By blending traditional writing desk materials with contemporary laptop-based programmatic needs, the desk’s surface is allowed to break, creating a relationship between surface and structure--pattern and form--that unites the composition.
Walnut thinly separating leather panels
Original design drawing
Finishing the Walnut frame; skeletal without its leather skin.
Fitting the upholstered leather panels
This table/stool—part of a series—is realized through the interaction between material and its environment. Using the directionality of wood grain and its inherent chatoyant properties, the patterned surface activates with the light of its environment; with the movement of the viewer. The pattern shifts and breaks its cubic boundaries as one moves around it.
The true potential of Chatoyance is in large scale rotational wall panel/room dividers. Challenging the traditional definition of furniture in a space, these panels bring movement through pattern and action into the space through the user's interaction. The following versions are just a few of the many possibilities this system can employ to create and define space much as traditional 'furniture' does now.
Each piece is methodically numbered to a generated pattern and hand-cut and affixed to the surface.
Landing somewhere between traditional table and bench height, these table/stool’s defy traditional architypes. This dimensional ambiguity conjures saddle or pummel horses, lean-to’s, and textile display apparatuses rather than tables. The intricate surface—created from individually hand-cut marquetry pieces—shifts and changes planes, blending surface and structure to create a dialogue between program and aesthetics.
Cherry, Walnut, Mahogany, and Maple veneer wrap around the surface to create this integrated pattern. The legs and drawer handle elements of the piece seamlessly blend into the pattern on account of their material likeness and integration into the pattern.
Cardboard and paper make the full-scale model, complete with conte crayon drawn pattern
Continuous Lines is a cabinet that plays with the repetition of pattern and its relationship to finish and the environment it occupies. The structure of the cabinet is steel finished in a gold leaf; the paneling is high gloss Jatoba. This cabinet interacts with light and its environment in a fantastic way; the glow of the material always changing with the environment.
Bristle is part of the ambiguous table/stool series. Created out of walnut and hog-hair brushes, the piece offers a tactility in finish along with its ambiguity in form. The smooth, waxed and ebonized walnut juxtaposes the bristle of the brush. Like the Changing Planes and Chatoyance pieces before it, the ambiguity in form allows for use of all surfaces for either a seating or setting surface.
The Tartan bench is a different take on the same methods employed in the Changing Planes table/stools. Here however, large sections of wood veneer were died, hand-cut into small strips, and applied to the generated pattern. The resulting effect is a dimensional weave of pattern, much like a tartan fabric achieves with color and pattern.
The Tartan Bench required an extensive amount of color research. Hundreds of wood--Maple, Cherry, & Walnut--samples were dyed using color-fast dye. Subtle shades in color were necessary to achieve the illusion of wood passing over and under similar to a tartan fabric.
The complex patterned surface of the Tartan bench was designed on the computer and transferred to the surface of the piece manually. This pattern aided in the creation of the fully realized color 'tartan' pattern.
The BB Chair was a collaboration between myself and a textiles student. The result is an integrated and woven structure; textile and furniture blend to create a harmonious chair. The textile was hand-woven with dimensional 'pockets' to later accommodate the walnut bent laminated structure. The chair is held together by walnut ends, CNC'd and finished by hand. This chair was shown at the 2017 Salone de Mobile and ICFF
As seen in:
http://blog.dwr.com/2017/05/30/icff-2017-a-for-student-work/
http://www.interiordesign.net/articles/13146-interior-design-april-2017/
The BB Chair was featured in Interior Design Magazine April 2017 along with the work of my fellow RISD classmates. The BB chair was also featured in the Design Within Reach Blog:
http://blog.dwr.com/2017/05/30/icff-2017-a-for-student-work/
The collaboration between textiles and furniture meant a precision in communicative design drawings. Here, chair measurements were given to my textiles partner so she could accurately design the pattern within the weave
The Spacing of the chair was pivotal as each interior wood element needed to relate to a woven chanel in the fabric.
Various examples of patterns I've created. Each demonstrates an interest in proportion and material relationship. Each also represents different experiments in pattern generation.
Generated from instinct, this pattern and the following demonstrate my interest in proportion as a driving force for pattern creation. This pattern was created with gold and black ink on brown paper
This pattern was developed through a random series of lines drawn on the paper. From these construction lines, gold ink was applied to segments to create the pattern base. The black ink lines in various thicknesses were then added to drawing.
This pattern was generated from a Gorham Silver Company document. Layers of trace and color pen were used to overlay a letter. Specific words were given hierarchy in the document--the word 'silver' for instance gaining prominence over conjunctions like 'and'--and assigned a color and shape, or sequence of shapes. Layer after layer of trace was then applied, each time gaining new sequences and hierarchies, ultimately, building the pattern seen here.
