Handcrafted Wooden Monolith
The Handcrafted Wooden Monolith Project is another 5 week project that challenges the designer’s ability to keep ergonomics and functionality at the forefront of thought, while also maintaining a seamless and graceful aesthetic. The objective given was to create a curvilinear 3D volume that follows the principles of design and simultaneously attends to the natural mold of a hand’s grip.
Initial Ideation
The first step of this project was to create a series of clay models, each aiming to satisfy the criteria of keeping one solid ridge while also keeping in mind ergonomics for two hand positions. After some trial and error manipulating the clay endlessly, I landed on an elegant final volume that featured a sweeping hard ridge and soft curves and valleys.
Wood Cutting
The next step of constructing the monolith, after slicing the clay model into equal slabs, was tracing the slices on maple wood and cutting the outlines with a bandsaw. This allowed me to have those same clay slices but in wood form, which were then glued together according to the indents made on the slices. Indents were made for the wood to be easily lined up to glue the entire volume out of wood, which set up the sanding step perfectly.
Sanding
After gluing together the wood monolith, the next step was the most difficult and most time consuming part of the entire project: sanding the volume down to a smooth, shiny, natural form. This process alone took around 2 weeks worth of constant sanding to eliminate all ridges and rough patches from the volume.
Final Shots
The final step of a long, intensive process, was to put an oil coat on the fully sanded monolith, giving the volume a sharp, reflective varnish. Finally, the monolith is complete and the goal of creating an ergonomic volume that achieves the given criteria is achieved.
