Wood Idea

This year’s symposium focused on the issues concerning environment, policy-making, urban planning, sustainable design, and related practices by artists and scientists. It brought a number of great speakers over a 2-day event. I’ve attended the most of it except the panel discussion on the first day due to class - which was a shame as a list of panelists looked interesting! (Did anyone attend this? If yes, how was it?)

Day 1 was run by LEONARD. As I was already familiar with their style (I go to their speaker series at SETI in Mt. View periodically), it was predominated by a perspective from scientists and technologists. Regardless, overall I thought LEONARD and CADRE complimented each other very well over the course of a 2-day event.

All speakers presented his or her expertise on the issues with passion, which was informative and very inspiring (although the problem and idea was nothing new.) But it certainly made me feel good to be part of this - the experience of being there and made me feel even more strong about the issues as an artist and a human being.

Day 2 was hosted by the CADRE Laboratory for New Media in the School of Art and Design at SJSU. I was particularly intrigued by the panel discussion by the Climate Clock teams, which was medicated by Joel Slayton and the focus was around their design strategies. They were posed hard questions (by Joel) and I was curious about their responses as well as enjoyed watching how each team interacted as a group and between teams (but ultimately as a competitor), etc.

Prior to the panel discussion, there was also a great introduction about the Climate Clock initiative by the Public Art Director for the City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs, Barbara Goldstein which helped me to understand better from a different angle (a big picture), followed by the presentations by each group which was still work in progress so it was a little bit hard to visualize clearly (but seeing them up on stage was helpful).

One of the Climate Clock teams, Amorphic Robot Works (Chico MacMurtrie, Geo Homsy, Bill Washabaugh, and Gideon Shapiro) also showcased a gigantic sculpture “Inflatable Architectural Growth during the festival on the First Street for Absolute ZERO (and held days of workshop at South Hall). I had a chance to talk to Chico and met his team members during Absolute ZERO and I was totally impressed by their robotic artwork as well as their teamwork. Looking forward to working with them when they will begin their residencies at SJSU and Montalvo Art Center in January.

The finished book stand.

I begin with an apology. Im sorry for not having posted since October 22. I try to post at least weekly. A number of personal and work projects have conspired against me lately to prevent my posting. Chief among them was the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 Build Challenge.

As I was entered in the Build Challenge, Ive spent every free moment over the last few weeks working on the book stand which I submitted as my entry. When I lost my build time on the final Friday and Saturday of the challenge I feared it may have all been for naught if I failed to complete my project. Thankfully Rick was nice enough to extend the deadline for all and I successfully submitted my project almost 4 hours before the it was due!

Here for you, my dear readers, is part I of my submission description.


As my entry to the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 build challenge I have constructed a book stand. The book stand is constructed from walnut and glass tile, assembled using Domino joinery and finished with 6 coats of de-waxed shellac.

Design Process
When I decided to enter the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 build challenge in late August I had already been asked by my mother (a second grade teacher) to make a book stand for the dictionary in her classroom. She had given me a print out of some book stand designs, a physical copy of the dictionary to be held on the stand and a request of a 60 degree display angle. On review of the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 build challenge rules and entry form I quickly abandoned the designs she had suggested and got to work on my own.

The Bell Forrest project pack & the glass tile laid out on my table saw.

My starting point was walnut. I had always wanted to work it and when I saw Bell Forrest Products labor day sale I ordered a 10 board feet project pack and hoped that would be enough (it ended up being almost twice what I needed). Another point I wanted to incorporate from the beginning was a secondary material. My initial though was copper, as I have experience working with sheet metal at work, and copper is such a beautiful metal and so easy to work with. My idea was to use copper sheet metal to veneer a piece of MDF which would act as the arm portion of the stand. Unfortunately, the build challenge rules forbid the use of MDF, so I began to track down some plywood to veneer with the copper. During this early stage of the design I was walking through Home Depot and was inspired by the glass tile on display. I bought some there on the spot and decided that rather than use copper to veneer the arm portion of the stand, I would use the glass tile as an inlay for the center section of the top where the spine of the dictionary rests.

The tile laid in position during a dry fit.

Incorporating the tile into the design was the inspiration for the top. I recessed the center tile section for the practical purposes of housing the tile and holding the dictionary spine and for the aesthetic purpose of allowing the side sections of the top to rise up and away from the center like wings. After some trial and error with the actual dictionary, I decided on 10 degrees as the appropriate angle for the wings. Once I had the top designed, I set to work constructing it. I had finished assembling the top before giving the base design any serious thought. Since I knew the top had to be held at a 60 degree angle, I started with that and cut the now walnut support arm at 60 degrees. I ripped it to width so that it matched the top. The base was the final component I designed. I made it slightly longer than the support arm to give it small lips in the front and rear. I determined the width of the base though a combination of what looked good to my eye and what was wide enough to support the top. In order to give the piece visual balance, I gave the bottom wings angled down at 10 degrees to mirror the angle of the upper wings.

More on the build in the next post. Until then check out my 2010 Build Challenge Photo Album.

What did you build this fall?

We recently had the privilege of exhibiting at IDSwest 2010. This was our 5th year. Originally the show was called DV Decorate Vancouver, which gives you an idea of the naïve optimism of its founders. (The topic of Interior Designer verses Interior Decorator is worth discussion on its own)
None the less, they had vision and recognised that Vancouver was large enough to support a public show devoted to interior design (or interior decorating as they called it at the time). More importantly, the founders of this show had and continue to have enthusiasm, and commitment, qualities essential to the continued success of this venture.

For the local and not so local designer / maker / woodworker, aside from “culture crawls”, this is the only venue in Vancouver I know of where they can showcase their work and meet the public.

This year’s event took place in the new Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre, a very impressive facility built not without controversy as construction costs went out of control prior to the winter Olympics. It was built without a business plan and at a cost $346 million higher than B.C. taxpayers had been promised. (Original budget: $495 million. Final bill: $841.2 million.)

Two things I like about the new trade and convention centre are the use of BC wood and the choice of relevant art. There is a great collage of archival photos and original works by Ian Wallace and BC Binning among others. A number of the archival photos depict cruel and violent events perpetrated by the government and police. I was impressed and surprised to see these.













Our experience this year as exhibitors was the best yet. The logistics were vastly improved over previous years. Although I recognised many of the exhibit staff, they were different people. They were well co-ordinated, helpful, and kind. This is no small achievement given the circumstances.

Other woodworkers often ask me if they think that they should be exhibiting at IDSwest. In answer to that I would ask; what do you expect from exhibiting? If it is immediate sales this is not the show for you. IDSwest in my experience is about building new relationships and re-kindling existing ones. It’s largely a social event, and as we know, especially in this business, it’ all about relationships.
For a small business like ours the financial and time commitments are considerable. You have to enjoy doing it in order to justify it.

Two other significant differences I noticed at this year’s event were, one, the lack of green washing. In previous years there were always a number of exhibitors touting their supposed “green” superiority. I saw almost none of this in 2010. I attribute this at least in part to the unfortunate reality that so much of the so called “green” movement on the part of manufacturers and retailers is really only a matter of fashion, and that the “fad” seems to have passed.

The other noticeably absent contingent was the “design scouts” or whatever we might call attendees with cameras collecting ideas for immediate appropriation. I guess with all the great design on internet blogs it is no longer necessary to leave the office or factory to gain access to them.

On the topic of "green" practices and sustainability I was amazed at the waste created by the show itself. A number of exhibitors build large booths from scratch, on site then when the show is over simply chuck the whole thing into a dumpster destined for the land fill.

One flooring exhibitor tore up hundreds of square feet of new laminate flooring and tossed it. Another had a display with large stone tiles glued to plywood. Rather than dis-assembling it for later use, they smashed the whole thing up with hammers and threw it out. What a waste and what a chore.