Search result for: the-last-thing-you-aquired-
| # | Post Title | Result Info | Date | User | Forum |
| Somehow I could not... | 1 Relevance | 20 years ago | koen | General discussion | |
| Somehow I could not... resist the temptation to offer Patrick to produce the vase when we would have reached some kind of concensus on what the product should look like. In order to fullfil that commitment the vase has to be made in porcelain, stoneware or any other ceramic material, unless the additional materials are standard off the shelf parts. Other than my production concerns I also think that it is a good design decision. Design is about reaching both functional and aesthetic goals with the least possible use of materials and labor. Stainless steel is a very nice material but in this case it compares badly both in costs and environmental impact (as a raw material it is already close to 1140 mPt/kgr versus 310 mPt/kgr for porcelain. Being almost three times as heavy, the same mass of stainless has an ecological footprint that is more than 10 times bigger than porcelain. If I may take a professional aproach to it, my first comment would be this: considering that the length and the quantity of the rods increases the costs, the first thing that has to be done is to look at the possibility to reduce their number and their hight without losing the character of the product, nor the function. My second step would be to see if I could combine dcwilson's concern with stability (cat-compatibility)and HP's comment on pointing the rods slightly inwards and make the whole thing slightly conical rather than cylindrical. Again, without loosing the identity of the concept. Products like thes are slipcast, an ancient technology that is still one of the most used in the ceramic industry. In order to give you an idea of what slip casting is all about I made a few drawings that I will send to Patrick to be included in this thread. Slip is basically liquid clay. By adding water and chemical components that will increase the electrical charge of the clay molecules the clay becomes a slip. That slip is poored into plaster moulds. over a period of 15-20 minutes the plaster absorbs water in the slip enad the slip stiffens against the interior mould wall. At that point the mould is emptied. the stiffer shell stays the liquid slip runs out of the mould. The product is left to dry another 10 minutes or so and than taken out of the mould. When commenting on the design it is good to understand that the product is created by the plaster mould and that wherever you want to have a wall you have to have space for a plaster negatif. In order not to influence anybody, the drawings show a regular coffeepot and not the DA vase. | |||||
| Dear dc, | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | koen | General discussion | |
| Dear dc, It is very kind of you to suggest the Smitsonian as a final resting place for my brain. I do not know if it is a "family" thing but this kind of separation in resting place has happened before. A great,great,great etc. uncle of mine is burried in the Pantheon in Paris (he served Napoleon) but his heart is kept in a church in Kampen aan de IJsel a peaceful place in Holland where he was born... The truth is that making models after calculating the vertical and horisonal shrinck and making production moulds around it to produce porcelain, stoneware, eartheware or any other kind of ceramic material was part of my education. After finishing my ceramic education I thought of it as a major mistake. I grew up in an environment in which craftspeople were considered very high on the social ladder. They could make things, from planning the project and chosing the right raw materials, all the way to making it and conclude the proces by meeting, upon delivery, the satisfied customer and being rewarded with an honestly earned compensation. It therefor seemed "natural" to learn a craft...which I did. For me, finishing that education coïncided whith becoming aware of the fact that crafts as a means of producing, would either result in working for an elite, or be irrelevant compared to the needs of a much larger group of people...so, I dicouvered there was something called design and I choose on of the three or four available schools in Europe and started all over again. Over the years I have realized that what I initially thought of as a mistake (learning a craft) was in fact a blessing because the ability to plan the process from raw material to satisfied customer and the skills to execute the plan step by step have served me well in the industrial process as well. Sometimes I have regrets about throwing away the skillful copy I made of a 13th century Persian Bowl, decorated with twelve fully armed horseman running around the rim....but one has to express ones mistakes in some way or an other, and at the time I thought that having learned this had been a waist of time and the horseman and all the other interesting projects became the victims of my anger. But fortunately skills can not be thrown away. Just to put it in context. The idea that crafts were a thing of the past was so strong that the school was closed only a few years after I left. | |||||
| Here's what i mean by shaping | 1 Relevance | 8 years ago | Spanky | Identification | |
| Here's what i mean by shaping the back cushion to fit the curve of the frame; the first also has the thicker headrest section* but you can see how the whole thing hugs the curve of the frame. It's perfect. The side panel of the cushion cover is cut to this shape rather than being straight and conforming to the curve. Fabric will not do that---it'll just end up all rippled. I saw a lot of examples where some attempt was made to shape the foam but they didn't quite take it far enough, or maybe they cut the cushion cover to fit the curve and hoped that it would force the foam into shape. This might work with latex foam, which is pretty floppy even at the high density level but it won't work with urethane foam, at least not 100%. *do-able by building it up in layers starting with a narrow strip and ending with a layer that covers the entire head area, that way you get a smooth finish | |||||
| check the screws | 1 Relevance | 20 years ago | NULL NULL | General discussion | |
| check the screws Are the screws all there? The latest Plycraft/Selig knockoff I got was very wobbly and then I finally looked underneath and it was missing a screw or two where the mechanism attaches to the base. Very easy to fix. It could also be that the T-nut inside the outer shell has come loose. You should see a threaded metal sleeve where the screw goes in. If it's not there, you can take out the screws that hold the inner shell in and pop it out, then replace the T-nuts which are inserted from the inside. You can get them at any good hardware store. I had to replace one on the armrest of my chair. It could also be some thing broken or missing on the tilt mechanism itself. The link below is to a place that sells replacement tilt mechanisms. Good luck! http://swivel-chair-parts.com/402%26502Tilter.html | |||||
| Its not that hard, is it clea... | 1 Relevance | 15 years ago | HPau | General discussion | |
| Its not that hard, is it clea... Its not that hard, is it clear coated and is it worth the trouble? If you go ahead you'll need to strip the clear coat with thinners. There are heaps of sites that tell how to polish motorcycle parts, you just need wet and dry sandpaper (180 - 800 grit) a half day and some metal polish to finish, something called Mothers aluminium polish seems popular in the US. I went from harshly scraped back powder coat to this in a couple of hours, I stopped at 400 and polished it though. If you do strip the clear coat you'll either need to get it resprayed or give it the occasional polish. Good luck. Edit... lounge AND ottoman, 1 and a half days, you can do it watching tv or listening to the radio, its fun if you like that sort of thing. You'd have to be confident of getting the chair back together too... Chrome plated? | |||||
| I | 1 Relevance | 18 years ago | SDR | General discussion | |
| I guess I believe one thing, at least: beauty and "legitimacy" need not have anything to do with each other. But here we go with the slippery words and sliding concepts. If the most beautiful version of something is also the historically correct version, then the two concepts begin to connect, and an argument can be made. To avoid such an argument, I'd rather stick with the idea that beauty is its own reward, with its own criteria -- beauty is where you find it. If to you a Wassily knock-off is as lovely as a "legitimate" one, bingo: you've saved enough to get the little Eileen Gray table knock-off that (I think) goes with it. Unless you're a snob -- or an elitist. Then you would wince under the gaze of those whose esteem you crave, who (if they knew) would castigate you for settling for a "copy." (Anything made today is a copy -- sorry. What I meant was "an authorized copy." Wouldn't want anyone turning over in his or her grave.) Elitist ? It's so easy to sidestep the question: just do what you want, regardless of what others may think. Within the law, that is. . . | |||||
| Somehow | 1 Relevance | 22 years ago | SDR | General discussion | |
| Somehow one thinks of chrome, leather and glass. Rather than trying to hide the floor, let it do its thing. A restrained color palette of brown and off-white: brown leather, brown or off-white fabric (possibly a living-room area rug), and one accent color: a blue or a green, for small tables an/or art. If the walls are off-white, bright white matted art will "pop" nicely; one brown wall, maybe? A chrome and glass -- or brown wood -- dining table: if glass, then the chairs brown or accent color; if wood, perhaps chrome-framed chairs upholstered off-white. | |||||
| buying brno | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | LRF | General discussion | |
| buying brno Brno is the one chair other than Barcelona's that you can buy a non Knoll and be very happy with I have lots of Brnos 4 knoll from the 1970's 4 from the 90's not knoll , you can not tell them apart unless you do the magnet test to see which is stainless steel or chrome .One thing you do need to be on the look out is if you do get a reproduction and want to match it to a knoll make sure that it is the same high the knolls measure up to be 30 inch from the ground while some repos are 32 inchs . It can be difficult if they do no match up as i made that mistake having 4 knolls buying 4 extra for a dinning table and they are 2 inches taller.. learn and live at least you won't make the same mistake I did .... I even had them recovered and set them at the table to see that they were different heights . but I used the larger ones as Capitan's chairs and the other two against a wall so alls well and now only you and the design addict community know . but just be aware , Knolls have paper stickers on the bottom , | |||||
| Some input... | 1 Relevance | 16 years ago | Olive | General discussion | |
| Some input... I now live in a part of the country (NM) where hydro-fracking for Nat.Gas is a huge political and environmental issue. Gasland is all too real for us. I've been trained in renewables for residential use and in sustainable building practices. I'm in the last few days of building a house that incorporates those principles. If I'd wanted the take the extra time and cash I probably could have gotten my new home certified as LEED Gold. Here's what I have learned both in my course-work and practical knowledge gained during the build. 1. Insulate, insulate, insulate. A tight home is 90% of the battle. 2. Buy the highest efficiency appliances that you can possibly afford. We're putting in a Viessman, VitoDens 100 natural gas boiler, it's 96% efficient in converting the gas to heating energy. 3. Pay attention to siting. A big south facing glazing in New Mexico would be a disaster! And passive solar is not that hard to achieve with a little upfront thinking. 4. Use landscaping to your advantage. ie: A deciduous tree in a 'hot' window in summer will allow useful solar heating to get in in winter. After you have done all of these things, THEN think about an active renewable energy source. The first thing to do is Solar Thermal water heating. It's about 85% efficient in turning the sun's energy to usable heat. By contrast Solar Electric, most commonly called PV, is at best 20% efficient in converting energy. And the cost a lot more. A typical home-based PV installation is 1kW in size and can cost upwards of $50K to put in and would probably only meet 50% of an average home's usage. Solar Thermal for domestic hot water is usually about $10-15K. Our system will be about that, including labor and will do 100% of our domestic hot water needs. Lastly, 'off grid' gets talked about a lot and after my training, I now know why it's a bad idea for most people. If you are truly 'off grid' you live off of batteries. You can't use more than your batteries can store. If you have bad weather and you don't get recharged then you don't have power. Even when everything is fine, you have to plan if you are going to vacuum or do laundry, so as not to over-tax the system on any given day. And then there is the maintenance. The batteries require regular care and the DC voltage is dangerous and tricky to maintain. Basically, the only folks who live off grid have to, or if they choose to, they typically spend all their time at home. Additionally, these off grid people still often use propane to supplement the solar electric, so even these folks are using fossil fuels! All in all, the very best thing you can do for your home and for the planet is keep your existing house and upgrade all of its systems and improve fenestration and insulation. | |||||
| making new ones | 1 Relevance | 17 years ago | NULL NULL | General discussion | |
| making new ones I don't have any experience with these chairs and have never even seen one in person, but I'm always curious about repairing and replacing fabrics, so I found pics online. They look pretty simple as far as construction of the slings. You might have trouble finding the exact same mesh fabric but there are certainly similar products out there. You would need an industrial sewing machine to do the stitching. I have the most powerful home sewing machine made (a Bernina) and it won't do that kind of heavy thread through vinyl. I would look into having them made by an upholsterer. Barry said that his upholsterer said that worn slings couldn't be repaired, which is a different thing altogether. Unless I'm missing something, making new ones should be a fairly simple job. Finding the exact same mesh might be difficult to impossible, though. http://samewave.com/schultz/ | |||||
| If I mix some of Koen's... | 1 Relevance | 18 years ago | glassartist | General discussion | |
| If I mix some of Koen's... If I mix some of Koen's ideas about an idea driving the look, add Olive's comment about energy and material usage, I see minimalism becoming something very different than the visual of clean white spaces with little in them. A minimalism for contemporary concerns would be the most self sustaining environment possible. It would be as self heating and cooling as possible. And it certainly would be small and functionally laid out for it's intended user. The finished look would be determined by these parameters. As an example, uninterrupted expanses of flat walls would be sacrificed if it was an unnecessary addition of materials for covering structure just for a look. So a contemporary minimalism might follow the modernist view of furniture, that showed the structure rather than covering it up with more stuff to have it look like less. It is as though minimalist architecture today is a very different thing with its finished look than minimalism the term would suggest, and has been expressed before in other areas of design as an economy of means. | |||||
| Tiborocity | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | LuciferSum | General discussion | |
| Tiborocity What a sad little article! No reason given for this turnaround (not that I bothered to google it further). I think what he says about his designs being useless has a level of truth to it. Who has ever had any success with the damn orange juicer. But his plastic ghost chairs still show up everywhere! The whole thing also reminds me of Tibor Kalman - who, when faced with the prospect of a design world continuously looking for newness, freshness, complexity, returned to the most basic un-designy designs. Starcke could learn a lesson from Tibor - no need to give up, just start over. Figure out why his designs are useless, and correct the mistakes. The problem with Starcke is that design, as he knows it, IS dead. Instead of solving problems his designs play with materials. Instead of usefullness we get social commentary and kitsch. People are tired of irony and kitsch. They want - as has been already stated - something that DOES something. | |||||
| DI FRUTTA SITINGS! | 1 Relevance | 9 years ago | Spanky | Off topic | |
| Until now there were only two known photos of the (in)famous Italian designer Gianni Sachetto di Frutta. There's been a lot of chatter about various products possibly attributed to him, but as far as we know the only sure thing is the Speedo Chair. He seems to be coasting on that one. It got him into that 20th Century Designers photo shoot for Playboy, sure---but since then? | |||||
| left bank along the Sien | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | LRF | General discussion | |
| left bank along the Sien Left Bank along the Sien lots of trendy places all over Paris. To me and I report to me only Paris is broken up like NYC differnt areas different flavor that all are great . But i will say i found the French not to friendly to me (American ) i had heard that before i was going but was convinced once i got there . Don't waste time going for the Fancy Novelle cusine cause you will leave hungry , but you cannot knock the food , the French do like there sauce on every thing, I have never really considered the French as much into the Modern movement as other countries . My favorit place in all of Europe is Prague in the Chec Republic great place, great city, great people, great food, great price and one hell of a place to learn about Architecture They have it all. | |||||
| LRF...why is it hard? | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | barrympls | General discussion | |
| LRF...why is it hard? the hardest thing to upholster in MCM furniture is Womb chairs, swan chairs, Egg chairs, coconut chair, and the Eames Arm shells, we have done them all. ------------------ LRF: I have heard that the Egg chair is especially problematic since it's difficult to get the fabric to stay adherred to the back of the chair. I guess the same might go for the Coconut chair (although my late friend had an original one with orange vinyl. The vinyl was torn on the inside along one of the seams, but the remainder of the vinyl was well attached to the curve. Why would the Swan be just as difficult? I thought that the fabric was not actually glued to the form....I thought that there was foam or padding from and back. (I could be wrong, of course.) I am interested in why the Womb would be difficult. Barry | |||||
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