Search result for: the-last-thing-you-aquired-
| # | Post Title | Result Info | Date | User | Forum |
| Why this obsession with Eames & co ? | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | barrympls | General discussion | |
| Why this obsession with Eames & co ? Because it seems to be that with the exception of the wonderfully bizarre world of post war Italian lighting, the American assortment of post war designers/architects, including; Charles Eames (Evans, Herman Miller) Ray Eames (Evans, Herman Miller) Eero Saarinen (Knoll) George Nelson (Herman Miller, Howard Miller) Irving Harper (Herman Miller, Howard Miller) Warren Platner (Knoll) Harry Bertoia (Knoll) Florence Knoll Bassett (Knoll) Isamu Noguchi (Knoll, Herman Miller) Jens Risom (Herman Miller) Richard Schultz (Knoll) Edward Wormley (Dunbar) Russel Wright (lots of companies) Paul McCobb (Winchedon, Calvin, etc.) Alexander Girard (Herman Miller) did the most wonderful, clever, yet tasteful of the post war designs since the Bauhaus of the 1930's. Sure, there's lots of interesting European designers, but to me, there didn't seem to be a movement as organized and structured as those coming from Herman Miller or Knoll. Perhaps if there was a comprehensive book on just European post war design, I'd see some of the brilliant designs, but off the top of my head, I don't see stuff that moves me as much as those from Herman Miller and Knoll. As both Herman Miller and (especially) Knoll hired designers with a European background, I consider their stuff to be of International interest. Why are you so down on Eames and other American designers? One more thing, yes there were really progressive designers like Panton, Aarnio and Kagan doing some way-out stuff, but little of it is classic enough for me to want to have in my living room. (They are fun to see pictures of, however.) | |||||
| Replacing Rattan, Binding Cane on Danish Chairs | 1 Relevance | 14 years ago | tchp | General discussion | |
| This morning I began to dissect the binding cane on the backs of one of my Peter Hvidt armchairs to try to figure out how the weaving was done. The 500 pixel image below is kind of small, so there is a larger version at the linked URL that shows more detail. Basically, what I have found so far is that the individual sections of horizontal weaving look like the section that corresponds to what I have labeled as "A" and "B". This represents a single continuous piece of binding cane, that has both of its tag ends tucked under its own wrapping, to secure them (see image). The thing is, I cannot quite figure out what method was used in order to get both ends tucked under. If you started wrapping on side "A", you can easily enough wrap right over the top of the tag end, securing it, which is simple enough to understand, but when you finish the wrap on side "B", I am not sure how it was done. I initially assumed that a long tag end would have been threaded under the loose wraps, then pulled by hand to make everything taut. Then, you could trim this long tag end off by slicing it carefully by running a razor between the wraps. But, I see no evidence that it was done this way, as the blunt cut ends of the rattan do not correspond to their having been sliced off like that. Nor are there any telltale horizontal cut marks on the frame of the chair itself. I figure there must be a tool or technique that I am not aware of for pulling the tag end under the wraps. Any suggestions? | |||||
| Banana Leaf | 1 Relevance | 15 years ago | Brent | General discussion | |
| Banana Leaf Modernism for me is a rational return to what is primary in design and how we live in relation to design. This quote by Charles Eames--meandering though it is--for me captures that philosophical underpinning of modernism. "There's sort of a parable I'd like to . . . In India . . . I guess it's a parable: In India, sort of the lowest, the poorest, the, those, those without and the lowest in caste, eat very often--particularly in southern India--they eat off of a banana leaf. And those a little bit up the scale, eat off of a sort of a un . . . a low-fired ceramic dish. And a little bit higher, why, they have a glaze on--a thing they call a "tali"--they use a banana leaf and then the ceramic as a tali upon which they put all the food. And there get to be some fairly elegant glazed talis, but it graduates to--if you're up the scale a little bit more--why, a brass tali, and a bell-bronze tali is absolutely marvelous, it has a sort of a ring to it. And then things get to be a little questionable. There are things like silver-plated talis and there are solid silver talis and I suppose some nut has had a gold tali that he's eaten off of, but I've never seen one. But you can go beyond that and the guys that have not only means, but a certain amount of knowledge and understanding, go the next step and they eat off of a banana leaf. And I think that in these times when we fall back and regroup, that somehow or other, the banana leaf parable sort of got to get working there, because I'm not prepared to say that the banana leaf that one eats off of is the same as the other eats off of, but it's that process that has happened within the man that changes the banana leaf. And as we attack these problems--and I hope and I expect that the total amount of energy used in this world is going to go from high to medium to a little bit lower--the banana leaf idea might have a great part in it." ~Charles Eames | |||||
| Now that we have a new "Last | 1 Relevance | 8 years ago | SDR | General discussion | |
| Now that we have a new "Last thing you made" thread, conveniently available, let's see: Last year was "pro bono year" for me. I made a dog-watering device, a cane, and a box, all for friends or . . . because I was asked to. I did make a couple of furniture pieces; I'll show those later. The dog-watering station came about because another guy with too much time on his hands, and an interest in public service, had noticed that, at the dog park, while there is a ground-level watering bowl for pets attached to a people-fountain, it has to be operated by a human -- so the dogs arrive at the fountain and then have to wait for a "people" to notice, and come over to push the button. Photos show the fountain in situ; the button is half-way up the side of the pedestal. My cohort had come up with an idea: a ring-shaped treadle surrounding the dog bowl, which when stepped on would -- somehow -- operate the button (which has a very short throw and a stiff spring). His cobbled-together prototype hadn't translated his concept into reality: he thought that a sliding wedge affair, attached to the ring, would operate the button if it were noosed to the pedestal. So, not coming up with another means of operation, I went with that concept. Long story short, it worked -- barely. Only a heavier dog had the weight to operate the device, but the bigger problem was getting the dogs to step on the ring. I only saw it work that way (without human help) once. But it was fun to design, draw, and build, anyway. Materials are alder wood, HDPE plastic, steel brackets and stainless fasteners. | |||||
| Now that we have a new "Last | 1 Relevance | 8 years ago | SDR | General discussion | |
| Now that we have a new "Last thing you made" thread, conveniently available, let's see: Last year was "pro bono year" for me. I made a dog-watering device, a cane, and a box, all for friends or . . . because I was asked to. I did make a couple of furniture pieces; I'll show those later. The dog-watering station came about because another guy with too much time on his hands, and in interest in public service, had noticed that, at the dog park, while there is a ground-level watering bowl for pets attached to a people-fountain, it has to be operated by a human -- so the dogs arrive at the fountain and then have to wait for a "people" to notice, and come over to push the button. Photos show the fountain in situ; the button is half-way up the side of the pedestal. My cohort had come up with an idea: a ring-shaped treadle surrounding the dog bowl, which when stepped on would -- somehow -- operate the button (which has a very short throw and a stiff spring). His cobbled-together prototype hadn't translated his concept into reality: he thought that a sliding wedge affair, attached to the ring, would operate the button if it were noosed to the pedestal. So, not coming up with another means of operation, I went with that concept. Long story short, it worked -- barely. Only a heavier dog had the weight to operate the device, but the bigger problem was getting the dogs to step on the ring. I only saw it work that way (without human help) once. But it was fun to design, draw, and build, anyway. Materials are alder wood, HDPE plastic, steel brackets and stainless fasteners. | |||||
| RE: Recently acquired? | 1 Relevance | 7 years ago | _ | General discussion | |
| Did you set the voltage selector to match your country (located under the platter)? Do not plug the unit until you have done this first, you could short the circuits. If the unit has a German plug, you need to get an adapter plug that works in your country. The voltage selector knob does not turn but it pulls out and put back in place where the pointer points to the correct voltage. If you have done these and it still does not turn on, check to see if it has a fuse, the unit will not turn on if that is busted and has to be replaced to match the original if it is still there. If it still will not turn on, it could be anything, old tubes, broken solder connection or other types of short circuits that had happened in the past that may need an experienced radio repair electrician that repairs vintage equipment. Or you can just enjoy how it looks as a display object like in a museum collection where displays do not need to be fully functioning. Also, if you get the unit to work, the record player is not too bad if you don't mind mono sound (1 speaker only before stereo, a second speaker unit was optional) and I doubt if there are still many radio stations that broadcast in those frequencies. If radio listening is your thing, the Braun SK-1 by Fritz Eichler sold in North America was available in FM. Attachment: braun-sk5-radiogram-dieter-rams_360_1712c151e49ea5d2f035e7279842ad5f.jpg | |||||
| haha | 1 Relevance | 18 years ago | whitespike | General discussion | |
| haha Funny. Almost the same exact thing happened to me when I visited home last year. I was driving in the country in Mississippi on my way to a little post wedding gathering for a friend of mine. You wouldn't believe it, but on the front porch of a trailer home there were two Bertoias. Not more than five houses down there was a complete black tulip dining set by a swimming pool!!!!! I drove by. I never stopped. Several years ago my blood would've run hot and I would have pulled over. I don't know exactly why, but sometimes I get enjoyment out of seeing these things in these weird environments. I have this attitude that I can't have it all, to leave things alone. This attitude happened after a find in a little Mississippi town just north of Jackson. I actually went there to find something. I drove around looking at porches. Sure enough, deep inside the ghetto I found two Barcelona chairs on a front porch! The neighborhood was scary. There was a group of men smoking pot in the front yard across the street. To add to the weirdness, there was also a cop car parked in the same driveway. I walked up to the door and knocked, heart racing. A pretty rough looking man opened up and I asked if I could buy the chairs. He declined. He told me that he had looked for months for a small armless loveseat for his morbidly obese mother who had amputated legs to lay on on the porch. He found these chairs at goodwill and they pushed together nicely to make the desired function. A sofa wouldn't have fit the porch, and she couldn't lay on a loveseat with arms. These Barcelona chairs was her only connection the the outside world. She would lay on them day after day, just waving at traffic. I figured they suited her better than they did me. I learned that I can't have it all. Congrats on your find! | |||||
| danish wall unit | 1 Relevance | 19 years ago | dandelauro | General discussion | |
| so, the wife and i have had tremendous luck lately on craigslist. we recently found a herman miller css for $100 with a whole slew of shelves. and also managed to rescue a tulip table from the same people (it was outside with a grill on it... such a crime!). then just a few days later, we stumbled upon another wall unit. i was hoping someone on here might be able to help me identify the designer and/or the company who made it. not that we intend to sell or anything (it's fabulous by the way), but it would be nice to at least know a little about it. there's a desk, a cabinet with drawers, a smaller, single drawer and a couple of small to medium sized shelves. this thing is well engineered. genius in fact. it's all wood with wooden pegs that slide into slanted holes (see pics). there is no real maker's mark or anything aside from a few original "Made in Denmark" stickers and some of the shelves have been stamped MADE IN DENMARK. so, on my greatest of days i might guess that this is danish... and it looks amazing... but that's about all i can come up with at this point. are there any true danish wall unit aficionados out there who might be able to help identify? if so, please feel free to email me (dandelauro@gmail.com) thanks so much... | |||||
| FH only acquired the rights... | 1 Relevance | 17 years ago | Yago7 | General discussion | |
| FH only acquired the rights... FH only acquired the rights to the classic Kjearholm works long after their "era". The same goes for the Prouvé collection by Vitra to name one. Licensed and original do not necessarily mean the same. In that respect I appreciate the Modernica Eames shells eventhough they're not environmentally friendly. The other Modernica works like the Wegner knock-offs are nothing less than a disgrace. PP Mobler is the original manufacturer and still makes these masterworks in the same manner as fifty years ago with all quality aspects to it. The difference between licensed and original is also illustrated by the fact that manufacturers regularly modify the designs or production techniques to today's standards which is not necessarily a bad thing but which raises purist's eyebrows nonetheless. As a purist I wouldn't advise anyone to buy even licensed products from manufacturers who originally were not in the picture (There are exceptions, for example the PK0 which never went in production before FH decided to give it a go). Apart from the discussion whether the quality is worth the money, they're just not a good investment. I'm not saying this should be your first prioriy, but paying 3.500 euro for a FH PK22 is silly as you'll lose at least half of you money if you ever need to get rid of it. The same money or even less buys you a great vintage Kold Christensen. Regarding the quality I suspect that in many cases contemporary licensed products will not stand the test of time. For example the wood veneer of a current FH 7 series chair is a fraction of the original. The leather on most Eames lounge chairs will never have the patina that the 60s and 70s chairs have. One last advise: if you can't afford it, don't buy it. Knock-offs are not your way out. You'll feel cheated before you know it. | |||||
| It seems to be part of... | 1 Relevance | 18 years ago | koen | General discussion | |
| It seems to be part of... ...the culture of these competitions to emphasize one particular aspect of a problem or solution. In this case all efforts are on solar power and specifically on solar elements. I wonder to what extend these type of competitions really bring us closer to a solution. First of all to design is to find a cohesive solution between a large number of functions and criteria. To reduce a project to a sourcing exercise, (which this basically is) the schools do neither a service to themselves nor to the students. More and more good design is defined by being able to cope with complexity and be inspired by it. To do projects where in the name of the theme of the competition, other criteria do not seem to matter seems to me as a disservice rather than a proper pedagogical exercise. This is simply bad architecture. As Gustaf points out the whole thing is rather ugly and the spaces that are created are the result of superficial compromising rather than of inspired complexity. I also think it pulls the potential users away from this kind of energy sources instead of bringing them closer to it. It gives the impression that this is what we will have to accept in the near future in the name of fighting global warming and other important actions to bring about a sustainable culture. I suspect that it has the opposite effect. What also surprises me is that we do not seem to make much progress even in these one-theme projects. Three decades ago I visited a new build neighbourhood in Randers Denmark. All houses were experimental solar houses, some including wind power and passive solar heat. Most of them were more advanced in terms of materials, innovative solutions etc. than this university project. Are we really not making any progress? | |||||
| Info about resto job on Eames lounge & ottoman | 1 Relevance | 14 years ago | thehistorian222 | General discussion | |
| A year and a half ago, you folks helped me identify this chair, which came out of an old hospital in Wisconsin. I've since had it restored, but I still have a few questions about it. I'm wondering if I'm correct that this is a pre-1971 chair made of rosewood. I'd also like to ask for a little bit of feedback on the restoration. The chair was in terrible shape when I got it (see before and after photos below), with bolts holding the arms on and the leather ruined. I had the shock mounts replaced and the holes where the bolts were filled with putty. You can still see where they were, but only if you look closely. I also had the leather cushions completely redone. They're filled with foam now instead of down, and unfortunately the person who restored it for me glued them to the wood instead of replacing the clips that usually hold the cushions down. So I know it's not the perfect resto job, but the chair was in pretty rough shape and he/we did the best we could. Anything you can tell me would be helpful. Of course the most important thing I'd like to know is how this affects the chair's value. I'm not trying to sell it on this forum, but if anyone could give me a ballpark value for this, I'd be very grateful. There's one before and two after photos below, and there are others on my Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87813449@N04/ Thanks for your time. | |||||
| Is this site getting boring? | 1 Relevance | 18 years ago | Riki | General discussion | |
| I must confess that I have been spending less time checking in on this website because it seems to be getting a little stale. Is it only me? Where are all of the pix of people's great finds, crazy questions, gold eames chairs, etc? Are we all just getting old/complacent/set in our ways? Is anybody out there buying/doing anything exciting besides Whitespike and his imminent fatherhood? Gustaf, what have you been collecting/doing lately? Heath, you always had great stuff going on, where are you? Could it be that all of our houses have reached the maturity level and no one is in the acquiring/redecorating mode? I will liven it up a bit. Y'all know that Mr. Big was transferred to Switzerland so I find myself in this tiny European apartment with absolutely nothing to do except go to French class every day from 11 to 12 with a teacher who looks exactly like Nathan Lane in Birdcage, but that's another story entirely. The apartment is a temporary thing until July 1st and it came completely furnished. Except, not one piece of art. Not one. Just white walls everywhere. So, I have all this time on my hands and lots of white walls, so I decide that I will take up oil painting to fill up the walls. I have done two so far and here they are. Go ahead and laugh at will. BTW, the white cross on the red background is the Swiss flag, so try to be nice and not insult the Swiss when you finish your critique, (they have nothing to do with my un-talent!) | |||||
| Soneone gave us.. | 1 Relevance | 21 years ago | NULL NULL | General discussion | |
| Soneone gave us.. a "fireplace" video... With sound it even crackles and pops!... Really funny! Actually have not seen a DVD version but it must exist... A 62" fireplace would be pretty spectacular... As far as the wall color goes don't be afraid to experiment... Paint is cheap! In our MCM house we had lots of "Mondrianish" architectural inluences so when we bought about 5 years ago I got the idea there should be primary colors involved... I painted the largest wall in the livingroom ultrmarine blue, the painted block surrounding the fireplace bright yellow and the raised drywall panel over the fireplace bright red... The living, dining and kitchen areas are open plan with minimal divisions... All other walls except the ones mentioned are white... The kitchen cabinets are black with stainless steel appliances and salt and pepper granite counter tops... Anyway, after living with the saturated Mondrain colors for 5 years we decided to change the scheme of things and painted the blue wall a medium warm gray... The yellow fireplace block went to a charcoal color and the red panel over the fireplace stayed... I like the change, for change sake, but am missing the deep, saturated ultramarine wall... Am now thinking that large wall might need to be a soft glass green color hence bringing the red/green thing into play... My point is and has always been... Don't be afraid of wall color... For a minimal amount of cashola it can change... | |||||
| Over the next 2 weeks, I did | 1 Relevance | 10 years ago | cdsilva | General discussion | |
| Over the next 2 weeks, I did not hear anything back, but was able to stop in during a preview session to see the chairs firsthand. What appeared to be knockoffs on a few online photos were obvious knockoffs close up. As can be seen in the detail photos, wood type, joint quality, and framing member elegance were all way off. As opposed to the "heavily-inspired" green upholstery chairs in post #16, these were intentionally made to deceive people into thinking they were JH-515 chairs. At least there was no fake Johannes Hansen marks on the underside (they were unmarked). While it took Wright a while, they ended up pulling both lots the day of the auction, and the listings themselves have been removed from the auction archive. It is certainly good that Wright did the the "right" thing, but a little disconcerting that such obvious knockoffs initially made its way past their experts. There were also a couple of other suspect listings in that auction which I will not comment on in this thread. Hopefully, my next post in this thread will not be on the subject of knockoffs. | |||||
| Thanks, guys. | 1 Relevance | 12 years ago | Spanky | General discussion | |
| Thanks, guys. The seat is an oddball thing that I've only seen on Bramin lounge chairs. The chair you see more often than this one has a high back with a scoop at the top and it's on a swivel base. The seat is the done the same way on that one. The seat foam is glued to the styrofoam shell and the fabric only covers the top part. On the sides and back of the seat fabric is a casing through which is threaded a U-shaped rod of 1/8" diameter steel. It's about an inch smaller on sides and back than the curve of the seat. Its purpose is to hold the fabric snugly around the foam cushion. It's anchored by heavy thread drawn through the fabric at 5-6 points and then threaded through the entire styrofoam shell of the chair with a big needle and tied securely on the outside of the shell. The part I would/should/might change (someday) is that the foam on the front edge of the seat should be thinner and there is supposed to be a seam along there so that the fabric fits the shell's curves better. I had the idea that it was supposed to be one seamless swoop of fabric but in looking at the Bramin swivel chairs, I think not. The three that I've seen of this chair were all redone to have separate seat cushions but I do so love to stick to the originals, EVEN IF IT IS A PAIN IN THE ASS. (This one wasn't so bad once I gave up trying to use a soft, thick latex foam---simply too bouncy and squishy to stay put long enough to do the tie-downs.) I think the designer wanted the look of an upholstered seat, not a seat cushion, and this crazy metal rod method was the only way to do that on a styrofoam shell. Or one way, anyway. When it works, it works. By the way, it is very, very comfortable. There is a lumbar curve in the styro shell and the arms are just right and it's lovely. I love it. | |||||
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