The 'Squid Bench' at Coombe Park. Timelapse of making

[kayak23]

Hi there.
Thought I'd introduce one of our latest woodworking projects from Warwickshire College in Leamington spa

We recently completed work on a large-scale sculptural memorial bench project at Coombe Country Park near Coventry. The bench was the result of a competition thought up by Keith Sealey, of Sealey furniture in Lutterworth, Coombe Park and Warwickshire college.

I am the technician/instructor on our furniture course and assisted the winning student in the making of the bench. I also made a little timelapse movie of the installation which I thought I'd share with anyone interested.
It's on Vimeo so click the link at the bottom.
Thanks.

[url=https://vimeo.com/69080549]https://vimeo.com/69080549

 

[Jacob]

Like the bench.
Video over-produced, very slow with annoying music, but good for student work! Have they seen "Irish Folk Furniture" video - I think they should.

 

[mtr1]

Lovely design, and good video. Was there a reason you used non durable timber? Ash only has a five year lifespan when in ground contact, sycamore being similar. Nonetheless I really like the design, and the craftsmanship.

 

[kayak23]

Video over-produced, very slow with annoying music

Ha ha! Thanks for the feedback. I'll remember to make it look a bit more amateur next time!
The fact that you'll never please everyone is a good thing to remember when making video edits...
;-)

 

[kayak23]

Lovely design, and good video. Was there a reason you used non durable timber? Ash only has a five year lifespan when in ground contact, sycamore being similar. Nonetheless I really like the design, and the craftsmanship.

Thanks. The timber choice was dictated really by what was available to us. All the timber from the project was felled on-site. Essentially we had no actual budget, apart from time and the odd few quid here and there to buy the stainless strapping we ended up using. Aside from that, nothing.
They have other projects/sculptures in the park, also made of locally felled timber and so it's sort of an on-going process in renewing the sculpture.

I think naturally if we had, had a good amount of money to play with, we would have chosen timber that was far more durable. They are going to apply some sort of treatment to it anyway so hopefully that'll increase the lifespan somewhat.

This is the first time our Furniture Crafts course has got involved with any project of this size and so it's been a massive learning curve for all of us.
It was fantastic to get involved with and the student in question has gained an enormous amount of experience from the project. He is going on to degree-level education at Rycotewood/Bucks after our City & Guilds course incidentally.

Thanks for the comments anyway. It's interesting to hear what other people think of a project that you've been so immersed in for the last few months, even if it is to say they find my music and creative video work annoying... :lol:

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Well done all round. I like the time lapse method and its well executed too. I'm inclined to agree with the poster who complained about length though. I think we've become conditioned to punchy bullets of Tele thanks to 24 hour news etc so long.....lavish stills of individuals can get a little pedestrian for a viewer who doesn't know them personally. (I appreciate why you did it though ie to credit the team).

I thought the bench was delightful. I was a bit confused as to why the chap chainsaw'd a veneer off the tops though? Given you were sanding and planing anyway....was the top so rough it needed the chainsaw treatment?

Love the non square tentacle end although I have my doubts about how long they will last in a public place before some hooligan gives the thinner ones a good kicking.

Your student has a career at Warner Bros ahead of him making Harry Potter props et al

 

[kayak23]

I was a bit confused as to why the chap chainsaw'd a veneer off the tops though? Given you were sanding and planing anyway

If you look at one of his original models below, you'll see it has a sort of wavy,scolloped edge to it. The design evolved a bit on the finished piece, but basically there is a gentle, wavy curved ridge running the full length on top which drops away at the sides into scollops, making natural places to perch.
The chainsaw was to help us remove the bulk of the material a bit quicker. We had an angle grinder with 60 grit disc on it but it just wouldn't remove material quick enough.
He took the bulk out, and then we came in to do shaping and blending.

I have my doubts about how long they will last in a public place before some hooligan gives the thinner ones a good kicking.

Yes, that sadly is probably a matter of when, not if....
Although they are pretty strong just now, having both bounced around on them a bit...

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Ah....brilliant...now I see why...great idea.
Lets hope the nutters will recognise quality when it see's them

 

[RogerP]

Good project, good video - pity about the "music" - I turned off the speakers

 

[cambournepete]

I really like the bench and the music isn't too bad. I've seen Rodrigo Y Gabrielamon Jools and they were great.

 

[AndyT]

Nice one!

Very clever to come up with an original idea for a piece like that - and a good descriptive name too, so it can become a landmark in the park. I thought timelapse was the ideal technique to show how it was done and quite liked the music. (I especially liked the way it so quickly became a useful bench for lunch breaks!)

It looks like a really valuable project, especially if, as you say, the students had to present their ideas to the clients and organise the build.

 

[kayak23]

Thanks for all the comments. It's great hearing what people think of it.
To be fair, the music choice probably represented about the most middle-of-the-road from my music collection and I thought it worked well with the footage and was unlikely to cause offence.
How wrong can you be...
You are always going to divide opinion with music, but I'd like to think the main focus is on the work WE did, not the musicians!
Thanks all.

 

[riclepp]

I really like the bench, so well done to Jan. Music was great, and the video was great and it was done with style. Excuse Jacob he don't like life and so sheads his depressive state on to all. I Hope it is there in 10 years time (fingers crossed and hope the vandals don't get to it). I think it would be a worthwhile drive to go and see it in the flesh.

Well done to all who were involved in it's desgin and construction. =D> =D>

 

[kayak23]

Thanks a lot riclepp. Really appreciate the comments.
Oli

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Out of curiosity what was the time interval between frames? Was it setup on a tripod on auto or did you manually hit the shutter?

 

[kayak23]

what was the time interval between frames?

Hi Bob, the time between frames was 30 seconds. As it was such a long project to build over several days, any less would have resulted in way too much footage. As it was, I had over 1000 images.

I did another one the other day of our end of year show, but this time a shot every five seconds, interspersed with panning shots of the exhibition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDuXeM8-BR8

The camera was my little Gopro Hero2 camera, a fantastic little camera I mainly bought to film my mountainbiking, but have started using quite a lot for work too as it shoots in full hd, slowmo and all sorts and comes with a load of different mounts so you can mount it to practically anything.
I just had it on a mini tripod for most of this on top of my car, and a handlebar mount when it was on the trailer on the drive over.

did you manually hit the shutter?

The Gopro allows you to set all sorts of different modes, including timelapse photography, so it was set to take a picture every 30 seconds.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

Thanks...handy to know

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

well......what fabulous examples of your work....that was inspiring stuff. Congratulations, British Furniture design is clearly still quite something to behold. The creativity in some of those pieces was breathtaking.