Let's discuss furniture design and fine work

[Jacob]

Photo here of Reitveld sitting in a version of his chair (note the draught excluders) with all his mates 'avin a fag!
He looks a bit like Frank Zappa? Or is it Che? Trotsky?

 

[Jameshow]

Work in progress.
The design is from this book. It gives a lot of detail and history, with "correct" measurements and variations.
Believe it or not they are quite comfortable. I guess you need to be not far off Reitveld size!
I've nailed the back and seat with copper roofing nails instead of the books recommended screws, which don't look nice. Apparently Reitveld nailed them originally.
The frame is quite sophisticated with 16mm dowels at each crossing. Because of the layout they lock where three cross over.
I've got to touch up the enamel colours where necessary and then follow up with the black water based last as it will be easy to clean from the enamel.
Then wax polish the black.

View attachment 149594View attachment 149595View attachment 149596View attachment 149597View attachment 149598View attachment 149599

https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/holland-stories/mondrian-de-stijl/gerrit-rietveld.htm

Sorry but has anyone a pair of sunglasses I can borrow!

 

[rogxwhit]

I think that the best design is a kind of distillation. The Rietveld chairs are that. So are Colwell's, which are also very functional. But design needn't be wholly led by function - it can equally be a cultural statement. If I think of a lot of Victorian furniture, ponderous and covered in knobs and dark stain - that isn't distilled, its statement is materialistic.

 

[D_W]

I think that the best design is a kind of distillation. The Rietveld chairs are that. So are Colwell's, which are also very functional. But design needn't be wholly led by function - it can equally be a cultural statement. If I think of a lot of Victorian furniture, ponderous and covered in knobs and dark stain - that isn't distilled, its statement is materialistic.

Without knowing it, I saw one of Rietveld's chairs in the local museum collection here. I wondered what was notable about it and still do, but maybe it required being alive in the 30s and knowing some social undertones or harmonics.

I'm not a huge protector of intellectual capital for things that are simple and a reading of wiki finds that the chair was knocked off commonly after that. It's hard to get that upset about such things.

Victorian era stuff around here tends to be sometimes overly decorative without necessarily being natural in proportion. I'm out of context there, too - some of it is quite nice, but it has the "I can buy this" vibe - it has to be done at a skill level and cost that makes for a very English message - one class makes it, another class buys it. And there's not a whole lot of overlap.

it also leaves me with the kind of thought of "well, if you watered down French furniture from a couple of hundred years before...but then, haven't the English always been trying to catch up to Continental Europe as far as technology and arts go, anyway?"

 

[Jameshow]

Without knowing it, I saw one of Rietveld's chairs in the local museum collection here. I wondered what was notable about it and still do, but maybe it required being alive in the 30s and knowing some social undertones or harmonics.

I'm not a huge protector of intellectual capital for things that are simple and a reading of wiki finds that the chair was knocked off commonly after that. It's hard to get that upset about such things.

Victorian era stuff around here tends to be sometimes overly decorative without necessarily being natural in proportion. I'm out of context there, too - some of it is quite nice, but it has the "I can buy this" vibe - it has to be done at a skill level and cost that makes for a very English message - one class makes it, another class buys it. And there's not a whole lot of overlap.

it also leaves me with the kind of thought of "well, if you watered down French furniture from a couple of hundred years before...but then, haven't the English always been trying to catch up to Continental Europe as far as technology and arts go, anyway?"

...but then, haven't the English always been trying to catch up to Continental Europe as far as technology and arts go, anyway?"

Ouch!!!

 

[D_W]

...but then, haven't the English always been trying to catch up to Continental Europe as far as technology and arts go, anyway?"

Ouch!!!

Well, it's kind of like trying to outdo a dozen competitors at one time.

We can turn to the US and see just how fast art and craft died here, so it's not like we're pulling the wagon.

To see how garish things were here, compare the English and European cruise ships to the SS United States interior. it looks like a 1950s dentists office.

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I recall the furniture designer maker Rupert Williamson visiting the furniture course I was on. In his presentation on his work he said he approached the design of a new piece by "designing from the handles back." He expanded on that to say that obviously not every piece of furniture has handles at the front, the elevation that's most commonly seen first by a viewer, and that every piece of furniture has either a primary viewpoint, or two or more primary viewpoints. He went on to discuss the difference between, for example, a chest of drawers and a chair, with the latter (potentially) having several primary viewpoints. He also went on to say that it was almost always a mistake to design a piece and at the end of the design process start to think about how the doors or drawers were to be opened; the means for opening and closing doors and drawers needed to be considered from the beginning of the design exercise.

'Design from the handles back' is a useful guide that's never left me, although I don't think I've ever followed it slavishly. Slainte.

 

[Yojevol]

Sort of a random question here, but is Newman an English surname?

Definitely, but it's mutating to Newperson

 

[raffo]

Work in progress.
The design is from this book. It gives a lot of detail and history, with "correct" measurements and variations.
Believe it or not they are quite comfortable. I guess you need to be not far off Reitveld size!
I've nailed the back and seat with copper roofing nails instead of the books recommended screws, which don't look nice. Apparently Reitveld nailed them originally.
The frame is quite sophisticated with 16mm dowels at each crossing. Because of the layout they lock where three cross over.
I've got to touch up the enamel colours where necessary and then follow up with the black water based last as it will be easy to clean from the enamel.
Then wax polish the black.

https://www.holland.com/global/tourism/holland-stories/mondrian-de-stijl/gerrit-rietveld.htm

The chairs look great Jacob.

In one of my posts above I mentioned my neighbor, who is an admirer of modern furniture. He has a set of original Charles and Ray Eames DCW chairs. He had just purchased a Gerrit Rietveld Red Blue Chair, I think it is a kit, not an original. He showed it to me, your post triggered my memory about it.

He also has one of these chairs, Eero Saarinen the Womb Chair. Made by Knoll in 1949, originally purchased by his mother. He told me a story about it, the manufacturer did not offer it in red at the time, my neighbor's mom insisted on the color and they made a custom one in red just for her. Later on they incorporated the color in their catalog.

 

[Jacob]

Sorry but has anyone a pair of sunglasses I can borrow!

You ain't seen nothing - never heard of Memphis?

 

[Jameshow]

You ain't seen nothing - never heard of Memphis?

I need to lie down!!

 

[Jacob]

...but then, haven't the English always been trying to catch up to Continental Europe as far as technology and arts go, anyway?"

Ouch!!!

Not really.
Bauhaus highly respected arts n crafts and William Morris. Proust was great admirer and translator of Ruskin. Marx did all his important work in London. etc

 

[Jacob]

Definitely, but it's mutating to Newperson

Newman archetypically american. Especially Alfred E Neumann
He does Youtube demos with table saws.

 

[D_W]

Newman archetypically american. Especially Alfred E Neumann
He does Youtube demos with table saws.

View attachment 149620

I had to google this as there's very little that actually originated in the US.

It's English origin. Dorset.

Not to be refused with the Seinfeld character.

 

[raffo]

If anyone is interested, this guy has several lectures leading up to 20th century industrial design. Wedgewood, Christopher Dresser, Bauhaus, Charles and Ray Eames, etc. etc.

There's a playlist on industrial design lectures:


(Lots of reference to English history too, not just 'merican stuff.)

 

[John Brown]

...but then, haven't the English always been trying to catch up to Continental Europe as far as technology and arts go, anyway?"

Ouch!!!

Ouch indeed! Arts, maybe. England, I believe, has a fairly good pedigree(stupid continental word) as far as technology goes.

 

[doctor Bob]

He went on to discuss the difference between, for example, a chest of drawers and a chair...............

Phew, at least you won't get them muddled up anymore Richard.

 

[D_W]

Ouch indeed! Arts, maybe. England, I believe, has a fairly good pedigree(stupid continental word) as far as technology goes.

No worries on pedigree. It's a dog food here. I believe in the US, most would refer to Germany, schweiz and Austria as far as technology. I understand England had some trouble matching the Dutch earlier and solved it by poaching.

 

[raffo]

I understand England had some trouble matching the Dutch earlier and solved it by poaching.

The US did too, they got to keep Oppenheimer, von Braun, and others. Lol.

 

[D_W]

The US did too, they got to keep Oppenheimer, von Braun, and others. Lol.

Oh, we've poached from the start. I was going to make a joke that we've never developed anything here, just made it faster and cheaper, but that's not true.