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Design concept drawing for a classic 16th century gold olive leaf table with marble and semi-precious stone inlays. The idea was
taken from an existing rectangular table with the same classic olive leaf pattern. Design concept drawings by Blaise Gauba.
Design concept drawing.
Design concept drawing.
Design concept drawing: Drawn in pencil, then inked, then airbrushed in Photoshop to resemble gold.
Table wheel pattern: Drawn in pencil, then finished in Photoshop for printing.
Table wheel pattern: Drawn in pencil on a piece of particle board for the foam & wax sculpt to rest in an anchored position. A wooden pattern arm is cut and a small strip of 60 grit sand paper is glued to the inside of the wodden pattern as seen in the upper right section of the image.
Laying the 4lb foam on the anchor platform to
figure out the best position for the pattern to
match up its ends.
Marking and cutting an arc in 4lb foam to fit the
base pattern on the anchor platform.
Cutting the arc on my band saw.
After the arc is glued to the anchor platform, the wooden arm
cutting tool with the sand paper strip is initially, slowly and
carefully rotated from a center pin hole at the end of the arm, over the 4lb foam pattern arc, cutting away at the foam.
Amazing action shot!
Amazing action shot close up! Notice the difference between the foam on the upper left of the image and the foam on the center where the tool is whizzing back and forth as well as on the right side of the image? You can actually see the foam being cut away! Exciting isn't it?
The arc is cut.
Cutting the leg pattern.
Ooooh...A close-up!
Still cutting the leg pattern. I'm sure you have noticed by now that I am working on the ground. It's a habit I became used to after living and studying arts & crafts in Kyoto, Japan in 1987 and 1988. I definitely prefer this to standing on a hard surface all day.
Placing a heavy stock paper pattern on top of the foam plug.
Cutting leg sections to be glued together. The foam I'm working with was too short. Economizing or...waste not, want not.
After cutting and gluing the leg sections together, I spray-glued the top end of the leg to glue the heavy bond paper to in order to draw a circular pattern as my guide for sculpting the final piece.
Detail.
Foam leg in progress. Sorry, but I didn't take any pictures during the initial cutting process as I was under a time constraint. But what I did do was
draw a pattern for the leg on two sides of the foam block and then cut out the shape you see in this image on my band saw. On the right side of the image you can see that I already started sculpting the leaves into their respective shapes. Although there will be more detail sculpted in after the entire piece has been finished. After all the leaves have been sculpted into the foam leg, I will then start coating the entire piece with a hard sculpting wax of my own secret mixture which I will gladly share the recipe for.
Here's a detailed image...sort of. I drew over the image in Photoshop so you can see the edges more clearly.
Drilling the center hole for the cutting arm.
Fine tuning the center pin position for the most accurate cut possible. This IS rocket science you know. Ha, ha, ha!
Finished leg in solid wax. Cast from a silicon mold made from the original
foam and wax sculpt.
Finished leg in
solid wax, detail.
Now back to the table frame arch section.
After tracing a leaf pattern onto the foam,
I carved the leaves as in the image above.
BUILDING A BRONZE TABLE Page One
Wooden pattern cutting arm with 60 grit sand paper clued to inside edge of cut-out.
