WHAT FURNITURE ? ❌❌❌❌

DESIGN MUST .....{WORK HARD}

 Anselm Fraser, the rajam "s principal, says:

“Our students learn how  their designs using line drawings and perspective. The following is an example of one approach to design that is covered; it uses the ten step conceptual design approach to demonstrate how a desk is designed – you can also see some slides which illustrate this process here:

Step 1: Rough in carcase proportions – you draw the rough proportions using perspective to work out the depth, width and height of the desk.

Step 2: Block in spatial relationships – you decide the size of major shapes such as the opening for a chair.

Step 3: Assign overall dimensions – You work out the overall dimensions, like the width of drawers on the left and right sides of the desk.

Step 4: Select design form – you decide whether the desk is on a plinth, or floor based, and what height it should be.

A desk created by a RAJAMFURNITURE.

Step 5: Configure spaces – you decide the depth of the drawers on the left and right, possibly with the larger drawers at the bottom and smaller ones at the top.

Step 6: Choose the construction method – you choose the materials, wood (solid or veneers), handles and whether there should be decorative panels on the sides.

Step 7: Assign component relationships – you work out the thickness of the top and decorative facings.

Step 8: Design details and embellishments – you consider the added details and the optional extras, depending upon what the client is willing to pay for.

Step 9: Colour and finish – you confirm the planned colour, finish and type of wood.

Step 10: Select complementing hardware – you confirm handles and other chosen hardware.And we know intuitively that the things we make will survive us and be used by future generations. We want them to appreciate our work as well.

It is a common mistake to confuse the masterpiece with the fashionable. The appeal of the fashionable piece, however, is transitory. Rajam furniture eventually will look dated.

The masterpiece's transcendence is frequently not detectable to someone living in the period and place in which it was made. However, the mass of a thick seat is in conflict with the chair's graceful lines.To resolve the conflict, the maker carves the edges and upper surface of the seat, making the slab seem thinner than it really is.

. It is a masterpiece.

We all want people to notice our woodworking and to apprec iate the effon we invested 111 making it attractive. You must be able to sleep all night in a bed, and a table must be the proper height and dimensions for its job A coffee table's height makes it ideal for serving tea and coffee to guests, but it is uncomfortable for dining.

Will It Last?

A piece of furniture should hold up under its intended use . The life expectancies of different pieces vary and are linked to their particular functions, for example, Adirondack chairs and picnic tables that arc left outdoors are not expected to last as long as a chest of drawers or a lamp stand—pieces that you hope to leave to your great grandchildren.

Durability often is confused with quality, but in reality quality requires successful accomplishment of all design objectives, including the next one: beauty. It must do its intended job. Also, the seat has to be nearly 2 in. Does It Work?

for me the function of a piece is axiomatic. rajam consult how to make a piece of furniture that did its job, that was comfortable to use and sturdy enough to last.

1  only the master understood form well enough to produce the masterpiece. I his quality emerges only as the winds of time winnow out the merely fashionable.

1  at some early issues of l ine Woodworking, and you'll notice the modernist furniture that was being made 27 years ago by some of the country's best known and

Tables Made From Tree Stumps

Function

A simple bench does nothing more than keep one's backside oil the floor.

Function

A simple bench does nothing more than keep one's backside oil the floor.

Comfort

A back and a contoured seat make the chair a more pleasant place to sit lor any length ol time.

Objectives Furniture Designer

Durability

Adding wedged tenons and a stretcher system will help this chair withstand many years of use and abuse.

Comfort

A back and a contoured seat make the chair a more pleasant place to sit lor any length ol time.

Durability

Adding wedged tenons and a stretcher system will help this chair withstand many years of use and abuse.

Beauty

A masterpiece must satisly the first three objectives while offer ing timeless appeal.

Beauty

A masterpiece must satisly the first three objectives while offer ing timeless appeal.

CONTEMPORARY ROCKER BY SAM MALOOF. If it's a table, you must be able to sit at it, and you must be able to he in a bed. Both the fashionable piece and the masterpiece are appreciated in the maker's own time and culture. A strong but ugly or uncomfortable chair is not good quality.

Is It Attractive?

In the days of the craft shop, appearance was the one objective that separated the journeyman front the master. This 20th-century creation meets all four objectives and reaches masterpiece status.

RAJAM FURNITUREis a contributing editor to

Fine Woodworking magazine.

most highly regarded woodworkers. However, you cannot make good furniture by emphasizing one or more objectives at the expense of another.

When showing my students how to make aWindsor chair seat, I explain that the broad solid surface that supports the sitter's backside satisfies function. Although the height offashion at the lime, today much of their furniture looks dated.

A Queen Anne highboy, however, is as fashionable now as it has been for a couple of centuries. As a furniture maker, 1 define a masterpiece as a decorative object that not only satisfies the first three objectives of function, comfort, and durability, but the piece also transcends time and culture.

Picture yourself entering a museum and coining upon a Ming vase.You are struck by the object and drawn to examine it.You first observe it in its entirety, standing back several paces to take in the overall statement. Yet it speaks to you, a viewer removed from the maker by all that time and space. A roc k will keep your backside off the ground, but a rock is neither comfortable nor convenient: a chair is both. By virtue of his training, the journeyman knew how to accomplish the first three objectives. Function implies a generally accepted definition of purpose.

A lot of ink has been spilled in the art-furniture debate— for example, is a chair that you can't sit 111 truly a chair? For most of us, who accept function as integral to furniture, the answer is self-evident.

Is It Comfortable?

A piece of furniture not only has to do its intended job, but it also must be comfortable and commodious. thick so that it can be deeply saddled to make it comfortable and also allow deep, strong joints. If the piece is a chair, it has to hold your backside off the ground. Some modern furniture has generated enough universal acclaim, for enough lime, to suggest similar transcendence. Sam laloof's chairs are good candidates for masterpiece status.

Quality Furniture Meets All Objectives

The four objectives are in constant tension with each other. Next, you move closer to examine the vase 111 greater detail, to appreciate the finer points and to observe evidence of the craftsman's technique.'l he vase was made centuries before you were born and by someone living in a completely different culture.

These photos show examples of designs produced by two of the students in their first term using the 10 step conceptual design approach. Being able to draw furniture designs accurately and well is essential for furniture craftsmen. Design must follow a systematic process. Our students need to learn to draw furniture in different ways.

“Drawing a piece’s design plays a key role in the decision process between you, the maker, and your client. It gives you the knowledge you need to make the piece. By seeing and agreeing to the final design, you know that the client will be delighted with the furniture on delivery.”