July 19, 2009

Visual Narrative of Collaborative Floor Lamp with Ted Blachly


Ted is a fantastic furniture maker, and this year we decided to collaborate on a floor lamp for Living With Crafts at the Sunapee Fair. He started with a concept that was something I would call "refined folk art, with a fairly literal vision of an african woman, colorfully painted. After creating a half-size model and decorating it, he decided to go to a more abstract and elegant plan made out of Mahogany, with a Wenge base plinthe. Ted has given it the name "Zuri," which he says means "beautiful" in Swahili.

Below you can see a series of photos that Ted took as he progressed thru models to finished pieces, and ending with a shot I took yesterday of the complete shade and base combination. On Tuesday it gets delivered to the exhibit, along with my pair of collaborative table lamps with Sharon Dugan, and my dining table hanging light fixture titled "Le Grand Jete."





Come see this unusual piece of woodworking at the Living With Crafts exhibition in Newbury, NH at the oldest craft fair in the country, the League of NH Craftsmen's Annual Fair, August 1-9.