DESIGN PROCESS - SHEEP LAMP

The Sheep Lamp grew out of intuitive material experimentation. I had come across a large amount of waste material from an industrial felt processing facility and wanted to make something with it. With this project, I was pushing myself to work intuitively so I avoided assigning a function at first. I had a few ideas - a cape, a lampshade, maybe a vessel. I wanted this to be ambiguous to see what forms I could generate from working this way. 

Then I made some samples of fabric and forms by stitching together the new yarn that I had made. I found that the material grew wider as I was mindlessly stitching it in the round. 

Is it a lampshade?

The raw material is waste from an industrial felt processing facility. It was originally a wide ribbon of felt that is fed through an automatic die cutter. I made some yardages of yarn by folding and stitching the sides of the ladder-like shape together. The "rungs" of the ladder shape formed U-shaped loops. 

A vessel?

I added strips of cut felt near the bottom because I was running out of the loop yarn. The resulting form resembled most like a garment. I then made a simple wire stand to hold up the shape.  At this point, the object resembled a lampshade so I went with it and added a light. 

Drying on the form with plastic to protect the wood. 

Felt and steel seemed too jarring of a combination so I went with a simple bent-laminated wooden structure that follows the shape of the shade. I dipped the shade in a mixture of warm water and fabric stiffener and stretched it over the wooden form to set its shape. 

Donzo.

DESIGN PROCESS - CLOTHES RACK

The first model for the clothes rack. I later decided to go with an equilateral triangle footprint for more efficient production. 

 

The Clothes Rack grew out of a frustration of mine about my clothes always being on the floor of my room. I wanted to design a lightweight piece of furniture that could hold all of my clothes that are in rotation. I was inspired by tent structures and designed these racks without any conventional hardwares. The nylon cord at the bottom holds the vertical dowels in tension while also supporting a canvas basket. 

More larger models for testing out different proportions

Smaller models for testing out alternative designs

Initially, I thought that tension would be necessary at the top for the structure to be stable. Later, I found out that this was a false assumption.

The first full-size model. One of the vertical members is longer to accommodate a light. I then decided to enlarge the footprint and shorten the verticals for more stability. 

DESIGN PROCESS - KNOT RUG

Sample in progress on a frame loom - experimenting with different weave structures. 

A sample of a knotting technique that I discovered while researching basket designs. I wanted to accentuate the sheen of the material by interrupting the knots but it warped the fabric. 

The Knot Rug initially started as a tangent from a previous project - the Shelter Chair. I had a lot of leftover rubber strips that I made by shredding punctured bicycle inner tubes with an industrial paper shredder. I made several simple frame looms in different sizes and and experimented with weave structures.

Another sample off the loom - herringbone weave with a messy edge that I didn't like.

A sample of the same knotting technique but with the reverse showing in one section which also gave the fabric more dimension.

Once I developed a weave structure that I liked. I decided on the format of a rug in order to show the texture and dimensionality of the weave. 

Frame loom prepped with cotton cord.

After weaving the reverse sections, the ends all have to be tucked in.

Detail showing the knots over the woven cotton cord. The left over sections will be knotted on the reverse side. 

This knotting technique works like pixels and therefore any shape can be accomplished. I chose an orthogonal design to help make the tedious weaving process more efficient.

Overall I spent a total of ~90 hours to complete this piece. Here is a short clip of the process: