Alice Turner, Cabinet on Stand (Student Awards 2019)

For my year 12 major project, I designed and constructed a ‘cabinet on stand’ that demonstrates a high level of difficulty and skill, as well as possessing an innovative aesthetic. The design merges straight lines with curved components to complement each other, producing a unique design. The design aspects of the cabinet allows me to innovate and consider numerous complex joints, including dovetail and a half lap joint. My main motivation of my cabinet is ‘Betty’ by Lee Sinclair Designs and the ‘Pear wood walk-around’ by James Krenov. The Betty cabinet has greatly impacted the design on my cabinet, as I admire its straight linear/neat design. The Pearwood walk-around has inspired the curved leg element, which swerves away from the straight carcase. I have interpreted these two designs and replicated them, integrating the two design aspects and creating my own personal design. Numerous thumbnail sketches were established, then combined with numerous designs sketches to form a final design. The final design was then created and modified using Autodesk Inventor. The curved laminated components and carcase demonstrate high quality work in a vast range of aspects. The curved legs and cross rail act as a main feature of my design, as it requires difficult joinery and has an aesthetically pleasing structure.The large amount of lamination and difficult joinery demonstrates skills and techniques that are required to produce an outstanding timber product. The incorporation of Tasmanian sassafras with the Tasmanian blackwood perfectly exhibits a contrast in grain and colour. The integration of straight lines with curved features within the design has successfully been produced as it portrays another range of skills and produced a cabinet that veers away from traditional design.The oil finish has resulted with smooth lustrous finish, enhancing the timbers tone and grain features of the Tasmanian blackwood. Throughout the production of my major project I created two formers and two jigs. The formers were created using the laser cutter, bandsaw and copy router, employing a large range of skills. This also required prior planning using CAD to get accurate curves. The formers were used for the lamination of my legs and cross-rails. The two jigs were carefully designed to accommodate my two cross-rails to produce the curved half-lapped joint. This took great precision and planning (using CAD) to perfect angles and position of the joint. Each jig required great accuracy as it was the backbone of my cabinet’s base structure. The cabinet stand is produced completely out of laminated components, allowing it to have its curved design. All laminates were accurately cut using the bandsaw and thicknesser, then glued together around its required former. A diverse range of technical joinery embody the structure of my carcase, providing excellent strength. The complex joinery includes curved half-lapped, finger joints, dominos, sliding dovetail and half-blind dovetails. Each type of journey challenged my ability and applied new skills and knowledge into the production of my cabinet. Attentive research and planning was completed prior to each process to ensure accurate and quality results. My major project was an extremely challenging project that embodied process of great difficulty. Numerous components demanded a very strict degree of accuracy, requiring thorough research to ensure they were most suitable and possible for my project. Prior to the production of my major project, I had no experience for the completed processes. The complexity of each process is evident in my production video as well as being documented in my record of production. Year 12, Freshwater Senior Campus. Teacher: Ben Percy

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