Design Process: New Chair (Little Bird Chair)

Since we have a new show of original furniture designs about to open this weekend (more info here), I thought it would be fun to post a photo essay and description of my design process for one of the pieces in the show.  Namely, the Little Bird. 

This design started with 6 steel tubes and the question: what am I going to do with these things?

There were 3 each of 3" x 12" and 4" x 14" and each one cut neatly to a uniform length of 16".

"What am I going to do with these things?"

The idea came to me to make a pair of chairs and a table, each using a smaller and a larger tube, and powder coat them all in one color to match.  (Powder coating is like a special type of paint that is extrememly tough and durable, and is used on a lot of metal products.)  The color for them, which I couldn't get out of my head, was bright yellow.

Next, I arranged the pieces to get an idea of how it would work:

I roughly imagined that the seam in the concrete at the bottom of the image would be ground level for the chairs and table.

Next: what would the legs be?  I have been working with hairpin legs on several of the new chairs lately, which seemed to be a good choice here.

I sometimes like to spread out a clean piece of cardboard and get out a sharpie pen to draw full-size as I work in the shop.  I sketched a double-hairpin that ended being more of a boomerang, just touching the seat at the middle bend.  It was important to me that the middle bend of the legs be a 90-degree angle:

Next I bent a sample leg to see how it looked in actual metal versus lines on cardboard:

I ended up raising the chair another couple of inches, which brought the seat up off of the middle bend in the legs.  This had the added benefit of allowing the boomerang shape to read more clearly, and I liked it better this way.  I also opened up the outer angles of the legs so that they hit the seat closer to the corners.

Then I made all the rest of the legs.  Making them all at the same time helps keep the bends uniform.

Next step was to weld the seats and backs together:

You can see how they are welded:

Here are the seats/backs with the legs cut to final length:

And we're almost done!  Weld on the legs:

 

Wait!  Since one thing I like about steel is its tremendous strength, and I like emphasizing this in my furniture, I want to make an adjustment to the way the back meets the seat:

Ahhhh.  Better.  The back just hangs there.  Now I'm satisfied.

Off to the powder coating shop!  After getting sand blasted and then sprayed with pigmented polyester powder, the pieces are baked at about 500 degrees and the powder is transformed into a durable, shiny, smooth finish.  After they cool, they are wrapped for protection.

And I didn't really discuss the table much, but here it is hanging upside down to cool:

Finally, the pieces are all brought down to the gallery to get ready for the show.

I like to come up with names that are somewhat memorable and also describe an aspect of the character of the piece.  This chair reminds me of a little bird, so I named it the Little Bird Chair.  I would love it if someone bought the chairs and table as a set; I hate to break them up!

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