A Brief Brief Acquire the visual and technical skills essential to developing and executing a design incorporating the process of bent wood. Strengthen problem-solving skills related to all levels of a design project. Design and fabricate a bent wood piece derived by a famous design. The Source Chair by Marcel Breuer, 1921 This elegant dining chair combines bent wood and caning while exhibiting a beautifully organic and modernistic profile. Insights and Influences 1. Maintain aesthetic of bent wood legs. 2. Include some sort of soft furnishing. 3. Pursue an organic + geometric profile. 4. Have multiple but intentional functions. Synthesis The aim is to create a wood bent piece that commemorates Breuers underappreciated chair design while reflecting my own design style. This can be acheived by exploring the various references to Breuers piece: the bent wood legs, the emphasis on the profile, and the contrasting materials. Through the ideation and concepting of the piece, the focus was on sticking to these potential reference outcomes. Concept Development High Chair and two Bar Stools from left to right. These were the sketches that were chosen to be explored further in spatial sketch models. Sketch Models I chose to laser cut my parts for the sketch models from 1/4 plywood and then super glue them together. A uniform appearance was created by spray painting them white. Evaluation from left to right: 1. This bar stool turned out to be a strong candidate for further expansion due to its good lines. One consideration was to remove the armrests because after fitting them to proper ergonomics, they no longer felt unified with the rest of the chair. 2. After building the high chair model and favoring it over the other two, more consideration into the challenges of designing for a child deterred me from further development (for now). 3. For this last bar stool, the sling feature prompted more issues than solved any design problems. However, the shape of the stool back was something to use further. A New Direction After further evaluation of the bar stool sketch and model, it was mentioned that it would be interesting to created a tube of fabric as opposed to the sling. While still retaining the structural rib stretchers, this was the resolved sketch. After testing comfortability of the mock up and even taking into Google Sketchup, it was quickly determined that the size was too large, the form too bulky, and the tube sling was not a good idea. It was at this moment that I decided to do a wooden tube for the seat that I would then upholster. Mock Up In order to create a 1:1 scale mock up, I laser cut the parts from 3/4 plywood and double stacked them with screws. The mock up was then assembled using screws and the sling was sewn out of burlap. July 29, 2014 :: BETSY :: Taylor Scott Ross :: Concept Model Taking it into Solidworks, I continued to flesh out the idea. With the idea of upholstery in mind, I sampled various fabrics and selected three potential candidates. When it came down to it, the white was a clear winner. Various construction methods and joint types were explored in the modeling process. Here can be seen the idea of having the wooden tube with an upholstery slip cushion that wraps around. Also pictured is an iteration that included having bent back legs and a stool back. Process After developing a firm handle on the design, the objectives, and various processes, it was time to move onto fabrication. The following section will quickly outline various steps in the process to creating the Rigsbee chair. Before I could get into any semblance of part fabrication, there was a lot preliminary work to be done. FIrst I created a two part jig from stacked MDF. From there I took a 8/4 poplar board and cut it into 1/8 tapered strips to perform bent lamination. Before I could glue up the strips, some initial steam bending was necessary to develop the proper bend. After gluing up the leg, I matched its shape and curve with a milled + tapered leg. For the seat tube, I bent panels of bending plywood with the assistance of the vacuum bag to create two halves of the tube. After fixing blemishes and imperfections in the legs and tube, I moved onto jointery. The tube was put together using biscuit joints. After shaping the back leg to match the curve of the front leg, I was able to start cutting mortis and tenons for that joint. I knew that this had to be a very strong joint that supported most of the stress so double tenons were chosen to hold these together. This was also the first time that the chair had come together in any fashion. Now that the legs were assembled, I could take them on the router and shape them into the soft round edges that I desired. These newly round edges created the sleek and nice profile that was represented by Breuer. With more pieces ready to be assembled, it was time to work on more joints. To connect the leg to the tube, I cut down 3/16 steel threaded rod to be inset 1 in both the legs and tube. This would create small but strong and effective points of contact. To connect the stretchers to the legs, mortis and tenons were cut. The final steps of building were coming together. The mortis and tenons were refined, holes were bored into the tube, and then I glued it up. All assembled and ready to be sat on, the stool had a light and delicate presence. Following assembly some final refinements had to be made before finishing the stool. Imperfections in the joints were filled in with wood filler and the tops of the legs were shaped to create a more comfortable grip. The woodworking process of fabrication was a long and strenuous one. It was something that I feared wouldnt get done, but it did and Im very happy with the results. From here I was to sort of pass the torch and work on getting it upholstered. I called on the help of Fashion Design student and friend M.K. Baird to help get the cushion together. First, the fabric was cut and then sewn together in a long tube like fashion. Dimensioned and cut pieces of batting were then stuffed in the tube. The finishing stitches seal up the tube and the button fasteneres were sewn on. The linen cushion stretched around the tube created a soft and warm seat to rest upon. This marked the end of the stool production. The contours and organic profile presents a sleek and elegant stool to place at a desk, bar, or even an easel. The tube acts as a storage container and the backs can hang things as hooks do. Rigsbee is in homage to the bent wood classic that Breuer developed and received little renown for. Rigsbee 20.0 1.94 1.94 14.00 1.5 1.5
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Construction Documents Wrapping Up This design project and process has provided me with many insights and take aways to implement in further explorations with bent wood and wood fabrication. Of these is the consideration of jig making. In my own development this was a completely underestimated step. When it comes down to it, the jigs probably included 50% of the work and I did not account for that time lapse in my preliminary scheduling. A huge growing point for me in this project was actually time management. This strenuous workload presented the feeling of sink or float and I chose to buckle down and float. Spending everyday all day of the latter half of my summer was not how I anticipated spending it, but it was necessary and incredibly satisfying. Reflecting on the beginnings of this design project, it is clear that designing from a significant piece of inspiration is a really beneficial tool to the ideation flowing. References to these pieces enhance the new design and have the mood of a timeless classic. Will I work with bending wood in the near future? That is to be determined because it is a very time consuming and costly process but the results are incomparably beautiful. I look forward to further studies in craftmanship and woodworking while looking at new and advanced building techniques.