bonsai

VodkaandOrange — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 06:50:30 GMT

This lamp balances a minimal/decorative Asian aesthetic inspired by the subtle art of bonsai; a pared back structure with an intricate motif cut into each panel. 400mm tall 160x160mm square.

Fruit Bowl 2009b

RoySablosky — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:39:56 GMT

The first thing I drew was the profile. A bowl has to have an elegant shape, a graceful curve, otherwise I don't want it in my kitchen. The first design for this bowl was beautiful (I still have the prototype), but too expensive to make and too fragile for daily use. This revised version is almost the same shape, but has fewer, thicker layers. Instead of twisted wire it's held together with press-fit steel pins. It's been in our kitchen for a year and I've grown to love it. The cutting laser creates a two-tone effect, which I did not expect at first: all the vertical surfaces of the bowl are coal-dark, while the horizontal surfaces remain bamboo-pale. There is also a faint burnt aroma, which I really like. The finished bowl is about 34 cm (13.5 inches) across and 9.4 cm (3.7 inches) high. It is made of 13 layers of plywood, each 7 mm (0.28 inches) thick. Each ring has four laser-drilled 1.6 mm (1/16 inch) holes to accommodate the pins. Here is the "trick" I'm using to turn a flat wooden disk into a three-dimensional bowl. The wood is laser-cut into 13 concentric rings. But the rings are ovoid, not circular. This becomes more obvious as the pieces get smaller; they are staggered in shape as well as size. The long and short axes are graduated so that the 6-to-12-o'clock diameter of each piece matches the 3-to-9-o'clock diameter of the next bigger piece. Therefore, when you take them apart and rotate every other piece by a quarter-turn, they stack instead of nesting: the left-to-right span of each one overlaps with the top-to-bottom span of the one underneath. When you order this bowl, Ponoko will laser-cut the material and send it to me. I will assemble it into a bowl and send it to you. No assembly is required on your end.

Ponoko - All items tagged with minimal

bonsai

Fruit Bowl 2009b