The National Design Collective

MOTO x NDC

2012-01-26T15:52:00.009-05:00

Toronto x Montreal

Last night we were invited to catch a 'sneak peak' for the the TODO Toronto-Montreal exhibition at Domison.

Domison wanted to offset the highly commercialized IDS (interior design show) and modestly celebrate local designs without price tags or labels. Apart from appreciating the beauty of each product and debating on how each one was made, we spent the night playing musical couch, test sitting on all the couches designed by Domison; Admiring the hand printed silk screened posters that were plastered over the walls, and drooling over the store window display made entirely with mops (both posters and window display designed by Paprika)

Here are some of the photos from the night.

MOTO for TODO

Hand printed two color silk screen posters

wood panels wall decor - looks like rusty metal

Mortar & Pestle

stunning window display - mops, who knew

xxxxx

But don't take our word for it, go check it out yourself.

Info:

Domison

35 Jarvis St.

Toronto.

416-203-2687.

Exhibition hours:

26/27 January, 10AM to 8PM

28 January, 11AM to 8PM

29 January, 12PM to 6:30 PM

TODO Festival

2012-01-22T12:12:00.004-05:00

The National Design Collective is excited to be taking part in the TODO (Toronto Design Offsite) festival this year. We will be at the amazing Domison for their Toronto-Montreal exhibition, featuring designers from both rival cities.

Our work will be alongside these other awesome designers:

-Furni,

and many others.

Info:

Domison,

35 Jarvis St.

Toronto.

416-203-2687.

Exhibitoin hours:

26/27 January, 10AM to 8PM

28 January, 11AM to 8PM

29 January, 12PM to 6:30 PM

And please also check out this good advice.

Sharing Some Local Love

2012-01-10T10:23:00.007-05:00

Sometimes if you manage to stay away from the TTC long enough, you get reminded of why you fell in love with Toronto in the first place. Here are two recent examples that re-kindled my love for TO, despite the grey and cold of January:

First: This crazy stop-motion video by Type Books has been making the local blog rounds in the last day or so and is absolutely amazing. You must watch it now!

Second: Remember stickers?! These Bloor & Bathurst neighbourhood stickers made by B Streets (condos) remind me how much I love my area. If only they were scratch-n-sniff...

- Heather.

US / MONTREAL / MANHATTAN --> New Coaster Sets!

2011-12-13T11:04:00.005-05:00

Perfect for the design-philes (or US-friends) out there, we now have US City coasters available on our website and around downtown Toronto at Thor Espresso and at BYOB! Featuring from West to East coast, this set includes San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York (well, a portion of it). More images of the new coasters can be viewed on our website.

Also, to please our Montreal friends, we created a prototype just for you! Unfortunately these will not be for sale this year.....but with enough enticement maybe we will put them up next year :) We will accept poutine bribes, so don't be afraid to show us your (gravy) love !

Notice how organic the roads appear to sprawl out from one central "spine" (a.k.a. Metropolitan Expy).

Oh, and since we felt bad being forced to single out a small portion of NYC in the US Cities set, we decided to do a full-Manhattan set too. Unfortunately, Manhattan is a very odd-shape for your pint glass, so we had to improvise a bit. Hope you like!

In case you haven't noticed, we're en route to becoming coaster tycoons.

- Heather.

Trophies, Awards, and Winners - Oh My!

2011-12-08T19:26:00.012-05:00

Inspired by the Office's Dundies awards, idea couture wanted to do give away 4 awards this year to their employees at the Christmas Party. My role was to design and build the trophies for the following awards:

The Supporter - The person who is most dedicated to the success of their team.

The Innovator - The person who has developed the best process improvement, methodology or approach for the good of the team.

The Cross Boarder - The person who most successfully collaborates beyond their own office's wall.

The Design Thinker - The person who best embodies the values of the company.

PattyG and I brainstormed for ideas. For the Supporter Award, we settled on getting iconic miniature chairs that we have at our office, stacking them to symbolize a strong base and support of others.

a chair on top of a chair on top of a chair

For the Innovator Award, we were a little cheesy and thought having a lightbulb would be 'innovative'. Instead of a normal lightbulb, we opted for a cage squirrel filament bulb. For the base, I laminated together 1/2" thick maple, with the bark side facing the front. To finish off the trophy, we caged it all with a plastic dome - which later in the party, turned out to be fantastic beer-to-mouth container.

For the Cross Boarder Award, we thought it would be fun to have a globe to symbolize that there literally has no boarder - where the world is their oyster. It took awhile to find the 'globey-locks' of globes - some were too big, some were too bright, some were too heavy and most were too expensive.

For the Design Thinker Award, we originally wanted a whiteboard on top of a trophy, however the small whiteboard we bought was slightly off brand for the 'embodying idea couture' award, instead a brand book was put on the easel. This trophy was the most outrageous one of all. Inspired by greek columns and encouraged by sports-trophy-enthusiast Bry Bry. The trophies got higher and higher.

With the short 2 day timeline, i have to shot out a special thanks to Liquid Nails, Super Glue, emergency last minute glue gun and that vice grip that fell on my feet. In the end, the globe trophy broke 3 times, the easel kept falling off the design thinker award, and the plastic dome was passed around as a beer drinking container. All and all, we all had a great party, it's a great company to work at and i hope these trophies will stand up to the test of time.

Awkward family of trophies

Winning a trophy that i built... shameless.

Riwa is the one.

Futurists Mat & Ricky - Mat eats lights for inspiration

See you next year, trophies.

- Jess

Which is Best?

2011-12-05T22:06:00.004-05:00

The other day at lunch a co-worker and I were debating which province had the best silhouette. Being a Manitoban, I insisted that it was Manitoba. He, from Alberta, had a similar affection towards his home province and was therefore wrong.

So it was a nice surprise to walk by Style Garage yesterday and see these:

At first I thought that they were light boxes, but after looking closer they are just really well lit side tables.

Only Manitoba and Saskatchewan are showing, but the set actually comes with Alberta too. We did agree that Saskatchewan had a beautiful simplicity, but came up a bit short, lacking any natural features.

So what do you think? Are you Nunavut nutty, or an Albertan admirer?

-Scott

N.D.C. in B.Y.O.B.

2011-11-18T10:12:00.008-05:00

It's official.

We're now at BYOB - Toronto's 'first and only one-stop shop for everything bar and cocktail related'. Christmas is the season of drinking (and giving). Come stock up on bar supplies, beer making kits, bitters, and most importantly - I Kinda Like It Here Toronto Coasters.

We're excited for our product to be the newest family member amongst such eccentric collection of products.

The Mecca of alcohol accessories

sex sells... more coasters?

As a side note, the people who work at BYOB may be some of the friendliest people we've ever met. I would be happy too if i get to work around booze related designer products all day long.

BYOB

927 Queen Street West

Toronto, ON. M6J 1H1.

Tue - Fri:12:00 pm-8:00 pm

Sat:11:00 am-8:00 pm

Sun:11:00 am-7:00 pm

@byobtoronto

- theNDC

Wooden Neapolitan 2

2011-11-14T10:24:00.005-05:00

These hooks were created in the shop with leftover pieces from the Delta Dining table last summer. The tri-colour/tri-layer solid ash hooks are mounted to the wall at two points, using simple metal hardware and a countersunk hole, an idea that our friends at Ideacious recommended. It's the same simple mounting system that they are currently using on their Foreword book shelf by Karen King (which you can stock up on now through their prototype sale!). I was debating at one point to use a router and keyhole bit for mounting, but the metal hardware adds better strength and I think gives the back a nice graphic detail as well.

The colour combo adds a splash of fun to an otherwise mundane household item and I think I'll like try to incorporate the Neapolitan look into a few other designs next.

- Heather

Wooden Neapolitan

2011-11-07T19:08:00.006-05:00

Here's a sneak peak on something I've been working on in the shop lately. Can you guess what it is?

Also, I just found out that there's Neapolitan and then there's Napoleon. Luckily this print will help you and I remember which is which:

Neapolitan Napoleon Print by Kate Gabriel.

- Heather.

(Not So) Epic Carpenter

2011-10-30T20:59:00.005-04:00

After seeing the Epic Carpenter video (see below), i was inspired to give the 'dangerous' lathe a second try. The man in the video made lathing look so easy.

50/50

should have rolled up sleeves

Took an hour to try to turn the rough maple blank to a cylindrical smooth blank. Every time one side is smoothed out, i realize that the other side is bulkier. After going back and forth smoothing out the lop side, the blank is getting smaller and smaller and smaller.... Reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where a tree was cut down only to be turned down into a single toothpick.

Though it wasn't as easy as the video, it was extremely therapeutic and mesmerizing. Check back in a week to see what it's transformed to.

- Jess

Epic Carpenter Video

2011-10-28T11:44:00.003-04:00

We wish our daily workshop experiences were as epic as this video:

The Carpenter from Dimitris Ladopoulos on Vimeo.

Love the motion info graphics, however that man should be wearing eye protection!

- Heather.

Wood Inspiration!

2011-10-23T13:26:00.004-04:00

I have always been interested in bending wood. Lamination, steam, kerf, vacuum, you name it. It amazes me that such a hard static material can be manipulated to take a new form while keeping or even improving strength.

So it came as a surprise when I saw this video on Core77:

The "illusion" shown is interesting, but I am thinking that this method could be used for some pretty funky wood joints that wouldn't require any fasteners or even glue. Time to go down to the shop to experiment!

-Scott

Wooden Fenders First Pics

2011-09-19T18:05:00.009-04:00

It has taken a while, but the bent wood fenders are finally finished and bolted onto Heather's bike, just in time for a wet fall.

Bonus points if you recognize the garage on the right of the first picture!

The fenders are designed to fit onto any 700c bike wheel up to about 35 or 40mm. The mounts are also universal but we are not yet sure how they will work on a bike that has brakes. They are made from leftover ash that we also used for the Delta Table. We steam bent the table legs, and we lamination bent the fenders. The ash is a very light coloured hardwood that has a beautiful grain almost like oak.

The front fender is held on by the fork and a stainless steel wire bracket. It doesn't extend too far forward from the fork so it is able to support itself on the front end. The rear fender is attached to the frame at the chain stays and the seat stays, and also has a bent wire bracket. The three ply wood is stiff enough so that the fenders don't rattle, but light enough not to be noticeable.

It took a couple of tries but I got the bend form to just the right shape to compensate for the spring back of the wood. This was the first time that I had used real epoxy, and I have to say that it is amazing to work with and well worth the investment for a couple of cans and the proper pumps. I bought the smallest amount available and expect it to last us for at least a year.

I bent two small aluminium brackets for attachment to the frame. They fit through small slits that were cut in the wood and were then epoxied onto the inside. The assembled fenders were then finished in eight coats of marine grade clear coat to keep the wood safe.

The wire brackets are notched through the sides of the fenders to keep everything nice and sleek. This was then sewn onto the wood with some very thick cord. The cord is not waterproof as far as I know so it may have to be replaced after every year or so.

I am quite happy with the result, but there are a few details that I would like to change when I make more. I chose 3mm stainless steel wire for the brackets, and nearly killed myself trying to bend it. Next time I will order the 2mm stuff, and get some nicer mounting hardware.

-Scott

Peanut Butter Lathing Time!

2011-09-06T19:24:00.005-04:00

But really... who doesn't?

After numerous cautionary tales of close calls while using the wooden lathe, i finally worked up my courage and decided to make something easy - a silhouette of a peanut butter jar.

Starting with a square blank, i marked on both sides where the center point was, trimmed the corners off the blank to the closest i could get to a circle (which wasn't very close at all). Turing the wood into a circular blank was harder than i thought. Using a roughing gouge and a slow and steady hand I (by I, i really mean Scott) carefully took all the edges off and turned it nice and smooth.

Starting to see the resemblance...

Once at the desired diameter, I put in the parting/guide lines to give it a quick lid vs. body overall proportion of the peanut butter jar. Adding some small details... and we're almost there. The piece was then put on a one way 4 jaw chuck (basically holding the wooden piece only on one end, commonly used when making bowls), the purpose was to lathe in the indent detail found in the bottom of the jar. (on wine bottles it's called a wine punt, not sure what it's called in a jar. jar punt?). However, to my worst nightmare, during the middle of shaving off the bottom, the jar flew off the lathe, making a loud banging noise as it hits the concrete floor. Quietly, i turned off the lathed, cleaned up the area, picked up the slightly cracked piece... and took a shower.

masked and painted with black-board paint

i <3 Peanut Butter - BT

Overall, lathing is very fun, however proceed with caution, make the blank is locked tightly to the chuck, always 'test' turn on the lathe without standing in it's immediate-potential-path-of-destruction, and always clean up after you use the lathe.

- Jess

IDEACIOUS!

2011-09-05T15:24:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone,

There is a cool startup company here in Toronto called Ideacious that you should check out. They are a little bit like Kickstarter, but in my opinion better. They allow anybody with an idea to get some feedback and design/manufacturing assistance to bring it to the masses.

Once the details are worked out between the Ideacious team and the inventor, it goes up for presale on the website to raise funds for production. The best part is that everyone who buys in early gets a piece of ownership. When more are sold, the early adopters actually make money back as a reward.

They also have a nice online shop that sells cool stuff from designers all over the world, including some of our own!

-Scott

If first you don't succeed, fail again...

2011-08-24T22:57:00.005-04:00

This is the first time failing at exposing a silk screen. Needless to say, I was crushed. The screen was exposed for a few minutes too long with the light a few cm too close. After half an hour of scrubbing to try to salvage the over exposed screen, I decided to try out Diazo emulsion remover and restart from square one.

Photo Emulsion Remover - Toxic!

The emulsion remover was to be spread over the exposed area, soaked for 1 - 1.5 min and then scrubbed with a nylon brush, rinse, and repeat. The majority of the emulsion peeled off after the first try. Second time around, the remaining emulsion did not come off so easy.

30 min into scrubbing and soaking the screen with photo emulsion remover in a bathtub, my hands and foot exposed to the chemical started to tingle. That was the point I decided that i should stop scrubbing and admit defeat.

30 min into scrubbing the screen...FAIL.

30 min into scrubbing the screen with a toothbrush reminded me of the scene in Private Benjamin where Goldie Hawn's character had to scrub the toilet with an electric tooth brush.

In the end, I learned that...

a) Trying to remove emulsion is not an easy job, a lot of patience and elbow grease is required.

b) Always listen to your roommate, you shouldn't neglect to wear protective gear.

c) Failure onto of another failure is okay. Just try again once the numbness from being exposed from the removal chemical fades away.

- Jess

Junction Design Crawl

2011-08-03T00:00:00.002-04:00

Happy Hump Day! We hope everyone had a good long weekend! Lucky for us, a four-day work week means that TGIFriday is right around the corner. So, what are you doing this Friday? Junction Design Crawl! We can't think of a better way to start off Friday night than going out for a nice evening stroll, where all of our favourite stores will be playing host for the evening.

We're already sold on the first two posts by Russet & Empire and Mjölk .....how often do you get to take a picture with the Man on the Moon and eat Icelandic beer-steamed hot dogs?!

Check out the official event website here for more up-to-date information.

Hope to see you there!

- Heather.

Lasers in Action!

2011-07-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

Zap! Zap! Zap! Vancouver is getting attacked!

We've been testing out a new manufacturer for the coasters lately, and they were nice enough to give us a tour of their place :)

- Heather.

Cedar Planter

2011-07-24T00:00:00.000-04:00

So despite the almost catastrophic lathe fail last month, this little cedar planter was salvaged! I ended up finding a piece of scrap ash from our cut-off box, and created a prosthetic base for where I went through with the chisel. Added a dab of polyurethane glue (which actually gets stronger the wetter it gets..crazy!), drilled a hole for drainage, and voila! And just in time for the backyard succulents that appear to be multiplying to no end.

- Heather.

Coasters are a good idea!

2011-07-22T17:40:00.004-04:00

I am really digging these Oslo city neighbourhood coasters that are available at Shapeways by Studio Hansen. The six separate neighbourhoods can be placed together to form a small portion of the full city map. But for some reason you can not buy the full set of six. Instead they are available by neighbourhood.

Oslo Ceramic Coasters
by Studio Hansen
May 14, 2011.

-Scott

Fire Time

2011-07-04T21:31:00.006-04:00

We have a fire pit in the back yard that is great for clearing out the offcuts from our wood shop. Sometimes it is hard to burn the things that took a lot of work to make, and sometimes those things that we burn just looks cool:

Burning Veneer, leftover from this experiment.

-Scott

Wood Fenders 3

2011-07-03T22:15:00.007-04:00

The wood fenders for Heathers bike are making some progress. After the last bend test the form has been re-shaped with a tighter radius to compensate for the springback. The original form was cut down and the first test fender was glued on to act as the outer forming surface.

Fender being layed-up

Two fenders have been bent on this form and they both retain the right shape when unclamped. The fenders have been trimmed to size and sanded to remove the excess epoxy that squeezed out of the joints during clamping. Lamination bending is either a messy process, or I am not doing it properly.

Form, backer and two fenders.

There is a full half round fender for the rear tire, and a shorter fender for the front tire. The next steps are to source the support wire and brackets to attach the fenders to the bike securely. Once that is finalized the fenders will be drilled appropriately and finished with a marine grade clear coat.

-Scott

Lathe Fail :(

2011-06-21T21:54:00.003-04:00

"waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah"
- Snookie Polizzi

- Heather.

Wood Fenders 2

2011-06-13T19:15:00.007-04:00

The first bent wood fender came off of the form today. Considering how much epoxy was squeezed out of the wood and went everywhere, I consider coming off the form to be a very good thing.

Springback

There was more springback in the laminated wood than I was expecting. I will have to modify the form, or even make another form to end up with the right fender shape for the tire size. The wood ended up springing back around 8%, so I will try making a mould that is 8-10% over bent next time.

The three layers of 1.5mm ash are stiff enough when laminated. This gives a 4.5mm thick fender that is nice and light. Once it is braced to the bike through the brake mounts and by wire to the axle it will be stiff enough to ride with.

Laminated Profile.

On the Bike.

Because the fender radius is now too large it does not sit as close to the bike wheel as intended. The fender will also be trimmed thinner to look more proportional to the bike tire.

-Scott

Wood Fenders 1

2011-06-12T20:36:00.007-04:00

Heather recently got a gorgeous new bike, but for some reason it didn't come with fenders. We are now going to try to bend a set out of wood to keep her and her bike dry in what has been a very rainy Toronto spring.

The fenders will be lamination bent, which means that multiple layers of wood are glued together and then set to cure on a form. When the wood is taken off of the form, the layers are held in place with the glue and keep their shape. This type of wood bending is commonly used in furniture (think IKEA) and boat building (think of a boat),

The Fender Form

The form was made from laminated plywood with a backing strap for applying clamping pressure to the bent wood. The contact surfaces were then covered with gloss white adhesive vinyl so that any excess epoxy will not bond the fenders to the form.

Wood on the Form.

The first attempt will use three strips of 1.5mm thick Canadian ash. The ash is actually the off cut wood from the bent wood table that we made last year. Good thing I was too lazy to clean out that part of the workshop.

The strips of ash were covered with epoxy and then placed on the form. Clamps were applied from the center outwards, and the excess epoxy was cleaned up as needed. The epoxy will take around 24 hours to harden, so we will know how it worked out tomorrow and whether 3 layers of wood will have enough rigidity.

-Scott

Designing Authentic Experiences

2011-06-04T12:51:00.002-04:00

Core77 recently posted a great article by Willem Van Lancker that was inspired by this commercial:

The "quest for storytelling has become a cottage industry in itself; that every brand, product, and good must come packaged with a unique story or else it is valueless. In the past these stories were experienced firsthand—today we read them on placards and labels in stores framed as immersive brand experiences."

A good read, definitely worth 5 minutes.

-Scott

Henrietta Poutine

2011-05-12T10:22:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to our friends Henrietta, who have a nifty interview up on the Montreal blog Midnight Poutine.

Megan, you should read this!

-Scott

Shade

2011-04-19T22:04:00.007-04:00

One more from the Art Institute of Chicago! You seriously have to check out Simon Heijdens's Shade project. Real-time wind visualization made available indoors in my favourite geometric shape!

"A responsive skin to the windows of a building that filters daylight into a moving projection of shadows that translates the ever-changing natural timeline of the outdoor to the static and perpetual indoor space."

If you get the chance to go to Chicago, Shade is part of the Hyperlinks exhibition, only available until July 20, 2011.....go meow! We highly recommend it!

- Heather.

The Idea of a Tree

2011-04-18T22:02:00.005-04:00

The Idea of a Tree by Mischer Traxler is an autonomous production method that uses manufacturing with Mother Nature at the controls.

Driven by solar energy, an apparatus pulls threads first through a colouring and glue agent, and then winds it around and around a mould. The greater the sun intensity, the faster the apparatus spins, resulting in thicker cross-sections and a lighter colour.

It's kind of like gardening, but instead of carrots, you get lamps and seating!

- Heather.

Henrietta - Hollow Earth Fiction

2011-03-26T16:16:00.007-04:00

We just received production units of the new Henrietta album "Hollow Earth Fiction" that we designed. Henrietta is a band from Ottawa/Montreal, who are also in charge of Bearcat Records.

Angry Bird!

Front/Record

Back/Credits

The artwork was printed with black and white ink on top of unbleached card-stock. Due to the texture on the cardboard, the printed areas look as though they have been silk-screened, while retaining good definition.

-Scott

Toronto Life!

2011-03-26T15:25:00.005-04:00

The Coasters were shown in the magazine Toronto Life this month (April edition)!

Domestic Robocop

2011-03-22T21:19:00.009-04:00

Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

We came across Matsuda's film at the Art Institute of Chica go last month during a weekend getaway and finally found the time to share it! Matsuda created this film as part of his Masters of Architecture and portrays the 20th century in a digitally surreal manner.

"The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape, more and more it is about the synthetic spaces created by the digital information that we collect, consume and organise; an immersive interface may become as much part of the world we inhabit as the buildings around us.

Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology defined by its ability to overlay physical space with information. It is part of a paradigm shift that succeeds Virtual Reality; instead of disembodied occupation of virtual worlds, the physical and virtual are seen together as a contiguous, layered and dynamic whole. It may lead to a world where media is indistinguishable from 'reality'. The spatial organisation of data has important implications for architecture, as we re-evaluate the city as an immersive human-computer interface."

And now for more forecasting fun, we'll compare Matsuda's vision of blurred physical and virtual lines for our 20th century with 1910's French artist Villemard's illustr ations forecasting the year 2000:

- Heather

Bearcat Records

2011-03-07T20:34:00.006-05:00

We recently finished the logo for our friends at Bearcat Records, who are based in Montreal.

The logo is based on a photo of the cat "Bear" standing on top of an Ampex 499 reel-to-reel tape deck and is inspired by the art-deco record label of the 40's, such as the original HMV logo.

Coming soon is their (and our) first album cover!

-Scott

Design Fancy

2011-02-28T22:31:00.004-05:00

Core77 has been featuring fictional stories of industrial designers by Matt Brown. My favourite was Cyprien Côté:

A designer who noticed that a certain beetle in Italy would go out into the sun before an earthquake. This led him to design an earthquake warning system "INSECTES TREMOLOITANTS" that has saved over 800 lives to date!

The stories are as amazing as the fake product design.

Check out some more:
Kurt Manchild
Travis Salisbury
Bertit Kalmar

-Scott

An Ode to my Love

2011-02-10T09:34:00.007-05:00

Valentines day is just around the corner, and for this valentines day, i dedicate my undying love to my longest and most giving relationship... the Ice Cream Sandwich. Over the years, i have learned that ice cream sandwiches are more than 50% filled with air. They can be used to bribe someone to 'improve my results' for difficult 'angry bird' levels. It's ice cream, but you can hold it in your hand without a wrapper or cone and eat the entire thing.

Lastly... ice cream sandwiches are like crack, a box of 12 will only last around 3 - 4 days.

off cuts

Corners sanded and holes drilled to ice cream factory specifications

Staining the wood black did NOT look good. Spray paint to the rescue.

Declaring my love.

Heather found these Pewter Saltine Crackers on Etsy later. It's as functionless as the ice cream sandwich... but i really really want one...

- Jess

Offcuts

2011-01-31T22:43:00.005-05:00

There is always a big discussion and some passive aggressive tension about what to do with the offcuts from the wood shop. Should the wood be kept in case we need to make packaging? Should it be burned to provide warmth and entertainment? Or should it be used to make something new?

Booooooring!

What normally happens in our shop is that it sits around for long enough for everybody to get sick of tripping over it, then it's hauled out and ceremoniously burned around a campfire. This time however, we decided to do a little upcycling.

Exciting!

This wood was fashioned in this manner so that a light could be placed inside them. The veneer offcuts become solid pieces of wood during the day, and then lights at night.

-Scott

Toronto Design Festival!

2011-01-31T18:47:00.003-05:00

I just realized that it may be too late, but I wanted to share my favourite part of the Toronto Design Festival that didn't seem to get enough exposure:

"Tools" at The Department on Dundas:

I could try, but it may be a better idea to let the show speak for itself:

"Well made tools have an efficient beauty to those who know how to use them. They empower and allow functions to be carried out. Tools can be culturally specific, and even descriptive of lifestyle, values, and skills. Tools evolve, change, and update; some tools fall into obsolescence, while others function until physical failure and wear by use."

This stuff has to be shown somewhere else, so if I find out, I'll post it here.

-Scott

Arbutus Tealight Holders

2011-01-23T17:11:00.000-05:00

Over the holidays we spent some time with family on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. While we were there, we were able to fit a few pieces of arbutus wood in our luggage to take back to frigid ol' Toronto. Arbutus can be found in abundance all over the Vancouver region, but unfortunately for Southern Ontario-ians, our cold weather climate doesn't allow for this extremely dense and golden coloured tree to grow here.

While digging through the firewood pile for manageable pieces to bring back, I was particularly drawn to this 'perfect' arbutus branch. Inspired by some birch tea light holders that we saw, but regretfully didn't get, while Christmas shopping in Vancouver, I decided to make our indoor workspace more forest-cozy by making arbutus candle holders.

We also found a whole small deer skeleton!
He was nice enough to let us borrow its antlers!

Two chops and three holes.

If you ever get the chance to go out West, you'll be able to pinpoint arbutus trees by it's peeling orange bark and exposed smooth and green-ish brown wood.

- Heather

I kinda like it... where?

2011-01-19T22:50:00.008-05:00

Thanks to everyone who purchased our coasters! We have finally finished packaging our second production run and for those who live in our beloved city Toronto, you can now purchase them at 3 different locations (that we kinda like) for your convenience. For those who live outside of Toronto, please purchase online. Online shipping is now free!

the Ministry approves.

Russet & Empire @ the Junction
390 Keele St. (Map)

Ministry of Interiors @ Queen West + Ossington
80 Ossington Ave. (Map)

Thor Espresso Bar @ King West + Bathurst
35 Bathurst St (Map)

Coaster & Thor Coffee

Science & Son's Phonofone III in the background. Hey Tristan!

Side note: Russet & Empire, The Ministry of Interior, Thor Espresso Bar, and we are the National Design Collective... Do we have an obsession for strong and rigid and official sounding names?

- Jess

Toronto Coasters featured in DesignLines!

2011-01-16T14:07:00.008-05:00

The Toronto edition of our I Kinda Like it Here coasters got End Note treatment in the latest spring edition of DesignLines. Special thanks to Todd Harrison from Spacing for the write-up! You can pick up a copy of these babies for free all around Toronto and there's also a pretty helpful and in depth guide to IDS2011 and the Toronto International Design Festival in this edition too.

For out of towners, you can read the online version of the article here!

For those that weren't able to get their hand on the sold-out coasters before Christmas, we just received our second production run this week and they are now available again through our website and at Russet & Empire (who made #2 on BlogTo's Best Design Stores of 2010! Congrats R&E!). We had to do a bit of a price adjustment to the coaster sets on our online store (we're new at this), but are now offering free shipping to make up for it!

- Heather

Flexible Wood v.2

2011-01-07T19:38:00.004-05:00

Alright, here it is! It kind of sits in the corner, so this was the best picture I could get of the table. Usually a box sits in the bottom that holds records.

Once I got the wood back from the CNC cutter, I was a little disappointed that I used such mellow curves on the back of the table. I would like to try using this method of cutting out wood again, but need access to a big machine! I guess the only way to learn is to experiment...

-Scott

Flexible Wood

2011-01-05T22:26:00.004-05:00

I am not really sure if it would actually be more comfortable than a regular stool, or if it would create 1000 pinch points, but I like the concept behind this stool, the "Spring Wood" by Carolien Laro.

source

Reminds me of a side table I worked on years ago where a single piece of plywood was CNC routed to create a zig-zag of wood that would flex to wrap around a frame. The 1/2" plywood became much more flexible that I needed, so much so that I could roll it up into a 6 inch diameter roll by hand.

Bent plywood in Table Form

Oh, to have access to a CNC table...

-Scott

Moss Terrarium

2010-12-24T20:23:00.006-05:00

Being the worst at keeping plants alive, we decided to make some easy to maintain moss terrarium for Christmas presents this year.

To build a terrarium the first thing you'll need is a container, we picked some nice glass container up from Toronto's famous Honest Ed's. Within the container you will need to layer these things so the soil and plant will not rot, smell, or die.

White Rhino climbing the hill

White Elephant in a jar

Going in the order of bottom up you'll need...

Layer.1 - Medium size rocks
"solid like a rock!"

Layer.2 - Activated charcoal
The purpose of the activated charcoal is to stop the soil from molding.

Layer.3 - Coconut moss liner
This is to stop the soil from sifting down to the charcoal and rocks. It also absorbs access water.

Layer.4 - Soil
Plants need soil... enough said.

Layer.5 - Moss
We used 3 types of moss. Cushion, Rock Cap and Hypnum moss. Hypnum moss were used as a general blanketing, where as the Cushion and Rock Cap moss were used as 'feature' plants.

Layer.6 - Animals!
Bought little animal figurines from the dollar store, hand painted it white so it stands out.

Animal Factory

White Elephant sighting

Three Horn

These Terrarium are very easy to maintain. Water the terrarium when it looks dry, open the lid when there is some condensation.

Happy holidays from the NDC!

- Jess

I Kinda Like It Here on BlogTO!

2010-12-13T22:49:00.004-05:00

The coasters were just featured on one of our favourite websites, blogTO. I am really enjoying all the comments.

By the way, they are really cool!

-Scott

NDC in Antipasto, Hong Kong!

2010-12-12T20:18:00.006-05:00

Is that not the most the amazing cover?

M3 + M4 rings in Antipasto, an Italian Design magazine based in Hong Kong.

Read Issue 02 - Mask On here!

- Heather.

I Kinda Like It Here has a home.

2010-12-08T23:11:00.005-05:00

The I Kinda Like It Here coasters now have a retail home with Micah at Russet and Empire, in the Junction.

Also, the online store is up on our fine website for out-of-town sales, and we will have stock of the Toronto-only coaster set later this week.

-Scott

I Kinda Like It Here

2010-12-04T17:07:00.009-05:00

After an arduous wait, we can finally write an update to the "Urban Sprawls Under a Cup" post from waaaay back in September. Since then we have gone through many rounds of prototypes to test wood types, line weights and rastering profiles, and have just received the first production pieces for our newest project, "I Kinda Like It Here". Coasters inspired by, and made in, Canada.

Packaging

Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Ottawa

Since the last post we added a coaster for downtown Vancouver to make it a set of four. The coasters are cut out of 3mm birch plywood, maintaining two small connections to the background. When pushed out, these tabs are easily broken in order to free the coasters for use.

Craig, the Quality Control Cat

We are currently lining up retail outlets, and setting up our online store, so check back for more information in the upcoming week!

-Scott

p.s. Also keep your eyes peeled for the January edition of Design Lines!

Movember!

2010-12-02T23:15:00.003-05:00

Congratulationss to everyone who took part in Movember, I hope that you can now stop constantly touching your upper lip. Good job Devin!

Oh the Gloriousness!

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/896758/

-Scott

Fairwell, Chicken Wing.

2010-11-27T18:24:00.004-05:00

Goodbye, chicken wing mold #01. After multiple tries of casting, experimenting with different time of leaving the slip in the mold... it still would not easily come out as one piece.

Time to admit defeat.

After some not so serious CSI of the mold and the ripped pieces of clay chicken wing. We labeled the fragile points and where slight undercut exists. see image below.

undercuts + fragile points = fail.

This will not be our last attempt. We learned a lot and will definitely try different things soon... perhaps a drumstick?

- Jess

NDC featured in ARCH Magazine.

2010-11-21T23:56:00.008-05:00

We were featured in the November issue of ARCH magazine - a Taiwanese luxury and style magazine. They wrote an article featuring the hottest new design from ten different countries around the world. Our M3/M4 rings were proud to represent Canada!

The entire magazine includes English and Chinese, however, upon reading the Chinese text, it slightly differs from the English text. Apart from both giving an overview of the rings, the Chinese focuses a little more on love.

"This design expresses the designer’s value and thoughts, perhaps this will not change the prestige stature of the diamond, but it gives people a new perspective on what a ring represents. Perhaps the carat of a diamond can buy a girls heart, but, when your lover really wants to keep you close and 'screwed tight', who then would really care about a mere diamond when you are already deeply in love?" - Arch Nov. issue. (Our bad translation... sorry.)

Netherlands is our neighbour !

London, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Canada (that's us!) and Netherlands spread

City x New Design spread

Visit our website!

Also, a quick congrats to the members of NDC, this is our official 100th post.
100 bottles of champagne?

- Jess
Follow us @theNDC

Banksia Pods

2010-11-21T22:04:00.006-05:00

On our last trip to Exotic Woods in Burlington, we saw some Banksia Pods. Apparently they are a seed, or nut, kind of like the inverse of a pine cone. They are very hard on the inside, but actually kind of furry and brittle on the outside.

This is Natural?

The coolest thing about them is that they have ovoid holes running through the nut that go almost all the way into the center. So, we decided to pick one up and try turning it on the lathe.

After persuading a large family of spiders to vacate, the pod was trimmed on the band saw and then turned and sanded on the lathe into a cylinder.

The Finished Product

The wood inside is very hard and can be sanded to almost a gloss finish. The pod was then cut in half and drilled out to make two small tea light holders.

With Tea Lights

We really like how the light escapes from the holes in the pod. If we ever pick up more, I think that they will be made deeper so that this lighting affect is amplified. Either way, it was a half-hour well spent! I do hope they're fire-proof...

-Scott

Beau's Beau Packaging

2010-11-20T18:02:00.004-05:00

Good beer and awesome packaging work by Ontario's Beau's.

We're loving the nifty handle, two-colour wooden plank print, durable cardboard construction....oh and the bubbly inside the 4 x 600ml bottles too!

- Heather

charred cedar & cactus

2010-11-14T12:43:00.004-05:00

Like some sort of DIY phoenix rising from the ashes, here's a closer look at our latest charred cedar planter with its newest tenant.

To prevent sooty fingers and smudged window sills, the outside of the planter was finished with a light water-based coat. Plants don't seem to last that long in the NDC home as Craig is a bit of an omnivore, but we think this spiky Cactaceae will remain happy and uneaten (for a while at least) in his brand new home.

- Heather.

Learning to turn....with fire!

2010-11-08T20:22:00.013-05:00

Ugh, we can't believe that is already November! The leaves have mostly fallen, Daylight Savings just rolled back our clocks this weekend, and Loblaws already has their winter decorations out. It's only been two months since the end of the summer and we're already missing the green! As we welcome back seasonal affective disorder :(SAD), we've decided to bring some flora indoors by lathing a wooden planter.

Research first! [Hand and Machine Woodwork, H.G. Miller, 1972]

Stripes!

Hollowing out room for one lucky plant.

As first time bowl turners, the nice semi-retired man at the wood shop recommended turning cedar for practice. Not only was this great advice, since cedar is soft and easy to work with, but it also smells so good too!

Beginning with a rough piece of cedar, the planter organically took on its own form as we got more comfortable lathing. It was actually kind of therapeutic and a good exercise in form-giving to not start out with a specific design in mind. In the end, after undergoing a few transformations, the planter ended up comme ca:

Since cedar is naturally insect and rot resistant, it seemed like an appropriate material for the planter. The planter is purposely shallow to act as a comfy home to either a succulent or cactus or two.

But since it was cedar and being the pyros that we are, we decided to set the freshly turned planter on fire:

Let there be liiight!

Now...plant shopping!

- Heather

[Eames] Parts Unknown

2010-11-05T22:03:00.004-04:00

Excited! We acquired a broken Eames Lounge Chair wood. (replica? not sure, will need to do more research). To restore the chair, we want to find the parts unknown, repair and fill in the cracks, sand, and repaint.

The ingredients to an iconic chair

- Jess

Thanks Idris

Your Powers of Ten

2010-10-29T15:26:00.003-04:00

To follow up with an older blog post of ours showing some inspiring info-graphics, I just wanted to share that Core77 is holding a design competition to create a video response to the Powers of Ten video by the Eames'.

Details can be found on their site, here.

Maybe we will see you there?

-Scott

Slip Casting - You Always Burn the First Pancake!

2010-10-16T18:09:00.000-04:00

After enjoying the last few days of summer, we finally had time to take a stab at the much anticipated chicken wing slip casting. The first thing i learned was that slip casting is just like making pancakes, the first one never turns out.

There's a few things we need to do before slip casing. First off, clean your mold - scrape all the corners down to a 45 degree angle. The reason behind this is because we don't want pieces of plaster to chip off into the clay, the plaster will ruin your piece when fired in the kiln. We then drilled a hole through the base of the chicken wing to make a 'gate', where you pour the slip in and out of the mould. You want the gate to be located somewhere where it won't be seen or used. Next step, making the slip. It is basically it's diluted clay (with other additives), we pour all of the 'ingredient' in the bag and massage it until it's mixed evenly.

Pour the slip into your mold, slowly move it around and tap it to get all the air bubbles out. secure the two molds with rubber bands, or in our case, we used an old bike inner tube. Then you wait...

Giving the slip a nice rub and tug

Pouring slip into the mold

We waited 15 minutes and tried to drain the slip through the gate. However because the hole we drilled was too small, it solidified and basically clogged up the gate! when pulling the molds apart, the clay was not dry enough and came apart! (you always burn the first pancake, right?). This is definitely a trial and error process, we need to work on perfecting the timing, removing, and solve the problem with the gate.

Chicken wing... with club sauce

The Shine is gone. The clay is dry!

Cracked while pulling the clay off the mold

Test piece completed! Fail?

Craving chicken now. Double Down anyone?

- Jess

Huh...

2010-10-10T15:05:00.000-04:00

So deep!

-Scott

Map Obsession - INSANE!

2010-10-06T13:52:00.000-04:00

Check out architectural designer/artist Karen M. O'Leary's intricate map work. Based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, Karen reproduces classic maps using via hand-cutting or repetitive line work in pen.

Hand cut-Vancouver

Ink - Manhattan

Hand cut - Mexico City

Definitely inspiring for our current maps project, but I think we may stick to good ol' lasers - zap zap!

- Heather.

Canadian Urban Sprawls Under a Cup

2010-09-23T11:18:00.000-04:00

Inspired by one of our past project - lost waxing: 'Map of Winnipeg' - made by Heather. We decided to take it one step further and design some laser cut coasters of Canadian city urban sprawl. The 3 cities (for now) we picked to prototype were the three Canadian cities that meant the most to us; Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Toronto (where all 3 NDC members currently live). The highways were represented in the thicker lines, major roads are the thin lines, and the rivers and lakes are etched out in Grey.

For our prototype, we used the fast and easy Ponoko as our manufacturer. The material we choose was a 5.0mm double core Maple veneer (Maple eh?). You can see from the pictures below how precise laser cutting can be, there are sections where it is as thin as a hairline. We learned that when the lines were too close together, it actually burns the back side of the wood, and makes the wood 'smells like burning'.

freshly laser cut pieces before taking it apart

Back side of the coasters, burnt.

The devil is in the detail (not literally...)

Urban Sprawl of Toronto, Ottawa, Winnipeg

Ah! It's too pretty to be a coaster

For the next batch, we'll definitely play with the line weight. We really enjoy the look of close hairline neighborhoods, so we might put more details in neighborhoods we like, and less on others. We had the idea of playing with the elevation as well! This is definitely the beginning of a series of other cities, any suggestions?

- Jess

Speghelling it out

2010-09-21T23:29:00.000-04:00

While shooting some images for another project, had some spare time to find all 27 letters of our name. I got to say, it doesn't taste half as bad as i thought.

Uh Oh Alpha-Spaghetti-O

- Jess

Cat Vinyl

2010-09-20T22:45:00.000-04:00

December 2009,
Cut vinyl wall graphic.

Slip Casting - Mold Reveal

2010-09-11T22:51:00.000-04:00

After waiting 24 hours to reveal the mold, we finally took it apart! The wing was easily removed with a few hair stuck within the plaster. We used a tweezers and a toothbrush to clean up the mold and deepen a few features to really shape the chicken wing. The mold fits perfectly together, but smells absolutely disgusting. It will stay wrapped up in layers and layers of plastic wrap until the moment of slip casting.

Even Craig hated the smell! Yuck!

Top and Bottom of the two part mold

Side View - It fits perfectly together.

- Jess

Slip Casting Step 1 - Mold Making

2010-09-09T11:01:00.000-04:00

Having an interest with Slip Casting, we went to our friend Sherry's clay studio to experiment with slip casting. Sherry is casting a clay Russian doll and we were casting a (real) chicken wing!

The first step of slip casting is making the plaster molds. Both being first timers, we've only had extensive google and youtube research and an old casting book to blindly guide us, luckily we had an experienced potter at the studio who taught us tips and tricks as we went along the steps. We used clear plastic for the walls of our mold so the process can be easily monitored and recorded.

+ step 1: We made a 4 wall mold that will fit what you want to slip cast, make sure the mold is built in the right orientation so it's easy to place the chicken wings in, and at the orientation that allows the mold to have no undercuts.

Lining the bottom of the mold with clay

+ step 2: Because we want all sides of the chicken wing, we're making a 2 part mold. Fill up the bottom half of the mold with clay. place the item you want to slip cast into the clay, push it all the way down to the widest point and fill in all the holes so there wouldn't be any undercuts. Brush a releasing agent (we used soap water!) over the exposed surface so the clay, chicken wing, and plaster will separate easily. The last step of this before you make your plaster mix is to use the end of a pencil to poke locater holes in the flatter areas of the mold. This allows the 2 pieces of plaster mold to join together easily when casting.

Filled up the mold half way with clay

+ step 3: Mixing the plaster is a science in itself. we made the mistake of stirring the plaster as it was being added in. The correct way to make plaster is to measure out the water in one bucket, weigh out the plaster in another, and sprinkle thin layers of plaster into the water and watch the water naturally absorb the plaster. Once all the plaster is poured in and absorbed, put your hand in and mix it while crushing all the remaining clumps of plaster. There is a specific ratio of water to plaster to follow, but the consistency of wet plaster should feel like pancake mix!

Mixing plastic to the consistency of pancake mix

+ step4: to get the details of the skin and bones on the chicken wing, the best way is the flick your hand and sprinkle the wet plaster onto your mold. This creates a thin layer that will eliminate any large bubbles and retain the highest detail on your model. Once that is done, pour the plaster slowly from the side of the mold (not on the chicken wing), and vibrate to get all the air bubbles out.

Sprinkling wet plaster gently onto the mold

Pouring plaster into the corner of the mold... slowly

+ step 5: wait 20 - 30 min until the plaster is dry, flip the mold over and remove all the clay (make sure to keep the chicken wing (item) untouched). Apply releasing agent over the plaster and repeat steps 3 and 4 to create the second part of the mold.

Removing the clay

Part 1 of the two part mold

+ step 6: Once the second part of the mold is poured, make sure you wait 24 hours to let the mold set before the big reveal. We still have 5 hours and 23 minutes to wait ourselves...

Overall, we learned that...
1) Making plaster is an art and science, needs to be done fast and precise and that plaster hardening is a chemical reaction (which is why it heats up!).
2) Like concrete, do not pour plaster down the sink!
3) Raw chicken wing sitting in a plaster mold will not smell great...

- Jess
Special thanks to Rachelle and Sherry.

Table Assembly

2010-09-06T18:33:00.000-04:00

I swear that this will be the last table post! Well... before the final table post. Here are some quick shots of the final assembly and finishing.

Lamination

The three bent wood profiles were trimmed and then laminated together to form the each leg. The insides had to be stained before the lamination because it is impossible to get in there afterwards.

Together at Last

Before trimming the laminated pieces the legs were assembled to test the fit of the middle connector. This was the first time that the legs had gone together to give us a view of what the table will eventually look like.

Checking for Level

The legs were then trimmed to length and the table was assembled again. A temporary top was placed on the legs and it was checked for level. Final trim cuts were done, and the legs were sanded smooth. The next step is to seal it all and get the glass top in. The next table post will be the final assembly!

-Scott

We Need Your Help!

2010-09-01T20:14:00.000-04:00

Hooking people up since 2010

We've had a special creative request from someone who is looking to repurpose one of our M3 rings.

If you know someone or are up for the most romantic challenge ever, feel free to contact us and we will put you in touch with this person.

"
So I love a special lady. I am going to ask her to marry me on a camping trip in Maine, sometime soon. But not before I work with someone like you, a creative jewelry designer who is open to exploring new process, methods, and growing as an artist. I'm writing to introduce myself and tell my story. I'm a design student at the MIT Media Lab. Last year I was the TA for a class called "Design for Fabrication". The idea was that we can bypass traditional systems and make our own electronics, do industrial design with 3D programs, and do things like work with other professionals to design a ring for someone you love etc... It has an M3 thread, and a tiny screw at the moment. I am seeking a jeweler with a portfolio who will skype with me to brainstorm about what stones I can put in this that are not diamonds. I have been reading the Economist, and don't like what the diamond industry is doing to war torn african countries like the Congo. So, I'm looking for creative alternatives. My philosophy is this: be open to your collaborators ideas and trust their expertise. We will agree on a stone, and a price. I'll send you the ring, and you make me two fittings for it. One for before the wedding and one we can screw in on the wedding day. I would like to establish a relationship with a creative jewelry designer who is interested in doing this as the years go by. Just as we have to renew our understandings of each other and adapt to new situations, I think our jewelry should be adaptable, and I would love to be able to design fittings for this with another creative professional.

"

- Heather

Wood Bending Experiment 3

2010-08-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

So in case you haven't caught on yet, this month is wood bending month - which to at our place, is sort of like the equivalent of SHARK WEEK on the Discovery Channel.

Here is a test piece made from a set of mis-bends to suss out the joining methods/issues.
So far so good!!!

- Heather.

Wood Bending Experiment 2

2010-08-16T17:39:00.000-04:00

A few days ago we bent some more wood for the dining table. Last time the compression strap was not substantial enough so it was beefed up with one band of 2 inch wide 16 gauge steel instead of two thin 20 gauge straps. This stopped the tension cracks from forming on the outside of the bend which is what happened last time. Added to the steel were some large maple handles to replace the laminated plywood.

The New Compression Strap

Two pieces of wood were steamed and then bent over the form, one ash, and one white oak.

Bent White Oak and Ash

Compression Side of the Bend

Tension Side of the Bend

The two other forms are now complete and all the blanks are cut. The next step is to bend all the necessary profiles and assemble. We will have more process shots of building the rest of the table soon!

And now for something completely different, Jim Bryson playing among the butterflies and the Weakerthans at the Wolfe Island Music Festival.

-Scott

Wood Bending Experiment 1

2010-08-06T10:11:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we experimented with bending some wood for the dining table that we are building. We have wanted to try bending wood for a long time, and however nerdy this may sound; it was very exciting. The legs of the table we are building have three different bent profiles, with the center profile the one that we are trying to make first.

We built a form allowing for over-bending (to account for spring back), a drying form to hold the wood in position as it dries overnight, and a small steam box. The box was made to only steam the center of the wood slats as that is the only part that is bent and we wanted to keep the ends as straight as possible.

The Steam-Box Setup

The steam box sat directly on top of the kettle which worked quite well except for when we had to refill the kettle with water. A simpler solution will have to be found for this to stop the box from losing heat when the kettle is taken out. The box is "sealed" with damp cloths to help keep the steam in.

The Bend-Form

The bending form is kept close to the steam box so the wood does not cool off before it can be bent into place. The setup used a male form with a compression strap to stop the wood from failing in tension as it is bent.

Freshly Bent Wood

This piece of wood has just been bent. The wood is clamped onto the form at the bottom and then bent up around the first corner. The second clamp is then put on to ensure the straight bit between the two corners. The wood is then bent around the second corner and the final clamp is put on. This process needs to be done in around one minute or the wood will have cooled off too much to make it around the second bend. It takes quite a lot of force to make the wood bend to this degree, making it feel like the wood is going to snap at any moment.

Tension Failure!

The compression strap we used did not cover the whole piece of wood, allowing a small crack where it wasn't supported. We think that the bend would have been successful using the a better strap and are currently in the process of making this addition.

Cooling Down

The wood cools in the form for 20-30 minutes. This allows the bonds in the wood to re-form resulting in bent wood that is almost as strong as the original straight piece despite the deformation.

The Drying Form

The bent wood then sits on a drying form for a day or two to fully cure. The drying form is closer to the intended shape of the wood as the spring back after this stage will be less.

The Result

After reading many books and articles on steam bending, the main thing to take away is that there are no clear cut rules for the process, and that trial and error are the best ways to get familiar with it.

With what we have learned we are already building a new form and compression strap for the next round. There was much less spring back than we expected, and our compression strap needs to be more robust. We have also given the form a larger radius in the corners so that the wood has an easier time bending without failure.

-Scott

Jennifer's Dining Table

2010-08-01T17:32:00.000-04:00

We are currently working on a dining table commission. The table was to incorporate a round glass top with wooden legs. We have been wanting to experiment with steam bending wood for a while now, so we designed legs that utilize three separate bent profiles.

The profiles of each leg are designed so that the solid wood visually splits and reforms further down the leg. Laminating the three bent profiles together will help to strengthen each leg while adding the dimensional stability that steam bending lacks.

The three legs are then joined in the middle with knockdown hardware.

The wood we chose is white oak because it is one of the best woods for bending. The profiles have very tight curves that would not be possible with other woods. Our first attempt at steam bending happened today, and we will get some pictures of that up soon. All we know so far is that there is a steep learning curve...

-Scott

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

2010-07-31T15:57:00.000-04:00

This toolbox we found is amazing! We decided not to refinish it, but I couldn't resist the silk-screening.

-Scott

Bending Canadian Design

2010-07-16T23:03:00.000-04:00

Bent out of Shape at Design Exchange

the NDC attended the opening of Bent out of Shape: Canadian Design 1945 - Present that was held at the Design Exchange. It was a treat for us to see 90% of the things we've read in the Design in Canada book all under one roof.

Some of the items that we never thought we would see in real life were Hugh Spencer's Project G stereo, and the G2 version. We absolutly fell in love with Bob Forrest's 2001 chair (made in 1970), seeing it in the flesh made the world of difference, the angle, the fabric, and the material that were used, it was magnificient. Apparently only a mere 300 were made!

QR code included on every displayed product

Ceramic mason jars with Canadiana logos

Iconic Canadian designed chairs including (from left to right) Lawrie mcintosh's chair, Stefan siwinski's three0legged dining chair, Waclaw czerwinski and hilary stykolt dining chair, and the dodds stacking chair.

The Cord Chair - jacques guillon

2001 chair - Bob Forrest

Overall, seeing all these great iconic Canadian industrial design products really reinforces how important Canadian design is. Hopefully the next time a NDC product will be there!

- theNDC
follow us @theNDC

BIRDMINSTER

2010-07-14T09:49:00.000-04:00

We recently completed two birdhouses for the 2nd Annual For the Birds Competition, to help raise funds for the Toronto Botanical Garden and raise awareness about the plight of songbirds. The first stage of the competition is sending in presentation boards of the birdhouse:

The second stage of the competition is to build the birdhouse and submit it for judging. You may recognize the construction from way back here.

You can check them all out in person at the Summer Showcase and vote for (ours as) the People's Choice Award at the TBG. They will be auctioned off at the Toronto Botanical Gardens Flocktail Party in September to raise money for the gardens.

The speal:

Let your birds live in the utopian birdhouse of the future, today!

The Birdminster house is intended for the Eastern Bluebird and is based on 1v icosahedron geometry. This allows the house to maximize living volume while minimizing building materials.

The house is scaled to be an ideal home for the Eastern Bluebird while referencing one of the most ideal and unique structures found in nature. The house features small holes on the bottom for drainage and venting, and a predator resistant cable and opening.

The wax-finished maple can be put back into a natural environment to decompose, and the cable is aluminium which is one of the worlds most recycled materials.

The geodesic dome has not reached the level of ubiquity that Buckminster Fuller had hoped. In a playful way, Birdminster aims to raise awareness to the limitless optimism that Buckminster Fuller and this geometry once represented.

Birdminster and Home & Away.

-Scott

Home & Away

2010-07-11T16:45:00.000-04:00

We recently completed two birdhouses for the 2nd Annual For the Birds Competition, to help raise funds for the Toronto Botanical Garden and raise awareness about the plight of songbirds. You can check them out in person at the Summer Showcase and vote for the People's Choice Award at the TBG. They will be auctioned off at the Toronto Botanical Gardens Flocktail Party in September.

The first birdhouse:

The speal:
Home&Away is a House Wren birdhouse that acts as a signifier to when nesting birds have made their home. Where House Wrens typically return to the same breeding territory year after year, Home&Away’s signal is a welcome visual cue that our little friends have returned. Starting in a neutral position when the home is unoccupied, the birdhouse will tip at the additional weight of the birds and their offspring. At the end of the summer when the birds migrate south, the birdhouse will tip back to neutral position, signaling a successful breeding season.

- Heather
@theNDC

Needs more fire.

2010-07-09T10:38:00.001-04:00

Here's a quick video (definitely not a proper tutorial on the process and also definitely not a fire safety video) on the cedar burning experiment that we conducted a few weekends ago. We thought it would be nice to share the huuuuuge flames that showed up suddenly around the 55s mark, and Scott's panicked face (54s) when he realized that the garden hose was in fact, off, and not on.

NDC - Cedar Burning Experiment from Heather Lam on Vimeo.

Hey pyros, don't try this at home!!!

(Apologies for the obvious music choice)

- Heather.
@theNDC

What are they writing about?

2010-07-08T15:38:00.000-04:00

We're happy to announce that our M3/M4 Rings are getting some positive publicity online and in stores. Our rings have been featured in the Canadian Design Resource, twelve-o-one, and creep diets.

Thank you to all the people who wrote about the NDC & the loyal blog readers.

The CANADIAN DESIGN RESOURCE

Luxury Utilitarianism - twelve-o-one

Creep diets

- theNDC
follow us on twitter @theNDC

M3 M4's First Home

2010-07-01T12:11:00.000-04:00

We're proud to announce that our M3/M4 Rings are now being sold at Toronto's local independent life+style store Lavish & Squalor.

M4 in the jewelry display box

Time for some champagne!

- the NDC
follow us on twitter @theNDC

Playing with fire.

2010-06-29T20:48:00.000-04:00

How did that house get so dark?

What's he burning in there?

???

Last weekend, I convinced the NDC to create some charred cedar after being inspired by an article in Dwell on architect Terunobu Fujimori (May '09). Apparently, charring the cedar makes it resistant to insects, rot and rain for 80 years, although we were more attracted to the amazing color and texture that is the result of charring.

Following a set of thumbnail pictures and a brief description of the process, we headed to the lumberyard and picked up three six-foot cedar fence boards. The boards were bound together in a triangle to form a chimney.

The first thing our parents would have told us was to not light a fire at the bottom, but luckily they weren't around. The bottom of the chimney was stuffed with crumpled newspaper, but too much was put in, making the fire take a long time to light. There was, however, lots of smoke.

To get the fire to light, we blew into the top of the chimney. This made fire shoot out the bottom.

The fire did eventually catch, and the charring was underway. The whole process is supposed to take about 7 minutes, but because of the relative inactivity at the start, it was going to take us about 9 or 10.

That cedar is asking for it.

Once the cedar caught on fire the chimney created a wind tunnel which began shooting flames out the top. At this point the garage was starting to look awfully close, so the decision was made to shut our test down a couple of minutes early.

Water was sprayed into the top of the chimney, then the boards were opened up and completely doused to put them out. After they cooled off, this is what we were left with:

The boards were well burned in the middle giving around 4 feet of the Fujimori texture that we were looking for. As the fire was put out before the 7 minutes of burn time, the tops of the boards weren't charred to the same level as the middle. The bottom of the boards actually had some unburned sections where the excess of paper had stopped the wood from catching entirely.

Although the cedar is now sealed from the elements, it is the color and texture that we were really after, with the intention of incorporating it into a piece of furniture. The next step is to figure out how to work with these pieces of wood, which are now fragile and makes everything that touches them dirty.

Lessons learned while charring cedar:

1: Use just a few sheets of crumpled up newspaper. Less is more.

2: Make sure you are on stable ground or leaning up against a stone wall. You don't want to second guess the stability because of a gust of wind.

3: Make sure the hose is turned on. Not just the last bit of pressure after turning it off.

-Scott

M3/M4 Packaging

2010-06-26T18:08:00.000-04:00

We've been getting some inquiries about the M3 & M4 ring packages lately, so here are some fresh photos for the curious!

The wood is currently oak from our shop (which can vary from month to month as we go through our bin of misc. wood). For the outer sleeve, we've selected a stock that is FSC certified, 100% post-consumer material, and processed chlorine-free .

- Heather
@theNDC

LOOK WHAT WE FOUND!

2010-06-22T20:02:00.000-04:00

On the weekend we found the bestest toolbox ever on the side of the road! The sides are a little rusted, but the inside metal and hardware are in tip top condition. The box is deceitfully heavy, constructed of about 30lbs of sheet metal.

We are digging the complimentary colour scheme, but are also debating if/how we should re-finish the outside. I'm enjoying the cobalt blue and rust combination, and am cheering for either a light sand job to get the rust off, or a light clear coat to preserve it. Scott is rooting for a new paint job entirely.

What do you think?

- Heather
@theNDC

Filter 5

2010-06-14T21:22:00.000-04:00

we were recently hired by Jesse Morgan, an award-winning videographer, photographer and producer to create a new logo for their production company Filter Five Productions.

We were inspired by the origin of the name 'filter 5'. Jesse said it started as a joke, when his boss would tell the new guy to change the filter to the 5th filter (there are only 4 filters). The final logo a retro-circular color filter logo.

Directions + Concepts

Final logo

seeing the colors everywhere.

- Jess

special thanks to Riwa.
Without you we would not have the chance to work with Jesse.

Ring Ring!

2010-06-09T20:55:00.000-04:00

We finally finished our first production run of the M3 & M4 rings last week, and they are now ready for purchase on our newly launched website. Due to the nature of our own day jobs, and knack for the occasional beer break, these rings will only be produced in small runs at a time.

In pure NDC-fashion, here's a peek under the Wizard of Oz's curtain, of the start-to finish process of making these shiny babies:

Four rubber moulds, sitting pretty in a row.

There is one mould for each size of ring. Melted casting wax is poured into the moulds to make positives of the rings which are then used to cast the silver.

Casting gate.

This freshly cast ring has been tumbled clean, and the sprue has been cut off.

Filing off the gates, one ring at a time.

The gates are removed first and then all of the outer surfaces of the rings are filed to get rid of any imperfections on the surface.

Tap tap tapping the threads.

The thread for the screws are not cast into the rings, but are tapped by hand. M3 for the small size, and M4 for the larger sizes.

Sand from 220-1200 grit,and polish thrice -

then you'll end up with something shiny and nice!

Progressive sanding with five different grits of sandpaper and then two grades of polishing compound gives the rings their final mirrored finish.

We were able to source everything within the city, most things being within biking range - one of the best things about the city of Toronto!

- Heather & Scott

Not Your Father's Art in a Bag

2010-06-02T23:11:00.000-04:00

the NDC attended the grand opening fundraiser for Not Your Father's contemporary. The idea was to have artists donate their art, which were randomly placed into unmarked craft paper bags (think blind date though art). Guests who donated can pick their own art filled mystery bag. Our very own talented friend, Ricky Thomas (@CtlAltRicky), was among the talented local artists, and we were really hoping to get one of his pieces.

Mystery-unmarked-craftpaper-bags

we channeled raiders of the lost arc. picked the most wrinkled bag

You can stop holding your breath now. the artist in our bag was Rajni Perera in our bag!

birdgirl sketch (left), Men in suits vs the lamb-moutain-viking (right)

Scoooba Steve

The girl who ate so much ice cream, her arm fell off.

- Jess

New Website and Product Launch!

2010-06-01T00:07:00.000-04:00

the National Design Collective would like to officially announce that our new website is live at thenationaldesigncollective.ca! The best news of all however is that we are officially launching our first product, titled the M3/M4 rings which can be found here.

In the next week we will be trying to merge the blog with the website. Because of our technological illiteracy, there may be some down time on the blog. Sorry.

-team NDC

Don't forget about Spooky.

2010-05-26T19:18:00.000-04:00

Protagonists vs. Antagonists

MTV vs Fifa
soccer team A vs B
hamster vs. dude
spoon vs. chainsaw
Big ass hamster vs. tiny house

Happy Wednesday everybody!

- Heather.

PS:
Sorry about the cut-off video, I couldn't figure out why it is doing that. Click on link for optimal viewing! Full-screen for EXTREME viewing!

CEO [update]

2010-05-20T22:45:00.000-04:00

A friend of ours saw our CEO post and couldn't resist turning him into a lolcat.

Meow! (thanks Andrew)

- BT

Geometry 101

2010-05-19T22:03:00.000-04:00

As a tribute to Buckminster Fuller and his optimism for the future of humanity and technology we borrowed some geometry for a project. The project will become public soon, but for now we just wanted to share some progress shots.

Icosahedron Prototypes

These are two preliminary units to test size, assembly, and compound mitre skills. Hand assembly poses a few issues, but they go together surprisingly well. These now need to be sanded and features need to be added to finish the project off.

What is She Holding Out There?

Each Bucky ball is around 200mm in diameter and made of pine. The final model will be slightly larger, and in hard maple. We will post the final project soon when it can be publicly released.

-Scott

CEO

2010-05-14T20:46:00.001-04:00

Well, we always joked that Craig was our CEO, and we also always joked that he would look absolutely smart in a bowtie - but the proof is in the pudding.

Introducing Craig, NDC's official CEO. Please refer all issues regarding press, distribution, and mousing to him.

Oh, and keeping in theme with teasers for our forthcoming product launch, here's a picture from our shop / self-inflicted sweatshop. But seriously, we all know that today, the product launch is eclipsed by the photo of a cat in a bowtie.

- Heather.

PRODUCT LAUNCH TEASER_02

2010-05-08T18:22:00.000-04:00

Product launch teaser #2: experiments in packaging.

Almost There.

Material and Graphic Layout Experiments.

Still hoping for a late May launch!

-Scott

Web 2.0.1

2010-04-21T19:16:00.000-04:00

The new Webster Chair is done! Sure, it doesn't have any webbing, but I'm not too worried. Lots of time to come up with a catchy new name. After finishing the frame a couple of weeks ago, the final step was to cushion and upholster the seat which was wrapped in a dark grey wool felt. The felt matches the Chicago bolts and adds a nice contrast to the light wood (ash I think).

The Web 2.0 chair is meant as a low lounge chair that with a waterproof upholstery could sit well on a porch for some serious stooping. For now it serves as a relaxing reading chair in the living room (can't get a prototype wet!).

I am very happy with this prototype, and would only have a few revisions for the next iteration. The proportions are a little off due to my sad lack of woodworking skills. The chair should be slightly lower and more laid back, but there was an unfortunate incident involving one of the side pieces of the outer frame. There should also be a horizontal brace behind where the seat meets the back for structure and to frame in the back panel.

The next step is to add rocking chair legs. Due to the Chicago bolts between the inner frame and leg/arm pieces, it will be very easy to interchange different styles of legs depending on my mood. Which is almost always surly.

-Scott

PRODUCT LAUNCH TEASER_01

2010-04-14T20:44:00.000-04:00

We haven't been posting too much lately, but we're excited to tell you the reason why we've been busy:

NDC'S FIRST PRODUCT LAUNCH is coming real soon!

We just picked up our moulds and our first production set of we're not going to tell you yet widgets. Just a bit more elbow grease and packaging and we will be able to show you our first product launch in May!

In the meantime, we will be releasing a few teaser pictures leading up until the big day, so stay tuned!

- Heather!

creative crush two

2010-04-08T21:39:00.001-04:00

We don't mean to cheat on Anna, but as little school girls the NDC will admit unabashedly, that we have more than one crush written on the back cover of our textbooks.

Rita, Rita, Rita.....

YES / NO / MAYBE?

Rita Dryers - Giving Montrealers a chance to realize their childhood dreams of crawling inside the dryer.

Passe moi un sapin: Sort of a cute way of sort-of-re-foresting.

3 Spaces - A compact oversized brochure for the Quebec University in Montreal.

- Heather

Happy Leather Ham Day!

2010-04-05T17:58:00.000-04:00

Today is the twenty-fourth annual Leather Ham day! The NDC celebrated the joyous occasion with a bit of a shindig.

Goes great with Leather Ham!

"Why you don't say!" -Ham

Triangle love ham.

Happy Birthday Heather!!!

-The NDC

Fear and Lathing

2010-04-04T15:13:00.001-04:00

Recently had a chance to put a bit of time into the lathe. Decided to make something round. That round thing turned out to be a Finnish (as I know it) rolling pin.

Sheets of maple were laminated to create a blank that was then cut lengthwise on a diagonal. Padauk was laminated in the middle to add some colour and contrast to the light maple.

It's round!

The rolling pin is 450mm long and 55mm in diameter in the middle, tapering in to 30mm on the ends. The lamination lines between the maple were accentuated with the finish, so next time a solid piece will be used.

Detail of the Padauk

The red-orange padauk runs out on both sides of the rolling pin and has a really nice grain. Does anyone know how to properly apply Tung Oil?

-Scott

Taxidermy is the New Black?

2010-03-28T11:02:00.000-04:00

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
follow us on twitter @theNDC

Lady Chair Prototype!

2010-03-27T18:42:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-25T23:00:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-21T14:25:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

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

2010-03-16T19:33:00.000-04:00

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