In my Furniture Design class, we are building models of our chair designs. My first efforts were quite crude and I'm frustrated with my inability to recreate my ideas and drawings in an effective 3D form. The Sculpey we used at the beginning of class to form our compositions is too soft and limp to hold a chair shape. Paper has no dimensionality and doesn't hold a curve anyway. Foamcore is too thick and awkward for the small scale of our models. Strips of wood in the correct scale are too stiff to be bent to create curves. Although I did find a material that is better than most, Architectural Taskboard (it cuts like a dream, glues together easily with white glue, can be sanded, and can be bent in one dimension over steam), it doesn't really have the flexibility to create complex or tight curves.

So, I'm casting around for things to use to create these little models. What would work to create a complex curve in a tiny seat? What can I use for the legs that would look like bent metal tubing? How can I create a clear panel with a pattern of holes in it? How about a metal edging on a thin panel?

Any ideas?

Our first design assignment in Furniture Design class is taken from Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships, by Gail Greet Hannah. The book discusses the life of Rowena Reed Kostellow, who taught industrial design at Pratt Institute for more than... View full entry

Here's a simple summary of furniture joints: About Joints. Informative for other wood-joining needs too. View full entry

Last night was the first class of my new semester - Furniture Design. We'll be going through the process of designing furniture and learning about furniture manufacturing through a series of studio projects and field trips. Our first project is a historical overview. Our other projects will be to... View full entry

If you're like me, you need materials for your projects - usually in the middle of the night when your school's resource library is closed Because I got tired of the paltry offerings of our resource library, I started my own student-sized resource collection in the corner of my living room. Here's... View full entry

Informal software poll - to help me figure out what I need to learn next and whether I have grounds for bugging my school to teach us more. I'll post results. You can use results to lobby your school for more courses or freebies too. (If you're out of school and practicing, please feel free to... View full entry

Wow. You architecture students get to play with some cool stuff - some of your models, computer graphics, and experiments are terrific. My interior design studios can't touch it - we're pretty much limited to our markers, pencils and 2D CAD and I feel like I'm not learning nearly enough. However... View full entry

I just joined the blog project and wanted to offer some background. I'm a graduate student in Interior Design at Marymount University. Because I'm also working and raising children, I go to school part-time. I'm about half way through. I've started my own company, BellDesign. I'm not ready for... View full entry