Slow Progress

Over the last two days, not a whole lot of action has occurred regarding progress in my chair. There has been a lot of work, to be sure. Just no real forward movement. It has been necessary to do a number of dry runs in order to make sure that when I do the mold for real, there is little room for error. But let me catch you up.

The first step, as you remember, was to cut this veneer down to size. This is my pile of veneer.










This is the note my professor left on my wood that I mentioned in the last post.







After the wood was cut to the correct lengths, it was necessary to do the first dry run. I had to put giant rocks on the smaller block because the veneer has enough force to push it away.






At the end of the day yesterday, I felt as if I had made little progress. I had done a dry run to figure out where I needed to place clamps which is why there are now holes and grooves in my forms. But all in all, the day just flew by.





First thing this morning, I had to trim down all of my veneer to a uniform 18 cm width. This is the width of my mold and the width of both the chair's legs placed together with 2 extra cm wiggle room. This way, I can mold the legs as one, divide them and finish sand the edges.




Here it is this morning with the first clamped dry run. You can see how much force is required to bend the wood to my will. This has been a complicated process. Not many people are using the strap method and have shapes that can be easily vacuum molded. I get to do that too for the seat pan and backrest so you'll see that later.




After the clamped dry run, I attached pieces of MDF to the metal straps. This way, when they are clamped, the MDF will act as a uniform pressure over the curve of the arches in my rocker creating a smooth arc.





Step one in the molding process (still dry, no glue) where we begin to bend the veneer.










We then pull the veneer up and around while we place clamps as we go. You can see that further cuts were made into the form to allow for more pressure to be applied.






Ran out of time, dammit. Well, here are my forms, resting amongst friends. Tomorrow morning, I believe I will be finally gluing this beast together. And I am ready.






I let you know how it goes.

Labor...sweet sweet labor

Today will be a step by step description of all I've done!
So if you remember from yesterday, I had left a stack of HDF (high density fiberboard) cut into two different sizes. One size was to act as the mold for the bends in the legs while the other was for the arms. I am using a technique called "strapping" which I will get more into later. The first step after the cuts, was to glue all that board together, fasten it heavily with clamps and throw it into our "oven" to dry in about an hour.


While the glue was drying, it seemed an opportune moment to introduce myself to this monster of a machine. I have nicknamed this badboy "the mangler". It is a fully automated metal snips that is strong enough to cut through the thickest steel while still delicate enough to slice through a paperclip (these are the jokes folks). I used it to cut my .5mm thick steel pieces that I will use for the straps in my project. There is one now leaning against Ol' Mangley there in the picture.

After the proper width was cut from the metal, I had to shave down the edges in order for them to, well, I am not sure why I had to smooth them, other than so they don't catch your clothes. Frankly they didn't tell me why. Ours is not to reason why. Our's is but to do and die. (Thanks Alfie)




So the next step after smoothing the edges for some reason, was to take the long pieces and spot weld them together. Spot welding was always a difficult thing for me. Welding in general is a difficult thing. But once again, the amazing shop at the Kunstakademy saves the day. They actually have this awesome tool that just does spot welds. Everyday, at least two times, I am amazed by the facilities. I may have to finish my graduate work here...think they'll take my KU credits?

After my work in the metal shop, I brought my pieces into this tent where we laid out the general shape the molds would have to take. They are not the same shape as the design for two reasons. First off, veneer tends to contract after drying so the mold is not the same size as the end result. The second reason is that since my chair is what's called a cantilever chair, it will sag when one sits in it so my drawings themselves are inaccurate. I keep learning :)


So now that the stencil of my shape is laid out on the wood block, I bring it up to the third floor (not easy with a 100+ pound piece of wood) and use this enormous bansaw to cut it out. This is the smaller of the two pieces. The other one had me sweating just to support it off the end while trying to push it through the machine. The shop supervisor was impressed enough to not help but merely watch agog.


After cutting, planing, rasping, and sanding, I managed to get the bottom piece to rock smoothly. It was a tiring and sweaty process. Only made worse when I realized that the enormous disk sander in the shop made real short work of the smaller piece...but at least there's a little blood, sweat and tears in my project now. Literally, there's blood on the mold...nothing serious but it is always nice to sacrifice something.


So this is just an aside, but I opened a door off of the shop and those bastards at the Royal Danish Academy have a 3d printer. I mean come on! I tried to use one of these last spring and the company who owned it quoted me a 2500 dollar estimate just to USE it. And these Danish (I mean come on they are the Canada of Europe) have not one but TWO stereolithographic printers. Megan, pack us up! I'm a transferring.


Okay. So this is where I left it at the end of the day. I have my two framing pieces cut, and I have my strapping prepared. What is going to happen from here, is that I will put veneer between the two layers of strapping. Using clamps and, well, I guess just clamps, I will stretch the straps tight which will hold the veneer very tight and in place while the glue dries. This mold is large enough to make both sets of legs and arms at the same time so after that I just have to figure out how to run an "s" shape vertical through a table saw. Oh and I also have to build a vacuum mold for the backrest and seatpan, but that is another day's step by step.

As for tomorrow, I have received my veneer allotment. Tomorrow I will start laying it in and seeing how it works. As an interesting note, when my professor gave me my veneer, I asked if I should label it as mine since it is in a common room. He said it was a good idea and picked up some scrap wood. First he wrote "Thomas" on the scrap. He paused. Then he drew what can only be described as a strawberry with eyes and a grin with crossing batons (I think it was supposed to be a skull and crossbones.) Finally he wrote next to that "Don't even think." Now here is my question; was "don't even think" supposed to be an incomplete warning or was he just writing down my mantra for further identification of ownership?

Anyway, I'll let you ponder that.

Tomorrow veneer.

In the Shop

This morning began at around 5 a.m. as I had to be in the shop by 7. They have us divided into two groups and each week we alternate the times we are in the shop. For this first week, my shift is from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. Next week it is 2:30 until 10:30. This week will be a toughy. The good news is that I absolutely love working with my hands and this experience is made even more pleasurable by the fact that I have never, in my life, worked in a shop as amazing as this. But let my photos do the talking.

This is the shop. Not the building the shop is housed in, mind you, but a three story shop. It is amazing. On the ground floor is the veneer workspace including the oven we will be using to dry the glue in our laminating process, on the second floor is the metal working shop and on the third floor is the woodworking studio. All of these are amazing places to work with some of the most phenomenal tools I've ever used.


This is the wood shop on the third floor. So clean, so shiny, so full of the best tools. Seriosly, not KU, not Cornell, no school I have ever seen is this impressive.






Ok, today I worked all day on this table saw. This table saw is the sexiest thing I've seen since I left Megan at Charles deGaulle. Seriosuly, I think I love this machine. Completely supportive, counterweighted, just awesome. Digital readouts display the length I am cutting. Just a pleasure to work on. And I worked on it to turn...



this into....








this.








The next step is to glue these two sizes together into two seperate large pieces. I will then shape them with the ban saw in order to make a proper mold for my veneer. I will update more as I get through the process. In the meantime, I am exhausted and have to be up at 5 again tomorrow. So until I have more to show, I'm going to bed.

TW

Haha...okay I yield

It is no secret that on the rare occasion I take the odd nip from the bottle. Nor is it a secret that there are occasions that warrant more than one nip. Last night was such an occasion. In Danish, the word for Christmas is Jul (pronounces yool). Furthermore, in Danish, the word for July is "Juli" (pronounced yooly). Finally, in Danish, the word for in is "i" (pronounced ee. You see where I'm going here?) So last night was Juli i Juli. Christmas in July. And boy was it ever. I mean, as long as you describe christmas as a drunken festival where at least one person knocks over a tree. But such was last night. And that, my dear readers, is why my previous post is so, shall we say, abstract.

So I apologise for that one. I do however, find it to be one of my better and more entertaining posts.

As a pennance, I have decided to talk a bit about Danish culture. Specifically their approach to food appropriation. Lets talk about grocery bags and taxes.

In Denmark, and most of Europe for that matter, there is no such job as a bagger at a grocery store. I don't think it is from lack of funds but rather there is no such things as grocery bags per se. One is required to bring their own bags or purchase one at the store. It strikes me that in America, there are so many, I don't know, "boutique" grocery stores that ask you to bring in your own bags out of conservation, but here, it is not a choice. You have three options: bring your own, buy one there or carry it out while trying to best juggle all your items.

This brings me to fast food. (Actually it does nothing of the sort. I mean there was no segue there whatsoever, but I couldn't really bridge it and am too hung over to try so we can just assume it was artfully done. Possibly comedic as well.) This is actually quite brilliant and I think we should institute it in America. There is an enormous tax on fast food here. Anything that is unhealthy gets charged extra. For example, a Big Mac value meal from McDonalds costs no less than 16 dollars. I don't know why it is still called a value meal but there you go. This is actually wonderful because at the end of the day when I am too tired to cook, my only other option is to go hungry. So I wind up cooking or at the very least making a salad. I have not, however, had pizza, burgers, or anything the like since I have been here. Very heart healthy lifestyle.

Ok...I feel like the matress desperately needs my attention so I am going to bond with it for a while.

tata
TW

and the good news is that as of closing today, RNBW is up 4.5 points!

It's new...It's fresh...It's all the new rage

Ok, so maybe not so much but in the meantime, this whole thing has become a new entity in and of its own. I have one responsibility: I need to draw, go to bed, and impress in the morn. That is the extent of it. There is little else. This includes the random metal heads I meet in the entrails of the building. If it's not seeping, it seems, it is not worth ones time.

Regardless, I have finished my final drawings. I have hung out with friends. I have told men of wider girth that I am bigger. And ultimately, they have all bought in.

Monday we vegin construction. For the weekend, I am buying stock in rainbows.

Take care, one and all

Update

Here is the new model from tonight's labors:

As Work Progresses

So it has been a few days in studio and things are progressing nicely. I have until the end of this week to complete my working drawings. My design has changed a little but only in the minor ways that all designs change as details are sorted out and aesthetics are stringently challenged.

Here are some photos of the process:
This is my friend Darlene. Darlene was unsure of the dimensions of her ass so had my other friend Lys trace her bum for her. Bum tracer!

Actually this is probably a very effective technique. But if not, at least it was very entertaining. Oh and this is my studio space. My lamp is the furthest left, my desk is peaking in as well.


This was an early rendering I did in autocad. Mostly I was testing my newly, ahem, appropriated software (saved four grand...yeah baby!) But yes, the idea has changed a little since this image. I am going to work on another one tonight.





This is my studio as seen from the second floor. It is a pretty neat space. The entirety of the campus of the Royal Danish Academy of Art used to be a Naval Base. As such, the buildings are all pretty interesting in nature. There are bunkers everywhere that make great little hills to eat and take a break on.

I'm guessing the studio was at one point a dorm. Just guessing. Or maybe a secretarial pool. I dunno.

This was a sketch model I made of an earlier design. I made it from individual strips of paper and treated them as I would an actual veneer, molding it into the little model mold I made resting behind it!





And here is the first mock up of my working drawings. Pretty simple little rocker. Made from four pieces (including bracing). The complexity will come in making the molds for the veneer. Especially for the legs and arms.






So that's where I am at right now. Next week we start in the shop. And 23 days from now I better be done!

Work work work

Well, actually it is not so bad. It is, however, wonderful to be back in studio and applying all the things I've learned from visiting the mind numbingly large number of showrooms over the past two weeks. My rocker is progressing nicely as I am now at the stage in its design where I have to figure out the details of connections and begin doing drawings at a 1:1 scale.

However, it is not all just fun studio work. I also have to write a 7 page paper that is due Monday. It shouldn't be too bad. Papers come easily to me and I have plenty of material to write about. Also, as much as I like my professors, English is not their strong point, so I can only assume they will not be deducting from my grade for poor application of Strunk and White.

Other than that, there is not much going on. I stayed in kollegium last night, and today, despite my better efforts, has proved to be a wonderful day for napping and reading. I am currently caught up in a heavy addiction to Lee Child and am burning through my third Reacher novel of the trip. Good stuff. But much like everyother time I get engrossed in something, it begins affecting my dreams. Lately, I have been having some excellent action adventure dreams in which I am the lone wanderer forced into difficult situations in which I must rely on my cunning and superior physical abilities to get me out of.

It's not too bad a way to spend the night!

It's good to be back

The final day in Finland was as interesting as the rest. Maybe a little better because it involved more architecture and less furniture. We visited three Aalto projects and a showroom before heading back to the port to catch the Ferry.

The ferry was more or less the same as it was on the way out. At one point I sat down at the blackjack table with 20 euros and became incensed at my friend Lys' strategy or lack there of. After watching her hit on 15 while the dealer showed a 6 and then take his bust card only to let him go on and win was just too much. Especially since it happened a number of times.

The final day of travel was spent almost entirely on the bus with only one stop at the Ikea headquarters and prototyping buildings. We also got to tour the Ikea museum.

It certainly was nice getting back to Copenhagen. First thing I did was unpack and do laundry. I have gotten entirely over my desire to travel. And although I am not yet home, I am at least in my relatively permanent residence. And I am glad for it.

Today we have a lecture regarding how to do our working drawings for our chairs. Getting close!

Sweden, the cruise and Finland

Yesterday actually turned out to be a not bad day. Despite the fact that I was tired, possibly getting sick and just all around frumpy I enjoyed what we went to see...for the most part. We visited first the Woodland Cemetery with the Resurrection Chapel, the Woodland Chapel and the Holy Cross Chapel. Everything in this cemetery, buildings and grounds, were immaculate and breathtaking. E. Gunnar Asplund, the architect for the grounds has the whole area beautifully encased in very tall and slender pine trees and there are constant references to life, death and afterlife. It's really a breathtaking experience.

After the cemetery, we went to two more museums. One was an architecture museum and a modern art museum and the other was a museum dedicated to a 400 year old boat that the Swedes had conserved after salvaging it from the bottom of the sea. Essentially, the story is that the Vasa, was the biggest ship, completely unsinkable, blah blah blah. It left port and pretty much made a bee-line for the bottom of the bay.

After that, we headed for the cruise ship to board for our ride to Helsinki. It was a relatively drunken night as the "viking buffet" had all you can eat/drink. I have never consumed so much meat in a one week period. I am kind of jonesing for a salad.

This morning, we woke, and deboarded, and got on the bus. We visited the Alvar Aalto Studio and Home. This was nice to see since I had studied it before. Then, more showrooms, more chairs (my life is getting repetitive.) The problem was, that it was pouring the whole time, and as I found out, my rain coat is not exactly water resistant. I was not only drenched but the water seeping through my black coat brought the dye with it into my orange tee-shirt. It was a frumpy kind of afternoon.

I am very ready to get back to Copenhagen and get to work. This whole tour has been more of a burden than anything. I have not experienced anything the many countries I've been through had to offer and indeed feel like I never left Denmark.

If it weren't for my new magnets I would never believe I actually moved at all.

Anyway, tomorrow is the last full day. I spend tomorrow night on the boat again so I probably won't be posting.

Then wednesday it's back to Copenhagen.

Day three and four

So yesterday was spent pretty much entirely in transit. We took a bus to the ferry, ferried to Sweden, bus a couple of hours to yet another showroom, and then bussed to a manor house for dinner and then 3 more hours of bussing to Stockholm. It was a lot.

Today was a little more relaxed. We stayed in Sweden the whole day visiting yet more showrooms. This is beginning to wear a little thin on me. I appreciate the opportunity to travel but I feel like I am not seeing anything or learning much. I mean, how many showrooms can one get into before they just start to blend together?

We did have the opportunity to see an interesting library today designed by Asplund in the 1930's but that accounted for maybe 1.5 hours.

After the library, and a quick browse of the museum, we all headed to the old city for dinner. We had a genuine Swedish meal of meatballs. Just like at Ikea!

I'm beginning to tire of this whole travel study thing. I do not like travelling in a pack, and I do not like being disallowed to wander and absorb a city. I feel like they could accomplish the same thing we have been doing by giving us a series of lectures. That way, I wouldn't have had to pack all my belongings up again. And I know the standard response is going to be to make the most of it and I am. But honestly, this whole trip is dissolving into an endless string of factories, showrooms and chapels.

and looking at the itinerary, there is no sign of it stopping.

Tomorrow night I will be on the ferry to Finland so I will not have access, but let me fill you in now on what I'm doing.

Cemetery
Chapel
Chapel
Chapel
Museum
Museum
Museum
Ferry

That should suffice.

Study Tour: Day 2, Western Denmark

After the bonfire last night,breakfast was hard to wake up for at 7:30 this morning. We ate and packed a lunch and boarded the bus for an immediate departure for the Trapholt Museum of Art. This museum, reminiscent of the Nelson Atkins museum in Kansas City, is sited embedded into a hill. As the rooms continue down the hill, the roof height retains a uniform elevation. As you progress through the museum, and continue down the hill, the ceiling gets higher and higher. Our main reason for visiting the Trapholt was to see their wonderful furniture display. They had pretty much every major Scandinavian designer represented and in most situations more than once. There was everything from veneer and tube steel chairs, to a room dedicated only to the modernist use of plastic in furniture. It was a great range and it is always fun to see all these pieces that one can only dream of owning. After spending a few hours in the Museum, we all ate our lunch in the shadow of Arne Jacobsen's summer home. He designed this home to be modular and prefabricated. And while this concept is kind of tired by now (sorry 804) one has to remember when this building was designed. Arne Jacobsen was working in the 30's-60s and was breaking new ground with this kind of work.

After lunch, we loaded back into the bus and headed to Aarhus University. AU is organized more like an American university rather than a common Danish one in that its campus, dorms, annexes, etc. are all on the same property. This is a far cry from the 45 minute bus ride I have to take every morning to get to the RAA (I'm thinking of buying a bicycle.) The buildings at first glance appear pretty non-descript. They are made of differing shades of yellow brick which gives them the appearance of deli-mustard, and retain a form akin to a child's drawing of a house: a right triangle, laid on its hypotenuse (wow not even going to pretend to spell that one right, thank god for spell check) on top of a rectangle. It is only upon entering do you get to see the details of the building. Undulating ceilings and angular rooms combine with underground tunnels and great open spaces. We weren't able to stay very long, mostly because we had appointments all over for tours and such so we hightailed it over to the city hall. This is another building designed by Arne Jacobsen. Every detail is thought out even down to the light fixtures and furniture. It must be nice to have a client willing to let you handle every such decision.

Our last stop for the day was a church located in Randers. It seems to follow the methodology of modernist Danish architecture in that all the good stuff is inside the building. The outsides of these structures tend to be on the non-descript side however, once you are in the building, the movements are spectacular. I think it has mostly to do with the fact that no one spends too much time outside due to weather, and cherish a good interior. Or maybe its just an aesthetic difference. Regardless, I am constantly surprised when I walk into one of these relatively un-exciting buildings only to be knocked back by its interior.

Tonight we are staying on the water, yet again, but this time in Aalborg.

Tomorrow we ferry to Stockholm and sleep the night there.

First day on the Scandinavian Tour

I missed posting yesterday but I will go ahead and catch you up very quickly. After my review, which went very well, I returned to my room and prepared for the trip to Sweden, Finland and Western Denmark. Needless to say I am less than thrilled to be living out of a suitcase once again.

After packing, the members of my floor decided and impromptu beach trip would be nice. And we headed out.

(As an aside let me say that I am feeling like crap right now. I have had no sleep and feel as if I am coming down with something. This is just perfect timing but that aside, it will affect my writing and my desire to be eloquent. So mostly just the facts in this one.)

This morning, I got up at 5 in order to get to the tour bus at 6:30. We visited two furniture factories and a church. The pictures are there. Check them out.

We pulled into our hostel in the middle of nowhere and due to it's proximity to a lake and its layout, the whole place resembles Camp Crystal Lake from the Friday the 13th series. We are four to a room and I am just happy to have internet.

Again, sorry for the brevity. It has been a long day.

Making headway

My work has begun to progress nicely. The medium of veneer has yielded wonderful pieces in the past and has been utilized far more than any of the other materials available to us in this program. This has allowed me to see many many examples of previous works which in turn has allowed me to "test" the limitations of the material before heading down the road myself.

I currently have three designs which I am focusing on. The first is a rocker, the second is a two piece chair that pulls apart for storage and the final is a simple chair. Veneer has led to some interesting challenges. Because the strength and indeed the singular appearance of this type of chair comes from the ability to bend the wood at extreme angles, it has been primary in my design to attempt to make my chair from a single layout with no joinery what-so-ever. This has not only limited the scope but allowed me to tangle with and sort out a number of entertaining challenges.

Tomorrow I have my first review at 1:30 where I will find out what my professors think of my work thus far. I am confident and think that it will go pretty well. My drawings are done, I have three models and with any luck, three good ideas.

However I will say that regardless of which my professors want me to make I am going to have the final say. This is my project and it is not going to sit in my professor's living room. It will sit in mine and as such, I will attempt to make it as visually appealing, and as practical to my needs as possible.

Sorry for the brevity...It's not been to noteworthy as of the last few days and I have had little to say.

We leave for Finland and Sweden come Wednesday and I fear my internet availability will be spotty at best. So if there are breaks in my posts, have faith in that I will fill you in just as soon as I can. I do worry, however, when the professors tell us to pack bedding.

Take care
TW

Fourth of July

Well it would seem as if it were any other day here in Denmark. And to them, it is. I awoke at 6. Took the miserable bus for an hour. Sat in a 3 hour lecture regarding furniture, which was interesting, albeit marathonian. Followed up by two more guest lecturers. They were both trying to test my limits I am sure. I mean, the first one was a designer for Ikea, and as my friend Stephanie said to me "I've seen the Ikea catalogue." The second lecturer, as fate would have it, was a student of my professor, so more or less said the same things, note for ntoe as my first three hours.

This was not working out to be a great fourth. I mean seriously, coming from the standpoint where everyone I know and love is blowing shit up, getting drunk and celebrating our independance, I am in Copenhagen. A place, where if nothing else, fireworks are illegal.

I had a simple plan. I was going to go home. Drop off my stuff. Go grovery shopping. Make a salad, watch a movie and go to bed.

That was before I was surprised by my Danish hall mates who threw a barbeque in honor fo the fourth for me and the one other american. Complete with grilled dausages, potato salad, garlic bread and carlsburg (they tried and I love them for it.) Things definately got excited when we told them the one true american drink was Jack Daniels. (N.B. there is no budweiser or miller here).

Needless to say, they have made this a memorable night for me. Especially since I was about to retire. They've made me feel somewhat at home. I may need to teach them how to make things explode but we'll see whewre the night goes.

Tomorrow, a day off, which means a lot of work for me...

Lectures

Today was a lot of listening, and viewing of slides. Overall it was very informative and allowed me to begin to prepare for my design. I learned a lot in how my material can be manipulated and formed to the shapes that I desire. Through three different techniques, most any form you can think of can be developed as long as it follows the rules. In fact it is only one rule, being that if you can get a sheet of paper to do it, the wood can do it.

I have decided that I have reached the limits that my sketchbook can afford me and have purchased some thin gauge sheet metal to make some sketch models. I am very excited to start this part of the game. Ideally, I would like to form my chair from a single sheet with a minimum of joinery since it is very difficult and not truly appropriate to try to marry separate pieces of veneer. It has been done, yes. Very successfully in fact by those before such as the Eames' among others. But the challenge is before me and I am excited to meet it.

In the meantime, after I bought supplies, I went to the DIS welcoming party in the courtyard of their offices. After a few beers, the other grad students and I went to an irish pub for another. It was then reaching 8:00 and I decided to head home.

It was at home, in my communal kitchen, that the idea went around between the Danes and I to head to the bar downstairs. Now it has been a few days since I was in college but I don't remember bars being in the dorms.

We drank, we played fussball. All in all it was a good time. But now, I have about 6 hours to sleep before I start all over again tomorrow.

It's all right. I'll sleep a solid eight on sunday.

Tuesday, we leave for Finland and Sweden. That should warrant some better posts.

Love to all
TW

July the second: In which we tour

Where to begin on this day? There were so many momentous occasions that would serve as a good lead in but are typically off topic. Ah well, I'll just work chronologically today.

So this morning I woke up at about 6:20 since I was due at Frueplads at 8:00 to catch the tour bus. I figured on an hour getting ready, followed by a forty minute bus ride and bingo bango I would be there on time. Upon rising I went to the kitchen to eat some of my newly appropriated danish breakfast food (read: cereal, milk and oj.) I poured myself a big bowl of cheery-o's, excited to finally be eating a cereal I can identify and not promoted by a soccer playing talking bird. I turned to the fridge, pulled out my brand new liter of milk and poured it onto my cereal.

Now there are times in life when the function of the human body smiply amazes me. The speed, for instance, with which your mind will notice that something is taking longer than usual, even if it is a fraction of a second longer. Or, for example, when the muscles in your arm, wrist and hand all can identify that weight is not shifting as it should. We have all experienced this and when I poured out my milk onto my cereal, my experience was just the same. The milk just took too long to get to the bowl. It did not, however, take long enough to allow me to register and react. So as the viscous, milky fluid oozed onto my cereal, there was very little I could do to hold back my disgust.

What was going on? Are Danish groceries that bad? I checked the date again and reaffirmed that I still had a week to drink it. This just didn't make sense. Well, as it turned out the Danish word for milk is not okonozze9er (I'm making that up but it was somthing akin to that) it is, in fact maelk. What I had purchased (as I learned only by a brave touch of the tongue) was simply yogurt. Lesson learned.

After my breakfast of yogurt and cereal, I prepared for my day and headed for the bus stop. I got there just as soon as my trusty 1A was pulling away. It was here that a little seed of panic was planted. I had planned my morning on making that bus. But surely, there would be another soon.

So I waited...and waited...and waited. This is the worst part, the waiting. Once you are on a bus and going somewhere, you have done all you can. But the waiting just makes you want to run towards the next stop, just so you feel like you are actively contributing. It's ridiculous I know, but still...

So finally a bus arrives and takes me to my stop by the National Museum. I begin the two block walk towards the buses which I have convinced myself will not leave before 8:30. I mean, they just tell us to be there at 8. I had this thought completely locked into my head as I walked towards the Plads. As I passed a church, the steeple began chiming eight am. It was not done before I saw our tour busses pulling out of the lot. It was only by luck that I was able to flag them down. Apparently someone else had done the same thing not 30 seconds before me and had delayed them enough to allow me passage. Sweet.

Time for me to sit back and let the responsible driver and knowledgable professor take charge of the day. Tom can relax now. I mean except for the fact I was on the wrong bus, but at least it was the right program. We are divided into A and B groups withing our particular mediums so that we will not all be on top of each other all the time. I, of course, am an A. I did, however, get on the B bus. Which was problematic only in that I spent all day bonding with the few other grad students here who seem all to be in B group instead of meeting and secretly despising the undergrads in mine. I'll still call it a win.

the first stop on the tour was this very small furniture workshop. PP Mobler Furniture has been in the same family for three generations now and one can see that it is cared for. The furniture is all crafted by hand here through pain staking processes of steaming and bending and sanding and finishing. Every detail is inspected and precision is paramount. I think the owner said it best when he mentioned that the purpose is not to make money but to make a piece of furniture your grandchildren can use. Now, while that is a little altruistic to be true, I at least appreciate the sentiment. They are very good and purposeful with their work. It takes them a great deal of time to make a single chair. The upholstering process alone is a 5 day process. Everything is dont by hand and with great deliberation.

This workshop, which employs roughly 35 people has a neutral carbon dioxide output in that they create 40 tons of CO2 a year, but counteract that by heating the whole place come winter time by burning the scrap wood in the basement. Not a bad thought. I wonder though, how much is created by burning the scrap? I suppose much less than oil or coal. Maybe that's how they make it up.

The next stop was a supreme juxtaposition to the first. Fritz Hansen Furniture sprawls over at least two serperate campi and is labled on all buildings "The Republic of Fritz Hansen." This is a true factory outputting thousands of chairs a day. Everything is done by machine with a minimum of human interaction. They have everything you would expect from a large corperation including a very slick marketting team who gave us a very dull explanation of their design philosophy which meandered over not three but five bullet points. If one were to ask me, five points does not a philosophy make but rather a manifesto. But no one asked me.

It was interesting to see how it all went together. Watching them work specifically with the veneer materials that I soon will be as well. It was kind of misleading though since I will not have robots at my disposal to handle my more difficult works.

From there we headed to two churches both done by prominent danish architects and to end the day, an amazing furniture showroom.

These days are long, starting at about 6:00 am and running until five. But so far it doesn't seem to weigh on me too much. It is true that we are going 6 days a week in this program so ask me again in 2 months how I feel about it.

In the meantime, tomorrow is more lecture based and going over assignments.

So that should be a fun blog entry.

TW

First Full Day in Copenhagen

This morning I woke earlier than necessary due to the fact that I still have not procured and alarm clock. I got up, got ready and met the group down at the bus stop to catch the 1A into town. It was at this point, that I finally got to go to the official DIS office, which is where I can get packages, deal with issues, etc... The particular issue I had to deal with was the fact that I had no orientation packet due to my late arrival and I wanted them to know that I was, indeed, attending. After we hurried out of the office to catch a tour bus, and we loaded onto said bus, did I finally open tha packet and learn that DIS had placed me not in furniture design as was intended but instead in architecture for the summer. I was not pleased. I stood up and began looking around the bus but came to realize that only students were on the bus. There was not a single person of authority. I sat back down to write the diatribe I was going to lay on whomever finally stepped forward.

We pulled up to an unknown parking lot and the driver told us to get out. We did and found ourselves without the slightest idea of what to do. People began to group up and mill around and walk in differing directions when someone finally went inside and asked.

Turns out we were let off around the corner from the DIS orientation day two. And that the meeting didn't start for 20 minutes so we could go look at the display of the previous semester's thesis student projects. I was excited to see the kind of work the world renowned school could produce.

It made me sad. The projects were at best, poorly presented and at worst poorly conceived as well. I could only look through half of them before I went back outside and sat at a bench.

After a few brief speaches from the head of DIS, punctuated with intermittant string quartet pieces, which was very nice, we seperated into our seperate fields of study for the more detailed meetings. I still at this point was concerned about the fact that I was not in architecture, but went with the furniture design people anyway.

We got a walking tour from our two professors for the summer and saw the campus as it were. The whole of the Royal Danish Architecture Institute is in an old navy base that has been converted so there is plenty of space. We have, at our disposal, a three floor shop that puts all others I've been in to shame. The top floor consists of a enormous metal shop. Everything from welders to engravers, presses to lathes. If you could imagine it in metal it could be made in this shop. The next floor down is the woodworking shop. In here was an equal collection of woodworking machines. And in the basement, the veneer studio. No machines there but I imagine that the veneer students will be using the wood shop as well.

The tour continued and were were shown the furniture collection they had amassed. It was incredible! Every chair you;ve ever wanted is in this room. At they are all at our disposal for research. The only rule is we cannot sit in them. But we can flip them, study them, analyze them and admire them anytime we like. Not too shabby.

After our tour of the campus, we returned to our studio space which is an incredibly room consisting of two floors, the second of which circles the lower floor as a mezzanine creating a nice atrium for the first floor. It was here that the professors explained how the projects were going to be done. We would be given a set amount of material. Not due to budget but to make it more of a challenge. Furthermore, we will not get to choose which material we use but rather, that decision has been made for us.

The groups are
Metal A: circular tubes
Metal B: square tubes
Wood
Veneer

Everyone wants to be in veneer. People were sitting on their hands in anticipation. It was this time, my worry over which program I was in overwhelmed me and I finally went to the back of the room and told the TA that I thought I had a problem. It wasn't a second after I asked that the professor at the front called my name as the last student in veneer. It was a shameful victory but I'll take it. Turns out they just put the wrong paper work into my packet.

After the assigments and a brief lunch of sandwhiches and water, we all met at the pier for a boat tour of Copenhagen. I have to admit I am a little tired of touring. At this point, I am just ready to get to work, but what the hell. One more city won't kill me.

The tour lasted about 40 minutes, after which I went back to DIS offices and asked for my stipend from the accountant and headed off to buy a bus pass. I was tired of doing things. Anything at this point was going to bother me, so it wasn't too thrilling that as I left the ticket counter, it occured to me that I hadn't paid the slightest attention all day as to how I got to where I was. And of course at this point I was alone. Awesome.

A little walking and feeling out the city, of which by this point I am quite good, I was able to make it back to my bus stop from this morning. A brief 30 minutes later and I was back at Kollegium.

This would have been a pleasure for me to end it there. But alas, I had no food and needed to eat. There is a grocery store across the street, I hiked there, bought a minimum of supplies for I only have one shelf in the kitchen, and headed back for my meager dinner.

Well, that's it. My day. A little stress, a few victories, but at least it's done.

Tomorrow: Wherein Tom tries to find an alarm clock