No. 14 Simple Dining Room Table

     I learn something new everyday doing these drawings/posts, and I'm pretty excited to see the knowledge I will have picked up by the end of this little endeavor. Today's lesson: you can't always draw what you want, or, you can't force it.
     I had originally set out to draw a dining room table (the category randomly selected by my eldest daughter) with sculptural legs, something resembling swaying tall grass. Guess what? That's not what is pictured below. What happened? Furthermore,what do I extrapolate from this? Am I incapable of drawing a piece like that? Here is what it demonstrated to me. Creativity is a force. It is vast ocean that we carry around with us everywhere we go and in every situation that we find ourselves. The problem is, with me at least, that we can't make it produce what we want when we demand it to. Can I draw the piece I had originally set out to? I have no doubt that I can, and still may, I just couldn't do it in the breif time allotted by this exercise. One day I may have time to sit down and really think the thing through. More than likely though, (again in my experience) I will be thinking of, or drawing something completely different and that table will just show up, ready to put down on paper. My point? I find that with enough time to work through ideas our creativity will deliver. However, there are times when an idea just needs more time to percolate. We, as creative people (and you are a creative person by nature of being "a person"), need to learn the difference and allow it to happen. We will be abundantly happier with the results, than if we try to force it.
     Well, lesson over. So what did I end up drawing? A much simpler, cleaner sculptural table. After I drew the table I began thinking of the materials I would use to make it and how it would be finished. A quick point here. Sometimes I start with a very specific material in mind for a project and others it is simple about the design and the appropriate material presents itself. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming. I originally thought, and still do, that this table would look great in black walnut. Then I came across this table by Mathias Hahn, and the idea shifted a little. Instead of, or maybe in addition to, a one-off walnut table, have a very small production run of six tables. The first set of three tables would be made of walnut, left natural on top with a white lacquer finish on the legs, sides and underside. The second set of three made in exactly the same manor, using maple and black lacquer instead. Just an idea.

The Good: Like the clean lines and flowing feel.

The Bad: Overall proportions could stand to be tweaked a little.

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No. 11 Contemporary Tabench

     No, I did not misspell the title. As you probably guessed its a table and bench combined (think picnic table, but slightly classier...not that a picnic table isn't classy, whatever, I digress). This is one of those "that is a crazy thought, I wonder if that would work" kind of things. Dining table was the category for today and I was trying to think of something out of the ordinary and wouldn't you know this is what came out. Design for for designs sake so to speak. OK, how many of you are asking "is he stalling?" Yes. I am. This thing has been an enigma to me. From its first popping into my head, to the SketchUp work, to this very writing, so I'm still trying to get my barrings.
     Here is the rundown: Its a basic table whose two ply wide side aprons fold down to turn into a bench, hinged at the leg and supported by hinged, flip down pieces from the outer layer of the apron. Though I'm almost sure that wasn't a thousand words, I think a picture would be helpful right about now.

The Good: It's a table that has benches built in, need I say more? In all seriousness I think this idea has legs (horrible pun, I apologize). It needs much more thought and tweaking to get the hinging and other considerations resolved, but this would definitely be a fun one to work through.

The Bad: I think that this design is too rudimentary to really point out flaws, however I certainly do not feel that it is without them.