throw garbage out in them.

You probably realize that like all plastic goods, plastic bags start out as pellets. But how do manufacturers turn pellets into, say, aforementioned Ziplocs? Take a look:

We're showing you this video to broaden your manufacturing knowledge, not to endorse plastic bags. Don't worry, up next we'll cleanse your palate with some useful plastic recycling information.

Western Red Cedar

Thuja Plicata

Clear vertical grain Western Redcedar is the top grade.

Although not a true Cedar, Western Redcedar shares many of the same properties and has therefore been given the cedar name. The Redcedar is actually from the Cypress family, and it is often spelled "Redcedar" as one word as a way of indicating this.

Western Redcedar has a wide growth range along the west coast of the US and Canada, but despite its numbers, scarcity has been a concern due to the ever growing demand for this outstanding exterior species. Through greater awareness and more responsible forestry practices, however, the supply is becoming much more balanced. These days, the replanting rates are 5 to 1, which means that we will have more Redcedar in 50 years than we have ever had before.

The long bole of the Western Redcedar means plenty of top quality straight grain lumber free of knots.

Redcedar is naturally rot resistant due to high levels of extractives which act as a natural fungicide. The tree has a very straight bole and high branches, which result in very few knots and a dead straight grain. Western Redcedar sapwood is very narrow, usually only 1 inch wide, whereas common trunk diameter is 2 to 8 feet. This yields large quantities of lumber with very little wastage during sawing. The lumber is very stable once dried, and although the drying process can be rather tricky, J. Gibson McIlvain's specialists are trained to pay close attention during the kiln drying process.

The beauty of Western Redcedar is in the strength imparted from its long, straight grain combined with its low density, which makes it very light. The straight grain lends itself to riving, hence the common nickname "shingle wood." The heartwood has a low sap content and does not blunt or gum on cutting tools.

Canadian western redcedar cowl in the National Assembly for Wales

Today, Western Redcedar is used extensively in the production of cedar shingles, exterior siding and trim, outdoor furniture and structure, decking, and even interior millwork and trim for those who desire a great rustic look. Its weather resistance allows for direct contact with the ground, so it is often used as fence posts, garden pergolas, and sheds, as well as in trellis applications.

This continuation of the Wood Species series is written by Shannon Rogers, a/k/a The Renaissance Woodworker and founder of The Hand Tool School. It has been provided courtesy of the J. Gibson McIlvain Lumber Company, where Rogers works as Director of Marketing.

See all of the Wood Species entries.

We're thrilled that Dave Hakkens is pursuing his Precious Plastic recycling mission, which he explained to us in April. The idea that people around the world can build their own recycling contraptions with readily-available materials is alluring, and a potential game-changer for our future.

But in order for folks to get involved, a little education is required; namely, people will need to learn a bit about plastics, like how to identify the different types, what those different types are and what they're capable of being turned into. Here Hakkens deepens your knowledge base with some easy-to-understand explanations:

Did you know there was a time when iron was more valuable than gold? You might wonder how that's possible, since iron is one of the most common elements on Earth and gold is not. The reason is because while it's possible to find a gold nugget, you'll never find an iron nugget. Iron must be extracted from ore, and for most of human history, we lacked the smelting technology to do that.

The Egyptians figured smelting out around the 8th Century BCE, according to Daniela Comelli, a professor of materials science at the Polytechnic University of Milan. So it makes no sense that when King Tutankhamun's 3,500-year-old tomb was cracked open, he was found buried with an iron dagger—about six centuries before the Egyptians knew how to make iron. Where'd they get the metal?

From outer space, as it turns out. 

Comelli and a team of researchers used a technique called X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy to analyze the dagger, and found "that the composition of the blade (Fe plus 10.8 wt% Ni and 0.58 wt% Co), accurately determined through portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, strongly supports its meteoritic origin."

The research team have published their findings in science journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, in an article called "The meteoritic origin of Tutankhamun's iron dagger blade." As they write:

...Our study confirms that ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of precious objects. Moreover, the high manufacturing quality of Tutankhamun's dagger blade, in comparison with other simple-shaped meteoritic iron artifacts, suggests a significant mastery of ironworking in Tutankhamun's time.

The team have also linked their research to a 13-Century BCE hieroglyphic, "literally translated as 'iron of the sky,'" to conclude that "the ancient Egyptians…were aware that these rare chunks of iron fell from the sky already in the 13th C. BCE."

"I'll cut you with my space knife"

Via CBC News

See Also:

Watch a Master Bladesmith Make a Kitchen Knife Out of Meteorites

Seven Olympians to Win Gold Medals Made with Meteorite Fragments

Ancient Egyptian Bling from Outer Space Screws Up Historic Timeline for Metalcrafting