Found in the Pappdorf store: Cardboard furniture and toys

After featuring the cardboard furniture and toys (not to say “playscapes”) by New Zealand producer flatout frankie on the blog we’ve been asked where to buy their products in Europe. Unfortunately there does not yet seem to be a brick-and-mortar store but check out the online stockists that sometimes do ship internationally.

On the other hand there is alternative for all cardboard-craving people here in Europe: Pappdorf.

Children’s furniture made of cardboard in the Pappdorf store (produced by Green Lullaby and JoyPac)

At first we thought that Pappdorf produced all the products on their website but after having a closer look we figured out that they also bought cardboard toys and children’s furniture from other companies – in other word it’s a cardboard heaven. The products are not as “designery” as flatout frankies and some of the products are slightly old-fashioned. On the hand the the old-fashionedness does have some charme and the kids will enjoy the castles (a favorite: the pink one!), furniture, houses, ships etc. nevertheless.

Cardboard dollhouses – or perhaps a life(-children-)sized pirate ship?

The big appeal of Pappdorf is the wide variety of cardboard toys and furniture they offer. We’ve definitely never seen so many different cardboard (doll)houses in one place not to mention a total of seven different space rockets! The English Pappdorf website is not perfect but just click through the German headlines to see where they lead. Shipping is within the European Union only. And now hopefully only have to wait until the toys by flatout frankie also find there place in Pappdorf (German for “cardboard village”, btw).

During the last weeks we’ve seen pictures of a fabulous cardboard stove here, a cool dollhouse there… but only yesterday we actually found the designers and makers behind these pieces: flatout frankie! Of course if we read parenting blogs we might have figured it out sooner (but up until now no such blogs are read in the studio though times might change at some point…).

flatout frankie is based in New Zealand, all their toys come flatpacked (of course) and can be recycled in case the kids – or adults – ever get tired of them. Better still you can also just pop them together to store them or take them along on a holiday! The signature white details are just amazing – hot plates, knobs and utensils on the stove, furniture and a dog in the dollhouse and ‘Red Baron’ flames on the nose of the plane.

A growing list of stockists can be found here and some of the online retailers ship internationally.

Paper Star / Craspedia Flowers by kissa design

I tried to warn you about the studio’s current obsession with paper stars but it’s good to see that you’re still reading our blog!

Some of the paper stars that we love most for their simplicity and geometric form (if it’s possible to say that about stars) are handmade by Kathleen who runs kissa design.

One question that arises – especially when having a look at the gorgeous Craspedia Flowers on top of this article – is if these small sculpture are stars? Kathleen herself calls them “Star Urchins” and explains her point of view “Star Urchins are based on the traditional Polish folk art decoration often called a porcupine ball, a style of ornament making that dates back beyond a hundred years. To me, they look like stars or sea urchins, so I call them Star Urchins, but their spiky form has been likened to seed pods and fireworks, too.”

Kathleen’s mother taught her to make porcupine balls when she was a child and her family has been in the “star business” for half a century – definitely a good tradition to pass on and make a living with! Kathleen also adds that “I have developped some of my own techniques and expanded my ability to work with pretty much all different kinds of papers to produce consistent results”.

The Star Urchins and Star Flowers can be found in Kathleen’s shop kissa design on etsy – and I might add that they’re definitely worth a look (and purchase) not only during Christmas season!

BEUTE lamps by herrwolke

Michael Konstantin Wolke / herrwolke is the designer behind the amazing BEUTE lamps made of found and “looted” old cardboard.

To understand the concept you have to know that BEUTE is the German word for “loot” and only by reusing and rearranging the “conquered” cardboard these lampshades can be built. They’re all one-of-a-kind and I find that very aesthetically promote the idea of reusing discarded materials. The colorful bits and pieces of the original imprints and logos on the boxes contrast beautifully with the industrial look of the rolled corrugated cardboard edges.

Michael Konstantin Wolke’s interest in the reuse of found materials and their transformation into useful everyday objects shows in all of his work – and he’s also available for comissioned work in case you’re looking for something special (a note: the studio is based in Cologne, Germany).

The BEUTE lamps can be bought in the dua shop (beware: you’ll need some time admiring all the beautiful furniture there) as well as on the herrwolke website. They’re all one-of-a-kind and special sized can be comissioned as well.

BEST BEFORE’s Collection 02: A GROS LEGUMES (top), PETALE and CABAS (bottom) handmade of recycled paper cord

It made my day when I discovered BEST BEFORE on Justine’s blog upon a fold. Paris based artisans Corinne Muller and Piotr Oleszkowicz concentrate and revive old techniques in their collections and Collection 02 is all about the Korean tradition of making paper cords and knotting and weaving with them.

I wrote about this Korean tradition once before in my blog article about paper artists Aimee Lee here. Aimee did extensive research on the topic in Korea and you can read about her research and see picture of her own work in paper on her website (make sure to check out the videos, they’re amazing).

BEST BEFORE’s collection 02: A making of… and a big roll of paper cord

The designers who had previously made interior objects out of salt and wool/felt explain about their work that “we chose to work with non-perennial, biodegradable materials. Though they are not fleeting, these objects can melt away and disappear” and paper cord made from recycled paper fits perfectly into this concept. With their Collection 02 BEST BEFORE tried to create soft braidings that adjust to the shapes that are put into the baskets and bags. These flexible, oversized “everything baskets” can also be transformed into footstools as well as light fixtures.

BEST BEFORE’s Collection 02: COCON and FOURRE-TOUT

Once again it’s incredible what can be made out of paper and paper cords and strings. Besides the French shop Caravane there are currently no retailers/”Points de vente” listed on the BEST BEFORE website but due to their success the BEST BEFORE bakets and bags are actually sold worldwide so look out for them when you’re shopping for something handmade and beautiful.

Chestnut Lampshade by Studio Snowpuppe (design by Kenneth and Nellianna).

Sometimes I’m wondering what it is that makes the combination of paper and light so fascinating. One guess is that it is the quality of the light once it filters through paper that is so appealing to people – and that’s probably also one of the reason why I have to write about paper and cardboard lamps once in a while on this blog and share my discoveries with you.

Some of my favourite paper lampshades are by the Dutch Studio Snowpuppe (website in Dutch, read more about them and their studio life on their English Tumblr site).

The story behind Studio Snowpuppe’s lampshades reflects my thoughts about the fascination of paper and light. Energy-saving light bulbs have become very popular in Europe (in Austria they’re the only kind of light bulb still sold) but the problem is that the light they give is just not very nice and quite cold so it’s not a light you want in your living environment. Once the light filters through paper it changes and becomes cosy and nice to live with especially in the light-deprived winter months in Middle and Northern Europe. This was the starting point for Nellianna and Kenneth, the two designers behind Studio Snowpuppe who experimented with paper diamond shapes and developped the origami paper lampshades.

Chestnut Lampshade by Studio Snowpuppe (design by Kenneth and Nellianna).

The Chestnut lampshade was really inspired by Chestnuts and has a cornered outside and a curved inside that you would not expect when looking at its outside. Studio Snowpuppe compares it to the first time you open a chestnut and see that it is very round and curved on the inside. The Chestnut and the Moth lampshades are also available on etsy in a lot of colors.

Signature Lampshade by Studio Snowpuppe (design by Kenneth and Nellianna).

The Signature lampshade is folded out of three huge pieces of parchment paper. It arrives folded in a tube-like shape and “falls” into the ball shape by itself. You can see the video and buy this lampshade here (in Dutch but the pictures are self-explanatory and beautiful).

Paperself’s Paper Eyelashes that are Inspired by the art of Chinese paper-cutting (Concept Designer: Ting yu Wang)

“This is the beginning of a paper revolution” is a statement right off the website of Paperself and definitely one I like even though I think it will be a couple more years before this London based platform will really show if they can keep their promise. Launched in 2009 by London based designer Chunwei Liao, Paperself unites artists, designers and manufacturers from East to West. Their most well known product are their Paper-Cut Eyelashes and even though I’ve seen some of them before I really enjoyed finally seeing all the designs on the Paperself website.

The Intertior Origami Collection by Paperself (Designed by Y.M.Hsu)

I’m quite curious about the “stonepaper” that Paperself uses for its interior origami collection. Currently there are only two pieces – the vase and the bowl – but I hope that there will be more soon because these two two pieces are quite promising and their shapes make for signature pieces.

Paperself’s Transformer furniture and lightning

The last current Paperself product is a modular cardboard system called “Transformers” that allows you to build your own coffee table, seat, light or as seen on the second picture above even a whole booth for a fair. The cardboard modules are flat when shipped, can be recycled, be printed or painted. As with Paperself’s Origami series this modular furniture system offers even a lot more possibilities and hopefully the Paperself team keeps its promise of a paper revolution and keeps playing with their great basic ideas and systems.

Tailored Stool by Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay

I wrote about the “Volume” cardboard chairs by designer duo Shay Alkalay and Yael Mer a while ago and because I’m still very much in love with their work here is another chair project by them that I find noteworthy: Tailored Stool.

Tailored Stool by Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay

Like the Volume chair the Tailored Chairs are created with “a technique similar to that used in the clothing industry(…). A pattern is generated and when assembled, the resulting void is filled with foam. Just as a suit is altered to fit the client, the furniture is custom made and adapted to fit the user be they tall, short, skinny or fat.”

A note on the side: Tailored Chairs are self-produced by Yael Mer & Shay Alkalay in a limited edition of 48 so unfortunately I’m not sure if there’s still one available…

My soft spot for carboard furniture is surely well known by now. But my soft spot for paper furniture is of course even softer (if that is possible at all) – unfortunately there is not much furniture around that falls into this category. Luckily I don’t believe in categorizing but I do believe in beauty and functionality and this chair combines both. The Piao Paper Chair is by Innovo and seems to be part of a whole design series investigating the classical oriental paper umbrella. Sorry but these websites are rather confusing. More of these paper projects and products can be found on the Pinwu website.

The Piao Paper Chair is made the same way as a traditional paper umbrella by gluing together layers of paper. The combined layers of handmade paper make the chair strong enough to sit on but still keep it flexible and therefore comfortable.

Compared to cardboard furniture this is a different approach to building stable pieces out of a humble materials and in my opinion it’s an approach that still offers many more possibilities.