Mati Karmin and his frightening furniture made of sea mines

There is probably an unspoken rivalry among designers — who uses the strangest materials to create furniture. No one will be surprised by wolf chairs and coffee tables made of spare parts of cars and airplanes. But the Estonian sculptor and designer Mati Karmin surpassed everyone. He created a collection of furniture for home and office from old sea mines.

Not far from the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, in the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, is the island of Naisaar. Its area is only 18.6 sq. km, and from the infrastructure it can offer guests only a small hotel with a restaurant. The island is covered with coniferous forest and framed by excellent sandy beaches. But tourists are attracted not by the beauty of nature, but by an abandoned Soviet naval base. It was a parking lot for warships and submarines. And besides, there was a factory for the production of sea mines on the island.

In the 1990s, the base was removed, and all dangerous military "toys" were removed or neutralized. But no one bothered to remove the metal debris, so hundreds of shells from mines of various types are scattered along the shores of the island. When Mati Karmin visited Naisaar, he came up with the idea to use rusty ugly pieces of iron to create unique stylish furniture.

Mati Karmin was born in 1959 in the city of Tartu. After school , he enrolled in The Estonian Academy of Arts, where he received a diploma in sculpture. At first, Mati, like other masters, sculpted classical sculptures from bronze and stone. But in 1981 he discovered scrap metal as a material. His first masterpiece was the sculpture "Military Fox", created literally from metal debris.

And in the late 90s, Karmin first visited the island of Naisaar with its rusty mines and literally fell in love with this material. For more than a quarter of a century, the sculptor has been experimenting with military scrap metal. To create something from sea mines, you need a remarkable imagination. There are only two types of products at the disposal of the master: cylindrical and spherical. But there is nothing wrong with the Estonian artist's imagination. He manages to create tables, chairs, armchairs, sofas, fireplaces and even bar counters out of mines.

He skillfully complements the metal with glass, tarpaulin and leather. At the same time, rust is not a hindrance to him. On the contrary, Mati knows how to beat an unpresentable object so that everyone takes their breath away. It remains to add that the designer furniture from the sea mines of Mati Carmina is not just art objects. It is fully functional, and it can be bought for home, office, cottage or cafe.