Pick Up Wood

berteau.droppedbranches.02

Now here’s a submission that put an instant smile on my face. Pick up Wood by Belgium based Alain Berteau is a simple hanger hook that requires you to take a walk in the woods and pick up a fallen branch to complete the object and turn it into a hanger.

The project was designed for the brussels based non-profit organisation Les Petits Riens, which provides social reinsertion via the collecting and selling of second-hand clothes and used furniture.

8 Comments leave a comment below

  1. ♥ it!

  2. Great idea ! Simple & green

  3. I want this and need hangers. Any suggestions on where to actually buy them?

  4. Dear Amanda,
    Limited editions of our Pick up hooks will be sold during an benefit auction in october in … Brussels, Belgium. But the basic product will be available soon, we are now improving a very minimal “packaging”. It will be sold in some design shops, or museum shops, London, Brussels, Germany, and I guess also in the US. Lots of requests. I’d like to sell the Pick up hangers from design portals online shops. If you’re interested please contact us : [email protected]

  5. I love the idea, but personally wouldn’t buy it or expect anyone else to buy it…
    And I Quote…
    “is a simple hanger hook that requires you to take a walk in the woods and pick up a fallen branch to complete the object and turn it into a hanger.”

    Hmm, still have to go get your own wood, so I’ll just get a sturdy piece of wire, shape into a hook then insert into wood. Done!
    Personally I’d do more by smoothing the wood so it doesn’t catch, and wrap it in some nice cloth of my liking.
    I could probably make hundreds of them, but wouldn’t expect anyone to buy even one from me. Though it could make for a nice kid’s project at home for giving x-mas gifts to family…. Just my thoughts… Oh well.
    But I do wish luck to whomever started this idea in their efforts, and I hope it brings out more environmental awareness compared to plastic hangers.

  6. When you buy those (cheap) hooks, you don’t buy just a product.
    Pick up Wood is like a little book, you buy a little story, a charming but provocative one. It is “designed” to remember that behaviors are much more powerful than products. That said, it is quite shocking to rediscover the universal convenience of simple hooks you can screw anywhere.

  7. a more powerful behavior would be to make your own and not buy – or buy into – a “charming little story” … and the use of the diminutive belies just how much this still partakes of insidious greenwashing… quite disappointing that something so simple and humble can be turned into a “product” that someone actually has the gall to try and sell.