Synopsis: Enter the thoughts of designer Andrew Finnigan, as he explores furnishings particulars derived from turning. Whether or not he’s utilizing a pommel lower to craft distinctive desk bottoms, a collection of disks to create an modern tabletop, or artistic cuts for elegant turned legs, his designs all the time appear to push the envelope of risk.

Developing work is totally my favourite facet of constructing handmade furnishings for a residing. For me, it’s not a inflexible course of that begins with paper and pencil and ends with the primary model of a chunk; as a substitute, it’s a vacation spot for daydreaming, one thing and someplace to go to work by way of concepts. It pushes me to study and apply and discover and experiment. It doesn’t require phrases or language, simply the pursuit of making use of an concept to wooden and stepping again to see how shut I got here to what was in my head. 

My work is full of highs and lows, successes and failures, fairly little sanded and completed scale fashions in addition to damaged spindles, frustration, confusion, and annoyance. What all of it has in frequent, the great and dangerous, is that it’s all-consuming. It’s pure problem-solving, a uncommon area for me the place full consideration, commentary, and creativeness converge simply and naturally.

A meandering path 

I discover the particulars of designing and making new work to be a shifting goal. Not often, a well-formed concept will current itself. Fast sketches will result in a plan, a plan to a prototype, and a prototype to a completed product and debut. 

Extra typically, nonetheless, the method is far much less linear. I’ll wrestle to work by way of mock-ups and scale fashions to get nearer to one thing I had pictured in my thoughts, solely to search out that I’ve fallen quick, merely don’t just like the piece, or that my pursuit is off-course. 

One consistency I’ve managed to search out in all of this has been designing from particulars. A lot of my work and aesthetic originates from tiny options and their trivia. Specializing in them permits me to work aesthetically from the micro to the macro. 

After I lose myself in round thought, after I don’t know the place to start, after I’ve hit a wall, the reply is often to chase after no matter it’s that makes the little burnished side left from a pointy knife so inviting, to surprise what a few piece makes it appear to drift above the ground, or to see how far I can take the hexagon.

The pommel lower explored

We’re probably all accustomed to how a big group of turnings that incorporate the pommel lower seem; most any staircase with turned spindles can be a superb instance. Some even comprise pommel variations inside their patterns. However how does a bunch of pommel cuts current in nearer proximity? How can this element be used outdoors its ordinary context? How can completely different preparations and positions of this one little element result in wildly completely different designs? What could be achieved by way of cautious and easy repetition of this single function? This desk affords me that ongoing dialog; the design is a tough template, and every iteration of the desk is barely completely different relying on my solutions.

A research in form and relationship

Designing this desk was a means for me to extra formally research the interactions of disks and to problem myself mentally. I fitted disks of varied sizes into each other, the interactions between them technically the identical—all the time an arch of 1 circle chopping by way of not less than one different. The curiosity for me on this design was in how the main points got here collectively in a bunch. The nuances of their interactions could be exploited by way of taking part in with scale and place to create a whole piece. The design permits for infinite variation, and relying on the association, every model can inform a distinct story.

The pommel evolution

I wished to see if I might broaden the Pommel Desk geometrically, not limiting myself to a sq. or rectangular kind. After many sketches, fashions, and mock-ups, I used to be left with an array of unsatisfactory outcomes. I couldn’t handle to merge rectangular parts with hard-edged pommel lower strains with different, softer-edged shapes naturally. The main points competed for consideration, leading to a design that didn’t appear to know what it wished to be. 

After a lot head scratching and tribulation, it turned apparent to me that the answer was to additional scale back and focus. The oblong inventory, the pommel cuts, the straight laborious strains, and the chamfered edges on the highest had been all pointless inside a cylindrical area. I discovered that I might accomplish what I used to be going for by dropping the pommels totally and easily modifying the size of the cylinders, terminating them with half-rounds at varied heights. The result’s a cascading collection of tiered columns. 

A contemporary foot leads the best way

The Bourrée Sequence, named for a ballet step, started as a seek for a soft-edged design that might work nicely with varied coloration remedies and floor textures. As I labored by way of the idea and constructed fashions, the outcomes stored boring me. Cigar-shape legs felt too cumbersome and cumbersome, as did cylinders. Tapered legs led to a visible lightness that didn’t help the highest. So I started to veer from these preliminary easy shapes to a turning experiment that created a really tough “heel” form. Specializing in that heel, refining the turning method and hand-tool work, led to the event of what would turn into the piece’s ballet-style foot. 

Andrew Finnigan designs and builds furnishings in Stone Ridge, N.Y.

Pictures: Andrew Finnigan

From Advantageous Woodworking #302