You Can't Miss This: Wood Shop

This week on Unbeige, they posted a follow-up on David Stark's Wood Shop. I previously commented on his unique creations made out of wood and odd objects. Because I have a weird fetish for carpentry (I like to build furniture), I was immediately drawn to this blog post. Plus, this follow-up included plenty of pretty pictures.

This exhibit has a wide variety of vases, necklaces, pillows and even dessert. Check them out!

  

Shown in the picture above, you can see all the intricate vases. As a carpenter myself, I can fully appreciate how he was able to get the vases so smooth using poplar wood. From my experience, poplar is considered one of the softer of the hardwoods and probably one of the best for painting. The fact that David Stark decided to leave the wood naked and in its natural state, shows his own of his characteristics for design.

 

Okay. This is by far my favorite piece out of the pictures he's shown. It's a little slice of cake made completely out of Smartply. This particular type of wood is usually used for roofs, floors, etc. and comes in large sheets. It's less expensive than plywood and is formed by woodchips and waterproof glue. I've worked with this type of wood plenty of times and let me tell you, it's really tricky.

One, it's completely not supposed to be used to make decorative pieces because of it's rough texture and high density. (But it creates the different layers to this slice of cake!)

Two, it's made through bonded woodchips, so when you take a circular saw or jigsaw to it, chips tend to fly EVERYWHERE. I can't tell you how many times these little flying chips has gotten in my eye or pierced my skin. Plus, unless your blade is super sharp, it's hard to make smooth edges. From what I can see in the picture, it has been sanded down to create smooth, but still defined top and edges.

Okay now that I've completely shown the masculine side to me, you can understand why I love David's Wood Shop exhibit. As a magazine designer, I have complete respect and understanding for product designers. They use their hands, while I use my mouse to make designs. It's the same aspect. The whole dessert made out of wood was a completely kooky, creative and adorable idea that probably took a LONG time to come up with. That's exactly how it is for magazine designers. It may take a long time or a short time to execute the design, but it could take twice as long to come up with the concept.

I guess what I'm saying is to put as much effort as you can into the concept. Take risks and do the unthinkable.