Things We Love, Fine 473/475: Lauren's Adventures in Wood Bending

For as long as I can remember I have always loved to create. My passion has always been art and the freedom and happiness that comes from making beautiful objects. While art and creation have always been at the core of my identity, I have never identified as an artist or wanted to be one. This has been a constant internal struggle during my time in fine arts at UW and I have been on a journey to bridge the gap between art and objects of practicality.

This challenge has led me to develop a new interest and passion for wood. I love to use wood as my medium; I love the natural feel of it, the smell of it, the different grains, the different stains and finishes and the solid strength of a beautifully finished piece of furniture, I love everything about it.

Having found my material, the themes and ideas I wanted to express naturally unfolded through the connotations associated with wood. By creating furniture based works that also serve a purpose I am able to communicate narratives relating to heritage, genealogy, family relationships and identity.

This term I have approached wood as a material from a new perspective: less focused on what it can build and the story it can tell and more focus on how I can manipulate its properties. I have embarked on the adventure of steam bending wood.

Steam bending is an interesting and sometimes confusing process. It involves steaming wood (obviously) and forming it around a jig to create the shape you want. It is traditionally used in furniture making and for architectural designs.

The result of choosing to bend wood this term has shifted my practice from more narrative based to process based. The wood bending adventure involved a lot of research. I needed to figure out which types of wood could be steamed (hard woods react better to steam and hold the bent shape better), air dried or kiln dried wood (air dried. Always.), how to build a steam chamber, how hot the chamber needs to get (200+ degrees Fahrenheit), how long to steam the wood for (1 hour for every half inch thick the piece is), if the wood should be soaked prior to steaming or not (doesn’t matter but I prefer to soak for 2-3 days prior), just to give you an idea of some of the questions I had.

Artists, designers and woodworkers who use wood in unusual and different ways have always amazed me and I have had a fascination for wood bending as a technique for ages. Some of my biggest influences are Charlie Whinney (http://charliewhinney.com/content/about), Matthias Pliessnig (http://www.matthias-studio.com) and Tom Raffield (http://www.tomraffield.com).

Charlie Whinney - Witherslack Aacorn Standard Lamp

Matthias Pliessnig - Thonet No. 18 Chair

Tom Raffield - Flock Wall Light

My process started off with the research mentioned earlier, and once I decided on my type of wood, air-dried white oak, I went to A and M Wood Specialty in Cambridge. This place is so amazing and has any kind of wood you could ever imagine. I found they were pretty reasonably priced as well; I got a 10’ board (1 ½” thick and about 10” wide) for $70.

board from A & M

After I got my wood I had to cut it up so that I would be able to steam it. I cut them into pieces that were 1/8” thick and about 4 feet long. I figured the thinner the better for bending. I got 40 pieces of wood to bend with some left over that Adam (wood shop supervisor) said wouldn’t be safe to cut more, so could probably get another 15 slices out of it.

wood sliced pre-soaking

The next thing to figure out was how to build my steam chamber. I had originally researched and heard good things about PVC pipe but Josh (boyfriend) had a genius idea to use two pieces of furnace pipe, one 4” one 6” and a 90 degree angle as my steam chamber. These were free so were better for me to use than PVC pipe which I would have had to buy. I used spray foam to set the 4” pipe inside the 6” which prevented the steam chamber from getting dangerously hot.

I also had to figure out how I was going to soak my wood before steaming it. I had experimented on a few pieces that weren't soaked and they didn't bend as well as I wanted. I ended up making a funny little tub right in my studio using a tarp and some clamps and put a few inches of water in the bottom so my wood would be able to get saturated with water.

I decided to invest in a steamer instead of using a kettle/pot approach just for convenience and to save myself some grief. I got a Wagner Power Steamer from Home Depot and it actually works so amazing, there's a great long hose that you can see in the photo above that allows me to direct the steam inside the chamber as well.

Once all of these things were figured out I could start bending! I used the stools in the studio and made a jig to bend my wood around. Here are some photos of the jigs and the wood being bent: