Chable

  Made from Walnut and White Oak, this visually dominating piece of furniture can transform into a side table or a chair.  The initial concept was to create a striking piece that could function as two elements.  At the time I mended recent acquired knowledge on the complexities of Japanese Joinery into the piece.  Creating unique joints was the visual focal point, and crafting it a real challenge.  This was the first piece of furniture I designed and built, after a couple of intro woodworking classes.  To say the least, I was unprepared, but it was a great learning experience.

Design drawn in SketchUp

Starting with the design process, focusing on inital 2D side form.

  Once the 2D form was established, I found the human scale to apply to this furniture by measuring the limb-length of my wife and I.  The next step was bringing the 2D form study to a 3D design, and the style of the joinery.  Using contrasting wood, I was able to highlight the areas where the woods interlocked.









   Once the Joint design was complete, using Adobe Illustrator I created to scale card stock templates.  Building the full scale model in Illustrator allowed creating accurate templates on curves and awkward angles, this allowed me to accurately capture the flow and energy that was shaped in the sketching process.

Finding the best use of material with Illustrator.

  Using bass wood, and full scale Mock-Up of the section that would allow the furniture to function as chair and table was created.  Through this step, I was able to get a true feel of what my drawings called for.  The upper arm joint was modified slightly after this Mock-Up due to it being much to tedious, you can see it here, the small tooth-like joint in the center.