Taxidermy is the New Black?

Having the chance to travel to Austin, Texas this past week, I truly experienced the city's slogan - 'Keep Austin Weird' after exploring the city's design Scene. One downtown store in particular had many animal infused furniture pieces. Happily taking pictures and touching all the unique items, it wasn't until I started talking to the store clerk about being surprised as to how soft the faux furs are that I was informed that it was in fact not faux, just fur. Apparently taxidermy is making a big come back, lets hope this trend doesn't last.

Elephant leg/stool

the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

oh dear...

it's the foot of a lamp.

Austin, keep on being weird!

- Jess
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Lady Chair Prototype!

The Lady chair prototype was completed last week. The best part about making your first one-off is that if it doesn't work out perfectly, you can automatically call it a "prototype". Then again, it's rare that your first one-off of anything would work out perfectly in the end. The thing and beauty of prototypes is that you learn a lot of from them that you otherwise wouldn't realize would be problems from a CAD drawing. Especially if you are an amateur-beginner furniture builder like myself.

For this particular proto, I was more concerned about the overall size of the chair and if it actually did contribute to sitting in a more lady-like posture. The construction of the chair allowed a bit of shearing, but that could be corrected when solid oak is used for the 2nd version instead of the oak veneered particle board that was used this time. I also need to work on my wood joinery techniques, so add that to the NDC to-do list : wood joinery explorations.

Overall, the chair "fits" the original design intent (although Jess did show me some non-lady like ways of sitting on it...but hey, you can't compensate for everything, right?). The seat and back could be raised a bit more for visual purposes, but other than that, the first Lady chair prototype is finished!


- Heather

Web 2.0

Some progress shots of a new chair that I am working on. The frame is an update of the Webster chair, except instead of finding a full sheet of plywood in a parking garage, we were given offcuts from a local wood shop that creates crown mouldings.

Joint Details.

The chair has an inner and outer frame that are held together with Chicago bolts. The plan was to counter-sink the bolts, but the contrast of the light wood and the dark hardware was too good to downplay.

Armrest/Front Leg Joint.

Each frame is held together using lap joints and dowel pins which sadly pushed my wood working skills to their limit. The seating surface will be upholstered soon.

-Scott

Silkscreen memories

This was one of the first silkscreen items that Heather has ever made. The mirror was found on the side of the street, abandoned. She gave it a new look, and turned trash into treasure. Till this day, it's still one of the best birthday present I've ever received.

Thanks Heather!

Taking a picture of Heather holding the mirror reflecting me taking a picture of her holding the mirror

the silkscreen

There's a chandelier in my room!

- Jess

creative crush one

We've been having a creative school-girlish crush with Anna Haenko's work lately.

Dear Anna,
YES / NO / MAYBE?



Greetings Everybody, 2009


Me, the Object that is Known, 2009



Grey, 2009

- Heather

pillow talk

With our couch cushion quickly flattening out and becoming extremely uncomfortable, we decided to make some triangle + square shaped pillow cushions.

We found the East meets West Canadiana-Origami fabric at ikea. with a cute pattern of black and white outlined wolf, moose, birds and deer. The black and white fabric needed a splash of color, we decided to blue ourselves and dye some of the animals.

awkward NDC family photo

cut out of the animals

" I'm afraid I just blue myself." - Tobias Fünke (Arrested Development)

three birds and no bees

sewing around the animals

Howl (NSFW)

- Jess

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Concrete Casting v4

Finally finished the cast concrete trivet. The texture came from stuff that you wrap your foundation in to help with water drainage. Don't really know what it is called.

Donkey-Cake!

The trivet is about 25cm by 15cm. The pattern helps to hold the hot-baked surface up to minimize heat transfer. The concrete was sealed with three coats of water-based varathane.

The mould.

The plastic was crudely wrapped in scrap plywood to hold in the concrete as it set. We were a little worried about the casting releasing from the textured plastic, but it was quite easy to do without any sort of mould release.

There were some small gaps in the casting, which we later learned that we could have avoided by painting concrete into the interior details of the mould with a stiff brush before hand. I would like to cast something larger using this texture, so we will try that method out soon.

-Scott

animals with things

Sometimes we all need a bit of a break from work. Animals who think they are people are great diversions.
Happy Hump Day everyone!



Sculptures by Darla Jackson





Animals With Lightsabers


Astro-squirrels with coconut space helmets.

- Heather.

Laser Lady

We just got back a test piece from the laser cutters for the lady chair.
So hot and it smells like summer bonfire!

[PS: thanks Seymer!]


- Heather.