As some of you know, I teach Industrial Design at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. Three years ago, a group of students came to me and asked if we could do some outside-of-class projects together. The goal was to diversify their portfolios. And so the Black Valley Design Collective was born.
The collective consisted the following members:
Bryce Katsahnias,
Zach Thomas,
Hugh Owings,
Bobby Ward,
Corey Daniels,
Russ Hagan,
and myself.
Our name referenced the Black Mountain College that began in the 1930’s in the hills near Ashevillle, NC. Black Mountain College was a “progressive” art school with faculty consisting of BauHaus expats like Walter Gropius and Josef and Anni Albers and where students like Robert Rauschenberg and Ray Johnson honed their skills.
While at our first meeting (which happened to be in a restaurant that specialized in wings), we were struck by the sheer volume of plastic cutlery that was being thrown away. There had to be something that we could create to give that waste value once again. So right there in front of us was our challenge! We picked used cutlery off vacated tables, often to the disgusted looks of other patrons. And, more than one waitress had to be assured we were not removing their tips. After cleaning the cutlery (of course), we began to test the plastic’s limits by melting, bending, and stretching the pieces to see what forms were possible. We decided that we’d focus on lighting for this experimentation, and the Waste Not: WANT series was developed.
We debuted the line at ICFF in 2008 to some wonderful praise. In fact Jill Fehrenbacher of Inhabitat.com wrote: “We found this collection to be more inspiring than most of the sleek corporate furniture design on display at ICFF this year — and it came from a student after-school project. We hope this will serve as inspiration for bigger furniture companies to get a bit more creative with their approach to materials. Congratulations on a stunning project BVDC!” After the students graduated, Black Valley Design Collective retired from actively producing work, but hopefully it provided a learning experience and a vehicle for some of the members to do things together in the future .
“Go Go Ghost” by Corey Daniels- reused knives
“Black Pollen” by Zach Thomas – reused knives
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“Baroque Jelly” by Donald Corey – reused knives, forks and clothes hangers
“Cascade” by Russ Hagan – used knives and forks from a birthday party
We also did a few furniture pieces with a similar feel:
“Cadillac” by Bryce Katsahnias – Used chair frame and old swings from discarded swing set
“Waist Line Lounge” by Donald Corey – Discarded chair frame and used leather belts
“56K” by Zach Thomas – Old discarded phone cords on scrap metal frame
©2010 Donald Corey