​Joni Kerkhof Portfolio

First sketch

After some 'scratch of the pen' drawings. I made this more organized sketch. It shows what materials are worth some research. And what feeling I want to give the piece of furniture, without already deciding what is has to be.

Practise ideas and meterials

I'm drawing some designs that could be posible.

Working out

I do some tests. To look at what happens

Test

Test

Advantage of tests

While you're testing new tings pop-up. I was testing with the materials and I used 2 layers because I wanted tension, but what I didn't realize was that there would become space between the layers. But it really makes it look like tension. Just what I was looking for.

Tension

Felt

Then I needed to find a material that is flexible as this but still thick enough to sit on. So I came to felt. Felt is build out of layers of wool, wich means you can make it as thick as you want. Than I also thought about getting the felt fixed, that can be done by putting rinforcement bars between the layers of felt.

Felt&Tension

Thats how I came to these 3 designs. Now I'm at to point that I have to make a prototype.

Testing With Felt

This is the result of the first test I did with felt. I really need to practise some more with felt cause I actually want it to be thicker.

Neoprene

Since I couldn't find a felt that was thick and strong enough, I found this material. its a kind of foam rubber which is 5 centimeters thick.

Neoprene

In this test I glued the neoprene to a chairlag.

Neoprene

The glue sticked pretty wel. The neoprene broke this time. This forces me to make a thin wooden seat upon which I can glue the neoprene. At first I didn't want any type of construction under it, but I can't find a material with all the requirements.

Scale model

With this model I made the shape I want to make

Scale

There are 3 things to work out. how am I going to make the wooden construction under the neopreen and how do I make it a strong constructie. I'm thinking of a steel wired construction like the wirechair of eames. Another thing I have to work on is how to keep the neoprene clean. Because it's collecting dust. Maybe I could use some kind of liquid rubber for that.

contruction

I figured out a way to support the neopreen. I started out with a concept version of aluminum.

steel contruction

Then I made the better version of the contruction. I had quite some struggles because I didn't work that much with steel.

Prototype

I found some old table legs wich I used to make the prototype. I did also use the steel frame I made. As you can see I'd also found a new way to fix the legs to the neopreen.

Prototype

As you can see I'd also found a new way to fix the legs to the neopreen.

coating

The other open end there is: a coating. Neopreen attracts dust quickly and isn't easy to clean. I've tried latex but that failed completely. These 3 tests are better.

sticky

The liquid rubber has a strong hold. But stays very sticky.

plasti-dip

plasti-dip is a sprayable rubber. It works fantastic but you'll need a lot of cans to get ik covered.

both

These example show a combination of: First layers of liquid rubber, and then multiple layers of plastic-dip.

Prototype

Here you see the chair with a back. I don't quite like this one. I think its to big

Prototype