Working in Wood
We've finally got around to finishing off our dining room which has been a general workshop and store room since we started our kitchen and bathroom projects in February.
With the plastering and new floorboards (to replace the woodworm ridden originals) in place, the walls have been painted and this weeked I made a start on some new built-in cupboards and shelves. It's nice to be creating something which should be part of our home for many years to come - with original doors donated from another similarly aged property from around the corner.
I've always enjoyed making things - and I find myself enjoying creating physical objects as opposed to digital work more and more.
My weekend project - our new dining room cupboards. I'll post some more photos when the room's finished.
Working in three dimensions, in wood, creating things which I hope will outlive anything I build on-screen, brings great satisfaction.
We visited a couple of carpenter's workshops on the Quayside in Exeter a week ago. Owned by talented craftsmen who spend their days creating beautiful furniture from raw materials - the finished results can be seen, used and experienced in a far greater depth than anything I've seen on-screen.
We found this chunky iPad stand in a carpenter's workshop in Exeter.
When I was at University, I read Victor Papanek's 'Design for the Real World' and was struck by the influence and power we, as designers, have on the world around us. How we should create things of worth, and stop being so flippant and wasteful with the products and services we design.
"Design must be an innovative, highly creative, cross-disciplinary tool responsive to the needs of men. It must be more research-oriented, and we must stop defiling the earth itself with poorly-designed objects and structures."
Victor Papanek
Design for the Real World
Food for thought.