Name: Fall Leaf
Year: 2018 Fall
Size: 15x17x29 in
Material: Italian Bending Poplar and wood stain
This is the second version of Spring Leaf. I did everything the same, besides the hollow pattern.
Inspired by the dead leaf in fall, I was intrigued by the flame colored, curved and fragile object and desperate to make a chair which could present the idea of beauty. So, I’d like to consider the Fall Leaf as a conceptual object or a sculpture rather than a functional product.
I selected three colors to apply on the Fall Chair: yellow, orange and dark red. The gradient colors let the whole object look like a dead leaf in the wind, or a burning flame. What’s more, the hollow pattern casts a complex shadow on the ground. You could see the dark red color in the shadow because of the light reflection from the chair, which seems like the shadow is burning with the chair as well.
It had so much fun during the carving process. I used a white chalk to draw on the wood board, then roughly cut the hollow pattern with an electronic jigsaw. After that, I ground the edges and the line I drew on the board to sculpt a finer shape. Basically, the ninety percent of the work was done, so to the happy time. Because the rest was all about sanding, sanding…and sanding. I sanded four pieces of the wood board in the sanding room with the goggles and the mask for two entire days, including the nights. Honestly, I barely could see my fingerprints after the sanding work.
Instead of milk paint, this time I tried wood stain( more details in WOOD FINISH). The big difference between milk paint and wood stain is that milk paint could hide the natural wood pattern and make some tiny cracks less visible, but wood stain could not. When you put the wood stain on the wood surface, it is like the wood absorbs the moisture and pickle the color into the material. Every detail on the material will be seen clearly. Also, the depth of the color will change if you overlap, just like the watercolor.
