Let's discuss furniture design and fine work

[Jacob]

Yes, The Intelligent Hand. Slainte.

"....But a lot of the hard labour involves some unexpected skills. Listening. Seeing. Drawing. And looking into the mirror and practicing the expression: "And that will cost 20,000 pounds."..." Well worth bearing in mind - it's really easy to underprice.
"...one of the leading furniture designers in the UK..."?? er, more like one of the leading makers of extravagant giftware for the filthy rich, in my humble opinion!

 

[Sgian Dubh]

er, more like one of the leading makers of extravagant giftware for the filthy rich, in my humble opinion!

I think I might have phrased that more along the lines of: "one of the leading makers of extravagant giftware for the filthy rich" followed up with, and good for him to be able to find a niche in that rarefied market.

Your claim to humility expressing your opinion didn't fool me in the slightest, by the way. It just made me chuckle to see you, apparently, so innocently ironic, whether you meant it, or not. Slainte.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Those two certainly tick my boxes in terms of being incredibly pleasing on the eyes, the latter two almost decadent and incredibly sexy too.
I am jealous that you had the opportunity to learn from him, I would be very interested to see more of his designs and perhaps construction plans - did he publish any books or design materials?

He was a very interesting man. Sadly he passed away as his book was published.

Bit more background here

https://blog.lostartpress.com/2017/07/12/meet-the-author-david-savage/

 

[doctor Bob]

View attachment 149594

Bravo Jacob, love them.
I'm more Le Corbusier, love my LC4, managed to get an early real stamped one in an auction, I also have a good copy.

 

[Jacob]

Bravo Jacob, love them.
I'm more Le Corbusier, love my LC4, managed to get an early real stamped one in an auction, I also have a good copy.

Nice one.
Then there's Mies https://www.moma.org/collection/works/4369
All good stuff, and iconic.
I'm limited to fakes I can make myself!
The Red & Blue chair really is strangely comfortable and I've heard it being referred to by happy owners as a "contemplation" chair.
Next project is a decrepit Thonet rocking chair which is beyond restoration, so I'm going to do a makeover with Bauhaus paint scheme like the Reitveld

 

[Jacob]

Just an idle thought on the design theme: The iconic furniture "designers" as aforementioned seem to be a different mob from the iconic furniture "woodworkers" such as Krenov and Savage. These two in a different class from Reitveld, Corbusier, Mies Van de Rohe, Juhl, Malmsten, Wegner et al.

 

[John Brown]

love this style of door, really like curves with no right angles, must be a pain in the buttocks to make but it looks good.

Something of Munch's "The scream" about it.

 

[Jacob]

Something of Munch's "The scream" about it.

Yes! The eyes, the open mouth, the boils, the bony bits showing through. Nightmare!

 

[rogxwhit]

Just an idle thought on the design theme: The iconic furniture "designers" as aforementioned seem to be a different mob from the iconic furniture "woodworkers" such as Krenov and Savage. These two in a different class from Reitveld, Corbusier, Mies Van de Rohe, Juhl, Malmsten, Wegner et al.

Indeed you can be a designer without being a maker - designing for industrial production or just designing pieces to be made by others who are craftspeople. And obviously. as many have done, you might also integrate both design and making.

It will be invaluable though as a designer to have a good knowledge of the materials involved, their properties and jointing methods.

Distillation of structure and form could be thought of as equally valuable to making technique. An integrity of purpose could be self-evident. Showing off in my book is deprecated. Something the Shakers cultivated admirably is an honesty of vision in craft, though the term Shaker these days has been stolen and commercialised.

It's wholly possible to be a fine craftsman in terms of working materials without having much sense of visual design (examples all around!). Design is a personal and cultural expression.

 

[Jacob]

.....

It's wholly possible to be a fine craftsman in terms of working materials without having much sense of visual design (examples all around!).

But not always a good idea (examples all around!).
The great lasting success of the Bauhaus was largely due to the attempt to integrate makers, designers, engineers, architects, craftworkers, performers, etc. as all interdependent and of equal importance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

 

[Molynoox]

Derek
the only problem with deck chairs is getting out of them....
I have a really comfy plush leather arm chair, swivel. tilts etc.....
BUT had to put 4inch riser blocks to get out of it....

as for te reitveld stuff....
looks to me its what u'd get if u asked a bunch of 10 year olds to make something out of a broken Ikea wardrobe....

I rather like ur office chair tho...the one in my workshop came out of a skip....
happy holidays....

Maybe not the only problem, what about the finger guillotine situation? I'm always paranoid about using them

 

[Molynoox]

Interesting thread.
Interesting to hear the talk of form vs function and design Vs manufacture.
my background in automotive engineering has given me some interesting parallels to think about.

design and manufacture was obviously completely split between two completely different teams, and we had a phase, or number of checkpoints, in every project called manufacturing feasibility. At this point engineering and manufacturing teams come together and check it could be built and if not how we should change the design so that it can.
what is also interesting is that there were sort of two phases of design, and these sort of separated the form and function part:
first you have the artistic concept design guys who wear silk scarves, and corduroy trousers, who sketch out cool looking stuff on a piece of paper.
then you have the engineering teams who take care of the function part and temper the beautiful art work concepts into something practical, then later they meet with manufacturing who tell them it can't be assembled efficiently and the design is changed so that it can. By the end the sketch looks nothing like the design but you have something that will take you to the shops, and because the corduroy trousers guys got involved at the start it doesn't end up looking like a cardboard box on wheels designed by an engineer.

you really need the artistic guys because the engineers can't see past problem solving, and we can't turn it off, it's an in built function of our brains, and that compromises the artistic element because a lot of ideas get rejected inside the mind without even reaching the paper. There are people that can do both of course, but they are not the norm.

and now that I've started looking at doing woodworking I am needing to train myself to think differently:

1. Be more creative / artistic
2. Dive in and do it, instead of analysing it and planning it and worrying about all the problems that need solving - just get started
3. Don't dwell on the little details and let it slow you down
4. Focus on the 'what' and not the 'how'... Dovetail joints are fascinating but they are a means to an end - the big picture needs to be figured out first and not lost sight of, and the details later

And many other characteristics that need changing about myself

I'm not sure how relevant all that was...

 martin

 

[Inspector]

Molynoox my father was a Dane that apprenticed to a wagon maker in 1935 before going into furniture factories. He said at that time architects and furniture designers had to do a year on construction sites or making furniture as part of their university schooling. It was to teach them to design things that could be built. I presume the practice is long gone but think it has merit.

I suppose because it was a small part of the Craftsman furniture/home design era nobody has mentioned Green and Green. They didn't do the making but did the designs of everything from the grounds and gardens, the house and the interiors including stained glass and fabric designs and the furniture. Their work was for the wealthy, one of the reasons it wasn't prolific. I like a lot of the style and making a few pieces is on my someday list.

As a teenager my father took me to work, mostly to keep my mother from killing me, in the summers to strip the furniture his company repaired and refinished for the auction houses. Most of the furniture came from the UK by the container load. Nasty job that stripping but handling the furniture gave me a reasonably good eye for proportion and construction. I didn't realize it at the time but absorbed the information as I worked. It might be one of the reasons I don't use plans or just a rough sketch at most when I make stuff.

Pete

 

[Molynoox]

Molynoox my father was a Dane that apprenticed to a wagon maker in 1935 before going into furniture factories. He said at that time architects and furniture designers had to do a year on construction sites or making furniture as part of their university schooling. It was to teach them to design things that could be built. I presume the practice is long gone but think it has merit.

I suppose because it was a small part of the Craftsman furniture/home design era nobody has mentioned Green and Green. They didn't do the making but did the designs of everything from the grounds and gardens, the house and the interiors including stained glass and fabric designs and the furniture. Their work was for the wealthy, one of the reasons it wasn't prolific. I like a lot of the style and making a few pieces is on my someday list.

As a teenager my father took me to work, mostly to keep my mother from killing me, in the summers to strip the furniture his company repaired and refinished for the auction houses. Most of the furniture came from the UK by the container load. Nasty job that stripping but handling the furniture gave me a reasonably good eye for proportion and construction. I didn't realize it at the time but absorbed the information as I worked. It might be one of the reasons I don't use plans or just a rough sketch at most when I make stuff.

Pete

It's almost as if we are a product of our environment, and not simply born into our respective capabilities. Somebody should write that down.

 

[Inspector]

I think some of it comes naturally and the rest was beaten into us.

Pete