Introducing Swedish-Chilean designer Anton Alvarez’s Thread Wrapping Machine – a tool he designed and manufactured as a means to bind various elements and material with just a glue-coated thread in order to make quirky design installations. Though try not to get too wrapped up in his invention in the process.
The method behind the madness: The Thread Wrapping Machine requires no screws or nails, instead the thread is used to join the different components of the furniture. “By using this construction method, materials such as wood, steel, or plastic can be joined to form objects and constructed spaces.” Alvarez’s Thread Wrapping Machine was inspired by his formal training in Interior Architecture and Furniture Design at Konstfack, the University College of Arts, Craft and Design in Stockholm.
By focusing “on the creation of systems, tools and processes for producing objects” he took ideas from personal research that he conducted over the years, including the period when he studied cabinetmaking, as well as his research into “conceptual and process-based design”. Already making quite a name for himself in prestigious design institutions, his work has been exhibited internationally at MUDAC, the Design Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
Alvarez mentions that “I wanted to create an externalised joint that would enable me to combine a big range of different materials that normally would require very time-consuming methods of joining them together, and at the same time, to create a decorative pattern formed by the different colours of the thread.”
The resulting objects are impressive pieces, that demonstrate head spinning artistry and painstaking attention to deal. Don’t believe me? Then watch how it’s done below:
See more of Anton Alvarez’s thread-wrapped architecture and objects here.