-leather tests-

today i got some leather samples from a local leather company and from our material stock in the school. from the leather company i got two styles of furniture leather, which is used just for covering padded furniture. from the school i got some 3mm thick leather used for cantilever-style chairs. i made a view test glueing the leather to birch plywood using wood glue and contact adhesive. the furniture leather, 1mm-1.2mm thick, seems to have too much stretch. while the 3mm thick leather the definately strong enough, but is perhaps so stiff that it won't be able to handle multiple bends at different angles. difference in glue was minimal, but i will test the maximum stress points tomorrow after the glue has had a good 24 hours to cure.



since i find the 3mm leather too thick, i made a second test with some 2mm belt leather that i have. the belt leather seems to be a good comprimise between the furniture and the 3mm. now i just need to find a good/cheap leather supplier in switzerland ...haha ...'cheap in switzerland'.

***edit***
everytime i mentioned 3mm leather, i meant 4mm and everytime i mentioned 2mm, i meant 3mm.

-mdf_prototype…-

the work on the mdf-prototype continues ...slowly, but ...slowly.

-prototype (beta)-

recently i've been working on an mdf prototype that hopefully will stand without the foam support. i just hope i can find a good way to stabilize everything. after making approximate measurements of the angled surfaces of the chair; i continued by testing each measurement on scrap wood before making the final cuts in the 8mm mdf. the first plywood prototype will use 9mm birch plywood (for the mdf-prototype, 8mm was the closest we have in stock at the school). so far some problems arose in the area where many of the mitred edges meet, which i had expected.

-angles!!-

should i take the time to try and round the angles up or down? …i think it might cause more problems and trouble than if i were to just leave it as it is.

-breaking the form-

i decided the best way to get away from the triangular forms is to break it up with another form. since i wanted to integrate padding of some type, it gives me the opportunity to use a different material as a graphic element. here are some of the experiments with patterns with cardboard models.

-workin' ...for the man-

today and the next two days i'll be working at my part-time job in domushaus book store. for me it a great place to work: good pay, not too much stress and access to all the newest books. plus in these summer months it's not that busy and i'm able to check out the tons of books at will.

-grcic made me do it!-

yesterday was the second review of our projects and i presented the 1:1 model of the chair. everything went really well, frédéric (instructor) and jörg boner (expert) found the chair very comfortable and the prinicple of konstruction/folding quite interesting. there was only one problem, and i knew it would come to this; when looking at the form of the chair with all its triangular surfaces one is directly reminded of konstantin grcic and his 'chair one'. during the process of making the form one part of me was saying that this form is too close to the design of grcic and one side was saying that the triangle is the best shape of this asymmetrical folded volume.

basically the concensus is: i need to rethink the shapes of the form and see where i can make changes to 'get the grcic out'. frédéric and jörg said that it wasn't bad that the form reminds one of grcic, but it would be much better when one can look at my chair and think of me, not grcic.

-un_fold-

the process of unfolding has begun. i tried another variation, but that required some parts to over-lap when unfolded, which i don't want.

-the shell-

today was a short one, but i was fairly efficient. i finished making "shell" around the foam form in 4mm mdf (medium denisty fiberboard). the next step is to find the best location to cut it apart the shell and make a small paper model to test the best way to fold it.

-forming…sit…forming…sit…-

the form of the chair is coming along well, i'm starting to like it more now that i connected it to the corner. however, triangular shapes are quite 'fashionable' in the modern design and architecture scene. therefore i'm a bit afraid that the form will come across as trying to fit into the latest trend. for me, the triangle really fits well to the corner ...three converging edges, three converging walls...i guess i'll see how it is received by the instructor and expert at the next presentation.



…leif enjoying some of the asymmetrical comfort the chair has to offer.