LOCAL IS LEKKER
We have been asked to design a furniture piece that will embrace localisation, celebrate the South African heritage, and portray South African identity.
MOODBOARD.
This is what local means to me. The vibrancy and bustling nature of the township, and all the cuisine and snacks that come with it. As person from the township, I always say if you wanna see South Africans: get inside a taxi. The football culture is also deeply imbedded in my surroundings, there's a tavern on my street and you can always here the men cheering on as each goal goes in during matches on the weekend. The games we play immediately come to mind as well, from the gambling games like Zwipi/Spinning to ama toppo (tops). Not forgetting the lingo and slang that is Tsotsitaal. Local has also taken on a different meaning recently since my teenage years, with the ever growing fascination with Music and Art cultures within Johannesburg, spearheaded by the likes of Okmalumkoolkat and Riky Rick of Boyz'n'Bucks and SpovaGang, with one of my biggest inspirations this year being Okmalumkoolkat's uShukela eTiyeni album. Not forgetting the outrageous headlines we see on the news and in newspapers.
PRECEDENT BOARD.
IDEATION PROCESS POSTER.
MOCK UPS.
PROCESS PHOTOGRAPHS.
For the middle part of the backrest, which is glued between two pieces of pine wood, I used mircata (stacked sheets of paper with resin used as a bonding agent and hardener). For my mircata I used recycled sheets of newspaper and fiberglass resin, and I initially made one sheet.
I then cut my initial one sheet into two sheets and sanded them down. The mircata was never intended to be visible on the final outcome of the chair, as I just wanted to use as an alternative to wood at least once somewhere on chair to somewhat indicate that we don't have to cut down trees to make furniture.
That was as wood-alternative as it got however, and I soon reverted back to type. The rest of the chair was made using pine wood off-cuts (arm rests, and rest of the back rest) from previous projects and MDF off-cuts (seat and back plate) from previous projects as well, with the back plate having a Zulu proverb laser engraved onto it. The legs of the chair were made from pine wood. The book shelf, which also acts as a side table, was made from laser cut MDF panels and put together using cold wood glue.
iCansi is one of my earliest memories of being Zulu, it's used for sitting on the ground. I used to recognise it as something purely African, for Africans. So when I decided to make to make a furniture piece for sitting, it was a no brainer for me to use iCansi somewhere on it.
The finishes on the legs, arm rest, back rest "legs" and book shelf/side table were achieved using 1000 grit and 1200 sand paper, then i sprayed grey primer on the surfaces first, and sprayed the colours on afterwards. The colours are beige and overcast blue, and I chose them because I wanted to use an earth tone, which are synonymous with our continent, but I also wanted a pop of colour so the piece wasn't too derivative in terms of colour inspiration.
FINAL OUTCOME: ZAKHELE
I chose this name to honour someone that came before me.
I really wanted to show off the grain of the pine because i love how dark and consistent the circle lines are.
And the brackets are honestly my favourite part of the entire chair. They came silver and uncoloured but I painted them grey because I thought it would create an awesome contrast with the fading yellow of the straws and with the blue as well. I used black screws on purpose for contrast reasons once again but i also thought about how well they'd compliment the grey brackets.
IN sITU.
PRODUCT POSTER.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
UKONAKALA KOBISI UK'LUNGA KWAMASI, DEDELA IGAZI ULINGISE UPHUTHU.
My piece has a few Zulu proverbs. As a fan of literature, no matter the kind, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity of including some wording on my piece. It's also the reason I decided to make a book shelf.
(It's backwards because the laser cutter developed a problem while cutting and couldn't continue further that day and cut through the board. we'll just chalk me liking it backwards to divine intervention.)
