Miles Kozatch - Senior Project

Post 12

This week I completed every one of my pieces except the couch. I had a small photo shoot so I could feature the pieces in my portfolio for college applications. The pictures, surprisingly, turned out exactly how I wanted them too. The sharp shadows that the furniture cast create simple geometric shapes that become as much a part of the photograph as the piece itself. I photographed the maquettes on a certain angle and background that make the viewer question the actual size of the objects.

The untouched basswood looks very sleek, modern, and simple. I'm debating using a color-changing finish on any of the pieces.

This week was also the first week I ran out of materials. I did some research and decided to make a trip to Sag Harbor Emporium Hardware. What I thought was going to be a failed attempt ended up being fully beneficial. Everything I needed was sitting virtually untouched on the second floor across from the fishing supplies. Having a wide variety of the materials I need so close to home is an excellent discovery.

The vacation is going to be a nice long stretch spent at home with lots of time to work. I need to make three backgrounds, and finish one in order to put my furniture into proper context to be photographed, and for my product to be complete. After photographing the 8 collections and around a half-dozen different room combinations, its my job to put together a catalog of the images along with statements to support the designs of the furniture, the backgrounds, the combinations, and the photographs themselves.

I'm lucky to have the full support and art-directing help of my mentor, my outside consultant, and my mother. I've been driven to create beautiful furniture since the beginning, and now that the end is nigh I am more excited to finish than ever.

Post 11

This week I worked on completing my dining table and adding certain necessary details to make my furniture as photogenic as possible.

The table-top of the dining table measures (in scale) 7'6"x3'2" (seven and a half feet by three feet and two inches) and was the first time I got to appreciate the grain of the wood i was using. Using my hands as measuring tools, I scanned back and forth along the strip I decided to use to decide what section of the wood to use. It took me several minutes, but once I decided what piece I was going to use, I sanded it and cut all the pieces out. Before I make my three-dimensional models I type out instructions on what measurements to cut and in what order to conserve material and not end up with unnecessary 'scrap' pieces. 

The drawers I put in the chair fit and work like a charm. I made them out of a thinner wood than the chair itself and tried to maintain the consistent direction of wood grain. The piece is very photogenic and I'm looking forward to completing the architectural background in which it will be photographed.

Very soon I will be meeting with Koichi to address very small, specific problems that I'm sure he can help me fix. Between working at home in my converted studio to working in the studiospace at BarnesCoy, I'm confident that I'm nearing the end of the road to completion.

Post 10

During the week off of school we were given for thanksgiving vacation I began to fabricate what I still believe to be my final versions of several of my pieces of furniture. I spent more than twenty-four hours over the course of four days at BarnesCoy, working in their well lit attic/model-making room. Koichi, my outside consultant, and I met on Monday, Nov 23, to discuss the problems and some of the questions I had regarding both the design and building aspects of my project. He was impressed with my drawings and understanding of the necessity of dimensions.

Up until that Monday, I had been using thin, light strips of a wood called basswood. When Koichi saw my rough draft pieces I had made out of the wood, he asked me if I liked the way they looked. I said they looked flimsy. Then he got up, walked over to the seemingly endless, perfectly organized range of supplies in the corner of the room, and pulled out a slab of what looked like basswood, but different. All he said was "Here!" What he gave me was the same wood I had been using, but it was cut thicker, and had a distinct grain all the way through. As I admired the piece of wood, he found a piece of sandpaper and placed it on the table next to me. I realized he wanted to see what I could do with what he provided me with, and got to work. Feeling like his work was done (temporarily), Koichi walked down the stairs back to his office.

The first Chair/Table I made was beautiful! Aside from the obvious superiority of the new wood I was using, the sand paper made it look professional. Sanding the solid wood gave it a lighter color, a smooth feel, and filled minor cracks with sawdust. The sand paper also made my life a lot easier: instead of mitering* each piece using my previous guess-and-check method using my x-acto knife, I was able to modify the angle of a piece in increments, saving time, materials, and frustration. I told my consultant that he had done a very good job consulting, and that the new materials were perfect. 

To date, I now have six different pieces of furniture completed, and only have one more along with 6 other duplicates to go. When photographed, the maquettes' quality challenges the viewer's perspective of size: "are they models or real?"

The architectural contexts in which the pieces will be photographed is just as important, if not more, as the pieces themselves. Showing the relationship of a piece of furniture with an interior or exterior space provides a view and understanding of the object's function and aesthetic qualities. This coming week I'm planning on contacting a family friend who made a name for himself as someone with undeniably good taste. I've found that we have like similar things: (in a nutshell) minimalistic, purist design with strong industrial components. I think it would be an excellent opportunity to show him my furniture within the architectural contexts and receive feedback that I can trust and that will most likely evoke realizations that can change my product(s).

*miter joint - a joint made between two pieces of wood or other material at an angle of 90 degrees, such that the line of junction bisects this angle.