Hey folks,
According to an article in the O'Riley published magazine "Make" (
http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol16/?pg=171 ):
"It turns out that Ikea’s Lindmon blinds (product #10092570 at ikea.com/us) are made from Paulownia elongata"
Apparently they are 1 3/8" x 5/64" (35mm x 2mm) and the cost works out to about 6.25 cents per linear foot. The primary downside I see with using these would be the holes in them for the strings. The obvious upsides are convenience, availability, and affordability.
Here's the IKEA product link:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10092570It's not clear whether all three finish choices (white, brown, and natural) are made of the same wood, but I'd suppose that at least the brown and natural are. Looking at the photos in the article, he either used the "natural" finish product or sanded off the finish. Also, because the IKEA site says nothing about them being paulownia, I suppose they could get away with changing their choice of material without warning.
"Make" is a magazine dedicated to all things DIY, about 75% of which revolves around electronics. It just so happens that this same issue has a guide on building an EPS hotwire cutter using an adjustable DC transformer from a model train set. I'd imagine that if someone wanted a good press opportunity for backyard compsand construction, they could get an article published there with little more effort needed than some of the better start-to-finish construction threads I've seen around here. They tend to have two types of articles: those which go into detail so that someone could take a crack at the project themselves, and those that describe enough of the process to entertain the reader and give them some ideas.
To view this article online you must be a subscriber, but it just so happens that if you hit the "stop" button on your browser at just the right time while the page is still loading, you can read the article (in my version of firefox).
Hope this helps!
~Roscoe
