Barninger & Couch

They’re not really seagulls. I think that most of them are pigeons. I couldn’t really tell in the pictures. Anyway, I’m trying to design a piece with some graphics on it and I thought it would be cool if it had a flock of birds. And I’ve been playing with this whole Processing thing for a little while now, so I wrote a little code and made something kind of cool. At least I like it. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to get it on to furniture. So click here and watch the birds fly! (So when the applet starts there are a bunch of arrows. These are what control the birds. Press the spacebar to turn these lines on and off. It runs much faster with them off.)

Flock of Birds

Most of the code was borrowed from other places, specifically here.

Don’t worry, no bowls were harmed. In fact a new one was created! And then it got smashed back into its original blob of clay. Ok, so maybe I lied about bowls not being harmed. Anyway, it’s fun to watch, so here’s some pics of the process. Hopefully soon you crazy kids out there will be able to buy some.

And here is a detail of the final piece (before he then obliterated it).

So here’s the latest DC table hot off the presses. This one has walnut veneer on the inside and outside (for a little bit extra dough). It turned out pretty sexy. The new finish technique that we’re using gives a soft feel to the final piece.

And here is the finished piece. The base is a simple X-frame running along the major and minor axis of the ellipse. The angled mortise and tenon joint is a nice little detail that we’ll probably be using in the future.

We should probably name this thing. Any thoughts there, internets?

You can see the shape of the dish top in this one. It’s pretty sexy.

A little base detail.

And finish it off with a nice 3/4 view.

Here’s a few process shots of Jeff working on an elliptical coffee table that he finished up earlier this month. It’s made from solid cherry.

Here he is routing out the main form of the table top. Just some simple template routing here.

And here he is hogging out some material from the top. After this, he hand worked the final contour of the lip by hand.

For Christmas, Jeff made a set of play blocks for his niece. Her family is Greek so Jeff decided to put a twist on the classic blocks and use the Greek alphabet. Each block is solid maple with an inlay of different woods to get the different colors. The letters and outline are wenge and the colors are achieved with (left to right) maple, poplar, yellow heart, cherry, red heart, and purple heart. There is no dye or paint to get the color, that is all the natural color of the wood.

We were contacted by a graphic design student at the Art Institute of Washington about helping with a class project. She had to do an ad spread for a company and she had seen some of our work around town and decided to use us as her company. We were more than happy to help. She needed some high res pics so we snapped a few shots.

Jeff with Negative Chair

Using lunar topography as design. This is the Thebit Crater located at -22N, -4. And if you know what that means then hats off to you! The moon is fascinating.

Justin was commissioned to do a portrait of a couple to be presented as a wedding gift. It was done in the same style as some previous works with laser engraved wood blocks. A reference image was used to come up with a black and white graphic that was burned into the piece. And as far as I know, it is currently hanging in their home.

Block Portrait

Another View

Nesting Tables

In April of ‘09 Justin made a set of nesting tables for a small apartment. With limited space, the ability to collapse or expand a table as necessary is ideal. The graphic was achieved by engraving the pattern into the wood using a laser engraver and then filling in with Bondo. Several coats of polyurethane give the pieces a great shine.

You can just see the smallest of the three tables peeking out from the inside of the right table.

Nesting Tables