Denimology

I found it very comforting getting into an old pair of jeans after a long day wearing high heals and a skirt. It's like saying: "Honey I'm home".
That warm feeling of used jeans is what magnetize Tomer Glerenter to his denim business.

Glerenter collects old jeans since he was a teenager in the 90's. He had started to buy big amount of those old denim two years ago, and called them Deadenim.

Glerenter is a kind of an expert about the Denim. He knows exactly all the small differences between the brands and their replicas. He can tell by feeling of the cloth in his hands and by watching the finish of the stitches, the age of the jeans and its price on the market.

The stock market of the denim is really prosperous. For example a Levi's denim with a capital 'E' is worth a lot more than with a small 'e' because it means the jeans is before 1971 (when the logo had been changed). Another example is the world's oldest (1897) pair of jeans. They worth more than their weight in gold: $150,000.

That's not a jeans - That's Lycra! (I'm such an 80's girl...)

After Glerenter puts his hands on the denim, he upcycles them:



He makes halls in his secret scientific way.
I would wear it with a Versace white-chiffon-cream blouse.



He puts them into chemical process and colors them in a creative way.
I would wear it with blue Havaianas.



He rivets them.
I would have to add 2 inch height and to color my hair to red.



Full combination: halls + color + rivets.
I would wear it with a black torn pantyhose.

Glerenter's shorts are very trendy and young, but when it comes to old things -

"Quality never goes out of style":

Urban Forest Harvest

Ori Ben Zvi's studio is located in a workshops area in the south of Tel Aviv. Immediately as I walked into the main street I could feel the special vibes, lots of graffiti and lots of simple smiles. The alley was very narrow and made me feel intimate with every passer-by. Around 11:00 one could get an awful asthma due to the sawdust cloud. One of the tenant joked with me that they usually charge 25$ per a photograph (because I carried my camera with me), or that wasn't a joke?!

Now days Ori is full of new thoughts. One of this thoughts is the "Urban Forest Harvest" (hopefully he is going to "wiki" it soon), meaning that today there are more urban population than rural, and by that expression he is comparing the forest's harvest to the city waste, saying there are seasons in this case too. For example, last Saturday on his routine tour he found some umbrellas (as it was the beginning of winter).



Ori uses 100% recycled wood. He founds it in the streets, from carpentry shops at the neighborhood and sometimes he pays a visit in "Hiria" (the biggest landfill in Israel).


upcycled (1)
The Shelf-Drawer. (If you are a drawer, in your next life you can be a shelf)


upcycled (2)
The Stool. (If you are a carpentry's waste, in your next life you can be a stool)


upcycled (3)
The Spotlight. (If you are an olive can, in your next life you can be a "Kalmata Spotlight")



What would you do with an old (broken...) umbrella? and what's the meaning of "Ubico" - his brand's name (Ori's answers are above).



The concept of "The Wake" project (the trunk above in the center), is taken from the Christian funeral ceremony. It's about the opportunity to be with our precious for just a little longer. The trunk made from all kinds of wasted wood pieces, allowing the material (in its final grace) to stay with us for now, and maybe, in a sustainable way, forever.
"The Wake" has been shown in London's "100% design" showroom and in Singapore where it was rewarded for two prices.



My thoughts about "The Wake"'s compositions

There is an image accompanying Ori in his work and it is to take all existing wood objects and to plant them back in the woods. This image conceals in Ori's power of creation.

The colors of black

When I was a teenager I had this complete perfect image of my future woman's look - wearing only black cloths. Not a black "The Cure" printed t-shirt, but the clever Yohji (Yamamoto) kind of black (in that time I didn't really know who was he).

First time I met Elanit Neutra's bags I knew I love them for they were all black.
Elanit  is coming with the rock-blond-tall girl look, and if one's look say something about one's garbage collection, so tiers would be definitely a perfect match for her.

She studied graphic design (apparently we were overlapped for two years in Wizo Haifa Academy of Design). Than she continued to study interior design, post production and worked as a set designer. In all of that time she was always collecting tiers from the streets and "played bags" with them. Eventually this hobby became her business.

Her work shouldn't be "hash tagged" as fashion unless you consider the "timeless - must have in my wardrobe" side of it.

The tiers arrive on a special delivery from someone who actually sells this stuff. For Elanit, opening that pile of the black treasure and finding out what colors came from the black this time, is the highlight of the whole process. There is something very exciting in opening a box full of surprises, something that recreates our childhood innocent experience.

The tiers come with all kind of texture: smooth, striped, colored stripes, dense stripes. Some look like washed jeans and some have typography on them. The last kind is my favorite.

That's my own interpretation for "The colors of black"

The different variety of the original material are the reason for the "one of a kind" result.

That's the Neutra I'll buy right after I would buy an iPad.

That's the Neutra I'll have for the change from the iPad.

I like that Neutra's designs are flowing peacefully with the material and not giving in to it, that's what makes the result so quietly perfect.

I think this is the version of Neutra for the "Little Black Dress".

And that's my Neutra :-)

Neutra plays for so long with tiers, she knows exactly the way they move, so she moves on designing jewelry, furniture, baskets, planters and more to come.

And as the Yohji said: “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy - but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don’t bother you - don’t bother me".”

When garbage meets design

I am in love again:-)
After our first date my husband told his best friend he had met his future wife - TA-DA!
For me it's more like "When Harry met Sally" style. Slowly but Surely. It appears that I am always attracted to waste, and design was always there for me. So, one day I realized that this is it! I'm going to write down about upcycling (reused) design. I'm going to find out for myself this magic that happens when garbage meets design, when design issues come across environmental issues, when my will to reveal design strikes my will to create design. I am fascinated. I am enthusiastic. I am in love.



As I live in Tel Aviv I find very often construction waste. Each time it makes me wonder what palace could I built with it and sorrow for the fact it's going away to some landfill. The one in the picture above was lovely organized for my opinion.
And from a builder's art to a big artist:

That's the (2 minutes) trailer of the movie "Wasteland". Vik Muniz's garbage-art-community project. He is an artist (photographer) living in NYC, He was born into a working-class family in São Paulo, Brazil in 1961, and relocated to the United States in 1983. He had this huge urge and passion to do some art with the garbage in the world’s largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho, outside of Rio de Janeiro. Besides waste and the artistic search, the movie is also about changing people's life. (The pickers who work there and get some second chance to observe their life).



If you see the whole movie you would be whelmed by the power of the waste "on her head" it's all made of stuff: shoes, cans, dolls etc. Distancing and Nearing from the work emphasis the contrast between disgusting and wonder.



The work above (from this project) is called "Sebastião (Tião) Carlos Dos Santos" who is modeling in the picture, and has been a picker - recovered recyclables since he was 11 years old. The work quotes the classic "The Death of Marat" by Jacques-Louis David.
Vik invited Tião to the private auction, and when they announced the price of the work he started to cry. At that point in the movie, I felt my cramped heart filled with empathy to him, to his friends and to all mankind in this world.
This film has donated $276,000 to the (pickers) cooperative.

So long Vik...
loved your work <3
there goes my first kiss..hhhhhmmm...post.