Laminated form

Description

“Laminated Form” is one of the first woodworking projects that I made. I was immediately excited to try out this new laminating technique that I was introduced to buy a visiting artist. Working with wood and steel together has always attracted me. Those two materials seem to be quite opposite, in many ways, look, feel, and manipulation techniques, yet they go together so beautifully when done skillfully. This piece showcases both those materials and how delicately they can be formed together.

To create this piece I began by making a rough sketch of the final form, then I created patterns out of paper that closely resembled that form when stacked together. I spent some time remaking and refining the patterns until I got very close to my original sketch. Once the paper patterns were finalized I used them to cut each individual piece out of ¾ inch birch plywood. Many of the larger forms are hollow because I could fit some of the smaller pieces inside more efficiently use the material. As a result this piece is hollow, I stacked the pieces on top of each other laminating the larger thicker sections first and then adding the more delicate smaller tips last. Once the form was assembled I refined the surface using several grits until the surface was completely smooth and perfect. Lastly I coated the entire wooden form with polyurethane.

The base and accents are created out of steel, which I rusted out to a nice red thick patina.

The entire piece is 39 inches tall, and the base is 10” x 9” and weights about 20 lbs.