Greeny Crafter - Raag and Bone

My first upcycling project was to make a writing desk out of this discarded pine wood crate cover.

I was at the Unearthed Exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum last Friday. The amazing thing was I actually enjoyed the exhibit. Usually, I don't really understand contemporary art so this was a surprise for me! Will blog about it soon.

This week I have a male greeny crafter, Lim Zhen Xiong,  who blogs at Raag and Bone. I actually met him at my first Singapore Maker Meet and found out that he loves to upcycle as well, except that he deals more with glass and wood.  I am really excited about his work, and very happy he agreed to be interviewed. Look out for the glass-cutting tip!

Tell us a little about yourself.

Hi! I am Zhen Xiong, an engineer by day and an upcycler by night (& weekends)! 

Paired the table top with a set of sturdy chrome "A" legs and viola I created my own writing desk.

What sort of upcycling do you do?

I am a pragmatic upcycler and I typically create upcycled items that are utilitarian. Usually I upcycle based on my own needs or other people's requests, the inspirations that come along as well as the materials available to me. I do not limit the types of upcycling projects I do as I enjoy the process of learning different crafting methods and working with different materials as I embark on new ideas. So far, I have upcycled furniture and glasswares.

Found a discarded wooden pallet in pretty good shape

Throw in some castors and flat-woven rugs and there I have it, a chillax HQ for coffee sipping and web surfing.

Understand you got interested in upcycling in London. What piqued your interest, and what's the difference between the upcycling scene in Singapore and London?

My interest in upcycling started from my fondness for aesthetically pleasing products, my identification with the Maker Movement and my disagreement with wasteful, overconsumption. 

My initial encounters with upcycling were during my coffee hunting trips to the coffee bars and cafes around East London on the weekends as a student. I was initially attracted to the aesthetics of the vintage, whimsical furnitures and decorations found in those places. At the same time, I was introduced to the Maker Movement in college and I find myself totally identifying with the philosophy of the maker culture which I feel is largely lacking in our society. Through my Chemical Engineering studies, I was made more aware of the large-scale environmental impacts of industries, which are fundamentally attributable to our insatiable demand for more and more. Eventually I started upcycling to craft beautiful products that encourage a rethink on waste.

The key difference between the upcycling scene in Singapore and in London is that we are still pretty nascent, nevertheless it is definitely growing!

What's your design process, and the tools you use?

I frequently source for design inspirations online and will do a rough sketch of my ideas to decide the product dimensions and materials needed before I start sourcing for them. Many times, I design around the limitations of the materials I find. My tools for woodwork are pretty unsophisticated and manual, such as hammer, sandpaper and saw. I also recently bought a diamond cutter to score glasses.

Got these beautiful wine bottles from a local wine store

Upcycled them into a set of colourful drinking glasses.
Glass edges were smoothened by hand and are very safe for use.

Share great tips, or maybe a "mistake" that you learnt from.

If you have recently seen an article teaching how to cut glass bottles using a string and flame method, don't bother trying as the method will result in uneven cracks on the glass. This is because of the amorphous nature of glass. Instead try scoring the glass before inducing crack through thermal expansion.