kaffe michelle tamura iarc486 // w17
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tre
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tamura brand michelle tamura
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tamura brand The Tamura brand appeals to a diverse range of users. From different cultures, styles, and walks of life, TRE and KAFFE are intuitive and approachable and fit in many different living environments. The Tamura brand focuses on beauty in carefully designed details as well as unique yet refined forms. Michelle Tamura gets her inspiration from experiences she had while living in Copenhagen and her heritage as a Japanese American. In preparation for this studio she researched traditional Japanese woodworking techniques as well as Danish design company HAY. Prior to designing KAFFE, Michelle designed TRE; a serving board for hors d’oeuvres in the style of HAY design. Also with pronounced joinery and subtle details, TRE is gently designed to be approachable and soft yet sophisticated and thoughtful in function and aesthetic. KAFFE embodies the brand in the truth to materiality, subtle but pronounced details and connections, thoughtful and careful craftsmanship, and a high standard of design.
concept michelle tamura kaffe
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concept statement KAFFE is a solid beech coffee table designed carefully and thoughtfully to function as a beautiful centerpiece in any size living space. Small enough to fit in a tiny apartment yet large enough to stand its ground in a large room, KAFFE will serve users well no matter what context it lives in. With notions of Japanese and Danish design culture, KAFFE is made from the traditional beech wood and finished with Danish soap flakes. The visible wood connections speaks to the pronounced nature of Japanese joinery. Designed to hold favorite coffee table books and magazines, the leather sling is the main material connection in the piece and is connected both on the table top as well as the supports. Clean, delicate details such as cut outs, rounded edges, touchable soap finish, and hand-stitched leather all contribute to the thoughtful yet subtle details that characterize the piece.
design michelle tamura kaffe
process work KAFFE started as a material study, understanding the properties of leather. Leather wants to be slung across wood structures so first I arrived upon a bench with a sling for a seat. After that idea was deemed structurally inadequate, I moved to a leather sling inset into a table. For the notion of a table, I aimed to create a table that could be simple and sophisticated yet also playful and approachable. I played with the sling on the outside of the piece, on one side, and finally: around two dowels and integrated in the structure. Because our studio objective and theme was “material connections� I refined my design until the leather was fully and intentionally integrated with the wood structure that contains it. The final product is a coffee table that holds books and magazines gracefully in a leather sling that is attached on one of the short supports and around a dowel that rests in the tabletop.
reviews Throughout the term we had many informal reviews as well as a formal jury style midterm review. It was difficult for me to understand scale on such a different level than what I was used to. I was forced to think about drawings not only in 2d and roughly but also in the sense of 3d models and at proportions to fit the human body. During midterm review I got feedback about my piece and scaled down the length and width to be more manageable. Pictured below are some of my study models that experimented with scale, proportion, and materiality.
trial and error Though we had extensive reviews and opportunities to fix proportion and scale, I discovered flaws in my own final drawings and proportions once I began building my piece. My leg tenons were too large, my stretchers were a different length once I drilled my holes, I under-rounded my legs and over-rounded my table-top. One of the biggest challenges I faced this term was dealing with the uncertainty of things not going according to plan. However, I believe I adapted well and after all, it was all part of the process.
connections KAFFE’s signature material connection is a leather-wood relationship. The delicate, rectilinear nature of the wood dowels juxtapose the rigid yet flowing leather sling.
details KAFFE has many subtle yet impactful details. From the carefully handstitched leather to the routed ends of both the legs and inset dowel, KAFFE speaks as a cohesive whole because of the consistent visual details.
process michelle tamura kaffe
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construction process The construcution process was definitely challenging but I did have a lot of fun learning how to operate the tools in the woodshop. It was extremely gratifying watching a piece of solid lumber become a beautiful and functional piece of furniture. Equally satisfying was watching a 2d design on paper slowly come to life through hard work and determination.
full scale mock-up - Test design ideas full scale - Understand the proportions for final design - Prepare for final construction
mill - Go to Crosscuts Hardwood, a lumber supply Company in Eugene - Joint, plane, and cut down milled lumber to rough dimensions
glue - Glue together table top into two panels so they can be planed - Not to final thickness because they will lose some height later on - NOTE: bottom photo is in 2 pieces, still
legs - Cut down legs from rectangular prisms to octagonal prisms using band saw at 45 degree angle - Using the mechanical lathe, spin down legs to final dimension of 9/8�d
tenons - Measure dowels to cut tenons on the dado saw at 1” diameter - Drill 1” practice hole to fit the tenons - Cut down tenons little by little until they are 1” diameter
top - Plane down both parts to final thickness (1 1/4”) - Cut out hole roughly with band saw on both panels - Align the sides and glue up table top
drill - Mark hole centers 4� from the corners on center - Drill 1� holes in table top for leg tenons
leather - Go to Oregon Leather Company to buy a full hide of 2.5mm thick veg. tanned leather - Cut a small piece and test out the connection detail
router - Make a laser cut template with a 1/8” offset - Laser cut the template from 1/4” MDF - Grab a piece of plywood and test the tool - Align the template to the final piece and route the hole in 3 depths and try to avoid burn marks (very difficult to do this operation)
channel - Mark where inset needs to be made and the 1/8” offset - Set up fence to line up with the offset - Route each side to create channel for dowel
edges - Top: bandsaw out the edges of the table at a 1 1/4� diameter - Middle: Sand out the inner and outer edges so they are free of burn marks and sharp edges - Bottom: Route the edges of the legs so they rest on a rounded surface
supports - Top: Cut pre-made maple dowels for the supports and put them into the holes drilled by the drill press. (tenons were cut the same way as the leg tenons, on the dado saw) - Middle: Drill holes at 90 degree angle (with the jig clamped in place and make sure they are all in line - Bottom: Assembly of completed maple dowels and beech legs
leather (measure) - Make sure all components are in order and the fit is tight - Cut width of leather and keep the length extra long - Fit the piece in the table and mark where to sew
leather (prep) - Top: Mark and punch holes from the center, out - Middle: Workspace including string, awl, hole puncher, and waxy string - Bottom: Wax the edges with beeswax and then burnish them by hand
stitching - Align the edges of one side and sew them with a saddle stitch - Flip the piece and do the same with the other side
finishing - Using a 1:1/2 ratio of soap flakes to boiling water, scrub and buff the table top with the mixture working from the bottom, to the legs/supports/table top
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reflection michelle tamura iarc486 // w17
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final thoughts Having zero previous experiences with power tools (except for minimal encounters with a hand-drill) it took a lot of learning to understand how the tools operate and how to safely exist in the wood-shop. Having a lack of knowledge of the processes required to execute our designs also meant I unintentionally challenged myself in ways I didn’t need to. For example, I did not design with an additive approach when thinking about cut-outs in my tabletop. The hand router had to be used for my inner cut and it was not only dangerous but extremely unreliable and inconsistent. If I had known about the challenging process I may not have designed the cutout in the way I did. However, this lack of prior knowledge actually helped me in the end because I pushed myself in ways I would never have given all the knowledge I have now. In addition, my constant fear of violating safety protocol or doing something wrong accidentally made me operate extremely slowly in the wood shop. It was difficult to think about your order of operations when all the moves you make have the ability to severely impact your planning and design. As a person who loves to plan and see those plans materialize, it was definitely challenging to see things go wrong and have to problem-solve mid production and re-imagine parts of my piece. Thankfully, due to many test pieces and countless hours spent in the wood-shop, I was able to make a table (almost) true to my original design. And how much fun would it really be if everything worked out as planned?
michelle tamura winter 2017 furniture studio design, construction, photography
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