Chair In Flight (a chair) and Hidden Feeling (a table)

[Night Train]

I thought I should show you one of my pieces.

It is called Chair In Flight and is made from cherry with walnut in the joints. It was my design and make piece when I was a first year student and won me two awards from the college and is still being exhibited along with some of my other pieces.

 

[p111dom]

That's mad! I like it a lot.

 

[wizer]

stunning

 

[TrimTheKing]

=D>

Like it a lot, thanks for sharing.

Where are you based NT, and where did you go to college? Your profile says Greater Manchester, whereabouts?

Cheers

Mark

 

[OPJ]

Very impressive! :shock: I love the look of that seat - it looks so thin it could break under even the lightest load but, I bet it's rock solid! :wink:

 

[Night Train]

=D>

Like it a lot, thanks for sharing.

Where are you based NT, and where did you go to college? Your profile says Greater Manchester, whereabouts?

Cheers

Mark

I'm based in Eccles. I went to Burnley College and I now teach furniture making there too. It is an excellent course but it just isn't promoted enough so we don't have many students. We have a furniture exhibition of student's work every year at Towneley Hall in Burnley. This year it is 23rd May to 18th June.

Very impressive! :shock: I love the look of that seat - it looks so thin it could break under even the lightest load but, I bet it's rock solid! :wink:

The seat is quite thick but the single edge line makes it look very light and 'floaty'. It started off at 55mm thick plus the raised section at the back. It was influenced by a visit to Barcelona to see Gaudi's work.

There is about 280 hours of hand working in it as I was very anti-machines and power tools when I started the course. That was based on not wanting to become dependent on equipment I may not be able to afford or install. I did eventually rough out the seat with an arbortech due to running out of time but everythign else was basic and old hand tooling.

 

[John. B]

I think it is absolutely stunning.
A brilliant design, wonderfully balanced, the joints innovative, with different coloured woods.
The seat appearing thin yet not. Seemingly floating above the chair.
Superb. I envy your students.
The prizes were well deserved. =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

John. B

 

[Night Train]

Thanks.
I love making things that are very tactile and with flowing, organic lines but also technically challenging to get right.

I made a table, 'Hidden Feeling' to go with the chair in my second year at college.

It has a hidden, full length, drawer in the thickness of the table top that is made so that the grain of the table and drawer match up when seen from the top. The drawer is the first surprise but the second is hidden underneath and that is the shut line in the shape of the back of a ballarina's leg on point.

The fun was getting both the shut line on top and under the table to fit exactly and to not open up as the wood moves in time.

 

[motownmartin]

Very impressive and I would imagine very challenging work, well done.

 

[MikeG.]

Oh lovely..........

..........this is my sort of furniture! The chair is beautiful.......the table possibly even better.

Just a couple of thoughts........cherry isn't my favourite wood, and the chair & table seem quite different colours. I prefer the table legs because they are curved in 3 dimensions, not just the 2 of the chair.......but these are minor points in otherwise rather splendid pieces.

Mike

PS Are you familiar with the work of Mike Cooper of the USA??

 

[Night Train]

Oh lovely..........

..........this is my sort of furniture! The chair is beautiful.......the table possibly even better.

Just a couple of thoughts........cherry isn't my favourite wood, and the chair & table seem quite different colours. I prefer the table legs because they are curved in 3 dimensions, not just the 2 of the chair.......but these are minor points in otherwise rather splendid pieces.

Mike

PS Are you familiar with the work of Mike Cooper of the USA??

The colours were a bit of a pain really. I prefer the lighter colour of the table myself. The chair was finished with Danish oil and then it was exhibited almost constantly for a few years and so has quite a sun tan. the table is in Tung oil and lived with me in the shade most of the time. It was a learning process.

Don't think I know of Mike Cooper. Do you have any images?

 

[MikeG.]

Here are a couple of links to Mike Cooper. I have yet to see better woodwork ever in my life........:

http://www.quicksilvermineco.com/shows/cooper/index.html

http://www.michaelcooper.us/

And here is a sample of one of my "naturalistic" pieces.....

.....which certainly feels a bit 2 dimensional now 15 or 18 years on.

Mike

 

[CroppyBoy1798]

WOW!! That chair and table are amazing!! Very organic indeed, and for the first chair I'd almost say sort of sketetal in a way. There is a famous designer, whom for the life of me I cant think of his name that your piece reminded me of very much, he's an industrial designer, but the most of his work is very organic and in a way almost mimicing skeleton structure, I'll think of his name soon! 8)

 

[Beardo16]

All i can say is very......... very...... nice.

Very appealing to the eye too.

Nice job

 

[frugal]

They are both very nice pieces. I love the form of both of them. The only distraction is that on the chair the walnut in the joints looks in a couple of the photos like the joint is badly fitting. I know that this is an optical illusion because it looks great in other joints on the same piece, but my eye keeps being drawn to it. The same joints on the table look stunning and just right...

 

[woodbloke]

Well constructed pieces...but heavily sculpted 'organic' stuff don't do a lot for me. Sorry - Rob

 

[Night Train]

The only distraction is that on the chair the walnut in the joints looks in a couple of the photos like the joint is badly fitting. I know that this is an optical illusion because it looks great in other joints on the same piece, but my eye keeps being drawn to it. The same joints on the table look stunning and just right...

Yes, some of the joints do look a bit off.
It was a first time attempt at something at a higher level then constructional joinery and so the joints had to be good all the way through the joint so that it could be carved afterwards. Not all were spot on.
Also I learnt while carving it that it isn't a good idea to carve or shape through a glue line unless it is near perpendicular to the finished surface. That also shows in some of the joints too where the glue line wasn't cramped up as tight as I would have liked.


I will have a good study of Mike Cooper's work later.

 

[Night Train]

Just dug out another couple of images.

This is a cherry and sycamore bathroom cabinet I made in my college first year. The brief was a small cabinet with doors and so I came up with this as a loo roll and toiletries cabinet. It is about 650mm tall.
I had to do a lot of research into designs using inverted cones to justify doing it as my design teacher thought it was going to be too difficult to get it to look right.

The doors were coopered and tapered and the sun burst in the top was made from solid wood so that there was strength in both directions to prevent the front edge of the top snapping off if it was leaned on. It also kept the grain direction correct for the sides to be dovetailed on. The sun in the sun burst is an oyster veneer of something I found in the garden, probably elderly privet hedge!

The base is all end grain and fitted to the cabinet on sliding dovetails to allow for movement.

It is very Art Deco and for a long time while it was on the bench on it's back it was known as the cat sarcophagus! :lol:

 

[hog&bodge]

Just read this thread and all the work is stunning..The chair is
something that would draw you to just look at never mind sit in it..
I am not in any position to comment on your work you are in a league of
most of the master crafts-men on here...
Thanks for displaying it on the forum..

 

[MikeG.]

Not my thing at all, I'm afraid! Too art deco for me........

.....but I appreciate the workmanship. The coopered doors are great, particularly considering the taper.

Mike