Search result for: the-last-thing-you-aquired-
| # | Post Title | Result Info | Date | User | Forum |
| SUCCESS AND FINALITY! | 1 Relevance | 20 years ago | LuciferSum | General discussion | |
| SUCCESS AND FINALITY! Hey Spanky and all the others. The chair is almost finally done! So.. I finally shelled out $60 for a local upholsterer to do the armrests. He did a good job on the welting. His skill with a staple gun might be called into question - but oh well. He also forgot to leave the bolt holes exposed. I spent about 20 minutes with a pin trying to find the holes. But once I did...well.. the chair is a thing of beauty. And best of all - I stopped back into the local junk shop where I found the whole chair. The owner of the store saw me, dashed into a back room, and returned carrying an ottoman - complete with a 5-star base! The price, you ask? $15! Unfortunately I didnt have enough leather to upholster it - so I bought a close match of black vinyl. I figure its best, since we dont always remove our shoes in the house. The link to the photos is below. Upon the arrival of the ottoman my roommate simply sighed, rolled his eyes, and removed HIS rocking chair from the livingroom to make space. 😀 Cost breakdown: Chair: $225 - talked him down to $150 Woodworking: free Finishing: $20 for Polyshades and Minwax Leather: $150 (including shipping) Armrests: $60 Ottoman: $15 Vinyl: $8 Total: $378 Currently there is a chair on Craigslist, reupholstered in gross fabric, for $1000 http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/fur/218608882.html Spanky, as always, thanks so much for your help with this project. I was really overwhelmed at first. Your advice has caused this piece to come out great! http://www.flickr.com/photos/38178174@N00/ | |||||
| Damages to Eames fiberglass | 1 Relevance | 20 years ago | alexandersforum | General discussion | |
| It seems I am only posting about damages to my different Eames chairs... This time it is worse than just a few scratches... I received a couple of armshells from the US the other week. The box was in terrible shape and had a few holes through it. This was partly due to a bad packing job (which the seller refuses to admit), but also to some rough handling in the shipping. I hope I will get some money back from the insurance... It seems I am only posting about damages to my different Eames chairs... This time it is worse than just a few scratches... I received a couple of armshells from the US the other week. The box was in terrible shape and had a few holes through it. This was partly due to a bad packing job (which the seller refuses to admit), but also to some rough handling in the shipping. I hope I will get some money back from the insurance... Two of the chairs had small chips to the fiberglass, that had occured when some sharp object had poked through the box. These are not just scratches, but more like small marks about 5mm in diameter and 3mm deep. It almost looks like someone had poked a screwdriver through the box a few times... One White chair has a chip on top of the seat and a Maroon colored chair had a similar mark at the front edge. There's just one mark in each chair, so it is not too bad, but I would still like to fill them with some kind of clear plastic repair if such a thing exists. Does anyone have any suggetions? I would appreciate any helpful suggestions. Best, Alex Does anyone have any suggetions? | |||||
| continued for Heath | 1 Relevance | 17 years ago | dcwilson | General discussion | |
| continued for Heath I seriously doubt I would be mentioning this ugly and repulsive and scary issue, if it were easy for everyone. If it were easy for everyone, everyone would long ago have insisted that it stop, right? Frankly, if what I am talking about--this political/moral/ethical/legal dimension of design--is too disturbing to you, I want you NOT to think about it. DON'T read my posts. Hurting, or scaring, another person with this hurtful and scary subject does no good at all. This subject is one that everyone has to come to realization of and deal with in their own ways. But people have to reach out to others on this subject in order to build sufficient awareness for society to seek peaceful, orderly, responsible change regarding it. I am not asking you to read a word I am writing about the political/moral/ethical/legal points of fit (and lack thereof) in design that connect to the evils of torture and murder to gain raw materials. You are choosing to do so. So: as long as you do, at least respect the dead and tortured enough in this otherwise often beautiful world and not trivilize what befell them and my remarks about them. Wait and speak when you have come to grips with this issue your own way and know that when you do come to grips with it, I and many others will be grateful to hear that another person has fought through the horror of the awareness of this sort of thing and said, as Ghandi might were he alive today, "Oh, yes, Mr. President Obama, your torturers will leave America, and the rest of the world, too, one day. And America and the UK will one day resume observing the Geneva Conventions as civilized nations. It is only a question of time, of how many must suffer and die until you realize and do what you should have realized and done all along." | |||||
| You have to remember something about Jobs...Pt.2 | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | dcwilson | General discussion | |
| You have to remember something about Jobs...Pt.2 But in the long run, the iPod, or something like it down the road is going to become THE device in our lives; this is why Jobs gambled so big with a device, good as it may be, that does not really do what the hype promises. The game was to get as many eyes as early as you could, and lose as little money as possible doing it (hence the ridiculously high price for a thing that probably costs 50 cents for the actual hard bits). because by the time Jobs waited to really be able to do what he claimed, Jobs chance to converge media would have been balkanized and gobbled up by nintendo, microsoft, motorola and nokia. In the long run, people are eventually going to jettison much of what they own and live mobilely from their own bodies, not because they want to but because in the long run our economy is making everything but bytes too expensive for most persons to own. in the long run, shipping bulky computers, and giant tvs, and all manner of digital electronic stuff is going to become cost prohibitive. Frankly, it already is. Almost no companies make any money off the digital consumer products they make. They make their money from susidiaries who make their money off the ad clicks, the content fees, the service fees related, and the financing arbitrage on really huge volumes. To paraphrase a friend of mine, there's no money in bits, only in bytes, because bytes have incomparably low marginal costs at high volumes. Digital electronic goods are now made and marketed by companies as a means of leveraging their way into the bytes game. If they had to make a living off bits, they would all go out of business. | |||||
| Weekend Discoveries... | 1 Relevance | 17 years ago | DudeDah | General discussion | |
| So my buddy was in a local shop this weekend and asked AGAIN about this Nelson clock in pieces on the work bench. Guy fianlly says "sure, $50". Buddy buys it and brings it over. It is disassembled, none of the spikes are attached and they have been PAINTED. The colored sections on the hands have been painted as well. It's a key wound version. Has all the keys, screws, everything, but its a mess. Someone painted the spikes while on the clock so there is paint on the body as well. So we are trying to figure out what he should do. We end up taking brush cleaner and try to get some of the overpainting off the body of the clock. It comes off and leaves the original finish intact. We remove any residual cleaner off, "just in case". Body looks like new. Then I try it on the painted portion of the hands. The latex comes off and reveals the original color underneath. Then I try the spikes, the latex comes off and reveal that the clock was a multi-color to begin with, but the cleaner begins to cut the original finish on the spikes. We decide to do it anyway and it's frickin? PRISTINE walnut under the paint. SO, he got a key wound spike clock that WORKS GREAT for $50. He also brought over the Saarinen Tulip side table that looks like it had been dipped in cream-colored paint, label and all. We begin to work on it with the brush cleaner and, same thing, the latex comes off leaving everything in tact, even comes out of the label somewhat. He's somewhat disappointed in that it has a white top and the vintage Ivory-ish colored base. That one he got for FREE when he bought 4 arm-shells from a woman for $150 IIRC. WOW! Felt like an archeologist for a minute... | |||||
| Material fetishists | 1 Relevance | 12 years ago | SDR | General discussion | |
| Material fetishists will want to know where the wood came from and what it is called. Makers, artists interested in the appearance and structure of a furniture piece, will take what is available, regardless of name and source, and do their best to match the wood that goes into any one object, with the aim of harmony and unity -- visible integrity. The artist/maker and the layman observer have different backgrounds and thus different points of view; the commonality is the object they are dealing with. Those on the "outside" have to rely on information, and on values, that are received and which they use to evaluate the inestimable -- the intangibles of appearance and "meaning." Countering all of the above, is the commercial aspect of the thing -- and money is made by distinguishing between "mediocre," "good," and "best." But who, really, is the arbiter of the steps on that scale ? In the absence of objective criteria, the professional and the layman alike turn the literature, to trends, to sales history, to what the "experts" have decreed. Thus, values are assigned to every aspect of an object: who designed it, who made it, when was it made, how rare is it, what materials were used, etc etc -- all in an effort to assign value and to place the object somewhere on an invisible "scale." The aim of the maker, and of the professional critic, should be (I think) to cultivate in the layman the courage of their own convictions -- their own "taste" -- in evaluating furniture or any other art object. Some guidance is required; perhaps suggestions to the effect that internal consistency is a mark of quality, both in conception and in execution, of an object, and that this feature perhaps is more important to art than is the source of the material, or its name. The designer and the maker had little if any interest in those things, when doing their work. Remembering that fact will be of use to those trying to understand and appreciate works of art and craft -- it seems to me. | |||||
| Quality in art | 1 Relevance | 21 years ago | koen | General discussion | |
| Quality in art is difficult to translate in words, so I will spare you my attempt to do so, but my own experience might be useful to someone. Over the years I have collected both paintings, engravings and japanese woodprints, but also a substantial quantity of ceramics. Having done this for many years, I now struggle with the end result, which is the question: "where do you put it". A dear friend of mine is a stamp collector and has done so for many more years than even I have been alive. Recently I asked him how many of these small graphic wonders he owned. The amazing answer was: 4. What he has been doing all this time is what I should have done...trading upp. His 4 stamps are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and are the result of a very well planned and careful effort to identify a few very unususal stamps and than acquire them by a long process of exchanges. Replacing quantity by quality. In hearing the story I realized that I would have liked to do the same thing with quite a number of the paintings and pots I have. Of one painter I have half a dozen paintings, starting with small ones I could affort 30 years ago, to larger ones I bought in the last decade. I realize now that I should have made an arrangement with him to trade in smaller for larger...and better. I would be quite happy with just one very good one, instead of having two on the walls and the rest in storage. With the ceramics it is not very different. I understand why galleries might not be willing to "trade". Their income is not the art but the margin on the sales, but I am sure that individual artists would not mind making such an arrangement. In other words, when you have more to invest you go back with the painting you already own and trade it in for a better one. Of course there will always be these exceptions, art that has a special meaning or is linked to a special meaningful event, but generally speaking quality is always better than quantity. | |||||
| M. versus Post-M | 1 Relevance | 22 years ago | koen | General discussion | |
| M. versus Post-M First of all a forum like this one can not replace the necessary build-up of knowledge, understanding and opinion generated by books, magazine articles etc. But since you asked I think you should consider three different aspects. The first one being the pre-dominance of function and the acceptance of technology-imposed(or inspired)-form by Modernism (M) versus the rejection of function and the emancipation from technology in Post-Modernism (P-M). The second is the rejection by P-M of the percieved elitism of M (see Olive's comment) and the last one is the Post-historical perception of P-M compared to the progressive attitude of M. Now, let me come back to this point by point. The first one is usely understood as the search for symplicity in form through functionalism. The fact of the matter is that functionalism predates the "acceptance of what was percieved as forms imposed by technology" by at least a generation. One has only to look at the works of the first generation of functionalists : Sullivan (form follows function) Violet-le-Duc (neo gothic), Van de Velde (art nouveau) etc. to be convinced that "Machine made form" was probably the last thing on their minds. In fact the form language as developed by the Bauhaus was often very difficult (and expensive) to produce. When functionalism and Machine-form-language came together between the two first world wars it was already destined to fail because of two major mistakes. The first one is what I already mentioned. What was seen as technology-based-form was in fact often more difficult to produce and the "producers" were either not interested or (in the case of architecture) ran of with the useful technical ideas (curtain walls and the likes) and did not show any interest in the rest. | |||||
| Don't give up... | 1 Relevance | 18 years ago | NULL NULL | General discussion | |
| Don't give up... Also check out estate sales and garage sales. Go to any spring cleaning sales, especially if there is a relatively rich part of your town. Also, with checking on eBay or Craig's list, if you see one broken because of shockmount failure, but the wood seems to be intact, consider bidding on one of those as well. Sometimes you can get just the ottoman or just the chair as well. I've seen the ottoman on its own go for short change. I live on Martha's Vineyard and got mine from an elderly lady I did some work for... for $160.00 (that's what she owed me for working on a couple of her other ones). Some of the cushions are in bad shape (but can be refurbished for about 400 by a local upholsterer); but the wood is in pretty good shape. The shockmounts are gone, of course, but I've gotten replacements for them already. I don't know about the copies, myself. It seems that some of them sought to remedy some glaring problems with some of the chairs (ie: the shockmounts) in the replication process. So they might be very good. I'd stay away from anything with vinyl or fake leather. It depends on what you want the chair for. If you just want it to enjoy using it as a comfy seat, I'd first suggest you try to find someone who has an original as well as someone who has a copy (or go to a furniture store), try them out and compare. If you don't notice much difference, I'd go for the copy. If you want it for an investment, wait to find a real HM one. Or if you just want to touch the actual design of Charles Eames, you'll have to hold out for a real one. I didn't want mine for an investment. I have no plans to part with it. I just loved Eames' design and felt I needed the real thing in order to be absolutely satisfied. So that's what I got. It worked out really well! I almost bought a copy myself, but was really glad I didn't in the end. Hope this helps. All the best! Chris C. | |||||
| kvadrat site info | 1 Relevance | 17 years ago | NULL NULL | General discussion | |
| kvadrat site infowww.kvadrat.dk has info on it in English. Most of this is probably meaningless to you (it is to me!) but what you can glean from it is that the fabric is polyurethane on the surface, so it's gonna feel slick and plastic-like. The other thing is the abrasion rating, which is 100,000 using a Martindale abrasion device. This is very durable. A heavy-duty wear rating is anything over 40,000. http://www.contracttextiles.org/main.php?view=5_1_5 Kvadrat.dk info on Sudden: Less info Sudden by Maharam | 002 Detail Promotional Designer Maharam Design Studio Type Upholstery Composition 100% Polyurethane (surface) Polyester backing Width 134 cm Weight 620 g/lin.m Abrasion 100000 Martindale Firetests BS 5852 Crib 5 with treatment DIN 4102 B1 with treatment EN 1021-1 EN 1021-1/2 with treatment IMO A.652(16) with treatment US Cal. Tech. Bull. 117 ÖNORM B1/Q1 with treatment Lightfastness 6-7 (ISO 1-8) Shrinking 0 % Downloads Detail images: Original, 72 dpi, 300 dpi Promotional images: Original, 72 dpi, 300 dpi Colours (zip file) Abrasion: Martindale Colour fastness: Colourfastness Fire test: BS 5852 source 5, BS 5852 source 5-1, BS 5852 source 5-2, US Cal. Tech. 117, DIN 4102 B1, EN 1021, EN 1021-1, EN 1021-2, IMO A.652(16), IMO A.652(16)-1, NFPA 260 Light fastness: Lightfastness, Lightfastness-1 http://www.kvadrat.dk/textiles/collection/ | |||||
| So...the neighbors dog ate my Norwegian Chair Cushion.... | 1 Relevance | 14 years ago | iamkirk | General discussion | |
| So I picked up this chair a few weeks ago in LA. It's a Peter Wessel Lounger that I don't have much info about. It didn't end up fitting in the space I planned for it so my plan was to sell and I put it in my laundry room to free up space. So flash forward two weeks and I agree to watch my neighbors pup. I take my eyes off him for one minute and find him in the laundry room shredding the cushion. crap. Luckily he didn't touch the wood and the only thing that is injured is the cushion. It was original fabric and I assumed whoever bought it would reupholster. The fabric is slightly sun faded and is kinda crunchy. So now I'm stuck in a conundrum. Does the value of the chair go down because of the shredded cushion? If so how much? For Bonus points any other info on the chair or designer? I can't find any pics of this style of lounger any where. PS - These pics are before the shredded cushion. | |||||
| Ah, the trey, now you've got me started... | 1 Relevance | 20 years ago | dcwilson | General discussion | |
| Ah, the trey, now you've got me started... IMHO, basketball was a nearly perfectly designed game before the trey. It had lots of symmetries, an abstract form language and jut enough imperfections to keep it human. Its basic unit of scoring was the 2 pt. basket. The game had two hoops. Two half courts. Two free throw lanes. Two free throw lines. Two ends. Two sides. Two sets of five players. Free throws were the only thing denominated in 1 pt. and for any fouling during the shot one was awarded two free throws. The game had two halves and each half had two quarters. There were two ways to play offense: fast or slow. There were two ways to play defense: man2man or zone. If one stopped dribbling and started dribbling, one was "double" dribbling. And amidst all these twos, there was just one ball and that simultaneously set all the twos in focused competition at every level of the game. It had so much regulatory symmetry in the game space that over the course of a game, it took a run of shooting so hot that one had to be out in the very far tail of the random, bell-spaped curve of probability for luck to have ANYTHING to do with who won. Strategy + Execution + Conditioning + Talent + Competitive Greatness =ed Victory. It was okay to lose to a better team, because the rules of the game were solely about promoting the better team being the winner. There was no incentive to try to get lucky with anything but a last second shot between two very equally matched teams--and there was nothing wrong with that--a touch of luck humanized the game. But there was never any incentive to do anything but play your game and play to your strength and may the best team win. | |||||
| this is from Fritz Hansen | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | LRF | General discussion | |
| this is from Fritz Hansen ORIGINALS How do I see the difference between a genuine Fritz Hansen product and a counterfeit? There are some producers who go to a lot of effort to make a product that looks very much like the real thing, fortunately, it?s usually easy to spot a knock-off when you take a closer look. The quality is inferior and the design looks haphazard. A genuine Fritz Hansen piece is a product of years? of development work, many creative thoughts and obviously - substantial investments. The quality and design will last for many years. Read about the initiative from Danish Furniture Association to fight the copies (in Danish) label of origin We are investing many resources in locating the knock-offs and in consequenct legal actions to stop the products. Wherever there's a strict legislation in this area, the products will indeed be stopped and destroyed. See the slide show. On all our upholstered furniture you will now recognize a red Republic of Fritz Hansen label to guarantee that this is indeed an original. It's a guarantee that our customers have bought an authentic product and not an inferior copy. This ?label of origin? creates added value to the furniture and even includes the year the product was manufactured. Therefore you will always be able to tell when your product was made and the value of the item will be easier to ascertain. This measure took effect in 2006. A genuine Fritz Hansen product is sold exclusively through our qualified partners: Click to see the network of authorized Fritz Hansen dealers. check the fritz hansen website, | |||||
| Disagree | 1 Relevance | 18 years ago | LuciferSum | General discussion | |
| Disagree I disagree completely - there is a very real and very rational debate about intelligent design. It's almost lunacy to assume that our entire existence is just one cosmic accident. The much more plausible explanation is, of course, that the Flying Spaghetti Monster reached out with his many noodly appendages and created this world and all that is in it. On a less serious note, I don't think evolution and design are so separate. Henry Petroski puts forth in his book 'The Evolution of Useful Things' that design evolves from perceived failures in existing objects, as well as the appropriation of objects designed for one purpose put into use for another purpose. Petroski's argument is logical and clear and is the same argument Darwin used against the theory of intelligent design: If something 'works' why would it need to be changed? Darwin's example is that certain physical attributes of some animals have gradually changed to suit different needs. If the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster is indeed perfect, why would he not create a unique physical attribute to suit that need to begin with? So goes design: A chair works - why does it need to be changed? Perceived failures of the exact manner in which the chair works. Design 'corrects' those failures (and happily creates new failures which will need subsequent corrections). Creation, on the other hand, implies a completely unique thing. Who here has ever witnessed the creation of something completely unique? A chair has always been a chair - even when it was a rock. A car has always been a car - even when it was a horse drawn chariot. | |||||
| Thanks for the coiling tip, f... | 1 Relevance | 15 years ago | Spanky | General discussion | |
| Thanks for the coiling tip, f... Thanks for the coiling tip, fastfwd. That might work except that I have many hundreds of yards left on the coil and I can't face the prospect of rewinding the entire thing. There's also the second aspect of the twisting---that the cord itself is made of twisted plies that get twisted more tightly as you work if you don't regularly turn the whole working length. And then the looped ends in the hank form get caught up in other loops, though I think the solution there is to use a shuttle. I made a few trial ones out of cardboard in various lengths and widths with different depth cutouts to accommodate the layers of cord, but none were quite right. Then there's the problem of the loops getting caught on my shoe or the chair leg or the hammer laying nearby. I think the only solution is to book a trip to the Fritz Hansen factory in Denmark to see how they do it! Yeah, that's the ticket. I think I advised someone way upthread to use the butter knife to pack cords in. I've now switched to a teaspoon! The curve where the bowl meets handle matches up with the curve of the rail pretty well and it is less likely to slip. I start pretty much from the beginning of the rail and work to the front. Sometimes I will drive a tack halfway into the rail to hold the cords tight if it seems like they're just going to slip forward again after all my hard work. I don't tack through the cord, just right up tight against it. I get the side rail cords packed so tightly that there's no possible way to fit one more--let alone two--in there and I STILL have enough room for another double cord across the front. That's when I just shift all the weft cords a little bit to fill in the whole top evenly. | |||||
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