glimpt: superheroes stools

after their project working with artisans in south africa last year, swedish design duo mattias rask and tor palm of glimpt wanted to continue exploring the culture and craftmanship of other countries, this time heading to vietnam. with the support of vietnamese furniture company UMA, they were able to visit various artisans. observing the craftman method to create small bowls by fixing paper thread around rolls of seagrass, the designers decided to translate and scale-up the dimensions of this craft technique into furniture pieces. tor and mattias came in contact with seagrass and plastic weavers in ho chi minh city in southern vietnam for the collaboration in which they have produced a series of stools called ‘superheroes’.

‘superheroes’ stool series by glimpt

the stools have an internal metal frame in which rolls of dried seagrass are wrapped to create the structural form of the stools. together with swedish graphic designer malin koort, they developed a pattern that uses the colorful threads that usually decorate vietnamese hammocks, that are then wrapped around the seagrass, creating bold, vibrant designs for the small furniture objects that merge vietnamese crafts with scandinavian design.

presented for the first time at DMY berlin 2011, the stools series are in production and available at UMA in vietnam.

vietnamese craftman building the base structure of the ‘superheroes’ stools

bundles of dried seagrass

dying process of the threads

drying process

colorful threads

vietnamese artisans fix the colorful threads around rolls of dried seagrass that are bounded around a metal structure

detail

ready for transport to the exhibition at DMY berlin

‘superheroes’ stool at DMY berlin, tempelhof image © designboom

mattias rask and tor palm at the DMY berlin 2011 exhibition, berlin tempelhof airport image © designboom