CFDA Newsletter

Program Schedules:

April 10 - Bridgette Buckley: My Work.
Bridgette lived in Copenhagen prior to returning to Chicago in 2005 and is currently designing for the Holly Hunt Collection as well as creating her own furniture and artwork. She also teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and got involved with the CFDA just prior to the Form Follows Form show. This is a chance to get acquainted with Bridgette and her work.

May 8 - Dolly Spragins: My Work.
Dolly is not exactly a new member, but we know her more from her efforts promoting the Form Follows Form show than from her work. And her piece in that show indicates that she's capable of the unusual. This is a chance to see more.

June 9 - Bruce Horigan: Urban Forest Products. (This is a Saturday Morning!!)
This will be a tour of Bruce's saw mill, dry kiln and lumber shed, an explanation of his business and a wonderful opportunity to spend a Saturday morning in the emerging suburbs!

July 10 - Lisa Elkins: My Work.
Lisa is another nearly new member. She currently teaches at UIC as a day job, and as we all saw at the Form Follows Form show, she is an accomplished designer. Let's see more.

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CFDA Meeting Report:
March 13th

The meeting was called to order by the President, Chris Brandel. There were nine members and one guest - Matt Seiler, (mswoodcraft@flash.net). Chris reported that the initial meeting of the CFDA/IDSA SHOW COMMITTEE is scheduled for Mar. 26.

In talking about show possibilities John Kriegshauser said he had recently visited Tom Robinson who used to be a member and thought he should be invited to participate in any shows. He is doing different and interesting work, involving mosaic and sculptural effects, with his furniture.

John K reported that some changes had been made in the WEBSITE. Further changes should include links in the website to organizations and galleries with which the CFDA has ongoing relations - such as Core 77, Sawbridge Studios, IIT, Aesthetic Eye, The Furniture Society. Members are asked to send additional names to JK.

Dolly Spragin reported on other organizations that might be interested in jointly sponsored shows. Bruce Horigan has been in contact with the Morton Arboretum in regard to cutting out their ash trees and thinks they would be interested in a show on their grounds - perhaps in 2008. She suggests that we contact them. Dolly also thinks the Chicago Botanical Garden might be interested in a traveling show.

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Member Profile:
Ross Fiersten
metalworks@yahoo.com

I started metal + works in Chicago in 2000. Before that, I honed my craft in San Francisco at a metal studio called Reification (their portfolio is at www.reification.com ). At metal+works we fabricate high-end furniture and architectural adornments. Along with welding fabrication, the studio specializes in precise detailing and patina finishing in a variety of metals. Over the last seven years I have often been reminded of the limitations of my own skills and knowledge. Thankfully, we can call on experts in other metal industries to shed light on problematic design issues and constraints. The following guide may be helpful when working with metals and metalworkers.

Working with metalworkers:
a primer of metal processes and industries useful to the furniture designer

Despite their reputation, not all metalworkers are surly. But some are. The key to avoiding the surly metalworker is knowing what you want and where to go to get it. Nothing makes metalworkers crankier than asking them to quote a complex project that is better suited for a differently equipped shop. For the designer, this means educating yourself to the processes and industries that will be necessary in the fabrication of your designs and then locating the appropriate shops to achieve your goals. This can be a frustrating undertaking, but remember: people are excited (or at least amused) by new ideas and new applications for their work.

Most metal shops are limited by their tools. Nearly every process seems to require a specialized tool. These tools are often very large, very heavy, and very expensive. In order to be profitable, therefore, most of us have to specialize in terms of materials and services and grow our business according to the tools which we acquire. It can be quite difficult to find a shop which can or will complete all aspects of a job in-house (particularly a small-scale project or prototype).

Fabrication shops : They each have a specialty in which they excel. Although they may say they can do anything, their best work and their best prices will generally be limited to their specialty. Specialties may include specific materials (steel, stainless steel, aluminum), architectural work (gates, fences, stair railings), production work (furniture, metal components and accessories), prototype work (furniture and one-offs), or industrial work (tanks, conveyors, etc.), to name a few. Most shops employ welding, basic cutting (saw and often plasma), sanding, and grinding. Among welding techniques, MIG welding is fast and all-purpose but usually set up for a single material (steel, s.s., aluminum) while TIG welding is slow and precise and can be used easily on multiple materials (steel, s.s., bronze, and often aluminum, copper, and brass).

Sheet-metal shops : These specialize in sheet material (usually up to 1/16" thick) often for architectural applications; processes include folding (brake-forming), cutting (shearing), rolling, welding, soldering, and riveting.

Press-forming shops : These heavy industrial fabrication shops specialize in plate material (usually 1/8" thick and up), and standard architectural forms; processes include folding (press-brake), cutting (shearing and flame cutting), curve forming / "bump" forming (press brake), rolling, and welding.

Casting companies : Casting companies are usually defined by the process of casting they employ ( sand, shell, or investment) and the materials and sizes in which they can cast (brass, bronze, and aluminum are most common, but also steel and iron). This process is most economical in larger quantities, but sand-casting is often viable for smaller scale projects in metals with lower melting points (bronze, aluminum).

Machine shops : Machinists specialize in precise cutting and fabrication (often to 1,000 th of an inch accuracy). While this level of precision may be excessive for furniture, many shapes can be rough-cut using machine processes, including: milling and lathe turning (often using CNC technology), surface grinding and flattening, screw turning and tapping. The set-up is frequently the most time-consuming process, so larger quantities are usually more economical.

Forging studios : Many blacksmiths are restricted to steel, but other forgable metals include bronze and copper. This process is ideal for creating tapered, curved, and sinuous forms with a hammered texture.

Metal cutting companies : These specialists cut 2-D shapes in flat (sheet and plate) material including most metals and some non-metals (stone, rubber, glass, etc.). CNC laser and water-jet cutters are capable of accurately cutting intricate 2-D shapes from CAD drawings.

(Ross will give us a second installment to metalworking covering selecting materials and finishing in a future newsletter. Ed.)

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Meeting Program:
What Have You Been Doing?

Those presenting slides and discussing their work at the meeting were asked to send brief explanations and pictures of their work. At the meeting these presentations generated some good questions and discussion as well as some helpful information -- a truly productive exchange that we all enjoyed.

Our guest - Matt Seiler led off -

Here are the first items. The client inherited a pair of dressers which were made in 1921 by the Perfect Parlor Furniture Co (according to the decals on the back of the dressers, that is). Apparently the grandparents never did own a set of nightstands to match these dressers and the clients wanted a pair custom fabricated. So the challenge with the nightstands was to match the dressers as closely as possible, and to keep them in a similar scale as the dressers (which feel like they are about 7/8-scale from today's norm).

All veneer is shop sawn. The ribbon banding is zebrano, the outer edges of the waterfall top are walnut, the herringbone section is santos rosewood. The outside faces are eucalyptus. The front has a 2" radius turn and all the veneer was conformed in a vacuum press. The handle endss are hand-carved from basswood and gilded in dutch metal leaf with a patina applied to help match them to the 80+ year old originals. These pieces are 16" by 16" and 29" tall.

The next project is sort of related to the first. The client's husband decided that he wanted a set of Deco-inspired dressers for his side of the bedroom, shown above. So here we're taking the general look and feel of Deco-period furniture, but aren't copying anything. The scale of this piece is massive. It's 68" long, 42" tall at the outer edges and 48" tall in the center. It's 17" deep at the ends and 19" deep at the brake front.

All veneer was commercially purchased. The top veneer is amazingly figured sapele pommele, the sides are makore pommele. The front is beeswing eucalyptus, with a much calmer ribbon banded eucalyptus on the back sides of the doors. For a sense of scale, the bottom drawers are 12" tall.

I'm efforting a matching highboy dresser right now. It's 72" tall, 32" wide and 17" deep, with three drawers on the bottom and doors on top.

All I can say is that it'll be really nice to get back to working with dimensional lumber again!!

Bill First showed the two pieces below. The entertainment center doors were a challenge as they needed to be folding and hinged at the outside edge. The piece was also designed to allow disassembly for moving. The entertainment center was constructed using 5/4 solid ash through-out. All the shelves, vertical supports, sides top and bottom were all glue-ups, each 24" deep.

The entrance table was constructed using Padauk (top), Walnut (aprons), White Oak (legs). The top floats on vertical risers attached to the front and back aprons.

Shane Staley showed three pieces.

The first piece was a low, 4 drawer dresser made from birch plywood. The outer edges of the drawer faces are beveled to create a hidden pull.

The second set of photos are in progress shots of a couch from 1958 that I am rebuilding, and reupholstering. I decided to also build a matching chair. I am having trouble covering the cushions, in a way that can keep a square profile, yet still cover pressure points from within the springs. The project is about 80% finished.

The last project I showed, was actually my first project finished. This is a sliding DVD cabinet, that when closed, is hidden in a closet. I used cables and pulleys in a fashion similar to those used on a parallel desk rule, to hold the unit level when open. The unit was incredibly heavy, before loading it up with movies and CDs.

Rob Frazier showed a dining table 56" square mounted on a central pedestal of four tripods in a tight cluster. The challenge was to screw the tripods to a 'working top' which could then be screwed up into threaded cross dowels in the 5/4 two piece white oak top.

John Kriegshauser showed photos of a walnut dining table with detachable leaves on the ends. He writes that there were two problems I was responding to: first, this was not grade lumber and the wood contained many defects. To cover the defects I built a pattern of inlaid patches into the design of the top. The first picture shows the top with these inlay holes.

The second problem had to do with securing leaves to the ends of this solid wood-slab top. To do so I developed a set of fold-away pawls in each leaf support arm. The next two pictures show the table upside down with the leaf mechanism displayed, and finally, a close-up of the pawls in the leaf-bearing arms raised to engage the sockets in the underside of the leaves.