There is a certain amount of waste left over from my projects whether it is wood, paper, metal, etc. I am always bothered by this waste and where it may end up after it is thrown away. I decided to challenge myself to a project of recycling this waste into a functional form.
This chair was constructed from plywood pieces that I would normally would have cut down and thrown into garbage. Most wood scraps are too small and awkward to work into other projects. But if the goal of a project is to utilize that waste to create something unique it instantly takes on a new life and purpose. I really became excited with the idea of building a chair that could be designed from multiple scraps of wood that would be cut to size and joined to create a comfortable functional object.
Plywood has a history of being used as a cheap building material with no real aesthetic value. One of the goals of this project was to make this seemingly ugly wood appear beautiful and somewhat exotic. I decided that this could be accomplished by exploiting the interesting qualities of the plywood's veneered layers. The layers face towards the sitter providing interesting effects from the various colors that are found in the veneer of the plywood. The chair was sanded, stained and polyeurythaned. This was done to further enhance the grains and colors in each of the layers and to provide a surface that encourages the sitter to touch the wood without the worry of getting a splinter, which plywood is usually notorious for.
5 comments:
As a person who lived with this chair I can attest to its beauty! The plywood is completely smooth, and the layers in different browns absolutely glows in the sunlight. It's gorgeous by a sunny window and actually pretty comfy as well - great for curling up and reading with a pillow on it.
Sorry...a person who lives with this chair, not lived.
This looks awesome - I've always thought it would be great to take advantage of the end-grain of plywood cut-offs. I really like the cut-outs in the legs. All of the slats give it a kind of Stickley-Mission kind-of-feel.
Thanks for the comments Kate and P.
Yes P, you nailed it. I am a sucker for all the Art and Crafts styles.
Recycle your cut-offs into some beauties!
Lovely chair
I was searching for some way of recycling my bits of plywood when I found this stunning object. Not sure if I have the time to make a chair or anything from my scraps, but now I'm thinking of keeping them till I can think it over.
I love Mission stuff too and was caught by the style of your work.
Post a Comment