XYZ Workshop Corn Plastic Robbie Robot Planter

The kids love these machines, seeing doodles come to life.  Courtesy: XYZWorkshop.com

Ohhhhhhhhhh look, a plastic fantastic machine --- well, not exactly.  In a nutshell these fabulous little machines print scribbles and doodles in 3-D, making them into the next best plastic made of corn. Yes ,we said a non toxic plastic ! How wonderful!

Robbie the Robot is fantasy turned reality, and is available on Etsy for $35

The Dinosaur is printed from Corn Plastic and is so super cool!

All of this is made available by XYZ Workshop! XYZ Workshop was formed in early 2013, by Australian Architects, Elena Low and Kae Woei Lim. This husband and wife team were intrigued by desktop manufacturing and spent their time out of their architectural work tinkering around with their kit assembled 3D printer from Ultimaker. Much like Architecture, they were drawn into the potential of 3d Printing as it fused aspects of Art, Sculpture and Technology.

Will this be the next plastic fantastic thing, collectible 50 years form now? Or will all that corn simply compost back into the ground? Guess we shall see..........

Check them out: 
XYZWorkshop.com
XYZWorkshop on Etsy

Bessemer Modern Australian Melmac Made in Australia

FoxandThomas offers this straight from Austrailia!

I love the designs of Mod Australian Bessemer.  This was a line of plastics and melamine items produced there but much of it landed in the states.  I am completely unsure if the Bessemer of these products is the same of the Bessemer cookware products of today, but their website does indicate they've been around since the 1960's, and that most of their items used to be sold through in-home-party-plans.  Can you imagine having an in-home-melmac party?

Hobart Collectables, probably the largest vintage seller from Australia on Etsy, has this great Ashtray which can bring us some clues if we look close enough. There's a great article on Hobart  Collectables on Vintage Chalet that you may find interesting. 

Clues :  Nylex Corporation made this Melmac Ashtray for Bessemer products.

Now other than great plastic serving items, Bessemer did make melmac dinnerware. I don't know how popular it was in Australia, but it did exist. Here are a few designs.

The above and below designs are available at Vintage Twists.

If you are thinking the platter looks very similar in style to some American designs you've seen, you are absolutely right. I think as far as modern styling goes, they were on the same page as American designers. Now perhaps the best thing I've found recently by Bessemer was on Ebay, by Ridgefield Estate Treasures.  and I am unsure if this Bessemer Plastics is different than the Aussie Bessemer. I was thinking how modern in design it looks, and how lovely it is.

Bessemer Plastics made this mod chafing dish and is available at Ridgefield Estate Treasures, User Id BGilliam

The point is it seems like anything marked Bessemer here and there makes for a good modern home.