Thats no rock! It’s a cardboard stone.

Furniture & Lighting
Thats no rock! It’s a cardboard stone.
cardboard_rocks.jpg
cardboard_rocks_making.jpg

I’m digging the rocks supporting this ‘Agua Table’ by designer Domingos Tótora. Though they look totally real, they are actually made of recycled paper and glue. His website is made of unlinkable flash, however Contemporist has a nice set of photos showing how they are made.

The table is pretty nice, but I think I would want to make a giant boulder and roll it towards my anthropologist friends. What would you make out of fake rock? [via curbly]

24 thoughts on “Thats no rock! It’s a cardboard stone.

  1. Toaste says:

    It looks like these are solid blobs of solid pulp. Why not make them hollow so they’re lighter weight and use less material? The corrugated cardboard they’re already using would be perfect. Either go the fancy route by laser cutting it into an interlocking grid with a curved surface (see also http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/06/cardboard_surfboards.html), or just make a box to form the center and save a little weight.

      1. Matt Mets says:

        He makes a bunch of hollow sculptures, so it wouldn’t surprise me if these are hollow as well. Solid ones do seem like they would be quite unwieldy and also very hard to cure correctly.

  2. Mike says:

    I’m a little disturbed that they’re putting that much… Um, cardworking?… Work into making fake rocks for an application in which real rocks would almost be preferable. Doesn’t seem terribly sustainable.

    I could be wrong, though. Perhaps there’s a reason besides weight?

    1. Matt Mets says:

      I’m guessing that weight is a major issue. It might also be difficult to find a good source of rocks that size, and shaping a polishing them seems like a huge hassle. But I’ve never tried so I don’t really know.

      Personally, I’m all about making fake things that look like other things, just because it seems funny. I was kind of wondering if you could make cardboard out of waste rock, but that might be more challenging.

  3. Tode says:

    Fake fossils

  4. miiko says:

    So what are they doing when they finish it? Are they just polishing it, applying some surface treatment? Faux rock painting? Would love to know.

    Real rocks that size would be tough to move. I would agree with making them lighter, however, probably building them around something hollow.

  5. notatlas says:

    and just how heavy would a solid blob of wood fiber be? I love the intertubes! I just found this

    “Particleboard is produced in densities ranging from around 590 kilograms per cubic meter(kg/m3) (37 pounds per cubic foot [lb/ft3]) to greater than 800 kg/m3 (50 lb/ft3).”

    so if rock weighs ~150lbs/cubic foot, some savings.

    so likely talking about 1/3 to 1/2 the weight.

    1. Matt Mets says:

      Hehe, thanks for doing the legwork on this one. 1/2 to 1/3 of the weight doesn’t seem /too/ significant, but it probably depends on what your floor can support. The best savings would have to be in making the fake rock hollow, then.

  6. Sisyphus says:

    I would finally be able to get that boulder up the mountain!

    1. Matt Mets says:

      Just, awesome!

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