Metal Chair: Part 3

Alrighty, this is the final post about this chair! You can catch up here and here if you missed the last two. We last left off with the base completed and some of the structure for the back and seat cut out. 

As per my teacher's instructions, I made a cross out of very dense metal, with a circle in the center to put bolts through. This got welded into the base, and a piece of flat metal went on the bottom to cover it up.  

Then I did the upholstery! I got foam and pleather at Fabric Outlet (obvs). The foam was glued to the wood (see the last post), and the pleather was wrapped around that and stapled to the back. Staple gun for the win, that was probably the funnest part of this project! 

Here's what the seat looked like with the cushion, before I glued the cushion in: 

Then I welded the back and seat to each other. I cut half-circles into the bottom of the bar, so it could wrap around the back bar of the seat. This is similar to how the top of the base is constructed. 

The adjustable height hardware was bolted to the bottom of the seat. 

And I cut out a circle, welded it to the top of the base, and bolted the other half of the hardware in. 

And then I spray-painted! Primer, then a paint called "Oil-Brushed Bronze" and then a matte finisher. We were going for an old, cast-iron look, and the imperfections in the metal helped with this.  

I covered up the inside with paper, so as not to get paint where I would be gluing the cushions. 

Here's what the chair looked like post-paint. It's not twisted down all the way, which is why it looks a little awkward. 

At this point, the school year was over and my project wasn't exactly done. So I took all the pieces home and glued it there! Here's a whole bunch of photos of the final product: 

I hope there weren't too many photos for these last few posts, but I really liked getting in the practice of taking process photos for this project. It has served me well, especially for new design projects at college. (Unfortunately, this chair couldn't come live with me in my dorm :/)

See you in two weeks!
Taft WK

Metal Chair: Part 2

Alright, I gotta be honest. It's been a while since this project, and I'm not sure I can describe it as well as I did for the first post. But I'm going to try my best! 

Where I left off on the last post, I had just finished bending the metal for the back and seat.

I bent the tops of the sides to make the corners and welded them together at the center. 

And then I cut and mitered a piece for the back of the seat. 

That got welded together too, but I don't think I have a photo. 

These half-circles are cut into the ends of the bars for the back of the chair. They fit around the back of the base of the chair, like so: 

That welding is a little janky, probably should have spent a little more time on it. 

A chair with a completely open back doesn't make a whole lot of sense, so next up was cutting and molding wood. 

So we got this weird foam thing. Can't remember what it's called, but here's what we did: 

1. Glue it all together to make one big block

2. Trace the outline of the back of the chair onto the block

3. Cut the block along that line using the bandsaw

And then we put several sheets of this bendy wood in between the two pieces of foam and clamped it. This sat overnight, and when the clamps came off, the wood was the exact contour as the metal for the back of the chair. 

Like that! 

Then I used some scrap plywood to cut out the shape for the bottom.

I didn't want the wood to be visible in the final chair, so I bent sheet metal to cover the back: 

And cut out sheet metal and welded it onto the bottom of the base. 

And remember the last picture in the last post? Here's what it turned into: 

Probably the best finished piece out of the whole project. Too bad it's one of the least visible pieces. Oh well!

That circle is for the top of the new base design. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of the sketch I made, so I'm gonna tell you about it with real pictures: 

I started out by laser cutting a pattern, using the same curves as the back of the chair. 

And then I bent four pieces of metal to be the legs. 

I used the same curves as the back of the chair. 

Not all the legs were completely straight, so I cut, rotated and welded back together a few of them. This ended up working in my favor - it gave the metal a nice texture when I painted it. 

I cut them all down to the same length and cut half-circles into the top. These half-circles fit around the circle I made for the top of the base. 

Like this: 

You can see how the base was attached to an adjustable-height thingy (I think it's called piano bench hardware?)...but that's a story for the next post! We're also gonna talk about the upholstering and more structural stuff I put into the base. 

See you in two weeks! 

-Taft WK

Academy of Art University (Summer 2015): Fashion Design

The last post in the series about the classes I took at the Academy of Art University last summer. You can also read about the Fashion Construction and Fashion Drawing classes I took. 

As with all good design projects, we started with a lot of research. I made word maps and tried to sort out what was most inspiring to me, searched tags on Tumblr for images, dug through the image files at AAU's library, and went on a (legit) archaeological dig through my fabric stash. 

After about a week of tossing ideas around, I settled on the dream that had brought me to the classes in the first place. I wanted to make things, learn how to make things better, and make things for other people. I decided to design a collection that represented artists and makers, that was an artist's uniform. 

I brought all my visual research together and made several pages of collage in my sketchbook. (Side note, the plate in the top left corner is from the Heath Ceramics and Alabama Chanin collaboration! My favs!)

After laying down the initial images, I went in with markers, pens, ink, watercolor pencils, and tape to add my own illustrations to the page and highlight certain areas. I also used tracing paper to gather interesting shapes I found in the pictures of artists and makers. 

In many cases, I used my own handprint as part of the art. I wanted a piece of my own maker-ship, of my own hands to be part of the collection. I believe there is something incredibly beautiful and compelling about the handmade and I wanted that to come across in the clothing I designed. 

After creating the collages, I extracted certain colors from the images. 

I noticed that in the two main threads of my visual research, painters and welders, there were different color schemes, and I wanted them to be represented. The color swatches represent a lot of work that is not pictured here: many trials with different mediums, trying to get just the right hue. 

You can see some of the colors I didn't use on the page on the left. 

Then our class moved into sketching and making rough silhouettes. We made about 16, which would eventually be whittled down to between 4 and 6. 

The roughs were drawn using croquis - which I was morally against. The croquis available had illogical proportions and I did not want to use them for my designs. I took the most reasonable looking croquis and filled her out in some places, most notably the thighs and upper arms. It didn't make a hugely noticeable difference, but it was enough that I felt just a little bit more comfortable using them. I still wish I had realistically proportioned sketches, though. 

I also began coloring in my roughs using my basic, preliminary palette. The colors changed from what you see pictured here. 

All the above sketches were rejects, and below are the silhouettes I decided upon. You'll notice they're covered in notes and folded papers, as I combined some outfits together and edited along the way. 

I chose 5 outfits, because I felt I could achieve a good balance in that. 

On the above page on the right, you can see another one of my drafts, where I started moving around colors and design details and testing color swatches until the outfits started feeling like they clicked together when you looked at them. 

And this is my final collection! I chose minimalist makeup and versatile shoes. 

For the final presentation, I also created a color story board with fabric swatches and the buttons that would be used on the coats...

As well as a mood board, which pulled images from the collage and inspiration pages of my sketchbook. 

I had some extra time at the end of the class, so I got a tutorial from my teacher on how to draw flats: 

This was definitely one of my favorite parts. I'm especially fascinated by the technical aspects of fashion design, and drawing the flats allowed me to detail out exactly what I would have wanted the final product to look like. 

Of course, when I had finished designing the collection, I had big dreams that I would mock-up and maybe create some of what I had designed. I never ended up doing that, but I still love several of the pieces and their design details are still on my mental list of Things to Sew (One Day). 

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! This week, I've also been blogging at hiveonline.org, offering a youth perspective on the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. There's not as much sewing mojo as there is here, but you can also hit me up on Twitter @TWKisseamstress or read the articles at hiveonline.org, where we're talking smack about the patriarchy, advocating for women and girls, and empowering youth for sexual and reproductive health and rights! That's also some good mojo. 

-Taft WK