There is a sad fact that when we are enjoying oriental cuisines, millions of trees are chopped down every year to make chopsticks. Thus, artists around the world have decided to use recycled chopsticks to create artworks, first to make something useful out of this enormous chopstick waste, second is to raise awareness to the negative environmental impact of single-use chopsticks. 16 cool chopstick artworks below will make you think twice the next time you pick up disposable chopsticks for Japanese sushi or Vietnamese “pho.”
Chopstick Table
Artist Pam Nelson picked out a bunch of chopsticks, colored them then arranged them into this 42 ” round pedestal table. The colorful table is part of her New Home collection where she collaborated with various artisans to translate her paintings into different objects for the home.
Chopstick Sofa
Called “SOFA_XXXX,” the eco-friendly chopstick sofa is an expandable furniture unit that can be used in its compact form as a single-person chair or extended to about three times its length. Made of chopsticks, the chair is sturdy enough to hold a maximum of 210 kg (about 463 lbs).
Kwytza Chopstick Art
Via: Gifts and Dec / Chopstick Art
Kwytza is the Chinese word for chopstick. Founded by Bryan Parks, Kwytza Chopstick Art studio collects disposable chopsticks from restaurants, sanitize them, and use them to make high-quality accents for the consumer’s living space including folding bowls, lamps and even handbags.
Chopstick Sea Urchin Lamp
Via: Lacor Furniture
Made from chopsticks set in cast resin, this beautiful sea urchin lamp from LaCor Furniture is a perfect piece of furniture for any modern contemporary home decoration.
DIY Chopsticks iPad Stand
Via: Geeky Gadgets
There is no end to iPad stand mods, but this chopsticks iPad stand must be one of the coolest. Using no more than 13 chopsticks with wood glue, this iPad stand is simple enough to be a DIY project, and convenient enough to be placed anywhere in your home, especially the kitchen.
Chopstick Placemat
Via: Right at Home
There is nothing more authentic and original than to have your Chinese or Japanese tea served on a placemat made out of chopsticks. The chopstick placemat is also a DIY which means any tea fan can make one for his/herself.
Chopstick Vase
Via: Travel Blog
Take out around tens of chopsticks (the exact number depends on how big you want your vase to be), stain them, place them around a recycled water bottle then wrap with twine and you will have this creative and eco-friendly chopstick flower vase.
Sushi Wall Clock
You don’t have to be a Japanese food fan to appreciate the creativity and the artistry of this ultra cool sushi wall clock. The hours are made to look like sushi items and the hands are made out of chopsticks. Everything is placed in a Japanese pot to increase to authenticity.
Chopstick Dress
Via: Gargles
Made by a student for the Children’s Waste Chopsticks Utilization Contest in East China, the chopstick dress must have made quite an impression on the judges as well as the audience. Be careful when you are wearing the dress though, as you are likely to break down few chopsticks when you sit down.
Chopstick Necklace
Via: Urple
And of course, you need a pretty chopstick necklace for your pretty chopstick dress. The design looks simple enough for most of us to do it ourselves.
Chopstick Flip-Flops
Via: Inhabitat
Chopstick fashion does not just stop here. Using chopsticks collected from the dumpster of a local Japanese restaurant to create a chic pair of flip-flops – called Chop Flops, designer Joseph Palmer takes our favorite summer footwear into the realm of sustainable design.
Chopstick Canoe
Via: Pink Tentacle
Bothered that perfectly good wood was going to be wasted after a single use, Shuhei Ogawara, a former city employee in the Fukushima prefecture town of Japan, spent the last two years of his career to collect thousands of used disposable chopsticks from the city hall cafeteria to build a 4 meter (13 feet) long canoe.
Chopstick Notebook
Via: MyHandboundBooks
With few sheets of paper, one sheet of decorative paper for the cover, a chopstick and a bit of patience to follow My Handbound Books’ instruction, you can have this beautiful and unique chopstick notebook for yourself.
Killer Chopsticks
Via: Eco Landscape Group
To highlight the fact that millions of trees are chopped down every year to make chopsticks, an artist in China have utilized 30,000 used chopsticks to create a dead tree. The message cannot be more alarming.
