You are warmly invited to the launch of
an experiment in re-invention, design & making

3 September 6.00pm
Event starts at Ikea Coventry 6.00pm, then moves onto Self Assembly Project Space 7.45pm

Exhibition at IKEA Coventry
Rachael Elwell, Johnny O’Hanlon, Janet Vaughan, Vortex Creates

Ikea Coventry, 2 Croft Road, Coventry
3-14 September 2009 10.00-8.00pm

Self Assembly Project Space
Matt Boynton, Ryan Gibbins, Louise Taylor, Mark Hancock, Josh Hancock

35 City Arcade, Coventry
25 August – 27 September 2009 10.00-5.00pm

Curated by Anne Forgan

www.selfassemblycoventry.wordpress.com

SA Invitation

I got back from Ireland on Sunday and all I’ve been since is glueing pencils together – Its is murderously slow getting the block for the seat the right size – one pencil sized layer at a time -

I’ve made a bit of a mess of the seat but as with most things in my life I’ll have to live with the imperfections – besides there’s no time to fix it

The next chair I make -I’ll begin with the seat – I’m kinda dreading the next step – a tight knot is forming in my gut as I’ll have to try and wedge the odd shaped block of pencils into the equally but not the same odd shaped hole where the seat should go – and then the question of wether the legs are too week – this block of pencils turns out to be quite heavy – so wish me luck

I’m down to the wire on this one – as usual – but those of you coming along on thursday will see this chair in all its imperfect glory

Put them together  a lot here and a wiggle around here

The beast is alive-

This is the skeleton and it’s a wibbly wobbly wonder of a thing at the moment – at least one more layer of pencils should sort the jiggles out tho…

I’m seriously worrying though as to weather I have enough pencils and enough time

I leave the country on monday and will spend the rest of the weekend finishing this  but I seriously think I might just  run out of pencils

I feel like some kind of convict wondering about my mister meaners as I glue the pencils on – one at a time -

I’m also thinking about the “perfect” pencil and all the qualities it has – maybe it might come out as a little poem at soem stage…

I have to admit to a little cheat in order to make my joints work I’ve resorted to chopping the pencils in half and chopping off the points in order to make it fit  – I’ll then wrap the half in full pencils as with unit 2

Thing I’ve noticed, let me tell you , is that there are three distinct sizes of pencils- hmmm- I wonder what Chinese tree they have been made from…

So while I wait for glue to set – I think I’m getting really close to putting the frame together and that will be some kind of milestone

I’ve started gluing the pencils together to form the seat – Like a butchers block- Oh I hope I have enough pencils

new unit

I’m glueing bunches of pencils together and they become the new unit of construction.

I’ve been doing some tests with drilling holes in the pencils and the like but it just doesn’t feel right – the less I can do to the pencils the better – keeping it purely about the pencils

I’m glueing these bunches together and then figuring out some ways of connecting them

I reakon these corners look alright

I just hope they’ll be strong enough

This is part number 16912 I guess – the only other things I will use are wood glue and elastic bands to hold things in place while the glue sets – I better get on with it I reakon

The Exhibition will be on 3-14 September and I really want to get it finished by the end of next week as I’m off for a jaunt round Ireland in August

Lots of these to make a chair

So this is my basic unit for construction – whilst I started collecting pencils a while back I never really got started in the making but I did tell people about my idea – you know to see if I could make them smile.

Now my good friend Anne Forgan is a curator and has organised an exhibition in IKEA Coventry in September called Self assembly – its all IKEA linked so she’s asked me to build my chair – which is very exciting .

This is my first piece for an exhibition!

So I’ve been thinking about why I wanted to make a chair from pencils.

I’ve made a lot of theatre and performance art and have got the most enjoyment when the set and props came from skips or were made from other “free” sources. The fact that the pencils are free is a big part of the appeal- but not only this I am also interested in the use and usefulness of things and seeing something and thinking it can have another use. It is very important to me that I attempt to create a useable functioning chair – not just a sculpture. This change of use is what will be most satisfying for me.

He doesn’t have a name – anyone care to make a suggestion