Component Explorations...

Moulded Leather Drawer Forms and Fixing Details
















Form Moulding Details

































Some Part Details

Stitching














Loop and ring


















Coasters

Cuir Bouilli / Hardened Leather

Just a few words on this. "Cuir Bouilli" - the term may have undergone changes in meaning depending on when and where it was used.
So, Leather boiled or soaked in hot water, and, when soft, moulded or pressed into any required form, on becoming dry and hard it retains the form given to it, and offers considerable resistance to cuts, blows, etc.
The word was in common English use from 14th to 16th century, after which it is not found till modern times, when it appears as borrowed from modern French.

So how do I make "Cuir Bouilli"
- Simple Soaking
- Hot water Soaking
- Boiling Water Soaking
- A Variation of boiling water Soaking

Simple Soaking

- The first, and the easiest, is to soak the leather in cold water (as long as you want to, suggestions range from 15 minutes to 12 hours or longer) then form it and let it dry. Soaking leather to make it harder is really more appropriate for vegetable tanned leather.



































































































Hot Water Soaking

The hotter the water you soak it in, the harder it will be when it dries. However, each bit of leather has it's own point at which the water is TOO hot, and will be cooked by it. If this happens, your best bet is to keep it hot, and stretch it out on a form and let it dry.
















































































- Boiling Water Soaking

If you decide that you want to place your leather into boiling water, be prepared to have your leather shrink and harden very quickly. Thus making it very hard, but very brittle.. ( like a papad). So this is not the best option to take while you are experimenting.


- A Variation of boiling water Soaking

After trying multiple ways of moulding the leather and trying to acheive a specific kind of hardness, I tried a variation in my experimentation which would be placing the whole form you are working with and keeping it in the boiling water for not more than about 2 minutes.

What this does is to cause chemicals in the leather to liquify and polymerize and thus it shrivels into plastic hardness, giving you a relatively hard surface.
BUT, because every skin has a different molecular structure, every skin behaves differently once you dip it in hot or cold water. So chances are possible of you receiving an unexpected result.. Dont lose heart.. Keep trying.. !!










































































Let the leather cool and dry on the former itself.

Review Meeting and Feedback

Review Meeting 2 : 15th Sept, Thursday ( 45 minutes)

- So in my meeting, I began with showing on the changes I had to make from the feedback i got in my last meeting, Such as clarifying the meaning and time period of the word Vintage, and also my target audience.

- Then I showed my colour palattes, tonality board and other necessary research points.

- After I showed all the explorations I had done in leather, including moulding of leather.

- All iterations I had done in designing a mini bar, followed by a client meeting where I decided to not design a mini bar but something different and came on to designing a " bar trolley".

- Followed by sketches of bar trolleys.

- Sketchup models of chosen designs.

- AutoCad drawings and details of chosen trolley.

The feedback given was:

- Click pictures of existing trolleys you see in and around the place and sort of visualise where what will go in terms of the items you will place on the trolley, such as glasses, bottles, coasters, ice bucket etc.
- Need to bring a relationship between leather as a material and the design. It’s not just a matter of cladding the wood with leather but showing how leather is the best material for this design.

- Also in the design make sure ergonomically that the bottles dont fall, while the trolley is being rolled.

- Continue moulding and try ways of not making it brittle.

- Try making the trolley not look so "wooden".

- So the final design was selected with now going on to the prototyping stage.

BAR TROLLEYS..

The first two designs were chosen by the client, though there are other possibilities such as the following..

Some More Iterations

So after my second meeting with my client, we finalized on designing simple bar trolleys, which go more with the vintage look and also for the simple reason that there are very few stores which produce trolleys which have a purpose beyond just the function of a bar.
Trolleys are movable, handy, look simple, straight lined, yet modern and contemporary.























































Going on to more simpler designs...























































More of the iterations are done on Google Sketchup to see the other details such as scale, measurements, over all look and feel of materials, which will be up shortly..

Initial Iterations

Had a meeting with my client on Saturday and showed my first level of iterations of "Mini Bars" and "Bar Trolleys". Short listed some ideas of both and started to iterate on my second level of designs. Options of both the products are open at the moment till my next meeting, which will be sometime this week. ie 5th - 10th Sept.
After which I will have my final design to figure out the all the mechanisms and other details.
Timeline till the next review meeting is in place, with my sketches and explorations going on at the same time.

Some of the sketches are here now..

Updates

Ideations are in progress, will be scanned and put up after a meeting with the client.

Im designing a Mini bar with and matching table.