Check out this experiment by my friend Amy Ruppel. She took some laser samples Joe Mansfield made her for Project Chaboo and backfilled with white wax. So cool!
This is the lasering on her chaboo inlayed with laser cut felt.
Id like to experiment with backfilling cracks in wood with colored wax. More on that coming soon….
Amy creates these paintings with paper, oils, and a beeswax/resin mixture. The image above is from her state bird series where she painted every single state bird! I love the concept.
My shopmate Don Jensen of Synergies Renovations is also doing a chaboo. He is a general contractor who specializes in high end remodels. I met him on a job site years ago and we started to work together here and there. He often curses at the difficulty of my designs to build- but hey, it looks good doesn’t it? Here is a vanity that I designed and he built. More examples here.
His chaboo is titled Cantileaver Chaboo. Its a one-legged chaboo which has molten lead embedded in it for stability. He got the idea for it from ehem, ME! I built a coat rack and melted down lead to pour into holes in the legs. See the blog post here.
The legs are filled with lead and then veneered over to hide it.
Check out the detail in this joint! The man uses dental tools. Ive seen it myself!
photo by Anna Campbell
Don explains the secrets behind cantilever chaboo~
The opening was a SMASHING success!!!!! Lots of pics by Amy Ruppelhere. We counted 737 people through the front door and I estimate 200-300 came through the side and back doors for around 1000 total people. The energy level in the Ford Building was off the charts.
photo by John Paananen
People were digging the installation design by Lisa and Emily, the photography, and of course, the chaboos themselves. Without exaggerating, the reaction was beyond anything I have ever seen at an art show. People were simply blown away!
photo by Amy Ruppel
People were actually READING the bios. Despite the party atmosphere many people were intensely immersed in the bios.
photo by Amy Ruppel
My number one goal was to create a positive boost for the participants and also the community in general. Mission accomplished!
The Project Chaboo Show is right around the corner and we have been busy bees setting up. INSTALLING would actually be a more appropriate term… interior designers Emily Knudsen and Lisa Kuhnhausen have designed the exhibit as an installation. I tell people… its gonna be so beautiful we could forget to bring the chaboos and it would still be cool.
The morning started off hot with high efficiency thanks to overkill jigs built by Don Jensen. His jigs are also used on the space shuttle. This photo though… is staged- I told them to pose like they are doing something… but it looks like sara didn’t hear me.
She redeems herself here! 16 hours of duct taping paper to the ceiling by a bunch of tall guys and… walla!
BOOM! This show will blow people away. Go hard or go home baby…
Thank you to all the volunteers who helped out. Without you this project simply doesnt happen!
Chaboo artist Ryan Thomson works at giant architecture firm ZGF and also rides for high end cycling gear maker RAPHA. There is an interesting article in the Oregonian about their unusual marketing strategy.
A band of cyclists — fast but not pro, thoughtful but not geeky, a touch wacky — embarked on America’s most epic rides. They pushed hard, but not so hard they missed wildflowers and cafes. They fixed their own flats. And their journeys were documented online, creating a real-life sports drama.
From the look of Ryan’s beard (in back), I don’t think they are allowed to rest even to shave… A bird might mistakenly nest in that thing. So anyways, his chaboo idea was to do a double tiered construction. He brought over some drawings and I built him the parts. He then took those parts and went to work.
He cut the chaboo parts at an angle with a taper jig on the tablesaw. His original plan was to pepper it with fasteners but he decided to go with a more simple look on the fly.
