PineSkins Coasters

PineSkins is a versatile, leather-like material made of inner bark of pine trees, a by-product of the tree cutting industry. Ranging from earthy brown to pink and to deep terra cotta colors with a scent of wood, PineSkins carries a unique appearance that feels familiar yet unseen. In order to become flexible, the freshly harvested bark is treated with a bio-softening solution and enhanced with color pigments and natural wax.

On a broader level PineSkins looks at the resources of forests. It aims to create alternative production paradigms for the tree cutting industry with less emphasis on timber production. It does so by using small scale tree cutters as a network for bark access while they cut trees for their own business. It then creates a new craft that generates income for local people and appreciation for unassuming materials from the neighbor forest.

Sarmite Polakova a Latvian origin designer living and working between Amsterdam (NL) and Frankfurt (DE). In 2015 she graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven where she developed a special interest in raw materials and research. Her body of work focusses mostly around transforming unassuming, natural materials into a new purpose and series of design objects through extensive theoretical and practical research. The design objects become the main carriers of the narrative.