Anyway, back to that design stuff.
Matthias Pliessnig is an artist and furniture designer who's work is made out of bent wood. Using a machine called a steam bender, he heats the glue-like fibers in the wood, allowing it to bend with considerable ease for about thirty seconds before hardening again. The wood he uses is mostly white oak, all air dried (as opposed to the process of placing the wood in a kiln to bake). Forms are wrapped around plywood struts that act like a cast for the wood to be bend around, and the pieces are glued or riveted together.
Usually, when people talk at Hallmark, I am looking at my watch, quite ready to leave. For this one, I was still looking at my watch, because I had a date I didn't want to be late to, but I sincerely hoped that these two events would not end up conflicting because I was thoroughly enjoying his speaking. I even asked a question, which is about as rare as a baboon giving birth to an elephant.
The organic shapes captivated my imagination. That would could bend in such unique ways was truly amazing to me, how it could resemble such a living, breathing mass while still being incredibly light and functional. What struck me most, however, was his process. Matthias talked about how often he would experiment with shapes. His early works of simply free-bending the wood were inspirational, how he would ignore the computer in order to get in touch with the wood itself. I dislike doing creative work on a computer (except when I'm writing, because I can write faster. Even then I print off to re-read,) and to see a designer who, while used the computer, was not reliant upon it was incredibly encouraging. Rhino was used as a tool to give a visual idea to clients, not as the creative process itself.
Also, I like boats. Perhaps I'll build one soon.
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