Wood-fired!

Chairs of the Alumni

An exhibition of the work of George Ingham is being planned for October 2009 - A Singular Talent: a retrospective exhibition of the work and teaching of George Ingham (1940 - 2003). In conjunction with this, another exhibition - Chairs of the Alumni: the ongoing narrative - is being organised. Former students of George (that includes me) are invited to exhibit a recently made chair.

To quote from the invitation: “The exhibition Chairs of the Alumni will draw on the intakes of the years 1983 to 2003 inclusive to serve as a vehicle through which George’s teaching might be celebrated. It is hoped that the contemporary pieces will underscore individual maturation, and in the exhibition they will be counterpointed by George’s own teaching pieces and drawings.”

So - there is my new project in a nutshell! It’s quite a while since I designed a new chair. In fact the last was these conversation chairs exhibited in 1997. Damn that’s a long time ago. So this challenge is overdue.

I hope to take my readers along on this journey over the next 12 months - showing the design ideas, the ergonomic tests, the design resolution, the making, the catalogue photography - right through to the exhibition.

Hope you come along for the ride.

6 comments September 29th, 2008

Ming chair

This wonderful piece of design and superb execution is a chair by the late George Ingham. George was the foundation head of the wood workshop at the Canberra School of Art - and, I’m proud to say, was my teacher and mentor.

This chair featured in an exhibition, The Chinese Chair, curated by Rodney Hayward and Nigel Lendon at Craft ACT that “sought to sketch by means of the lineage of the Chinese chair, an understanding of design as being a trajectory of information through both time and space“. It also has a special place in the hearts of those of us who knew George and mourned his passing.

The chair is obviously making strong reference to the Chinese tradition of chair making but melds this with distinctly western techniques and some of the very recognisable vernacular of George Ingham.

There is considerable acknowledgement of the importance of ergonomics in recent western tradition. The profile of the back splat is improved over the typical Chinese chair so that the main support is provided to the lumbar region of the sitter. The angle of the seat and the gentle curve at the front make this a very comfortable chair. The woven seat with its generous width and the carefully placed continuous arm also make the chair a pleasure to sit in.

The construction is a delight to anyone who has wrestled with the severe demands of joining seat to chair legs and back in a way that will withstand the weighty guest who loves to rock their chair back on its hind legs (no one who has ever made a chair would do this!) while also trying to make the piece look elegant and light. The seat corners are mitred with three substantial splines so that there is a large area of long-grain gluing - large enough that a hole can be drilled through the corner joint to accomodate the leg.

The joints are all based on the “spindle in a socket” technique that pretty much defines the traditional Windsor chair that George would have been so familiar with. The solution starts with the stretchers in the undercarriage. This style of square timber transitioning to a thinner round that fits into a drilled socket is very characteristic of George’s work. This joint is used in one of his designs for a student piece - a small side table that teaches edge-jointing, mortise and tenon and these spindle joints. The style is then continued into the very clever joints at the corners of the seat.

Most chairs rely on carefully designed, executed and glued mortice and tenon joints to provide the strength required for the joints between leg and seat and back. In this chair a hole is drilled through each strong splined corner of the seat and the round of the leg simply passes through each hole. Gravity and geometery lock the joint tight. This joint would survive any failure of the glue over time.

The round of the leg continues through the seat to become the support for the continuous arm. The jointing theme is continued here. The round is reduced to a smaller spindle which fits into a socket drilled in the underside of the arm.

The chair is completed by the shaped back support which is inset with three pieces of stone. The considered and beautifully executed transition between the top of the splat and the arm of the chair is typical of George’s thoughtful craftsmanship.

4 comments September 29th, 2008

More filter fun

Here are a few results of spending the afternoon playing with OnOne’s PhotoTools for Photoshop (instead of doing the chair design I was meant to!). Nice to have an excuse to re-visit some old favourites.

These are the originals:

2 comments September 21st, 2008

(Pre)set the controls for the heart of the sun!

I’m a big fan of Adobe’s Lightroom - a great piece of software that makes managing and publishing your photos almost¹ enjoyable. There has been a recent proliferation of third-party plug-ins and presets for LR and today I played with the (free) WOW presets by Jack Davis.

I tried these out on some old pics of California poppies that self-seed in our back yard. This simple poppy is one my favourite exotic flowers. It’s a close call against a single Ranunculus and a dog-rose. (All very simple blooms I now notice - what is that saying about me?)

The first pic is a black & white conversion that emphasises the difference between yellow and white, with a slightly warm tint and a strong vignetting.

The colouring in this pic is the result of nothing other than applying LR’s auto white balance - misguided in terms of real colour but interesting for this image. Presets in LR don’t do anything you can’t do using the built-in controls (unlike Photoshop plugins and filters) and the usual selling point is that presets streamline your workflow. The benefit for me though is that other people’s presets adjust settings in a way that I might not try. In this case I never use auto white balance and would never have seen this great colour effect. More generally presets make use of multiple adjustments that you might not try in your normal workflow. The implementation of presets in LR means that you can just move your cursor over each preset and see the result in the navigation pane.

This is another B&W conversion that picks up a very subtle difference between yellow and orange bringing out the contrast along the edge of the stamens. A slightly cool tint and some light vignetting is also applied. I love the way the background has been rendered in this version.

In case you’re wondering, the title of this post is a tribute to the recently departed Richard Wright. Set the controls for the heart of the sun is a favourite track from the Floyd albums, A Saucerful of Secrets and UmmaGumma.

1. there has to be some room for artistic angst [↩]

2 comments September 19th, 2008

Syrian-dipity

A little while back I had a bunch of family around for my partner’s birthday. The main course was Neil Perry’s Persian lamb stew and I needed something to start that we could eat casually while presents were given and opened.

I ended up serving four great dips with lots of warm turkish bread. The smoky baba ghanoush was a given as was my standard creamy hummus. I found two more dips in Barry Véra’s Feast Bazaar.

One was a bean dip with feta from Syria which was pretty good and worth making again but the other was an absolute stunner.

Also Syrian, Beetroot and Yoghurt Dip is, as Barry says, colourful and very tasty! In fact for me I eclipsed all the others including the Baba Ghanoush that I have raved about previously.

Thanks to Barry and all the generations who have perfected this wonderful recipe.

Beetroot and Yoghurt Dip
• 500g beetroot
• 500g plain yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 20 mint leaves, thinly sliced (optional)
• extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 6 pides (Turkish/flat breads), warmed to serve

Peel the beetroot and trim the ends. Cut into chunks and place in a saucepan of boiling salted water. Cook for 30-45 minutes, or until tender. Use the point of a sharp knife to test if the beetroot is cooked - the knife should slide through, but the beetroot should still be firm. Remove from the heat, drain and refresh under cold running water, then drain again.

When cool enough to handle, coarsely grate the beetroot into a mixing bowl, then fold in the yoghurt, tahini, garlic, cumin, lemon zest and juice. Season to taste, cover, and refrigerate for at least 2-3 hours until chilled.

To serve, fold in the sliced mint, if desired, and adjust the seasoning to taste. Place in a serving bowl, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and serve with warm pide.

Hope you try this and sorry about the pun!

3 comments September 4th, 2008