Crafting a stunning serving tray from black bamboo

I wanted to create a product that demonstrated the natural strength and versatility of bamboo. One part of the resource that I wanted to make sure to incorporate in my design was bamboo bone, which is the vertical cross-section of a culm. Bamboo bone can create a natural handle and so the main inspiration for my tray was coming up with a household item that I was currently missing in my life that had handles. The serving tray is large enough to hold two dining plates diagonally but small enough to easily carry.

Throughout the first half of the course, we were exposed to many different techniques and uses for bamboo. I tried to incorporate as many of those into my final design as I could. Some things that we learned about were included in my preliminary design phase, but during the building process, they did not make it into the final product.

I liked the idea of showing the variety of species and colors of bamboo within one product. The shorter sides of the tray are made from Bambusa blumeana (known locally as bambu duri / thorn bamboo) which was cut in vertical cross sections to utilize the bamboo bone. The silica was removed from the short sides for a more organic look. The longer sides are made using laminated splits from Dendrocalamus asper niger. I kept the silica on the outer split so the color would be present.

Seven dowels are secured as internal rods so they are not seen through the Dendrocalamus asper niger silica. The dowels are made from Gigantochloa apus bamboo sticks (known locally as bambu tali lidi). The inside of the tray is woven with splits from bamboo bono. The four corner joints are dovetail joints with the long sides locking into the bamboo bone.

The main challenge was working within the constraints of the materials available and the way the materials responded to the function of the tray. I needed to be adaptable and open to changing my design as I went. I definitely thought the tray was going to be easier to make and the process would go much faster but I now have much more appreciation for the final product.

The corner joints and the inside of the tray changed the most as the product progressed. These were by far the most challenging elements to get right. I created many different iterations of each and sometimes moved forward with a potential fix before hitting a roadblock and completely changing direction.

I am excited that I have a product that I can take home and be proud of each time I use it. My biggest takeaway from the experience of crafting my own bamboo serving tray was that a design will change many times during the process but in the end, you land on the design that was meant to be all along.