Building on the first post in this series, it’s time to explore Graham Blackburn’s second pillar of design: Construction. When one thinks of construction in woodworking, the first thought is inevitably joinery. While joinery is definitely one element of the construction of a piece of furniture, as you might expect, there’s more to the equation.
Construction
From Graham Blackburn’s perspective, construction is not just focused on joinery but, rather a combination of: Techniques, Joinery and Material Knowledge.
Some examples of construction techniques would be:
- Building completely with solid wood (i.e. large pieces or glued up panels) – this produces results that are prone to split and crack especially when housed in modern heated structures
- Frame and Panel construction – in contrast, this technique is used for dimensional and planar stability and helps avoid the problems of wood movement encountered with all solid wood construction. As an example, the stiles in a frame and panel door are made narrow and usually run the entire height of the door because wood moves very little in length therefore the height of the door will remain fairly consistent. For the same reason, the rails of a door are usually arranged between the stiles so that there will be a minimal change in the width of the door (mainly due to small changes in the width of the stiles)
- Cabinet Making – In Blackburn’s parlance this is actually veneering to create larger panels without the need for frame and panel construction which offers no real advantage in many cabinet applications. The use of veneers allows different wood species to be used to create stable panels and also conserves potentially rare materials used for veneers
- Other construction techniques include turning, lamination, coopering and a host of others.
The takeaway here is that the technique of construction is one of the elements that contribute to the design of a piece. One interesting point that Blackburn shared on construction techniques was that in historic times, the various guilds (i.e. Turners Guild, Joiners Guild, Cabinetmakers Guild, etc.) actually drove the design in particular styles of funiture due to the limits of what they were allowed to do within their respective guilds. Therefore, a piece with all turned elements would only come froma member of the Turners Guild.
Closely related to the technique of construction are the qualities of the material to be used. In Blackburn’s view, one can never know enough about that materials used in the construction of furniture. One great source of information on wood and its properties is available online by searching for “Wood Handbook”.
The most common characteristics of a wood are its shrinkage and expansion rates. Many woodworkers know that wood moves with moisture more across the grain than with it but, did you also know that it will move more when harvested from toward the outside of the tree? As a result, quartersawing wood (where the growth rings are nearly perpendicular to the face of the board) produces the most stable boards because the outside of the tree is the smallest possible dimension of the board (its thickness) – thus a quartersawn board expands and contracts mainly only in thickness.
While the aforementioned charactistics of wood are important, there are many others to consider when choosing a piece or species of wood for a furniture design. Figure, color (and the possibility for change), cost, hardness, strength, workability, desnsity, flexibility, toxicity, etc. – all of these things can contribute significantly to the design choices in a piece of furniture.
Last, but not least to be considered, is the joinery used in the construction of a piece of furniture that is being designed. For the best possible designs we need to know as much as possible about various woodworking joints and joinery techniques so that we can choose the best joint for the intended purpose.
Unfortunately, most woodworkers tend to have a limited joinery vocabulary. This is mainly due to more prevailant machine use in woodworking today. Machines were generally not designed to produce joinery. Most woodworking machines are designed for and best suited for a single purpose.
The strongest woodworking joint is the one with the least amount of material removed from each part. Many of the best joints for specific purposes are necessary to make or, at least fit by hand. So, in order to produce the best furniture designs BLackburn feels that it is important for all all woodworkers to study woodworking joints and to develop this joinery vocabulary. Also important, is the development of efficient accurate methods for creating these joints either by machine, by hand or via a hybrid approach.
In a future post we’ll explore Blackburn’s third Pillar of Design: Proportion.
Tags: construction, Design, furniture design, Graham Blackburn, three pillars of design
You may or may not have heard of SmartFlix before. However, if you enjoy instructional DVD’s about woodworking, woodturning and/or many other subjects, you should definitely check it out.
SmartFlix is a DVD rental service much like NetFlix is for movies. The difference is that SmartFlix rents harder to find DVD’s relating to specialty arts and crafts.
I have personally used SmartFlix and found it to be both easy to use and valuable. All you do is browse the online catalog in a subject area that interests you, find a title that you want and order the DVD rental. Within a few days you receive the DVD in a mailer that you reuse (postage paid) to return the DVD to SmartFlix after you have viewed it. You just have to have it back in the mail one week after the date you receive it. Pretty simple.
Even better, it turns out that SmartFlix is currently running a contest for woodworking projects that could earn you $250 if your project is selected as the winning one! To enter, you can submit photos of your project through the SmartFlix web site. Voting for the project takes place there too. It looks like the voting ends on October 10th so, you’ll need to act quick.
If you have some good pictures of a nice project you have done, give it a shot and enter. Good luck if you do!
Tags: SmartFlix, woodworking contest
Building on the information that I gleaned from the Graham Blackburn workshop that I attended, I wanted to go into a little more depth on the topics of design that were discussed. Very often when woodworkers think about designing a piece of furniture they only think about things like joinery, style and the finish of the piece. However, doing so is to consider only part of the equation.
According to Blackburn, there are three pillars of design: Function, Construction, and Proportion. I’d like to explore these one by one, giving each it’s own post here. So, let’s first explore the how the function of a piece relates to its design.
Function
The function of a piece is sometimes hard to define even for what you would think is a straightforward item. However, it’s very important to define its function completely before you design any piece of furniture.
As an example, if you were asked to define a table, how would you do it? Is it something that you sit at in a chair? Does it have storage for things like a desk would? How about a stand to hold something like a plant or vase…is that a table? How high should it be? Round or rectilinear? What makes a table a table and not a chair? You can sit on a table, can’t you?
A lot of these questions may seem silly. However, at the workshop, Mr. Blackburn had us go through a brief discussion on the definition of a table in order to illustrate a point. There was no one correct answer. The definition of a table depends on its intended application. Size, shape, etc. are dictated by how, why and where it is likely to be used. Similarly, the intended use could dictate certain design decisions like how big or what shape it should be. It’s also possible that the environment in which it will be used may also dictate some of the elements of its design.
On the subject of size, at the workshop we discussed different sizes based on standards, ergonomics and specific individuals. Of course the ergonomics of a piece will vary by function as well as the size of the person that may use it. Taller individuals may want a higher table due to their physical stature. Or, due to its intended function, a table might be designed to be much taller or shorter – for example to be used while standing up or for displaying something next to a chair. Mr. Blackburn highlighted a reference text for standard sizes of all kinds of furniture and cabinetry, etc. called Architectural Graphic Standards. He stated that any edition of the text is a valuable resource for details on standard sizes and determining efficient ergonomics.
So, defining the function of a piece of furniture is essentially just an application of common sense. The theory is that that the form of a piece should follow the function of its intended use. It’s important to ask and answer the necessary questions relating to the use of a piece of furniture before designing it. Unless we are simply designing abstract art, the esthetics, style, joinery, color, finish, etc. should all be secondary considerations. Of course, the material and joinery choices can become important based on the intended function of a piece as well. That will be the subject of my next post on Blackburn’s second pillar of design: Construction.
Tags: Design, function, furniture design, Graham Blackburn, three pillars of design
This weekend marked the opening of the season for the Rochester Woodworkers Society, the woodworking club that I belong to. As I have mentioned before, each year the club hosts several national woodworkers for lectures and workshops. The first talk of this season was given by Graham Blackburn.
Graham has an interesting background. Born in London, England into a family of woodworkers (father and grandfather), his parents wanted him to pursue a “professional” career as a lawyer or a doctor. Much to his parents dismay, he spent his summers in London working for a local cabinetmaker learning various techniques and woodworking skills and ultimately ened up in the fields of art, music and woodworking.
When Graham first came to the United States he settled in Woodstock New York – this was prior to the famous concert held there in 1969. He is a musician and ultimately attended the Juliard School in New York City on a music scholarship. He also subsequently played flute and saxophone for Van Morrison for several years. During this period he built his first house in Woodstock and wrote his first book about that process (he has now penned more than a dozen books). All the while he made furniture for himself as well as for others.
Still interested in woodworking, after his years in the music scene, he attended art school and learned the principles of design. Throughout the subsequent years he continued his woodworking, design and writing. He has been a frequent contributor to numerous magazines including Fine Woodworking and was the editor of Woodwork Magazine for several years. Many of his articles have centered around the history of various furniture styles as well as aspects of furniture design.
Graham took us through a slide show of various pieces that he has designed and built and discussed the good an the bad of each. Most notably he pointed out his evolution as a designer and how he had missed the mark in some of his early pieces. Given his background in art and training in design, Graham brings a sound perspective to furniture design. This is something that is somewhat unique as not a lot of woodworkers are formally trained in art and/or design. During his discussion, Graham stated that:
“Function is only half of the story, what makes a good design is a combination of balance rhythm and proportion”
The aspect of proportion is something that I have have written about here before, citing one of Graham’s past articles in Fine Woodworking. The balance and rhythm of a piece are closely related aspects that I think are worthy of some further exploration.
Graham also spoke about what he called the “transparent arts” of design. He described these as the elements of a furniture design that when done just right are not specifically noticed but, if done wrong make a piece look awkward and/or unattractive. These transparent design elements center around proportion, balance and rhythm and can be found in even the finest details of a piece.
Graham was here to discuss both design and the use of hand tools in the modern shop. I was fortunate enough to attend his workshop on the following day discussing these topics in a bit more detail than in the general lecture. I plan on following up with a post or two to discuss more of the details of what was covered. So, stay tuned!
Tags: balance, Design, Graham Blackburn, proportion, rhythm
When you’re writing about woodworking and design and documenting your projects, time sure flies. It was one year ago on Labor Day weekend that I started this blogging experiment that I call The Craftsman’s Path. The upcoming weekend marks the one year anniversary of this effort!
Since that day, I have written about many things: techniques, projects, jigs, design, people and experiences. The process has been great. I have enjoyed doing it as well as getting to know some of you out there who have been following along and commenting and/or emailing with input, questions and critiques. I wanted to make a quick post to say thank you for reading and most of all for participating. Please continue to do so in the future, and for all of you who are reading but not commenting, please do! The discussion is what makes this medium so rich in content.
With all of that said, I am anxious to get back into the shop and to posting on more topics. I have a bunch of new projects planned and I also want to continue with the process of talking about design. That is an area that I would really like to engage in some more substantive discussion – hopefully involving more of you!
So, thanks again for all of your support and until the next post, remember: Its Woodworking Season!
