m’tab skeletal mark one bench and table
This is a bit like spontaneously visiting an amazing place along an unplanned journey. Starts with a feeling really, not a clear idea of the destination and then baam, everything along the way just works and you are sure you are on the right track.
After doing the stool and chair making courses with Ambrose, nothing was the same anymore. Yeah, but what? I don't know. I think I took my chair to too many places to sit on. I've got a pretty big van, ok. The exibitionist in me was like: dude, people don't get to see fitted stuff, sharing is caring. One track mind since then. Well, two track. Ok, many track mind, but freestanding stuff was calling. I didn't pick up straight away.
Picking up a call in this context is a complicated business. There are distractions that make it impossible. Current projects, what my portfolio consists of, what people know I'm good at. I needed a proof of concept. I needed my pallet developed. I needed my unique style. That is not easy in a field of well sponsored and educated amazing architects and designers. Bills in London chaise me from one end, clients from another. I needed to sponsor my own design sabbatical and/ or develop stuff around my current commitments. Tough. Oh c'mon.
The amount of stuff one has to go through, the number of bad designs that end up in the bin... Not that I can really handle things in the bin well, tend to work the materials to the smallest pieces, upcycling every last bit, knobs out of brass bar or spatulas of every wood offcut. Even the brass-framed endgrain herringbone on dibond tops- all minimum-waste-policy inspired. Call it what you will, I just don't have any patience for waste, generating waste.. terrible. Ok, this got a bit sad now.
Luckily one day Helen pops up from nowhere. East London super cool interior designer, already with a great understanding of making and design process. Like a life representation of Ilse Crawford's famous (at least to me) quote: "Design is the relationship with the maker". So Helen is asking if I could make that bench, and I say no, then I say maybe, then I say yes, then I say yes please.
To start of with, it's a budget project. Then we both end up pouring time and money into it. Why? Because it's fun. So much fun. To explain to the non-creative ones, designers mind can wander and mostly that's what it does. It is invaluable to have someone to bounce off of. Collaboration tends to accelerate and ground you, keeps the anchor down and/or fills the sails, no idea how it works really, and most times it doesn't (let's say because of egos) but when it does, it so does.
brief
first idea board
brief/ page2
dims and construct idea
So it started of from simple and practical sketch of a ply kitchen-diner banquette with a couple of (ply again) storage drawers under. Possibly even simple castor drawers from Ikea. I agreed to do that at cost, just so we've got a portfolio piece. Then Helen came over to my studio, where were a few development pieces I was working on for my freestanding adventure. She kinda liked it. We changed the bench design to "skeleton" as she called it. Okkey, nice, let's make it work. No, let's not just make it work, let's make it cool. Let us have fun yeah. I said I'll draw it. We've set a budget( which is a great constrain) and within that I set to work.
so yeah, I've got some stuff I was working on...
Skeleton bench. Ok. So steel frame can be bulky and heavy but that is not me. The "skeleton" design that Helen liked in my studio, was already quite a developed thing. It had it's core theme, which was unique, that had to remain constant. Still, to apply that to a new piece, that's a whole new brain storm. I'm on my own in this storm. Not easy, but kind of easier. First what comes to mind is that ply will sag being 18mm and having people sit on it. Ok, so we need a flat bar on edge under, no we can't. Disagrees with the theme of my "skeleton" system. Thing about it is that it's quite minimal. It consists of two 40/10 mild steel flatbar frames on each end, connected by two 20mm round bars tapped on ends. Four pieces and four bolts essentially on a solid wood top desk, which was a first completed development piece I was happy with.
my first complete freestanding piece
Now, this is pure geeking out this. Oh well. So since the ply would sag and the "skeleton" is naturally amazing on horizontal tensile strength, we can arch the seat, so when on compression under a bum- it would want to spread sideways before reaching the critical point and collapsing. Well that would take quite a bum to stretch the steel rods, a baby elephant most likely. Not weight but torsion would probably be cause of death on post mortal... I've gone too far now.
compression & tension
getting a bit excited...
I showed Helen the picture of benches in Tate Modern and was like: dis cool, no? Not apparently. Because of breadcrumbs. Can we have gaps between the ply, so breadcrumbs don't gather.
...I have not asked permission to use this image..
...asking forgiveness though
Back to drawing board. This was precisely the point I was off to The Duke for a pint and Helen was hard at work, driven by the breadcrumbs hatred. She must have really disliked the buggers, and so thank f*** for that. Best solution and the final design was about to be born. She sent me this:
yeah, my mate in the workshop also made a table like that...
it will work!
Also along the way somewhere a table was added to the job, so we are now making a set.
The chair on the left is left out of the project for now..
design approved, now on with the making...
And then, quite simply, although not simply at all, we've made it! Well, physically I've made it: welded it, cnc'd it, veneered it, sprayed it, assembled. The shape would be different if not Helen though. The shape would never exist at all. It was fun. And I've made a friend. Helen, thank you.
proper photoshoot pictures will follow!