Steve Jobs: How to live before you die | Video on TED.com

Steve Jobs: How to live before you die | Video on TED.com

Good advice Mr. Jobs. Rest in peace.

Snake Cabinet

The semester is over, and it was a busy one! Whew!  Glad its done.  I finished the snake inspired tambor door cabinet, and am pretty pleased with the result.  Granted, this one has some issues that need to be resolved, like the space between the wall and cabinet (more of it) and a more resolved handle/intersection of the doors, but besides that, it is a great prototype.  It looks like the funky shaped tambors could be a very interesting aspect of furniture work to explore in the future.  Here's how the real one turned out hanging on the wall:

The cabinet is made out of plywood and is painted with milk paint.  It's dimensions are approximately 42 inches in length, 15 inches deep, and 12 inches high.  I think the next one will have more elaborate curves in the individual tambors, an increase in scale, and a variation in the dimensions of the two compartments (the right compartment might be taller than the other compartment  which will break up the big flat boring space on the top.)  Also, the next one will probably be veneered with something better looking than rotary cut birch.  This project has given me a lot of different ideas on how to employ tambors.  Considering my interest in working with CNC technology, tambor doors could start to get real crazy pretty fast!  Oh, I'm excited...

In other news, Sarah graduated!   Though the ceremony was not the most exciting, it was still a wonderful memorable day.  Congratulations!

Absurd!

Got work in some shows...

 This weekend the San Diego Art Department is having it "Artists for Japan Relief" show where local artists, mostly those with connections to SDSU, have donated work to be sold.  The proceeds will go to the American Red Cross to support disaster relief after the big earthquake in March.  The final day to make bids is this Saturday, May 14th, from 4pm until 7pm.  Great cause, great work in the show. 

I donated my Karesansui Table which is inspired by the dry landscape garden at the Ryoan-ji Temple in Kyoto, Japan.  Here's the table:

Here's the garden in the temple:

Around the corner, back to the right, is a beautiful little mossy garden space.  I thought this place was magical when I was there last summer.

I also entered two of my pieces in the San Diego County Fair's Design in Wood Show in Del Mar put on every year by the San Diego Fine Woodworking Association.  These pieces will be shown:

Snake in the water!

I am going to make a tambor door cabinet with curvy tambor slats--kinda like a snake!

Here's what made me think of it.  Sarah and I went for a hike in Mission Trails just south of the 52 near Santee this weekend.  On our hike, we stopped in the shad of a massive tree near a stream to eat the lunch we brought.  While we were sitting there eating and chatting, I noticed a snake in the puddle near by.  It was a small garter snake that would periodically poke its head out of the water to breathe and hunt water bugs skimming across the top of the water.  Neither of us had seen anything like that before and for whatever reason it made me think of my tambor cabinet.  I went to the river bank near by and drew in the sand what I wanted to do with my tambor door.

As you might be able to see in the picture, each strip of the door is an 's' curve with the same radius on both sides of  's.'  The top and bottom of the strip is straight where fabric will be glued to the back.  It looks really cool in the model, and I think it will work.  There will be two sliding doors that meet in the indented part. I think there will be a divider inside for structure and to divide the interior space. If the inside of the box was lit, the light escaping from between the slats might be cool too.  And funny enough, the source for the idea came from nature, watching a snake chase bugs in a puddle.  This imagery could also be used to make a pattern of some kind in the top, maybe ripples of a wake or a snake skin texture.

Good Times at the Rodeo!

 

Yeeeee ha!  Here are some pictures.  Great idea B.A. !  Happy Birthday!

Lakeside Rodeo… Awesome.

Dad sent a page from the WSJ

I thought this was really funny because I was looking at Ruhlmann when I was designing the Lingerie Chest.  Thanks Dad!  The article on Ruhlmann talks about a new book that has just come out on him.  He is one of my favorite designers.  He was designing these pieces in the beginning of the 20th century, “a time when furniture makers were kings.”

Here’s a link to that article pictured below:  All Hands on Art Deco

 

The Ruhlmann’s black liquor cabinet with the wood burl doors at the top of the page next to the picture of his face sold for $2.1 million at a recent auction according to the article.  Whoa.

On the other side of the page was a blurb on what was going to be at the Milan Furniture Fair--very designer-y.   Here’s a link to that article:  The Furniture Frontline

Better Pictures

Here are pictures of some of the work in the show.

---

Not A Hack Table

English sycamore, jatoba, cherry, Spanish cedar, bog oak, leather

18” x 18” x 29”

---

Disclosure

Acrylic sheet, ear plugs,

2” x 4” x 11”

---

Shelter

Acrylic sheet, brass, hardware

15” x 11” x 21”

---

Lingerie Chest

Acrylic sheet, poplar, milk paint, wood shavings, ribbon

60” x 28” x 16”

---

Gift

Bamboo plywood, steel, magnets

5” x 5” x 5”

---

Karesansui Table (Dry Landscape)

Concrete, poplar

38” x 14” x 40”

---

More on Amplification

For this first attempt, I tried to keep it simple.  The original idea was to make a 2D surface look 3D in some way by adding a particular pattern to the surface.  I had some high density foam around from a previous project that I could use to try some ideas on.  Here’s the first attempt:

This was derivative of the clock that I am using as the inspiration for this Amplification project.  Here’s the clock I made earlier.

I was thinking of trying to get this above pattern to go all the way around the simple form of a blanket chest, but seeing it larger in the foam wasn’t really doing it for me.  I think that the shape of the furniture should relate to the pattern more explicitly.  For me, the rectilinear shape of a blanket chest would kill the pattern.  Perhaps if the furniture had curves and the pattern accentuated those curves, it would be more successful.

Thinking about a more traditional approach to patterns on case pieces especially veneer patterns, I decided to instead try working with a grid.  Also, considering the way a perspective view works using the CAD software I use, the object’s relationship to the grid is what helps it look three-dimensional.  I did a couple samples in the foam first using diamonds,

and then using squares.

I preferred the look of the squares then the diamonds, but then came the issue of the corner.  How do I get the corners to come together in a tidy fashion?  I talked to Matt about this issue, and together we figured that perhaps I should try getting the shape of the cabinet and the shape of the curving surface that the grid was going to be arrayed on to relate to each other. This is how I got the corners to work out:

The grid was arrayed on the red curve and then "projected” onto the flat surface. 
I made a cardboard mock up to make sure the size was what I wanted.  I'm glad I did this because I tweaked the measurements a touch before I cut a single piece of wood.

After turning a couple of 8/4 ash boards into veneers on top of plywood, I set up some simple tool paths with the CNC router, and voilà!  I was also thinking of making it look more explicitly like a checker board with paint.  I rendered the blanket chest to see what it might look like.

But after it was cut out, I liked the wood grain so much (amongst other reasons) that I decided to leave it as is--without paint.  But looking at how the real thing turned out and the rendered picture looks now side-by-side, perhaps I should look into using paint…

For a first attempt, I am very pleased with the outcome.  I learned a lot too.  Now for a case piece, maybe with curves….

Show’s up!

Here’s what it looks like.  Thanks everyone for the help!

I have a show soon

 I have lots I want to share, but I am working my tail off to get my show together.  More will come soon, until then here is my show card.  Hope to see you all there!

My dad reads the Wall Street Journal

Every couple months or so my dad sends me a clipping from the Wall Street Journal. Usually he sends me  something that has to do with furniture making or the business associated with it.  This time he sent me an ad for an antique Jupe table, named for its designer Robert Jupe.  This table reminds me of an earlier e-mail Wendy sent of a table opening up by simply spinning it around.

 Check out this link to the antique dealers website to see it in action.  (click on the little video button in the lower right below the picture slideshow.)  I couldn't believe how this thing was patented in 1835!  Pretty cool...  The website looks to have some wild stuff for sale too.

Amplification

I like this assignment.  The piece I am going to amplify (no surprise I am sure) is this clock:

I am thinking about really addressing the surface of a furniture piece.  I am wondering if it is possible to make the surface that the dots rise from undulate one way and the dots change shape and size to describe a surface that undulates a different way.  The goal being to make two different surfaces appear to exist in the same place or at least very close to one another. (Maybe pass through?)

This idea is kind of funny to me because I recently downloaded a sample of a book to my Kindle app on my phone titled, “The Hidden Reality:  Parallel Universes and Deep Laws of the Cosmos.”  I have not read very much of it, but from what I have gathered so far, it suggests the possibility that all things that could happen do happen in an infinite amount of parallel universes.  The construct of time is also called into question as that may only be an aspect of our consciousness.  So what if everything that could happen, does happen, and it happens all at the same time?  Whoa, blew my mind there a little bit…  (In undergrad before I was an art major, I considered astro-physics for a semester.  I liked astronomy,but didn’t like physics.)  This book does a good job of explaining the ideas as the author does not presuppose any background in physics or mathematics. 

To bring it back to furniture, I have become more aware of how a three dimensional surface can be described two dimensionally.  I am on the lookout for patterns in space these days, and they are everywhere! The camera is going to be an important tool in my “research.“

I was talking to Rachel in metals about this new idea and she lent me this book for inspiration:

Its pretty fun to look through.  It’s on my bench if anyone wants to check it out. 

I was talking to Dr. B about this idea too, and she suggested looking at Op Art form the 60’s.  Like these people:

Richard Anuszkiewicz

Bridget RileyVictor Vasarely

Anyway, I am going to do some samples over the next couple weeks and try to have a furniture piece that begins to explore this direction for my advancement show.  I think I am going to start with a blanket chest form.