the prehistoric aliens: a series of coffee tables by glimpt

‘the prehistoric aliens’ by glimptall images courtesy glimpt

spending the autumn of 2012 in peru working and learning from local craftsmen and women from different countries, swedish design studio glimpt has developed a series of coffee tables entitled ‘prehistoric aliens’. the name, influenced by the south american country’s cultural heritage, references a mystical and ancient visual aesthetic. the small coffee tables appear almost like small spaceships that have just landed, with their leader, ‘the robot’ leading the pack. using traditional techniques such as chiseling, the project is conceived using a combination of wood and glass – all sculpted and manufactured by hand.

‘the robot’

the eye of ‘the robot’

‘the mothership’

in the workshop

messias painting

mothership on its way

barosso with the chisel

the hole

messias the hulk

barosso turning

 artesanos don bosco

about artesanos don bosco:

the company is part of a large italian voluntary organization called operazione mato grosso. this initiative was founded in the 1960s by father hugo, a catholic missionary priest who saw there was a need to help poor farmers in the andes. now, some fifty years later, operazione mato grosso has roughly 2000 italian volunteers and employs about twice as many peruvians. the work involves educating and training people in the remote villages in the andes, and then creating employment opportunities for them there. the idea is to encourage people to stay and work in these isolated areas rather than move to a very uncertain future in lima, something that many peruvians otherwise are tempted to do.

the company promotes the virtues of a simple, unhurried life, living and working in cooperation with one another. they have started schools, orphanages, hospitals and even power stations that provide electric power in the mountains. all this is free of charge for the poor. one part of this program, called artesanos don bosco, provides craftsmanship training. after five years training with adb most of the artisans then work in the organization’s cooperative. the courses they give are mainly related to different ways of working with wood. this includes furniture making, decorations, carving pictures and the construction of housing. they also teach stone masonry, how to make glass, different ways of working with textiles and even metal work.

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.