Fine Tune the Heavy Chair

The Heavy Chair is ready to move from the pencil to the computer. In the past, I began to build any piece by drawing the front and side full size views on a big piece of paper and taping it to the wall to get a sense of scale. Now, I find it much easier to produce a three-dimensional drawing in Google Sketch Up.

The program is free, intuitive and fast, and it allows me to see my ideas from all angles. Plus, if the piece has complicated bends and intersections, I can obtain important measurements and angles directly from the Sketch Up drawing. After viewing the Heavy Chair in three dimensions, I made some alterations, angling the seat and tilting the back rest to the rear about three degrees.

Now that I'm settled on the renderings, I've begun working on the CAD drawing, so that I can have the body CNC-milled from a singular raw-steel plate.

Fabricating Form

My struggle to make it in New York manifests itself in a chair that is hard, angular and visually heavy. The wood and steel work together or, depending on your perspective, they may be using each other. Neither is a useless decoration.


The steel comes with a factory finish, meaning it still shows the varigated scales leftover from the firing and forming processes. For the most part I will leave it, except in an arced area where the body meets the seat bottom to add interest and age. Chemically blackening all the metal surfaces will even the overall tone.

At this moment the wood will be a reclaimed long-leaf pine, with minimal machining other than the glue-up for the seat back. It's not intended to serve as a cuddle-up-and-read-a-book chair, but as a focal point in an entry way or a nook on a patio, a place for an abbreviated sit.

Simplicity is a paramount. I'm not interested in my furniture becoming a showcase for my fabrication skills; the form should be what one sees first. Additionally, because of the limited hand work involved in its production, the retail price will be lower when compared to other bespoke chairs. I envision The Heavy Chair as accessible and artistic, perhaps a customer's first piece of handcrafted furniture.

A City Inspires; A Chair is Born

Inspiration comes in many forms, and New York seems to have a surplus. I guess that's why I find myself in Brooklyn fresh from balmy Austin, Texas, starting my blog in the middle of a blizzard.

Publicly documenting my first project in the city serves a handful of purposes. It forces me to think thoroughly about each step and record it for future reference. Even though formulating my aesthetic into words isn't easy (as I'm a very visual person), I hope that this blog also elicits feedback from the creative public.

My first project's working title is the Heavy Chair. As the name implies it's substantial. I've worked on the piece for several months, so I'll be posting drawings, photos and descriptions in several entries. You'll witness the birth of an idea and follow it to conception.

Raw ideas floating in my head eventually find their way to a sketchbook that I carry with me constantly. I keep the books for about a year before they are full,and the following conceptual thumbnails for the chair are from one of these journals.