LEAF Umbrella





The basic concept for this umbrella was, that it should be made from cecycled paper but have a shape that made you think more of the stile than being ecological.
It is a foldable umbrella made from recycled paper of cardboard.
The frame is made of wavy cardboard in severel layers. The layers are arranged so that the ore do not point in the same direction wich gives it an enhanced stifnes.
For the shape of the umbrella i was inspired both by a leaf hanging after the rain and the old chinese paper umbrellas in my childhod.
I wanted to keep the folding and carrying of the objekt very simple. It is not an objekt that you keep for years. But an objekt that you buy when you need it. And maybe you have severel in your home, in different colors and sizes.
The paper and the cardboard has been made water repellent by treating it with af new method for making surfaces that mimic that of a water lilly.
The surface is treated with a mixture of polypropylene and organic solvents.
When the solven evaporates the polypropylene is left in a very small quantity.
But the porous structure on the surface makes it very hard for the water molocules to stick to the suface.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0227_030227_lotusmaterial_2.html
The added stifnes to the paper should also make it easy'er for the paper to be folded back.
The product should be made from recykled paper. And the futher recykling of the product should be posible because of the very low use of other materials. Hopefully the remnants of polypropylene should not be af problem for further recykling of the paper.
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Comments
I applaud your use of recyclable materials, but I would encourage you to make sure that the PP coating will not render the paper unrecyclable. Additionally, I would still worry about the paper being compromised by water, thus making the whole thing useless, since it can't easily be repaired.
Posted by: Dominic Muren | September 12, 2006 11:51 PM