Aug 30th, 2018 : Hardwood Bench

Very fancy bench of hardwood steam bent strips.

Brooklyn-based furniture designer and sculptor Matthias Pliessnig creates sumptuous, twisting benches by steam-bending hardwood.

He first developed the process in 2006 while studying wooden boat building techniques at the University of Wisconsin-Madison when he realized that by flipping his boat-inspired creations over, he could use the hollow form as a sturdy bench.

Once he has designed his works using Rhinoceros 3-D software, Pliessnig places a strips of wood into a tube filled with hot steam.

After ten minutes the wood is malleable enough to bend into his desired shape, but only for about 30 seconds. In eight hours, the wood is fully hardened, and back to its original strength.

link

Too tedious for me I think.

Very similar to boatbuilding. Looks fantastic.

Apparently, I don't like to have to think about where to put my ass when using seating.

Pass.

I think you can put your ass anywhere on it. It transitions from a "sit" to a "lean", but it looks like it will support you either way.

You put your ass on it anywhere. I want my ass where ass is supposed to ass.

And where is that, a tree stump, a crate, a tailgate?

They're *gorgeous*.

But I don't have that many clamps for god's sake.

I'm kind of exhausted just contemplating making the eleventeen-hundred forms for the ribs, and those are just cold, dry, flat wood.

If the ends remain open in the final product, kids would LOVE going inside.

And dogs to poop. ;)

I have memories from my childhood of bending dry 3/4" X 3/4" Douglas fir around a compound curve, and it was a bitch. I wish I still had pictures.