Furniture Pieces

These are some of the other pieces that were at the Boise Chair Affair:

This piece was the one by the professional welder, it won 3 awards: Best Professional Design, Best Recycled Materials Design, and Most Creative Design.

This was the piece that won Best Student Design

Best Craftsmanship

Best Functional Design

Viewers Choice Award (This piece came from the UI shop)



The following pieces are some of my favorites that came out of the UI shop.

This first picture is the other piece that won an Honorable Mention award. He made it out of bent bamboo plywood and 600 used corks.

The rest of these pieces are from either UW or professionals that entered the competition.

This piece is put in just for Ruth. I remember it because it was titled the "West Seattle Bench."

Table Update

Well the Chair Affair was this weekend. All of my class's pieces were packed in a truck on Wednesday and shipped down to Boise. I drove down Friday with some classmates and stayed at their home near Boise for the weekend. It was quite a fun weekend, I've been so stressed lately that being away from homework was good (although I've been working hard since I got back this evening). Friday afternoon I learned how to slack line. It is kinda like tight rope walking but only about 3 feet off the ground. By the end of the day I was able to get up on the line on my own and I even took a step by myself. I fell a lot though, but being so close to the ground you always land on your feet. That night we also shot the bow and arrows. I decided that snapping myself with the bow string was fun though and have a very nice purple bruise on my elbow (the welt on my forearm didn't bruise thankfully). Then we sat around a fire pit once it got dark and for being the first time around fire since I burned my ankle I am proud to say I didn't fall in this time.

On to the Chair Affair

There were some very beautiful pieces entered in the competition, both from professionals and from students. I was one of 3 people to receive an award from my school. Myself and another boy in my class both received honorable mentions for our pieces but no big awards. The third award that went to a UI student was the people's choice award. 3 of the 6 large awards went to a single piece designed by a professional metal welder. As students we were disappointed that the professionals were judged in the same categories as us, it really lowers our chances at winning. I was proud though, I did get some credit for my design so I can't complain.

We received the judges score sheets for our projects and there were two judges that really liked my piece, one that was in the middle and two more that were very harsh on all the pieces that they judged. What confuses me most is how I was often marked down for the usability and appropriateness of my piece. I received my lowest score of a 4 out of 10 in that category and a few 5's as well. What more is a coffee table supposed to do than provide a surface to set things on and a shelf below for storage. Some tables do not even come with a shelf below. Maybe they were upset that the drawer could not be used for any more than sand but who wants to look through a glass top at all of the junk you are trying to hide on the inside of the piece?

Oh well, I am going to try to get pictures up soon of some of the other pieces that won. I have to get them from some friends however.

Now it is time to finish work on all of my other final projects.......

Shin-Zen-Bi

Its DONE!!!!! My glass is here, although it is not on in the pictures because they wrapped it so nicely for me to transport to Boise this weekend. Now all I have to do is finish the rake that I made and buy some more sand to make sure that the bottom of the drawer doesn't show through.







And this is my concept statement that I turned in to go along with the entry.

The Japanese art of Bonsai is centered on the principal of “heaven and earth in one container”. Through the transparent top of this handcrafted table, a bonsai garden is visible that allows a family to forever hold the abstracted memory of the family's ancestral home. The sand-filled drawer that holds the garden floats effortlessly on a simple, almost primitive mechanism. To continue the Japanese style of the family's home, intricate hand-crafted lattice sides were assembled of over 250 individual pieces. Like a good bonsai garden, three forces have come together: truth, essence, and beauty, or shin-zen-bi.

Shin-Zen-Bi is the title I chose for this coffee table.

Coffee Table Model

I realized that I have never put up any pictures of what the finished coffee table is supposed to look like. Here is my original model that I built. Some things will be different on my finished version but this will give you an idea of my project

Coffee Table Progress

I've made a lot of progress, I started off with a LOT of small little pieces and today got them glued in to what will be come the side supports of my coffee table!