Thaap Designs - Thoughts on design and craft

T Haap Designs introduces the Rocking Bullfrog

2010-12-06T22:20:00.001-08:00

The Rocking Bullfrog. Photo by Jaclyn Nash

One of my favorite toys as a child was my rocking horse. As a child of the 70's, the toy was just as likely to hurt me viciously as it was to provide fun, with its exposed springs seemingly designed to catch and pinch an unwary arm or leg. Regardless, I loved that toy. With so many of my friends now having children of their own, it has let me to thinking of creating toys in my wood shop (at this point, i did indeed note the similarity to Santa's workshop). So one of the first toys I decided to make was a rocking horse, of course.

Rocking horses are fine. But I did want to do something a little different, to really appeal to a child's sensibilities. I played with several ideas for different kinds of creatures, and finally settled upon a frog. A frog is a fun creature, and sure to draw the attention of children, with its large staring eyes, its dots and webbed toes. And it could come in a wide range of colors, as frogs themselves range from the greens and browns of the Bullfrog, to the vivid oranges and purples of the rain forest frogs. So the idea was settled. My first rocking creature was to be a frog.

It was not an automatic process. Converting a three dimensional animal into flat planes of wood must be done carefully if the overall impression of a real frog is to be maintained. Add to that, it also needed to conform to the shape and reach of children. Several sketches, Sketchup Models, and real models later, the final design for the rocking frog was complete.

The first customer for the rocking frog was Caleb Lowrimore, a former colleague of mine at Design Resource Group, who has his own child now approaching his first birthday. While it may be a little early just yet for the child to ride the frog on his own, he was certainly enthralled to see the frog, stumbling up to it in round eyed wonder. Until he grows a little more, it will be an exciting nursery mascot, sitting in the corner, waiting for the little man to grow to it.

Remembering the lessons of my own childhood toys, the rocking frog is safe. It is made wholly from the highest grade plywood's, and each corner is sanded soft and round, with no chance of splinters or abrasions. A safe, water based and non toxic paint was used on all surfaces, so even if baby decides to chew upon the frog, only the frog will be worse for wear. Since children love to test the limits of any toy, without consideration of consequences, the rocking frog was designed to be virtually un-tippable. Safety bulbs at both ends of the rocker arrest the frog before the rocking gets out of control. To prevent tipping sideways, the rockers themselves were made extra wide, and spread far out, providing a wide, stable platform for the frog to rock on. Finally, since this is going to be a toy that moves, it is securely held together. While simple wood glue may have done the trick to hold all the pieces together, it is additionally secured with hardwood dowels, to keep everything securely locked together even under the most joyously active child.

And so, that is the rocking frog, a fun, colorful, and joyous addition to any child's memories. To order one for your own small ones, email me today for a brochure showing the various color schemes and options available. And keep your eye out. Other creatures will soon be added to my rocking frog lineup.

thomas@thaapdesigns.com

Also check out my friends website, for many more rocking toy creations, including his version of the rocking frog, as well as kangaroos, dogs, pigs and more. He also has a really cool wooden Spirograph. I loved those as a kid. Tell Andy I sent you!

www.rockingfrog.com and http://www.etsy.com/shop/rockingfrog

On modernism

2009-04-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

I often taut my works as modern. What does that truly mean, to me, or to anyone else. To some degree, and to some people, this could mean the period of rocket inspired furniture and art that came about in the 1950's. This has always seemed presumptious to me. Every age considers itself modern, and for the 50's to claim their age as the ultimate in design, that nothing new would come, or perhaps, that their age would never end, that they had found the precise forms and patterns that no one could deviate from or build upon, is a highly ludicrous theory that, in many ways, characterized that age. True, the 50's were a moment in time that shall be remembered, for good or ill. As the war faded into history, and america, now recovered from its pre war economic calamities, could now embrace the power and technology of an emerging and wealthy new society. This obviously came at a serious cost we are only now beginning to acknowledge, but it speaks to the optimism of that age.

What bothers me about that age is that we now have to struggle with words to differntiate ourselves from the 50's modern movement. We toy with post-modernism, which is as foolishly labled as the modernism that it both acknowldedgs and moves away from. If modern means, as it does, pertaining to present time, what does this make post modern? Pertaining to a future time we havent come into yet. That, it seems, is even more presumtious and pretentious than to name a movement modern. This would mean that we are designing and creating based on the societial influence of an age that doesnt exist yet. Pretty arrogant, i believe.

The other label we can use is contemporary. This is essentially a synonym to modern, but a lot more unweildy to handle. And again, cannot really be the name for our current time any more than modern was for the 50's. And whats worse, what would future society call itself? Post contempary? If we continue in this style, the thesaurus would quickly run out of synonyms. Besides, most ages are not names during their own time, but by the history makers who reflect on it. Therefore, the error was not on the 50's themselves. They could correctly and passably call themselves modern, as every age can and should. The fault lies on the history book writers who, for lack of a better idea on what to call that period, dubbed it forever, and foolishly, modern.

So i believe I am correct in labeling my work modern. It is a reflection inevitably of the time i live in. It is made using the materials, methods, and forms, known to the society of which i am a part. If I were to look into my work for the influences of my modern age, there would be many. First, I use the tools of my time, scrollsaws, concrete mixers, and synthetic rubbers. Many of these items are the result of a global interconnectedness that makes these materials not only readily available, but also affordable to the small scale production. There are, i know, much easier ways for me to make my originals. These include CNC machines, and photocopiers that take my designs from a computer model, and fuse dust into a solid object I can pick up and hold. These methods exist, but, due to their cutting edge development, are still quite out of reach of the average artisan. So the tools I use are indicative of the time I live in.

Also of influence on my work, and this cannot be underestimated in its importance, is the internet. Though I dont go in for works that are blocky representations of 1's and 0's, I spend a large amount of time peruseing the works of other artists. Not stealing their work, but looking at the way someone thought about something a little differently, and letting that idea germinate in my own head until i can make something completely unlike the original, but based on the originals idea. This is the best and greatest way to grow. No man is an Island, and neither should be the artist.

Concrete- The Honest Medium.

2009-04-12T19:01:00.000-07:00

Sand, water, cement. Very basic, almost ubiquitous materials that can be obtained almost anywhere on the planet. This is what makes concrete such a truthful material. Truthful? Absolutely. Let me explain. In my years of schooling as a landscape architect, I often noticed that the best designs were often not the ones that received the best grades. The common thread to what did receive the best grades was graphic presentation, that is, how well the design, good or bad, was drawn. To the artists out there, this may sound a good thing. However, in landscape architecture, as well as art, there is something more meaningful we should search beyond mere aeshtetic trickery. This certainly doesnt mean that a thing should not be beautiful, that is certainly not my point. It should be our goal to fuse good design with aesthetic beauty. But one should not overpower the other, we must search for balance. A good design that isnt nice to look at is as bad as a bad design that fools us into believing it is pretty. To take this example to the application of sculpture, consider a perfectly square block of material. The design of this cube is definitely lacking interest or meaning. If this cube is made of highly figured marble, polished to reveal the intracies of the stone, this will be a quite appealing object. Consider then, the same cube, made of concrete. Would anyone love this peice? Why not, the design is the same. The material is different though. The artist of the granite cube uses the inherent beauty of the stone itslef as a crutch for his poor design. Take away the granite, replace it with concrete, and the honesty of the design is revealed.

In the 1950's and 1960's, even into the 70's somewhat, concrete was growing in its popularity and use as material for public art and decoration. This was made possible by several different social and technological advances. Technoligically, the use of rebar, meshes, admixes, and colorants, as well as the increasing affordabilty of the medium, made this a material that was actively being explored and utilized by cutting edge architects, designers, and artists. Socially, a grass roots movement for back to the earth living, of active democracy, of the importance of public concisousness, public spaces, and public art, were growing. Dont believe me that a persons social responsiblities and involvements led to the increased use of concrete? Consider the 80's then. As the dream of a socially connected population dwindled, and individuality arose, of the destruction of small businesses and communities for the large, power weildeing corporate culture rose, concrete almost completely dissappeared from our public spaces, our cities and buildings, and the public eye. It was all replaced by highly polished granite blocks, imported from worlds away to decorate the temples of commerce and business. Concrete is too simple a material to line the corporate nest with.

The thing i liked most about most of the desins of bygone days was with the use of concrete, a simple materail could be transformed into any shape easily and affordably. By the honesty of the material, age old methods of shadow lines, patterns, repetintion, became important.

Do your part to be a green woodworker - select native lumber

2009-01-25T15:01:00.000-08:00

There are many kinds of wood available on the market today, more accessible to us than ever. Many exotics are available to us in our woodworking stores, babuniga, leopardwood, xxx, etc. Not only does buying these kinds of wood encourage the saw cutting of stands of trees from rainforests, savannahs etc, there is a significant amount of energy used to transport this wood from the far reaches of the world. We live in a time when transporting goods from the all over the world is not only possible, but also standard. But just because we can transport them this far, doesn’t necessarily mean we should. These woods are cut down, and transported by truck and ship hundreds of miles to our door, burning massive amounts of diesel fuel on the way, depleting our dwindling oil supply and exhausting noxious and toxic fumes into our sky, adding to the greenhouse effect. There is a strong grassroots movement to shop locally for food and materials in America. We should consider joining this fight as woodworkers by buying our wood locally as well. There are several reasons why this is advantageous. First, the amount of fuel used to transport wood harvested locally is significantly reduced. A typical ocean freight boat uses xxx gallons of fuel to bring its payload from x to x. Most locally grown and harvested trees are obtained from within an x mile radius, and would thus be using only x gallons of fuel to bring the trees to the lumberyard, and another x gallons to deliver that to the local store. A fuel savings of x gallons.

Second, and perhaps most importantly, locally grown and harvested lumber is visible. When we purchase bubinga, we can’t drive out to the area its being harvested from and see that it’s being harvested responsibly. We cant see if they are clear cutting vast land tracks, if the rivers and lakes are being washed full of sediment from erosion. We have no way to know the impacts of our demand. But locally grown and harvested wood comes from our neighborhoods, where they are not only visible to us, but fall under the rules and regulations of our local municipalities and governments, who have been tasked with the public mandate to protect our forests, streams, and environments. Trees harvested abroad are often located in countries with either corrupt governments that take payoffs to overlook ecologically destructive harvesting techniques, or governments without adequate provision of power and regulations to enforce such restriction and governance.

Third, there is an honesty of materials buy using something that grows near us. When someone looks at a box we create from local wood, we can point out our backdoor and say, that is the kind of tree this comes from. We can get to know our material more personally, no longer is it just a piece of colored material, it’s a kind of tree we know intimately in all of its many faces. How the leaves look, what kind of fruit it makes, what the branches look like in winter. This helps us no longer look at the wood as material, but as a living and growing creature that in its season can be cut and shaped into something we know intimately. Beyond this, it gives our projects honesty. In our ever-oversimplified world, there is a quickly reducing sense of regionalism. Every place looks the same as the next place, wherever you go. The fast food store in Maine is the same as the store in California, Sweden or China. Do we want this same kind of uniform blandness in our own work? Hopefully, your thoughts on this is no. What makes going to Denver special? All the woodwork done using the local Western Red Cedar and xxx. In Maine, you see the inclusion of white birch and sugar maple in the woodwork. These differences not only are ecologically responsible, they give a sense of place to the pieces we create. And in America, the strongest vote we can make is by what we do or don’t purchase. So find what grows locally, and work in that medium. The financial benefit to this is that wood that is local is often significantly more affordable. After all, a lot less has been spent in harvesting and delivering it to your door.

I live in North Carolina. I also harvest a lot of my own lumber, so by this virtue, I am sure that the lumber I use is local. However, if I didn’t, a quick call to your local hardwood lumberyard, or a well-informed woodworking store, and they should be able to tell you where your wood is coming from. Here in North Carolina, most of the wood available to me is Walnut, Black Cherry, Rock Maple, Hickory. Sometimes, fruitwood is also available, the best among these being Pear. There are so many combinations of wood, color and texture in these woods; I could work a lifetime with just these alone.

Although you see a lot of woodwork with leopardwood, babuing, and other exotics, these woods have traveled a very long way, burning a lot of fuel and resources to be available to us in North America. These woods are beautiful, and this cannot be doubted. But the domestic hardwoods of North America are often unduly underrated, and should be more widely used. It only makes sense for us that live here to make art with the wood of our local land. We don’t build igloos here, don’t buy exotic woods. Combinations of cherry with walnut, maple with cherry, hickory with walnut, can give very exciting color patterns, all with wood from the local soils of our homeland.