snow
rocking chair
SNOW ROCKING CHAIR - CLASS OF 2014
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snow Snow is an amazing effect that Mother Nature has granted us. It’s pure form and beauty is so refreshing and powerful, yet its details are subtle and relaxing: the way it flutters to the ground, or the way it sounds and feels when you walk through it, even the slight change in hue and value in its shadows. There is no wonder why people flock to these locations and have such an emotional attachment; it’s a completely visceral experience.
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mnf. Before getting started, I was asked to look to my passions in the many feilds of design. I really enjoy making things with my hands and being able to watch the final product come to life with prototypes. Knowing that I have always wanted to design and build things, I looked for a manufacturing job to learn how to translate this passion into the real world. Now I am capable of many practices from 3d printing, wood plyform, vacuum form, to full CNC prototypes or production tools. With few people with this knowledge amungst my generation, it is my pride and obligation to offer my Know how and quality of materials and processes.
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early life My youth in Lake Arrowhead is another big experience in my life that I have to share. Being able to go on nature walks with a BB gun or spend time with my friends in the snow, along many other things, is a much different lifestyle than I have noticed around orange county. It was a great place for a boy to grow up, learning to appreciate life and nature. This will stick with me forever and always be a part of my story.
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warmth Along with the focus on my passions I was asked to be inspired by a form of light. Due to my past I decided on a winter cabin. There is such an emotional attachment to a sight like this because it speaks to our inner being. For survival we must keep warm, eventhough fortunately not very many have to experiecne that. But the warmth of a home in general has a lot to do with comfort and security and people pick up on these triggers inately.
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escape At first sight I want this chair to take you away to the time you visited the cabins, making you feel warm and relaxed. This will beg for further exploration and as more of the chair is revealed it takes the effect even further. As you sit on it and begin to rock it slowly comes alive as the wood planks begin to light up with every sway. The sublte shades of white remind you of the snow as well as the cumfort of the padded seat versus the cool touch of the powder coated metal. You have no control over your thoughts and feelings as you slip away to the good times you once hadenjoying perfect relaxation.
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sided One of the main features is the relationship of of a snow covered roof on a wood cabin, or “A” frame to be specific. Notice on some sides the snow packs up and that is largely all that is to be seen. As you walk around you begin to see the wood peek from underneath. This creates excitement because there is so much contrast between the two surfaces it begs to be explored.
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subtle The shadows of snow are very captivating on their own. Similar to the effect of fluffy nimbus clouds. The slight shift in value and hue creates a landscape rich in detail yet so soft to the eye it does not overwhelm you. Its blanket like forms are gentle making for a visual que of comfort.
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rails Who has been to visit the snow and has not taken a ride on a sled? Hopefully no one, the two kind of go hand in hand. It would seem impossible to be sourounded by snow and not cut loose with some old fashioned fun. The rails of a sled are pretty iconic in this setting so I thought it would be a great way to hint at the overall experience of being in the snow.
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calm Snowfall is definitely my favorite, I love how calming it is, how the snowflakes drift ever so slowly to the ground, covering it untill its pure in form and color. I could watch this for hours. It always would be a nice suprise waking up to it and being able to enjoy it from my warm bed.
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wood To contrast the subtlties of the snow I wanted to use wood paneling, as if it were the walls of a cabin, and somehow illuminate it so that it is seen as a habitable place or object.
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The final ended up being a rocking chair because it is associated with warm thoughts of home and ultimatly shares the same emotion I was set out for- relaxing in a warm winter cabin. The pure white faces allude to the snow fall as the cut outs in the back seem to drift steadily. The wood slats were borrowed from the architecture of a cabin. The ribs light up as you bring it to life by gently rocking back and forth, just like stoking a fire. The people sitting around the room enjoy the experience as well as they watch the chair react to your every movement. The light is calm and tranquil like a fireplace or a candle putting everyone in a well relaxed mood. 13
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ideation When I first started to sketch I found myself doing a lot of geometrics which I was borrowing from the architecture of the cabin. However I soon realized I wasnt cpaturing any of the snow so I moved on.
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ideation Then Focus was brought to the Idea of playing in the snow so I wanted to create modular forms that the user could rearrange to their satisfaction. The use of big proportions was to capture a thick blanket of snow.
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ideation Finally I wanted to push the envelope even further so I decided to go with the relationship to the snow on the cabin. From some views you mostly see snow on the roof top, and others, you mostly see the illuminated wooden panels of the cabin walls. This led me to create a hollow chair to resemble a warm dwelling covered in contrasting snow. The details on the back ranged from Tree branchs to snowfall to more wood paneling.
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illuminate Being as this was a light up chair I wanted to first start by figuring out how i was going to make it light up having so little room to store a battery box or even lights themselves. I found some EL wire around the studio and it seemed to be the best choice due to its size and ease. Here is a test shot when I first tried it out. It has the perfect effect because it is offered in many colors including the orange which I used.
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getting started After having a plan of action I went down to the lumber yard to hopefully get a block of oak (indigenous tree to the local mountains). They didn’t have anything that size so I had to laminate pieces together to get the desired size, making sure the grain went the same direction so it will have a consistent look. To the left is the glued blocks under 10,000 lbs of force for an even bond that will prevent delaminating while machining.
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setup A day later after the block is cured it was time to write programs on the computer as well as set the tools I was to use in the machining center. For the first side I simply clamped the block in a vise leaving plenty of room for the cutting I was going to do. A height gauge was used to accurately set the tools to the starting height (corresponding to what I chose on the computer).
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machining A long Ball end mill did most of the work as it roughed out the pocket and then did a much smoother finish pass, each program running for several hours. Due to the under cuts, this part had to be done from two sides.
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??? After the finishing the surfaces on the first side I needed to cut the grooves for the EL wire before I could take the block out of the machine (or I would loose the location). In the endless bins of slot cutters I could not find anything close to being able to reach inside to do the job so I ended up having to take a detour and make a tool (on the right) with the right amount of travel and diameter of cut.
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slots You can see even this tool was right at its limits of depth. But pictured on the right, it did a great job making a home for the wire. They were cut .005 small so that the wire would press in and there would be no need for messy glue.
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flip After the first side was completely done it was time to mirror the programs and flip the part. Lining up the part when flipping is very crucial so that the part lines match. Indicating edges were cut into the exterior of the block before it was moved then picked up from the bottom when re-clamped in the vise.
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trim Next step was to trim off the excess wood with a band saw. The first two cuts were easy because they were supported by the existing bottom of the block. However, cutting away that support material had to be done carefully because the sides of the actual part are not flat and therefore the blade was not perpendicular to the surface I needed to cut. it would have been easy to cut into the part.
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shaping The trimmed wood was now ready to be polished down to form. The hard oak was too hard to file or rasp so I ended up using a coarse sanding disk on a die grinder. This took a while but it took less physical effort and had much smoother results than any previous attempts with other tools.
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plumbing Due to the fact that the EL wire is a continuous length, I had to create channels so that it could hop each groove then come neatly to the underside were any excess would be stored.
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stain To protect the wood from dirty hands while I worked on it as well as to achieve a warm tone, the wood was treated with a satin finish similar to that of wooden exterior homes.
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Thread This part was pretty challenging...It actually took the longest amount of time because the cheap electronics I got online kept malfunctioning. I ended up having to find the one store that sells it (frys electronics) but they had very limited selection and tragedies kept unfolding. My one 15 foot length wasn’t long enough so I needed another one. They only had 2 orange (slightly different in color) wires left so I got them. Unfortunately they were larger in diameter to the other wire I had so I needed to sand it down so that it would fit in the slots (nightmare). After getting those to size tested them to find that one did not work, resulting in two tones of orange.
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laser The back of the chair was first cut out on a laser then meticulously deburred. Subtle chamfers were then added to create a little more interest.
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forming The next process for the back was to design and make some wooden press forms to give the then 2D back some shape. This initial form was mainly used to locate the major bend points because the material (6061 aluminum) had noticable spring back.
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shaping After the hydraulic form was finished there was still plenty of work to be done to get this metal into the desired form. To the right is a wooden form buck sculpted to form the curve in the back of the seat. The legs and overall tweaking went about with a rubber hammer and some sheet metal forming tools, and a lot of patience.
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paint After I was happy with the overall shape of the metal back it was time to carefully paint one side at a time. I chose a pure white painted metal to mimic the color of snow as well as the cool touch.
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base A base was needed to neatly present the model with no sight of dangling wire or battery boxes. This tray was a great find at target because it was almost exactly what I had in mind, and I didnt have to spend hours making a nice chunk of wood. I knew I wanted something low profile so that the focus would be on the chair. I wanted it to be wood to fit in with my concept, and I hoped it would be round so that it has a soft nature that matched the language of my chair. The wood of the chair also has a similar stain which played out very nicely
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upholstery Back to the chair...After getting the EL wire sorted out and taped down foam batting was wrapped with white fabric (which had a slight sheen to it as if it were snow) then meticulously fitted to cover the wooden portion.
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assemble The final task was to attach the back to the mating sides of the upholstered wood. This was done with hot glue and a quick hand, having little time to position the pieces together and only having one shot for success.
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final The final model turned out just as I hoped for the most part. I wanted to use the real materials and have it be a display of quality (speaking to my brand and the processes I stand for). But ultimately I wanted to share an experience of the calming effects of a winter cabin. Lastly, I wanted to style it in a way that these emotional triggers could be brought to urban or modern living.
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the end