Another Life For Furniture
Deconstructed
upholstery
“For
quite some time we have nurtured the idea to experiment with
upholstery and reveal to others the magical process that we see.
Each
time we work on upholstering a traditional sofa it evokes us the
inside of a piano: it is functional, aesthetically beautiful,
precisely constructed and very complex to build…. it is an object
that continues to reveal itself.
It
inspired us to transform a traditional chesterfield sofa to one with
upholstery that comes apart to show the springs, cords, webbing and
the old frame.
At
the beginning of 2012 in order to develop this idea, we created the
Josephine B_chair and 5 months later we undertook the development of
the Baubau_sofa.
The
Josephine B_chair started as an experimental project to develop, on a
smaller scale, our plans for the chesterfield sofa, however, it
became a piece on its own right: a common chair with quite an
exceptional look. Each
upholstered part: wings, arms, back and seat can be removed, simply
by unfastening press buttons and a system of elastic webbing that
secures them to the chair-frame.
Developing the idea for the chair was a huge step towards our grand project the Baubau_sofa.”
The
chesterfield sofa now has the same characteristics as the chair, all
of the upholstered parts can be removed, thanks to the press
fasteners and elastic webbing. When all else is removed, only the
beautiful cage of “hand-tied springs” on the seat and back of the
sofa remain visible. The Baubau sofa reveals one of the oldest,
magical processes, which in the upholstery world is part of the
traditional technique, but usually this becomes hidden due to the
subsequent layers that are normally added.
The
cushions have been stuffed mostly with wool, except from the booster
of the back and arms that are made of foam. The hand-stitched
mattress is stuffed with carded lamb’s wool and layers of wool
sheets have been used to make the shaped cushions on the back.
Whilst
the chair has been recovered with plain and natural colour mixing
wool fabrics and linen to create a “chiaroscuro”.
To
cover the sofa we teamed-up with artist Laura Hamilton,
whose company
‘Bird
In The Hand’, produces hand printed textiles,
inspired by Jamaican prints from the 60's and 70's.
For
the first time the furniture were presented to the public at Tent
London 2012, displaying them in conjuction with Bird In The Hand.
