Taught by Associate Professor of Art, Daniel Graham, this course was designed to apply artistic design in the form of furniture. Our goals were to build a table, chair, chest, and a set of drawers. After choosing to work with lacewood, I designed my furniture in compact form and design.

Lacewood

Our first task was to choose a type of wood that we would use to build the majority of our furniture. The man centered in this photo was my professor, and the largest plank of wood behind him was part of my lacewood that I split with another student. The other image is a small, 2in block of lacewood, which not only has the visual texture of "lace" on its surface, but its other surfaces have a "shark tooth" and "linear" pattern.

Below are several treatments that are applied to lacewood to add protection and coloring effects. The first plank is a piece of lacewood that went through a wood jointer, which just cuts the wood into a flat surface. The second plank has been smoothed with sand paper. The third plank has a home-made oil coating that enriches the colors. The fourth plank has a polyurethane coating that protects and glosses the wood

Table Project

Our first project was to create a table. Since I personally do not like large and clunky objects, I designed my table to be foldable and low-profile, intended for a person who sits on the floor or children. It was approximately 3ft long, 1ft wide, and 3in tall when folded and 1ft tall when the legs were extended.

Unfortunately, I lost the table at some point and I was unable to apply the final coats of varnish. Below are some of the building stages for the table, which includes the thick particle board base and the tiled lacewood. The final design also had pine wood elements to provide a contrast.

Chair Project

When designing a chair, I still wanted a compact design, so I built a stool, which is a technically a chair. I used lacewood and pine wood, and the structure of this chair can support a 150-pound person, possibly more. It is approximately 10in long, 5in wide, and 9in tall.

Here are some closeup images of the well-supported legs and lacewood textures:

Chest Project

For our chest project, I wanted to showcase each axis of the Lacewood, which has three distinct patterns. In hindsight, aligning different planes of the same wood can cause warping in different temperatures, so take heed. This chest is approximately 8in long, 4in wide, and 3in tall.

Drawers Project

Our final project was to create a set of drawers, which typically was meant to be sizable, but I improvised. Through the use of math and complex geometry, I designed a compact set of drawers within themselves. The actual drawer is so small that my wallet can barely fit in it. This set of drawers is approximately 6in long and wide when closed, and 2in tall.