Yagoona Mallee Woodbox wood storage - reloaded

I have been screwing around with a design for a decorative and functional fire wood storage product for some time now. If you flick back through my blog you will see earlier incarnations of this idea. Every time I reached the prototype phase, I would be unhappy with the result and cool off on the whole idea for a few months, and then start from scratch again.
I think I have done it now though.
Here is the new Mallee woodbox...

This is the 130 x 65 cm unit. The depth of the unit is 37cm which nicely accomodates the 1/3 of a meter format of firewood that is commonly found here in Europe. This size has been chosen so that 1/3 of a cubic meter of firewood (or as it is called here in Switzerland, ein Drittel Ster), the parts of the box are within the shipping limits of my courier so I can ship this thing (disassembled) anywhere in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and being half as wide as it is high (standing as it is in the above pic) it can be used together with others to form a wall structure. (Darri Hocker standing next to it)

 

Above are some details of the joining mechanism. I am relying on perferated bending lines that enable the nice overlapping system for the joints. I was inspired by the old style dovetail joints that are seen in high quality woodwork.

This was a prototype to test the jointing system. This one is 55 x 55 cm

It didnt take long for people who saw this prototype to suggest that it would make a beautiful planter in the garden.

Arunta Firebowl

For quite some time now, the idea of embedding a firebowl into a monolithic cubic steel object has facinated me. Over the last month or so, something pushed me into realising the first prototype of this object which I have named the Arunta.
The monolith is a 1000x1000x350mm structure out of steel plate.
I have created a support mechanism for the firebowl inside which can accomodate different formed bowls. The diameter of the opening is 800mm
I am working through some minor production bugs at the moment but the product is pretty much ready.

Leave your comments below...

 

The Arunta with a 80cm firebowl

 

The Arunta with a 80cm firebowl and the Barramundi barbecue

The Arunta with a the lid hiding the firebowl

 

 This is the Arunta with a huge 1250mm firebowl

Whats in a name

When I look back at the last post, I can't beleive that I was about to just call these cute hockers, A thru E. Sounds now like Im back at school and assigning grades to kids.
I put some thought into it and decided that some human names are best for these stools.
So if you look at the last post, the names in order from top are: Nora, Walter, Fatima, Susan, and Chuck.

Why these names, well lets see -
- Nora looks like an elegant woman, not your scrawny arse super model! I mean the generous Marilyn Monroe type of woman. Soft and curved in all the right places.
- Now Walter just reminded me so much of a straign laced, pragmatic, intelligent Swiss engineer that the name was a no brainer.
- Fatima was orginally going to be called Henry, but a few people commented on the Islamic flavour of the design. I think I was also somehow drawn to this design since it was the original first model. So seemed obvious that I must give it an obvious Arab girls name.
- Susan, well Susan just struck me as the thick solid working farmer girl. Simple and dependable. The straight lines also hark to the product that inspired me initially, the Backenzahn hocker from E15. If anything this was an obvious variant for the Darri family.
- Lastly there is Chuck. My younger son said first off that Chuck looked like a mouse hole from a cartoon. I thought that Chuck looked like a farmer from the deep south of the US. Stocky, solid, wearing a bib'n'brace. This name also was an immediate choice. A reflex.

So now we have the names.
From the first time I started dabbling with the initial design concept of constructing a metal box that is structuraly stable, self assemblable, requires the minimum production, and exploits the power of CNC, I knew that many variations would spring from this well.

The first was actually not the Darri hocker but the Goanna Firebowl base. Take a closer look at the Darri and the Goanna and you will see the relationship.

Well so far all these products were intended for that modern/decay garden where rust is right at home. This is offcourse a rather narrow area to play in.

So now comes the time that I enjoy most from being a designer. The euphoric milestones of new product developments.
Yesterday picked up the first few trial Darri Hockers in gloss powdercoat. These are intended for in or outdoors.

So this is Nora in White.
She also has a KHP white top.
Shortly I will share a few more pics of these painted Darri's

The Darri Hocker

Finally they are here.

Just put the finishing touches to the first series of the Darri Hocker.

There are 5 different versions of the base. I am simply calling them A,B,C,D and E, and there are 4 different tops for them at the moment: a white and natural Kunstharzplatte tops (Im still not sure what this is in English but the best translation I have seen is Resin Laminate ?... anyone?). The natural colour is a nice dark brown which is the standard colour of the edge material. It is a little more sensitive to scratching than the white or the coloured versions, but nice natural look to it makes up for this.
I got the colour chart for this material and was overwhelmed with the choice of colours. At the moment I will only stock these 2 colours and maybe a black one as well, but virtually any colour is possible but as you would expect, pricing in such a case would depend on the amount ordered.

There is also an Oak and a Pine version of a slatted top as well. I have desined the Darri Hocker to be a complete all weather object that is intended to stay out doors year round.

 The overall Hocker is around 450mm high, depending on what top is used, and the top is 300 x 300mm.

This form is also ideal for the modern interior deco. As a bedside table or as an small lamp table in the living room.

Come and visit Yagoona.ch and get one for yourself.

Merry Christmas

Xmas is here!
Merry Christmas everyone.
And wishing you all a more prosperous and peacefully new year.
And remember when pursuing your prosperity, spare a thought on those in the world less fortunate and how your actions may be affecting them.
Someone far away, with a fraction of what you have, may be paying for that bargain you are so proudly boasting of.

New products

Been really busy with 3 main tasks:

• Developing new products (this is my favourite pastime - I'd be doing it even if I made no money out of it, luckily I do make some ;-)
• Developing a brand new website (should be live any day now - but I've been saying that to myself for a few weeks now)
• And planning my marketing strategy for the next 12 months. Watch out for Yagoona in the offline world!

Even though these products are at various stages of release, I'll give you a sneak peek at then just now!



First and the most exciting of them is the Darri Hocker. I had been inspired by the E15 Backenzahn Hocker. I had seen these cute little Hockers many times but then something clicked in me and I had to build one for myself.

As you can see, as is consistent with Yagoona designs so far, the Darri Hocker is made from rusty metal. In this pic it features a Kunstharzplatte (have no idea what this is in English at the moment) top.
I have designed a series of 5 playful funky themes to this little Hocker, so stand by to see more of this.

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The next are some accessories to the Barramundi BBQ
Something that has bedevilled almost every BBQ party at some point of other is - cold food! After grilling a beautiful pieces of meat to perfection, the passionate BBQ chef can only watch dishearten with a tear welling in the corner of his eye, - a point of  despair that most grown men will rarely admit descending too - as his eyes dart from his half drunk friends who are blissfully unaware of the personal disaster unfolding for this perfectionist host, still chit-chatting, sipping away gossiping about the latest nothings, to the beautiful glistening smokey fillet steaks still spitting their last sizzle waiting to be devoured, but will be stone cold by the time the funny story about the funeral and the neighbours sick dog is over.
I think this, along with your mothers funeral are the 2 times a grown man is permitted to weep openly. But all he can do at this moment is nervously drown his sorrows with the closest beer at hand while sniveling into his apron with the fake boobs on it.


When the idea for a new type of BBQ was absorbing me, this issue was high on my list of bbq problems to solve.

From the beginning, the concept of modular cook plates was a key design aspect for the Barramundi BBQ. So it was logical to make these cook plates interchangeable, even while hot with the use of the supplied handles.
So all that was left to develop: an elegant way to hold a hot cook plate on a table and retain the function of the handles, so here it is: a plate holder specifically designed for the Barramundi BBQ.

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I'd like to consider the Barramundi BBQ one of the most compact fully featured BBQs for wood fires around.
Anyone who has seen one has seen the holes that are in each part of the BBQ.
These holes are designed for storing the BBQ. The 2 holes are exactly the same distance apart on each piece of the BBQ.

This means that the entire BBQ can be hung up on the wall when not in use.
Most people have been hammering in a pair of nails to do this, but this was never intended to be the only way to store your Barramundi BBQ.

For this I created a wall hanger for the Barramundi BBQ

Now your Barramundi BBQ will be nicely stored away when not in use and be easily accessed when it is needed.

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Another project I've been working on a decorative way to store firewood.
The idea is for metal frame that is robust enough to safely contain stacked firewood, but to come in kit form totally dissasembled and be easy enough for anyone to construct it. Additionally I want to make this box a modular piece that can be combined with more of them to build a wall - a wall of firewood.

At the moment I am trying to work out some problems in production so that the kit would be very easy to assemble.
So this one will hopefully be out in spring 2012.

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Would love to hear you comments on these new products from Yagoona.

Apart from working on the development of the new Goanna V2 Firebowl base, I also found some time to create a new design that has no base at all.
I wanted to create a firebowl that was a low profile as possible, so I simply took a standard firebowl and cut a large circle in it and reversed the pieces and welded them back together.
This simple modification (simple but somewhat time consuming) created a very elegant and modern form for a Firebowl.
The intention is that this firebowl is used straight on the ground or a pebbled area as shown in this pic.

At the moment I only have one and seems that a friend has already pegged it as his own. This one is only 80cm in diameter, but I think the next one will be a 100cm.

That will make a much more dramatic effect.