Graham's "Recliner"

Graham and I have been having some problems with the furniture arrangement in our living room and a couple months ago Graham got it into his head that a recliner was a solution to the problem. After moving all our existing furniture around a few times and happening on no ready solution I gave in and decided to build Graham a chair myself.

There were quite a few requirements on Graham's side - the seat needed to be at a height where it wouldn't strain his knees when his feet were propped up, he wanted to be able to lean back and rest his head, and he wanted good back support when sitting up straight. My only real requirement was that I could build it quickly in the week I had off from school.


I decided to make a sort of glorified bean bag chair. The design is a series of pillows stacked up on top of each other. Each pillow is filled with buckwheat hulls - they are firm but malleable, and environmentally friendly. Graham and I went scouting at a local fabric favorite and came away with four different fabrics for the pillows. Each of the pillows also has an inside casing so the covers can be taken off and washed.

Unnamed Chair

Many of you may remember the strange woven creature I made during Wintersession. Well, off and on since then, I have been working on a structure that would tame the creature and turn it into a chair... This week has been my spring break and so I spent a couple days in Providence trying to finish up the project.



I had already drilled all of the holes earlier in the semester so I really only had to weld together all of the pieces. Once I sand and finish the steel, I will sew the tubes to the frame using the same white yarn I used to weave the seat. I was a little worried the tubes would just pull out over time but I hope their density will prevent any one tube from holding too much weight. The whole thing takes up quite a bit of space but I think it should be quite comfortable in the end.

Finished Product

I finally finished my shelves! In the process, I have discovered that I definitely do not want to make multiples of my own pieces. I can make a decent product but I do not want to turn myself into a craft perfectionist. I will always be a better designer than maker. I enjoy making and think many valuable things come out of the building process but prototyping is as far as I ever need take it. All that said, the shelves turned out nicely and I was pleased with the finished product.


The wall attachment hardware could still use some work but for now I am satisfied. Our instructor arranged for us to show our pieces at the RISD store. There is a survey for passersby to fill out recording what they think of the product and the price. It turns out the $30 to $60 was wholesale price which is typically half of retail so my finished shelf is listed at $120. The material for each shelf cost a little over $10 and each shelf took a little over three hours to make (25+ hours to make 7). If I sell them wholesale for $60 I make a little under $15 an hour. For our final class assignment it is basically more of the same except we can design a higher priced item and use more components. However, I am going to build birdhouses so I think my price might actually go down.

Volume/Form

I have been slow to put these up because I think they are a little silly. By the time we got to this point in the process I was already excited about some other designs and had trouble concentrating on any new ideas. But they were a part of the process so up they go. Basically I was just messing around with the materials I had built up in my space.

Shelves for Sale...

In Design for Production our first task was to re-design an existing object. Our teacher brought in several IKEA products ranging from napkins holders to picture frames to paper trays and we were charged with choosing one and adapting it to be made in wood and with a higher degree of quality. I chose a small wall shelf and set about making some changes. We have to build a minimum of six identical shelves with a price estimate between $30 and $60. Honestly, I think that price range is undervaluing our work. Even fake wood wall shelves at West Elm can sell for almost $200! My design attempts to make use of the multiples I am required to create by having each shelf relate to the next.

Each shelf was supposed to be composed of a minimum of three components. There could be more than three pieces of wood but only three different shapes. This is supposed to cut down on production time. Unfortunately, my instructor came up with the brilliant idea of keeping my wood grain continuous throughout the shelf! A good idea but it has meant a lot more work. Plus, I think my three components were only halfway identical since the joints happen on different sides on different pieces.

The project is due on Monday and I still have one big thing to figure out - how they attach to the wall. I know how it is often done but I don't have the hardware on hand. Fortunately, the step down acts as a sort of bracket and the shelves are small so they won't need to hold too much weight.

Plane/Surface

So you know the drill. Here are the models.

After sketching for a bit and coming up with nothing I stumbled across an image of receipt paper falling to the floor. The paper was still attached to the roll and had a decent amount of strength within itself which allowed it to hold form. Beyond its formal appropriateness to the assignment I was immediately interested in the idea that a chair could be its own receipt. The project is primarily a production and retail challenge so I don't know if it is something I will pursue in this context.


In my attempt to make a model I tried melting plastic for the first time. The school has a large industrial pizza oven that can be used to melt the plastic that can then be molded into various forms. My first attempt ended up looking more like toilet paper.

I had an extra sheet so I also made a scroll chair which has turned into a handy pencil holder.


My other model was based on the various states in which a chair exists, from occupied to unoccupied to saved. The function of the piece is taken from how the movable advertising signs work - an equilaterial triangle that rotates around its midpoint with different images printed on each side. I hadn't thought much about its actual application and there were some good suggestions from the group. My favorite was as an additional seat cushion that could be brought along to events to label the seat as well as provide extra padding.

Line/Structure

Spring semester is chair studio and we spend the entire semester developing several chair designs and building one. As part of our design development and as a way to ensure we don't decide on a chair design too quickly, we have to build six chair models, two each focusing on line/structure, plane/surface, and volume/form. All of the grads have felt the assignment is a little regressive, the sort of assignment given to first-year undergrads just learning about their design process. I like that it makes us edit our ideas though.

Last Tuesday the first round of models was due focusing on line/structure. Lately I have been interested in numbers and geometry so I decided to design a chair that was a 3D extrapolation of a 2D geometry.
This was my first attempt and I learned a bit about how I wanted each layer to contribute to the overall form. I scaled up the model for the next class and revised some issues while ignoring others. For instance, I still didn't think much about a seat or any other practical matters.


The use of a colored string really emphasized the linearity which disappeared a bit in the reflection of the steel wire. I also used a triangular system of interior lines which made the model much stronger than the first. The model creates some really amazing shadows and rolls around a little like a toy. Overall, I am really drawn to the form but am a little intimidated about pursuing it full scale. I do only have six weeks to build it...

I also wanted to make a model based on tension, since thin members can actually be quite strong when pulled. I used string to make a sort of puppet chair. The lines of the chair follow a classic form.


The model was successful in its puppet-ness but I decided it would lose a bit of its charm when realized at full scale. For one, it would be difficult to move around and manipulate and might therefore be too serious.

Plane/Surface next...

Spring Semester

Spring semester has been in session a few weeks now but I can't say all that much has happened yet. I am taking three classes - my general furniture studio that I have every semester, a class based in the woodshop entitled Design for Production, and a graduate seminar class focused on readings and writing related to our thesis ideas. Additionally, I am the teaching assistant for a 3D modeling class based on the computer. I don't actually know the software program though so I am trying to do the work along with everyone else. I have a whole set of new instructors but no new classmates.

My studio work this semester is focused on chairs and we are busy making models that will lead toward one final, full-scale chair by the end of May. I am not sure how I feel about the process they are putting us through - maybe in hindsight I will understand. We had a guest lecturer on Thursday, Josh Owen, an alumni of the program who has since gone on to concentrate his work in the field of industrial design. He has won a bunch of awards and has quite a different outlook on design than many in the department. I appreciated his emphasis on making work with a clear purpose and judging the quality based on intention.

I have high hopes for Design for Production and hopefully it will deliver. So far, we have concentrated on batch production as it would be used for an independent designer. The idea is that the product is designed for ease in making more than one and less than en mass. I had hoped to gain some understanding of how the system worked outside of my own capabilities - maybe project number two will bring in some of those factors.

During my second and final year I have to produce a cohesive body of work and a supplemental text which together make up a thesis requirement. To make sure we are ready to go in the fall the first-year grads have a seminar class devoted to reading and writing about topics related to the field and about our interests in particular. So far, we have had to read and write in about equal measure. The class is challenging as we have to sort out all sorts of complicated issues in terms of our own work and larger issues in the field of art and design. So far I feel a bit lost but am looking forward to some self-discovery and direction in my work.