The Table: Photos

Some photos of the Table taken today at the photography studio at Leeds Met.
An extremely intimate moment with me and the table :)

The Table: Final Screenprinting

Today I spent the whole day at the Leeds Met Printmaking studios printing for the last time on the Table. This time it was the final part of the project (well almost) and we printed the data of the whole project (people involved, cost, dates, table data etc) on the four sides. It was a challenging process as we could not place the table on the printers so it had to be done on the floor. Dick and Sarah were there and once more they were of great help with all the printing. Unfortunately almost at the end of the day, while we were trying to print on the fourth side, we had a small accident and one of the legs came off! Nothing major though as the table is already in the woodworking studios and the nice people there will fix it for next week.
That’s all for now; back to the poster and the learning agreement..

The Table: details

a few photographs showing details of the printout.

The Table: screenprinting

Today I spent all day in the printmaking workshops with Pete, Dick and Terry. The wood was ready to be printed and after a long night of last minute changes, text writing, drawing, stressing and coffee drinking I was there with the artwork and the table top.
Here it is then. Only a few things left now.
The legs are going to be stuck with the top in the next week and then the second phase of the screenprinting will take place, in order to print on the sides and legs.
A few mistakes already though, something which to be honest does not dissapoint me as it is part of this process which is totally new for me.

The Table: story of a table

My story begins at the John Boddy Timber store where I had been living for some time now. I am a native Jelutong wood that was born in Thailand. I have never met my parents. Somehow we lost each other years ago. I do know however that my mother is a guitar and my father lives somewhere in Europe. I had been in this timber store for some time now, living in one of the back corridors. They say that living in the front is a whole different story. You meet more people, they treat you better, you never get mixed with other woods that are not from the same family. Well, some prefer this but surely us in the back, we have always been happy being there and I can say, we made some good friends.

The sun started hitting the roof lights quite early and soon everybody was awake. The store opened once again. Saturday today, always quieter than weekdays. Not many people around, no pushing, rejecting or bad comments about a couple of grains that most of us have. But that Saturday was special!

There are times in your life where you need to take decisions. You need to do something than just seating down with the other woods. Or so they taught us..
Some of my friends have become houses, some kitchen tops, chairs, tables, doors, toys. I always said that I wanted to either become a toy or a table when I grow up and, lucky me, that Saturday everything was about to change.

I first saw these two people coming in. They were loud (greeks I thought; always loud). I overheard them when they were meeting Sanded Bitch, a friend of mine on the next isle. They were checking each one of the other woods too, looking at colours, weight, dimensions, textures, prices. They were talking about making a table for a university project and what better choice than me, I thought. I am clean (no grains whatsoever), I am durable, relatively cheap, and after all I always wanted to become a table!
Yes, this was my time and I quickly tried to attract their attention with my good looks. It didn’t take me long to be discovered and soon the three of us were making our way to Asterios’ workshop to start working. How exciting!

It was hard putting me in the car. I sat in between them and was driven to Leeds. On the way there I began to know Panos and Asterios better. I heard their plans, all these exciting things that would happen to me. My life had changed. I was already missing my friends back in the store but what was about to happen gave me hope and comfort. New places, new people, new experiences.

I had never been in Hyde Park before. Nice place it is! We parked the car outside the house and Panos and Asterios carried me inside. I was placed in the hall where I would spend the rest of the afternoon.
I was waiting by myself for hours (greek hospitality some say!) but then the three of us went up in the attic. I had heard about all these machines that can trim you, sand you, give you shape, help you become a better wood, but always sounded as a dream that might never happen.
I was tall and skinny, they said, and needed to be cut in half. Then they would stick me together and I would again become one. Oh, I was used to that. I remember back home, I was ten times bigger.

Cutting is no problem; sticking is. It needs a lot of effort, a thing called ‘glue’ and a good fifteen hours to concentrate and stick, with the great help of clamps; a pair of, what someone would say, quite scary metallic objects that squeeze you.


It was a hard night but it was all forgotten next morning when Panos and Asterios came again to continue working with me. They were both really happy to see me and they soon released me from the clamps to place me on a table in order to start drawing on me.

Panos used a ruler and a setsquare and started doing a fine line with a pencil. It took a lot of concentration but this was only the easy part. I was then handed in the hands of Asterios and soon heard the incredible sound of the electric saw. So much power, noise, dust. I was ready to start taking shape! He placed me carefully on the machine and slowly and softly, he started cutting off all the extra bits leaving me a perfect 800x400, tired and happy piece of wood. On the side, I saw my four legs, carefully cut and placed on a table. It would take time to get back together but all we needed was patience.

I was itching all over but I knew what was coming. The sanding! I had heard about this. It can happen in three ways, by hand, with a hand-operated machine or inside a big metallic box that you go in and everything is done for you without extra help. We started with a bit of hand sanding and straight on to the second method that seemed to be much more complicated than I thought.

It took them long and it was a hard thing to do. After an hour or so, I was much smoother but probably not enough for letting ink get printed on me. I didn’t mind the small bumps on me. They were part of me in some way. I wouldn’t have mind having them to be honest. They looked kind of cute.

But they insisted. I needed to be perfectly smooth for the printing and so we went for a small trip to the Leeds College of Art & Design where I met Derek and his machines. It felt a bit weird going inside that dark box but I came out of it and I was the smoothest wood in the world, all nice and slick; god, I would become such a nice table!

We returned with Panos at his place where he left me in his bedroom, covered me with a piece of cloth and let me rest. I would have my show again two weeks later, in the Printmaking workshop of Leeds Metropolitan University, but until then he had to decide about what was going to be written and drawn.

The idea was to reveal all the hidden informati¬on about me. How I can help people with things I can do for them, what are my possible uses, what is my story and how I ended up being a table. The later is what I am doing now. I am a written witness of this great experience that I lived so far from the time when I was living back in the wood store until now. I am not sure what is coming next. I know I am going to be printed in the printmaking workshops and my legs will be attached on my body, I will be photographed and filmed, I might be on an exhibition. I will be living with Panos in his flat and who knows what the future holds!
I will always be an ordinary table. An ordinary table with a story like every other table around.
My only difference is that I had a chance of saying it.

The Table: some thinking..

Just an update on what I am up to, since there are a lot of things running at the same time!

After the table was sanded perferctly with the great help of Derek from Leeds College of Art & Design, I took it back home until next Wednesday that I am going to screenprint on it.

The table looks good, very promising and the total printable area (probably all the table surfaces to be honest!) is big enough to house any kind of comments, histories, outlines of uses and other staff that I will need to include.

And this is the problem maybe!

It was easy enough to decide to go along with such a project but when the time comes for the final product, you start realising how permanent all this information will be. Since we are screenprinting (and ultimately vanishing the wood), the words that are going to be on it are never going to come off!

Hmm, what a challenge. Should this raise a few questions? Should it all maybe be a bit more hidden? Should it be in such a way that is not as easy to read as an article in a newspaper? Should it be a narrative of ideas, information, data? Or maybe just random facts about the table (that the user is called to discover, answer and question them?)

Definitely a nice and clean presentation of the data is something I would go for. Something I always like is legibility and ease-of-use. But the challenge is maybe trying to be more fun this time. Try to make the table stay interesting even when you look at it for a thousand times. Afterall its an everyday object that you are going to be facing all the time. I guess having a person in your living room, telling you the same thing over and over and over again, gets you a bit tired (except if this person says ‘I love you’) (should I forget everything and just print a huge ‘I love you’ on the top?)

We shall see.

The Table: Information Layout

Possible layout of information that is going to be printed on the table. Different text sizes, objects' positions and footnotes.

Research: Clothes-making Patterns

Two extracts from clothes-making patterns. On the top one the amount of information is massive, absolutely confusing and full of different lines. The original (these are just b&w scans) has also different coloured lines as well as different types of them like dashed, zig-zag, straight etc.
The second pattern is much simpler and most recent one. It obviously does not include as much information as the first one and is dedicated to a signle design for a woman's top. The shapes here are clear, the information is obvious and the ease of use is much better.
Legibility versus information then but for a personal opinion I would rather go for the top one and make my way through the info that I need to extract..

The Table: Information Map

The first map of information that should (or should not!) be included on the table.

The Table: Screenprinting Test

Screenprinting today! Well, just a test print of a series of lines and text on different sizes on a sample wood but nevertheless was another great experience. Let's go through it though:

This is the Leeds Metropolitan University Printmaking studio where it all happened. Normally a place with lots and lots of students but since end of student year was a couple of weeks ago, it was all left just to the few brave ones (who all seemed to enjoy the quietness by the way!).

I met Dick who was a great help (doing almost everything for me!) and straight on we started preparing the screens. After putting them on the UV light, we washed them and set up the actual screenprinter.

Printing on the test wood piece was not difficult or long to do but it helped me understand a lot of things that should consider for the next phase of the final printing of the table. The fact that the wood was not really well sanded created an uneven surface and therefore the ink could not lay on it properly. The thickness of the wood was also a small problem so we decided to screenprint without the base of the printer and do it on the floor. This should give us the flexibility to print to whatever thickness we want and even on the sides of the table (which was an unsolved problem until now!). Apart from this, all lines thicknesses and font sizes printed fine which was rather satisfying.

The Table: Experiments

Test layout for first attempts on screenprinting on wood. Just a series of lines, letters, numbers, symbols.

The Table: In the workshop (day2)

On the next day I was really looking forward to see how the wood was stuck and then start working on it, doing some actual design work. Everything was in place, we instantly started drawing the plan of the table on the wood and cutting it.

After a few experimentations on the sanding method we would use (including machine sanding, hand sanding or a smaller sanding machine that can easily give you wings and fly you around the room when tying to control it!), we ended up doing the table top on all the sides while seeing at last the actual shape of it coming in light. What a great enthusiasm we were getting of it! The table top started being formed and it was only the top and the bottom side left to sand (something that would prove rather exhausting in order to make the two separate pieces even).

It was the table legs time after that, something much easier and quicker.
Since the design of the table is pretty basic (a basic rectangle with four legs!), there was no need for special treatments, detailing or sculpturing the wood. Sometimes we tend to think that making something so simple is an easy thing and sure this table proved this wrong considering how precise all the joints should be, how vertical the pieces should be joined together or what a great mistake you can do by even hitting the table in a small corner while moving it around (and yes, I did manage to do this!).
After cutting the four legs, it was sanding time again and quite quickly we were finished with this too.
The only great reward we could have so far was to put the table together without actually using glue. The pieces have to stay apart until the next phase of this project will be finished and this is the screenprinting.

At the moment I am trying to research and design all the information that will be applied on the table, the ways it should be represented and the actual screenprinting tests that should start soon. Until then, enjoy this small video from the very last sanding of the table legs. How nice!

The Table: In the workshop (day1)

How optimistic we can be sometimes.. I mean I remember myself doing some work in the workshops of Leeds Met a few years ago when I started the -never finished- architecture course. I remember it as an easy thing that just needs concentration and good will. I mean how hard can it be cutting a piece of wood using the right tools and machines. How difficult it can be to measure and sand it afterwards, to organise everything in order to have vertical surfaces and angles.
Well it is..
We sure would not end up with a table if it was left to me. I mean drawing the 'box' on the wood was fairly easy but trimming the wood afterwards takes some great skill and on my first attempts I knew poor Asteris would have to almost do it all; and he did.



Since the wood was not wide enough we had to cut it in half, connect the two pieces together and let the glue dry for 16 hours. That would give us time to think, relax and get ready for the next day where all the fun should begin..

The Table: getting the wood

After a short research around Leeds in order to buy the proper wood, we ended up in ‘John Boddy Timber Ltd’, a great woodworkers superstore with quite a variety of different wood types.

I am saying we and here I should introduce a great friend that is involved (in great means) in this project, Asterios Christaras. Asterios is a civil engineer, living in Leeds and I know him for a few years now. One of his greatest interests is woodwork, making amazing little things with his magic hands. He managed to set up a personal studio in his attic, an amazing little place with hardly any health and safety regulations applied, great heat levels and a lot of dust and wood trims around. Just the perfect place for us, hidden from daylight or normality, our great exit to the magical world of woodworking..

So here we are, surrounded from lots of different types of wood in all sorts of colours (and price ranges!), ready to choose the right wood before we start cutting.

We needed something really light, with no other colour or extra finish, something that can be adaptable and neutral in order to apply –later on- all the information that is going to be printed on it.

We ended up with a sort of wood I had never came along before called ‘Spalted Beech’, a nice ‘white’ wood. We bought it, we tried fitting it in the car and we drove home. Later on we would start cutting it and drawing our first lines..

The Table: a quick introduction

A new project.

This project is about the creation of a table that will be designed in order not only to serve its purpose as a table but also demonstrate all the process behind it, its possible uses, the cost, the struggle, its history, the though process and hopefully the fun of making such an object.

It is true that things we see and use everyday are perceived as finished products, ready to be used according to our needs. In most cases, we can hardly realise the work behind such projects, the people that were involved working on them, the design, the hidden or possible uses.

I personally struggle to realise all these stories in most of the furniture around my house. When was the table that I use everyday for eating or studying, was made, how much did it cost, what wood was used to make it, what was the designer or the worker was thinking when he/ she was doing it..

And sure all this information is exceeding the amount of data we need. How a world filled with such small details would be if anything was so thoroughly explained around us is a thought that can surely lead us on the easy answer that all this is not needed.

But again, this is just a game. Just an experiment likely to prove me wrong, demonstrating that not all information is valuable, not everything is needed. Is there a way to embed all this into the actual design? Can graphic design become more than just the servant on such a design process? Can furniture design become one with graphics?