Dutch designer Rik van Veen has created a bench made from leftover plastic pipes that are fused together and carved to create a textural pattern reminiscent of a leopard's fur.
The Leopard bench is the latest in a series of experimental furniture pieces that Van Veen began producing a decade ago during his studies at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam.
Rik van Veen has designed a bench made from leftover pieces of gas and water pipes
The furniture is mostly made using leftover pieces of gas or water pipes collected from building sites in the neighbourhood around Van Veen's studio.
Inspired by the craft of heat-fusing tubular plastic beads, the designer's early designs examined how this process could be applied at a furniture scale.
The Leopard bench is the result of "years of experimenting"  To join the pieces together, Van Veen uses a hot plate to heat the two ends until the plastic softens. The parts are then pressed together to form a strong joint when the material hardens.
"The most challenging aspect is aligning the pieces when making the joint," the designer told Dezeen.
"I use jigs for cutting angles and have even built a custom machine for the joining process, but it remains tricky every time."
Heat fusion allows the plastic pieces to melt and fuse together 
The pipes Van Veen sources are intended for underground use, so are typically treated quite roughly in transit and during installation.
This results in scratches on the su...