Made Madd » Andrew

Work in Progress-Dorris Does Shop

Andrew — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:25:03 +0000

Here’s a quick picture of a work in progress. Dorris Does is a tiny shop situated in Camden Stables Market that will be selling vintage clothes and jewellery. It is the project of a friend of mine – she’s just leased the shop after working the market for over a year, and asked for my help to fit it out.

This pic shows the main rail comprised of broom handles and iron plumbing pipe connectors, and a small shelf made from found wood and slate.

More coming soon.

Business Cards

Andrew — Thu, 27 May 2010 22:42:36 +0000

This is the first batch of Made Madd business cards!

The idea is to inspire the recipient to make something; something playful, that can be made from a material that most people can get their hands on – an A4 sheet of paper. There is a slightly more sinister side to these instructions – hopefully the recipient will think the paper plane so good, that they want to hold on to the instructions and even show a friend! That said, it’s just a paper plane.

Oh well… we think they look nice anyway.

21st Birthday Card

Andrew — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:11:23 +0000

It’s amazing what a lick of paint, a few strips of tape, pencil, pen and gloss lustre can do to a piece of cardboard.

I love the rough, organic look of a painted surface combined with a finish you’d usually find on a piece of fine craftsmanship.

CSM: Mini-Me Photo Submission Instructions

Andrew — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:28:35 +0000

At the request of Jane, here are the instructions for the submission of mini-me images for inclusion in the planned mini-me booklet.

1. Select the best front and best rear view images of your mini-me.

2. Name your image files: surname-first name-front.jpg and surname-first name-back.jpg

3. Using Notepad(PC)/Textedit (Mac) type up the description submitted with your mini-me and save it using the description-.txt Eg: description-andrew williams.txt

4. Log in using the 3rd floor computer room. Click Start>My Computer>P: Drive (Student Scratch)>BAPD1 Mini-Me Photos (DO NOT DELETE)

5. Create a new folder here and name it your full name, surname first. Eg. Williams-Andrew

6. Copy and paste your two selected images and the description file into the new folder.

7. Done!

If you have any questions regarding this, please post them here or ask Andrew in class.

The Genius of Design

Andrew — Sat, 08 May 2010 19:03:28 +0000

Just a quick post to say watch ‘The Genius of Design’ on BBC iPlayer. Quite a comprehensive little documentary, and it is nice to see the details of the industrial design world being brought to the attention of the public eye. Hopefully this sort of education will breed a more responsible consumer and together we can vet out the companies that produce the junk this planet could desperately do without!

The Genius of Design, Episode 1: Ghosts in the Machine http://bbc.co.uk/i/sc85s/

Burl & Copper

Andrew — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:05:11 +0000

This is my third ring to date. This ring is for guys, taking on more of a geometric, bulky, shape. I wanted to include some other materials with this one, yet keep the emphasis on the grain of the wood. Therefore, after much hunting around the metal workshop, I decided to add some copper studs, placed along the side.

Burl Cross Section

Andrew — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:33:44 +0000

Ok, so I’ve added a new category – Contributor Mini-blogs, for little posts like this one that aren’t really worth shouting about.
Today I cut into one of the burls I collected, the smallest one in fact. Nothing amazing going on here, but I just wanted to show the really nice grain in these little things.

I did have to wet the surface of the cross section to get this effect, but I am sure it could be achieved by using varnish too.
Wood is amazing.

Wales

Andrew — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:41:21 +0000

Here’s a little slice of South Wales in the spring; photos snapped while on a trip to collect some tree burls for future wood working back in London.

Running around like a madman and scaling trees with a small hatchet meant I managed to collect a few small, and one or two large burls which will have to dry before I can do anything with them.

While I was wandering around looking for them, and on the way home I snapped a few pictures using my phone, hence the heavy use of Photoshop to pop the colours.

Varden Street Table

Andrew — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:49:10 +0000

One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.

This is a motto shared among many of the Made Madd crew, and here is an example of what happens when it is applied.

This is a coffee table constructed purely from found wood. The tables design echoes the silhouette of the vessel that carried its parts; a lovely, yellow skip that was sitting outside a house development on Varden Street, East London. It appears the floorboards were ripped up from said development, and whereas I imagine much of the reclaimed wood went to a reclaimed flooring company, there were enough small lengths left in the skip for us to construct this.

Built by Dom and myself.

Burl Ring

Andrew — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:36:11 +0000

This was the result of an afternoon with a dremel against a chunk of wood I’d knocked off a tree trunk in South Wales.

After a little research, I discovered that the ‘chunks’ of wood such as the one I was working on are actually known as ‘burls’. A burl is an irregular lump of growth on a tree, often prized by wood workers for its interesting, erratic grain.

See here for more information on burls: http://www.blakelyburltree.com/burl.htm

I can definitely empathise with the worship of these mysterious little things. They are beautiful when worked and stained in the right way, and will be collecting more when I return to Wales over the Easter weekend for future experiments.