Materia: Cool site for sexy, innovative materials

Everything Else
1

I’m kind of in love with http://materia.nl/, a really beautiful resource site for designers. They showcase a ton of incredible, high-end materials that can be ordered in bulk, and you can request samples of most of them (though they don’t always say yes to the requests). They have a newsletter that I look forward to every month–it showcases some pretty amazing stuff that I either lust after as a supply or that inspires me to do something similar.

Here are some things they’re featuring this month:

Leather wall tiles, including laser-etched ones and stamped ones (that could be stamped with a laser-cut Delrin stamp)

1089×459 611 KB

Sheets of tennage (Japanese-style hyper-thin inlaid wood veneer) that are so flexible that one of the recommended uses is handbags


838×596 87.3 KB

Barktex, a fabric made from the bark of a Ugandan fig tree and a water-based resin of some kind.

1074×465 757 KB

36 Likes
2

very intriguing

2 Likes
3

Cool! Will probably drop a few $$$ there!:relaxed:

5 Likes
4

I s want the Japanese inlay. I think I’ve also seen it called Yosegi? Or am I wrong

1 Like
5

I’m really interested in the Barktex–it looks so much like leather but has really interesting variations.

2 Likes
6

Yes, that’s what I thought it was. Can’t figure out “tennage”. All that comes up is teen chat stuff, which I guess is a thing. Boy, am I old.

3 Likes
7

Try adding “material” and/or “fabric” to the search. You’ll get a few more hits, still trying to figure it out as well.

1 Like
8

Ok. Got it figured out: tennâge is woven wood and thread composite. Google was a pain because it assumed I misspelled “teenage” and gave me some weird results. Yikes!
http://www.onlyone-pro.com/tennage/

5 Likes
9

It can be a very frightening/disturbing world out there!!!

Being a hobbyist without a business, can make it exceedingly difficult to find cool materials to explore with.

3 Likes
10

The last news update for that site was in 2009. I wonder why the material didn’t become more popular ( or hasn’t become more popular)… I was tipped off when they showed the ipod classic case lol.

1 Like
11

Here is another cool product they are showing that it might be possible to replicate with the GF. Flexible wood as soft as leather?
ligneah

3 Likes
12

Thanks for sharing.

2 Likes