ailam's industrial tree lets you watch cucumbers transform into pickles

ailam’s industrial tree lets you watch cucumbers transform into pickles
all images courtesy of oren ailam

creating pickles within the comfort of your own home can be a long and arduous procedure requiring a conglomeration of pots, pans, and jars. once the mixtures have been completed, their containers occupy space as foreign objects within the landscapes of pantries, countertops, and refrigerators. branching off from this realization, oren ailam has taken the fermentation process and transformed it into a decorative and scientific piece that he calls the ‘pickles tree’.

the welded metal rod twists and turns on itself to create pockets from which the tubes can be suspended

developed as a tribute to his grandmother, who used to make pickles from a recipe that has travelled through generations of his family, ailam says ‘I wanted to make every single one of them unique so they can be given as a gift to someone special.’ thus, the bezalel academy industrial design student has refined the dimensions by suspending laboratory test tubes from a continuous welded metal rod to hold the cucumbers. by individualizing the fruits, they are easier to handle and if users make a mistake with their technique, they can remove and pack the bottle once again.

top of the tree

the brine includes dill and garlic during the fermentation process

one fruit in a container

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.