The Curse of the Creative…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodenship/84863568/sizes/o/
The best way I can describe my current creative fit is like a layered reality, the current one I stand in, and the other is back in the shop solving problems. Many can agree with me, you can't stop your mind from going back to your work, step by step you are going over how you are going to get back into your groove, solving this or that structural problem, or what have you point is your mind is back there! It’s a curse.
I’ll share with you my dilemma today: Some of the scale pieces have metal pieces which I was thinking of making through different means (being vague), one was bending some aluminum pipes with wire inserts on a hand made wooden jig. That didn’t work. I went across the parking lot to the custom motorcycle building guys, and they didn’t know anybody in the area who could do what I needed. Believe me this isn’t that custom, I just don’t think people like helping others as much as I do, that’s cool. I resorted to making the entire metal pieces out of wood, bent pieces and plates! It’ll take me a little longer but apparently the name of the game is having control over the entire process, you can’t count on anyone when manufacturing. Lesson learned.
When you hand over the process of making your furniture to someone else, it doesn’t seem as messy as this blog portrays it to be. Understand I like documenting the mess, I like documenting my contradictions, because I am not perfect and perfection is sort of what I am railing against. Too much marketing has focused on separating the mess from the creator : I can confess here that the actual process of perfection comes from overcoming the odds that keep you from making the pieces as you designed them. Documented somewhat well here, I try and divulge the usually hidden so you can better appreciate the end result.
Writing this blog sometimes feels like I put myself inside of a fish tank for me and others to look at, but evidently a very positive consequence of writing is that you feel a much closer connection to your work through a whole other dimension. Although I don’t have a counter turned on, rest assured you all can fill a large classroom on a daily basis and a small auditorium when I post something funny. Lately I've had a few roudy spam messages trying to sell me pipi growth pills, and the odd comment here and there. I've been told my writing doesn't leave room for commenting, the truth is I wish I could run this blog with comments not even visible (for now)... I don't think you have anything to say until I actually post the final work... In the mean time I enjoy your silence... This post will barely fill an elevator today.
dl.v
Saaanding Papel…
I am not paid by these people, and I don't get stuff for free. Gator Grit paper has been my tool of choice to burr through all this wood bone... Sand paper must do two things well : 1st it should hold up to your tooling, meaning the actual paper that holds the grit should not fall apart/tear and 2nd the actual grit should not WIPE off the paper! Gator Grit MADE IN THE USA, is the first product I've seen that beats hands down a German hobby product/tool. Kavan GmbH makes a sand paper ZONA that its grit completely wipes off the paper in one pass! I use a finger sander with a "belt" of sand paper which allows me to rotate and make best use of the sand paper.
dl.v
Beware of Wasps
I didn't get stung by one, but skeeters did get me today. The rain brought out the bugs! While sanding outdoors sitting in front of the store front, I was enjoying the wild life and along came a wasp. It landed next to where I was sitting, on the water-hose stand. That bastard just sat there looking at me : he was sizing me up! Quickly I moved my chair and kicked the hose stand. Haaaaaa Ya! Top of the food chain baby! (today at least)
dl.v
PS. I didn't kill it, no worries... Lets just hope they have a short memory span and don't hold grudges...
Cutting, sanding and sanding…
The drill press has been turned into a 90 degree spindle sander without the oscillation. Its working great, although I have to continuously clean up the saw dust after each piece... I am surprised how long these Dremel drum sanding bits hold up! They just keep going and going without loosing grit, I guess the softer Birch plywood is no match for it... Good for me... This will change eventually with the new shop layout I am working on.
The scroll saw has been working out just fine, although the air bellow did bust out of the box, I did use some Elmer's glue to make a nice patch. I found out my office has crappy electrical wiring on a wall next to the bathroom, turns out the scroll saw will not work properly when plugged into that outlet. It sort of hiccups. Problem solved moved to another outlet (must have LL fix it).
A dust mask is required equipment now (although the dust settles around the machine, having my face so close to the business end of things makes me a vacuum cleaner), and the large belt sander requires the full face shield given that it'll kick up any chunks with some serious force. Its a pain to have to continuously pull machines in and out, but again that will change soon.
dl.v
Made in the USA? Oooh Really?
Birch Plywood FRONT
A few posts back I talked about a scale plywood order I had placed. Well, I received that order and I've been working that plywood into the wood scale models for a while now. As I examined each piece I noticed one curious detail : a decal placed on the plywood stated MADE IN THE USA, but on the SAME 6"X12" pieces of birch plywood I noticed a stamp on the back that said, "MADE IN FINLAND".
MADE IN USA decal
I think these pieces made it past Quality Control, I don't think this label was meant for the consumer's eyes. I called the manufacturer Midwest and they forwarded me to a Public Relations person Diana who basically gave me the "you're just a dumb customer" answer. She said, "We meet the minimum standards of compliance with the FTC, and that is 60% of the labor that goes into making this product was in the USA". What a crock of shit (what she said is NOT true, if you read the FTC rule it is clear that she is misleading me). If you notice it says 3 ply made in Finland, so it was ENTIRELY manufactured in Finland, and Midwest is misleading its customers to believe they are buying Made in USA products when they are not.
Birch Plywood Back (same sheet)
I asked if the sticker was Made in the USA, instead of the plywood and they replied, "We get the sheet from Finland, we cut it here in the USA put the sticker on it and then shrink wrap it". I said that isn't Made in the USA at all. Neither the material content, glue, or the labor that goes into the plywood itself.
MADE IN FINLAND Label (same sheet)
So, how I can possibly rely on a guarantee that a manufacturer will tell the truth about their product? When we ramp up production I have to follow the trail on all the materials in order to be certain that we aren't getting jacked!
dl.v
Who’s Standards?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nannanz/1207932598/in/set-72157600312881580/
I bet your grandmother or mother has one recipe that is uniquely hers (humor me). Something she makes that no one else you know makes, right? What if I told you that if the rest of the grandmothers/mothers of the world tried to replicate her recipe they'd never get it right : not enough sugar, not enough nutmeg, not enough love... Right? Well long time ago our country was running into the same scenario but with just about everything you could imagine that needed mass production, consistency of the raw materials. There was no way of knowing that those eggs that went in your grandmother/mother's pancakes were actually to a minimum standard of "bug freeness" or that the chicken that lay the eggs that made the pancakes had a minimum body weight to lay healthy eggs, or that the coup where the chickens lived in that lay the eggs for your pancakes was built with materials that met a minimum standard for rigidity, longevity and "housability" for said chickens. STANDARDS you see made our country what it is. It allowed consistency of a raw material and of the assembly of said raw material, it allowed for an "across the board" consistency that allowed for an adherence to specifications that "almost" everyone could agree with. Yes, sometimes the standards were abused (and still are) to require a minimum amount of this or that in order to maintain consumption across the board of certain "USA" made processes, but that has always been our motto to protect our self interests (like it or not).
So who monitors all these standards? First let me quote you the first "specification" found in the Book of Genesis (according to ASTM) : “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” I am quoting because this exact quote is used in the ASTM : American Society for Testing and Materials, these are the folks that set the VOLUNTARY standards that have facilitated the relationships between tools and hardware, raw material to final goods, clean hotel bath towel from ass of previous hotel guest to your clean face (funny gross and true). To use any flat head crew driver on any flat head screw? Standards. The manufacturer of the bolt required a spec for that type of screw driver and the screw driver people looked at the ASTM standards and met the spec. Not that simple, but you get the idea. It is basically a common language on the basis of a process, rather than a dialect. It is voluntary mainly enforced by a contract or a specification inside of a book of specifications mandated to be followed by a contract. Some state ordinances like building codes require adherence to minimum ASTM standards but that remains transparent to most consumers.
There are standards for everything, from dressing wounds, to cleaning hotel linen, cleaning floors, to paint "stickiness", wood gluing, engine cleaning, cutting of a tree, recycling of material... ETC, ETC... You name it there is a standard for it and sold by the ASTM in a PDF format for you to follow. They also certify/bless your process as a method of letting your customers know they are consuming a product that meets minimum standards.
Do I agree with standards? Yes, to an extent. In raw materials yes, but in order to spur innovation Standards must also evolve, if not we remain convinced that there is only one way to do something. A restrictive standard of doing this or that can be torturous. For instance, in preparing a full set of construction documents you must meet minimum standards in what you document, but most contractors will NOT read MOST of the specifications on the drawings unless the contract and client require them to do so. In other words, without rigor, discipline and standards the lazy will cheat.
And if the Ark was built out of Dade Pine we'd all be screwed...
dl.v
Show us your real work, eh…
Copyright © 2010 DLV
My work is influenced by a major change in my life when I was young. We moved to Ft. Hood Texas where a 20 year family career in the Army started. Those 20 years took us halfway around the world to 1 war, 2 European tours, 4 states, 10+ schools, countless houses, and the inevitable separation of our entire family. The military exposed me to just about every kind of hardware the US Army had to offer, from tanks to hand guns. I played with it all : from war games in the woods, to setting up 40 person tents and inviting all my friends for a weekend of playing Army. I once found a live mortar round, which I was actually "bright" enough to bring home for show and "y"ell! I was abruptly screamed at, "Take it back where you found it!" I threw it back in the field. To my great dismay it didn't blow up. A few years later I managed to throw a .44 caliber bullet to the ground and managed to fire it off! Not too bright I know but neither was my parental unit for leaving us with a huge box of bullets in the back seat of a borrowed car...
Copyright © 2010 DLV
We had no fear of all things that destroyed, it was second nature. I mean if you lived in Ft. Hood it felt like you were always at war. At night, we could see the Norther sky light up with all the munitions being detonated at the firing range. From the growling of the gatling gun on A-10 warthogs flying strafing missions, to high impact shots from Howitzers. The ground was always shaking at Ft. Hood. Us military kids are marinated in all these weapons of war. When I first got up close to these machines I was blown away by all the shapes, the spaces inside of tanks, the intriguing use of materials, some painted some not painted, sizes of parts I had never seen (scale), and the cool thing was as kids we could climb up into these things every 4th of July when they paraded the hardware for families. This was before the Army started sponsoring public festivals...
Copyright © 2010 DLV
Coming from an island where everything was hundreds of years old, life and our surroundings were very predictable. The only thing that changed was pretty much the weather. As kids on the Island we worshiped trucks and cars, I mean we obsessed over the change of headlights on a Euro spec Volvo! It was a cause for celebration (hell spotting a Volvo was a cause for celebration specially if it was Turbo). We could tell the difference (still can) of car makes just by the light pattern or arrangement (at night). We loved machines as kids, but we only had bicycles. Those bikes were our tickets to freedom, and in the town we lived in a bike was a ticket to roam out and about while still young and impressionable.
Copyright © 2010 DLV
The hang out place was definitely the capital city, over 500 years old still with its original medieval walls filled with just about any kind of adventure you can imagine. The Architecture was and still is so thick in inventiveness I never leave the island on a visit without taking a stroll down those streets. The courtyards, the facades, the churches, the plazas all of those urban spaces made a huge impact on me, countless houses we visited : while sitting inside these 300 year old houses with checkered floors, high ceilings with exposed clay brick ceilings, massive wood timber beams imported by ship, louvered windows with wrought iron security bars screened the passers by while the breeze from the ocean carried all those smells. All those spaces and structures made a dent in my head, seriously.
Copyright © 2010 DLV
So I think that the exposure to the military world from my innocent Island world stirred up some things in my head to make these shapes that have a heavy influence of elements from Spanish Colonial Architecture, and my experiences at Ft. Hood. A combination of history and destruction, the slow paced and the unpredictable world of the Armed Forces.
Copyright © 2010 DLV
Where does my training come into play? In my rigor, in proportions, in graphic skills, in structure, in my comprehension of how the work is derived from concept : etc... But you understand that has nothing to do with motif, passion, attention to detail, inspiration, motivation, etc... I can't pretend this post sums it all up, but its a preview of where my head is at. Like I've said before, I don't subscribe to any theory I am NOT influenced by anyone (maybe nature). My furniture pieces are like these depictions here, but taken to a higher level of refinement and made functional.
dl.v
the human not the object… (thoughts)
"organic intellectual" said Mark Anthony Neal about Tupac
For whom do I build these things? Is all this effort for the sake of joining the fraternity of fellow designers on the arc of the modern furniture market? Nope, not at all. I don't fit into that group. I do wear black framed glasses, I was trained by the movement, but the similarities with the trend setters ends there (seriously). I don't have editor friends. I could care less about fitting in. What you all should be concerned with (I would hope) is the quality of my work, the rigor of my decisions, the finished product. If in the end you like it buy it, I'm sure you'll be satisfied knowing all that went into it...
I design for the human being : for the anthropomorphics that make up the interaction between us and the work those free floating masses of upholstered, leathered, or plain wood do for us in our homes. In between a home and a car, lies the investment of furniture. The third most expensive material purchase one makes for completing a home, which is why I think much thought should go into the HUMAN who makes the purchase, rather than the STYLE the furniture might be categorized in.
When I designed the workstation table : Futeristic for example (code name) much went into the width of the work surface, the depth of the surface, the flexibility of uses the work surface would yield, levels/height of workspace, rounding of edges, placement of your feet/legs, the placement of your computer on the table in relationship to user, routing of cables, simplicity of connections, give and strength of materials at different points, etc, etc... All of that will be explained in more detail later. One would hope furniture would just function (geez), but you'll see what I mean...
The most entertaining tests have been watching how a toddler interacts with the tables, not made for them but certainly will become part of their 3 foot tall furniture landscape. If you get down to the height of a toddler you'll realize furniture pieces are buildings to them! Making their mini furban landscape safe and interesting has been my challenge, and given our little Mr. Ping Ping who crawls all over and under my pieces I'm filled will glee every time I see his little hand reach up and pull himself up or crawl through a hole, just like I knew he would... Thats for whom I do...
Cover your ears Mr. Ping Ping daddy is gonna get all Barry White here...
The sexiness of the aesthetics, the sleekness of the shapes, the intimacy of how you interlace yourself with the workstation will be up to you, on your own time, in your own spaces : but I took the time to figure out that yes people do all those things with furniture, and then some : I then moved to fill the void with the warmest material I knew, which is wood.
dl.v
From Designing to Making
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mag3737/3176598270/
I just heard a quote, "Going from design to making" on a program called Savile Row on Sundance. This quote made me smile, because that transition is the most exciting part of the entire creative process for me, its the moment I shift from design to production. Because you are one step closer to seeing if your idea works... In Architecture that process is agonizingly long, because you've got to wait from the moment you sketched an idea to the moment you see the space enclosed in full scale. Unlike when making furniture I see the result the instant I started to manipulate the material. I welcome the transfer of energy drain from my brain to my body. Its not really for my sake, but for the user, for the owner, I'm exited for them.
No matter how much design goes into a product, at some point it does something. Take all the screws and bolts above, at some point they were all ideas tested and certified to carry specific loads, tolerate certain elements, and mechanically fasten to specific materials to a pre specified tolerance. All of that stored potential inside of every single fastener waiting to be released when tooled into place! So elementally interesting.
All the engineering, quality control, approvals, transportation, wholesaling, resellers, retailers and then consumption : part of the master plan to do its job. Going through this entire process is fascinating...
dl.v
How difficult is simple design?
Exile Cycles Silver Bullet Graphic by http://explicitgraphics.ca
Very difficult! Every product, E.V.E.R.Y product has a huge business plan behind it. Some people sat down and thought of your use patterns, your options, your limits, your likes, your dislikes, your frustration level, your persistence, your propensity to keep the product, your propensity to not keep the product (dispose and purchase another replacement), your attention span, your discretionary spending, etc, etc, etc... All of this information is critical in justifying the production, marketing, and sales costs that go into a product. Making 'that' product simpler means that you run the risk of working backwards. Briefly: in the USA the concept of "bigger is better" "flashier gets more notice" is key to the marketing effort, tons of products have NO soul, have NO real purpose, and have "made up" uses the consumer could not come up with triggering subconscious impulse buying because the celebrity spokes person said it was good for you... Such bullshit.
To illustrate the point. Below is a picture of two motorcycle grips: the first one is what you see on most motorcycles. Its messy, complicated, with accessory after accessory. The impulse buyer continues to find junk to distract himself with and to impress his/her buddies with how cool he is for having purchased those items. On the other hand, below is a grip made by Excile Motorcycles : simple, elegant, has the same functionality but in a clean unified package. Simply kick ass...
ALL OF THIS....
IN TO THIS...
dl.v
PS. NO Excile does not pay me, I don't know them and I don't get stuff for free.
Why do we Dispose of Belongings?
Bontoni Desert
I made an observation when passing by our shared warehouse dumpster (I'm sure you have too). The dumpster seemed to be surrounded by items people didn't want any more, cheap items. So people didn't make an attempt to fix them, recycle them for someone else, or repurpose them. They just simply threw them away. Weren't these items yearned for at some point? Didn't someone invest in that chair, or save up for the blender? Or sacrificed to buy that dresser? My theory is that if we paid even more for the things we owned we wouldn't be so quick to throw them away... Yes, I know that business purchases tend to be "different" meaning more disposable than home purchases, but imagine if the things you threw away still had value (real value)? Our habit wouldn't be to dispose of something just because it was bent a little or because we stopped liking it. I for one continue to repair my wife's hairdryer for the 10th time until she secretly threw it away because she apparently fell out of love with the "overly repaired" one (Hmm)... I think that if in the first place we would turn on those parts of our brains that help us decide on long range decisions and not an impulsive purchase we would pay more knowing that item would be with us until we decide to hand it down a generation. Hairdryers should cost $300 and come with a lifetime warranty.
On the other hand, I understand that maybe the purpose was to spend little and use it for a little... But that is irresponsible, and the choice should be taken out of the consumers hand to make it 100% recyclable in that case, so your temporary use is equal to renting the material in that form.
The best example I can think of regarding this issue is shoes. If you are like me an expensive pair of shoes should last for ever , you use them only for special occasions and you clean them and repair them. You'd never think of getting rid of them, they become part of your most important life events. They do for you, and you do for them... But a cheap pair that you just can't seem to take off, you never clean, hardly mend and yet want to keep, disintegrate as you use them. You know why?
Well, they shouldn't fall apart, but they do because of the "category" they are in. Designed Obsolescence. A controversial practice of purposefully making products that don't last the test of time, fail in critical places that make them irreparable so that you go out and buy another one... And on and on... But if made of recyclable material its almost as if the product committed suicide calculated to force them to head back into the stream of materials to be reused again. Smart materials and strategic failure on your dime.
dl.v
Shape Nesting on Materials
No, this post isn't about Artist Benjamin Verndonck, its about the efficient configuration of shape cutouts on a piece of material you are going to cut out with a flow jet, plasma cutter, cnc router, or by hand with a karate chop... Let me explain, we can try and arrange shapes on a flat blank piece of material with the utmost care in order to maximize every square inch of material. But software still trumps us with a fancy algorithm. In the before and after images below, one can clearly see how software can use up the material efficiently. I on the other hand, am not employing the use of this software (haha you thought I was all fancy and stuff), because I am cutting the material by hand (shut up from the peanut gallery, no karate chop for me) and I need room for tooling the curves, for the breaking off (in order to handle long pieces carefully without snapping them you must section them off from a larger piece) of long unmanageable pieces, and because we just can't afford to use one of these machines at this stage of the game.
A computer controlled cutting machine can blast these shapes from the sheet with ease, and leave behind scrap which can be recycled. Subcontractors use this method to cut out shapes, thus making it cost effective for them to do multiple jobs from the same material.
Before Nesting
After Nesting
When the material is wood a new challenge presents itself. Wood has grain and fibers making wood directional, meaning that direction determines strength in either compression or tension (you have a choice as to how you place your shape). When a consistent "look" to the fibers is desired, such as a table top the orientation of those fibers need to work with the piece you are cutting from and the left over can be used for other pieces that don't need the fiber orientation. 
So you must always be aware in what direction you desire the fibers to be in, and the strength factor. Plywood can also be rotated (when fastening more than one sheet together) multiple times to achieve a stronger resistance to dimensional forces.
dl.v
What do you think, New Delivery Vehicle?
Ford makes this 4 cylinder, 22/25 mpg, 6 foot long by 4'-11' wide and tall cargo area, 1600 lbs weight capacity, no frills no thrills mini delivery van... Slap a GPS on this thing, add a half size bulk head (to keep cargo from cutting us in half) add a tow hitch, and a small trailer for extra large pieces and we are good to go!
Anyone want to donate one for us? White would be fine... Park it on the second parking spot that says Architect's and leave the keys behind the column... I'd be really appreciative...
dl.v
Scale Model Plywood shipped!
Finally ordered the plywood for the scale models... I settled on 1.5" = 1'-0" scale, so every piece assembled can be seen in enough detail. The thickness of the plywood determines the top of the tables, so the plywood banding can be perceived to scale, giving it a more realistic effect. I selected Poplar and Birch, you don't have much choices when it comes to scale models : the wood either comes from Russia/Baltic area... They seem to have the market cornered. I ordered from a company that sells in bulk, shipping from Athens, Georgia to my location. Other larger hobby companies sold wood for much much more, the local shop was selling for 5 X what I paid online! I would have gone with them, but customer service was not that good, and they didn't seem eager to help me find what I was looking for, most hobby shops want you to come to the store. Their website quoted prices way beyond reason. They shall remain nameless.
Ordered 1/16", 1/8", 1/4" and 1/2" thick plywood, the Fedex info says 28 pounds! I find that hard to believe, I guess even scale plywood carries moisture. This weekend a scroll saw needs to be picked up and a Dremel to replace the 15 year old one I had that finally took a shit. That little Dremel of mine built MANY MANY models, and it was my breakthrough tool, before that I only had sand paper and a utility knife... I built some awesome models with those tools...
I have a ton of things on my plate, I can't blog about them all because they all aren't about the furniture. I'm working on the design of the new shop I'll be creating here... Researching wood dust collectors, power tools with vacuum attachments, and reconfiguring the office space. It'll be fun converting this space to a proper "taller", so that we can work on the prototypes right here!
dl.v
Aaaahhh Mierda!
dl.v