New Creations and designs

Happy New Year!

In todays blog I am going to touch on three things. A custom frame I just delivered to a client, a product design I have, and some inspiration I came across in New Orleans.

Custom floating frame, maple, ipe splines, wood sculpting and blue dye treatment

Wedding Frame

A while back I finished up a wedding frame for a couple who had everyone sign in at their ceremony. It was a beautiful piece of art created by the wife. She used water color on a piece of handmade paper with rough edges. It took awhile to figure out how to best show off all the elements while also staying in the same theme. I settled upon making the space between the frame and the art see through. This would highlight the natural rough edges of the paper (fig 1).

Next came time to create texture on the frame and make it look much more organic and inline with the art. I used an angle grinder with a special disc to achieve this. It was pretty aggressive and would take out large pieces at a time so it was critical to be very gentle and not get to carried away (fig 2). The grinder left gouges with with clear signs of abrasion so the next step was to hand sand the frame until is was completely smooth (fig 3).

Next came time to apply a finish. I decided not to use a stain but to use a dye instead. Stains more or less sit on the surface of the wood and can obscure grain, where as dyes penetrate deep and help make the grain pop a little more. However, if you mess up, you really mess up. I choose a blue stain that matched the coloring of the artwork and set about giving the frame 2 coats that were custom blended with a reducer by yours truly. Then finished it off with a coat of shallac and then 4 coats of varnish.

Structural garden

So I came about this idea fairly recently. I visited an incredible nursery in Irvine, Instant Jungle, to buy some black bamboo for a little landscaping at the house. I had been planning on creating a raised concrete bed for the bamboo. I have also been into living walls for awhile now. They are basically a wall that is made out of foliage. Here is an example.

Over at Instant Jungle they make walls like this for big clients. My current interest in concrete along with plants and irrigation combined and I came up with this design. It will have irrigation built in and these will not only serve an aesthetic purpose but one that is structural as well. They will be interlocking and come in a variety of shapes. Someone will not necessarily need to be a professional to install them. I will be using them for my raised bamboo planter bed. But I envision all different kinds of walls, benches and my dream, an outdoor shower shaped like a conch shell with these for walls.

Rough plan, very rough, stay tuned for the final design and execution

Inspiration

I was recently in New Orleans for vacation. While there I wanted to visit a furniture maker and designer who has grown from one man team to a fledgeling business. Much of their work is made with reclaimed materials from the area. I had followed Doorman Designs on Facebook and wanted a chance to pick his brain.

Not only had he been successful at crafting beautiful pieces of furniture, but, in crafting the story of the materials used for his clients. For example, his line of stools are made out of barge wood that was used to float done the Mississippi in the 1800's. Then, once in New Orleans the wood was used for buildings that were eventually torn down; and voila, next thing you know your keister is sitting on the same wood. It was really interesting to compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages to working in either New Orleans or Los Angeles. His access to wood and reclaimed materials was pretty incredible. I am really grateful for the time we got to talk shop, and it was great to see a person turn talent into success.