yuli meroz cuts, folds and knits orange peels to create intricate crafts

guided by her ecological approach to life and design, yuli meroz set out to discover the material potential of orange peel. using rawhide in a variety of ways, the israeli designer has created a collection of unique and eye-catching handicrafts from a common resource.

jig connectors – 9 orange

all images courtesy of yuli meroz

Yuli Meroz began this material investigation by taking a closer look at the skin itself. she noticed that the outer part of the fruit has a pore-like texture, which traps the oils responsible for that unmistakable orange aroma. meroz has decided to preserve these natural properties when using orange peel so that the source of the material can always be easily identified by color, texture and smell.

knitted basket – 15 oranges

to shape the pieces, meroz has developed different techniques and tools, allowing the creation of elements of different sizes, regardless of the size of the bark. from an in-depth study that examined what can be derived from these cut shapes, four main skin treatment techniques suitable for the material were selected: knitting with straps of oranges; cut a template and create a modular connection unit; pressing the skin to itself and other materials; and create a coating from the crushed pulp, seeds and juice.

knit with orange zest

the process also led the designer to build a series of project-specific tools. these include a template cutting machine and a round and rectangular loom. True to the honest nature of the skin material, Meroz also chose to leave the designs in the form of the receptacle that made them. for example, the knitted basket retains the shape of the round loom that made it.

containers in coating technology

combined technologies – 26 oranges

the studio

extraction of orange strips

knit with a round loom using the orange straps

the template cutting machine and its products

coating technique

the round and rectangular loom

the template cutting machine

project info:

name of the project: I peeled an orange

pattern: Yuli Meroz

designboom received this project from our ‘DIY Submissions‘, where we invite our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynne myers | design boom