Sacked by the "downturn", an unemployed architect touring the country in a bus...




I used to live in New York City. I designed homes for the tycoons of Wall Street; Park Avenue, Scarsdale, Greenwich. It was great fun. And, after years of saving up for a down payment, I was just about to buy my own little place in Fleetwood, half an hour north of the city, when the economy fell apart. Architects are like canaries in a coal mine when the economy slows, and true to form, there were massive layoffs in firms all over the country. Devastation of the profession. So, I decided to try to find something else to do for a while. I bought a 23' school bus and I'm on the road to see if I can figure out what that might be.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

More Chair Progress

Lots of construction progress.  The frame is essentially complete, with just some joint fitting and sanding left to do.  I still need to make the seat, back and arm rests out of the finish material, which will be Zebra wood.  It has a strong grain that will be arranged to radiate from the center of the seat.  (In the photos, those parts are mocked up from plywood.)  The tops of the arm rest supports will be trimmed smaller and the arm rests will be tilted back a bit, parallel to the seat.  I also need to make the brass rod tie rods between the legs.  Click here for a Flickr slide show.

I've located CNC furniture fabricator 3 blocks from my shop, who I think will be able to make parts for the chair at a reasonable rate, time and money wise.  I also have discovered that one of my shopmates can do the CAD modeling for me in a day.
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2 comments:

  1. ezrabluOctober 7, 2010 at 7:13 PM

    It's beautiful...looks like a ballerina dancing on her toes...I love it :o)

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  2. Roy PertchikOctober 8, 2010 at 2:55 AM

    Hi Blu,

    Thanks so much. Guess what,.. I call it the Ballerina Chair! It's getting really close to being done, at last.

    I looked at your blog. I can't believe I'm seeing a kindred spirit. When I read your line, "I woke up from a dream and realized it wasn't mine" I got chills down my spine. I want to learn about your homesteading and bus building, I have so many questions..

    Roy

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