The Bodging Project

The Bodging Project:
Before, During, After

The Harley Gallery, 27 March - 2 June 2013

I can do no better than take the information prepared by the Harley Gallery Staff and present it in it's entirety.  The photos are mine.

Look up 'bodge' in the Oxford English Dictionary and you'll find that the word is 'an altered form of botch', dates back to about the year 1500, and means 'to patch or mend clumsily'. Skip forward four hundred years and you'll find the highly-skilled itinerant chair-makers who worked in the beech woods of Buckinghamshire described as 'bodgers'. Either way, it's an interesting word with conflicting meanings. This has served the project well because what we've really been engaged with here is walking the line between craftsmanship and art-school improvisation.

Chris Eckersley

In 2010 and 2012 two groups of designers went to a woodland workshop in Herefordshire and placed themselves outside their comfort zone of drawing boards, computer-aided design, and electrified workshops. Armed with only simple sketches, traditional green woodworking tools, and a time frame of six days they set about an archaeological inquiry into context, process and design.

'Before, During, After' features ten selected designers, their work prior to the experiment, the results from the woodland, and the effects it had on their practice. The show in the main gallery is broken down into these three distinct areas. The results of an experimental workshop carried out by some of the group for the chair-makers Lloyd Loom of Spalding is shown is the upper gallery. 

Gareth Neal & Chris Eckersley

Before: Individual Practice.

Design and craft practice has been a highly discussed topic over the last twenty years, trying to pigeon-hole furniture designers in one discipline. The difference between craft and design has often been the education received and the working environment these skills were learnt within. Studio practice created designers and workshop practice created craftsmen. Surely one should inform the other? The ten selected designers were chosen to highlight this diversity and demonstrate the variety of thinking and breadth of approach prior to going on the project. 

Gareth Neal

Examples of "before" work

During: All Together Now.

The Windsor chair is an exemplary example of accumulated knowledge, its design and process of construction handed from one maker to the next. The chair is not a styled object, it has evolved to be as strong, make-able, and comfortable as possible using cheap materials that were to hand, so any rethink of the design needs to remember to start with all these tested solutions. So designers - throw away the Computer! Craftsman - put down the power tools and forget about the Industrial Revolution, press the 'refresh' button and Make, Do and Think... You have six days! 

William Warren & Gareth Neal

"During"

After: What did we take away?

Having spent six days in the woods everyone changed! Appreciation of materials was renewed and ideas of production in relation to locality were identified. New versions from trusted forms and techniques went into production. Experiments into carbon emissions were undertaken. Manufacturing companies reconsidered their practices. Friendships were forged and working contexts reconsidered. Most importantly, good working practices were critically rethought and reappraised, with the importance of process and design working hand in hand. 

Gareth Neal

"After"

One piece that particularly caught my eye was by

"During"
Stefano Santilli 2012
Ash, chestnut and found hedgerow materials

"After"
Stefano Santilli 2012
Ash, chestnut and found hedgerow materials

And other lovely things....

Amos Marchant
Upside down children's chair
American walnut

Chris Eckersley
Devon bench, 2012
English ash and Scottish elm

And the quirky....

There are some pieces that I've got muddled with who made which item so I'll be going back to sort it out very soon.

The Elves and the Chairmakers

The Harley Gallery, 27 March - 2 June 2013helped themselves to components and experimented with the signature weave to make new designs. Ov

On a weekend in early June 2012, 5 designers visited the closed Lloyd Loom factory in Spalding, Lincolnshire. While the assembly workers were away, the designers used their machinery, er 2 days, 13 new concepts were developed and these pieces were left in the factory showroom for the staff to find on Monday morning.

The ideas behind this exercise was to skip the long drawn out process that normally comes with developing new designs for big established names and to ensure that all the new concepts generated would be almost production ready.

The prototype 'sketches' that came out of the weekend opened a enthusiastic dialogue with Lloyd Loom and several pieces were selected to be taken forward for further development. The resulting production items are to be launched later this year and added to the Lloyd Loom range.

William Warren

(I didn't take a picture of the bar stool for some unknown reason)

Exhibitors

Amos Marchant

Carl Clerkin

Chris Eckersley

Clifford Leo Harris

Dave Green

Gareth Neal

Gitta Gschwendtner

Jon Harrison

Koji Katsuragi

Liam Hopkins

Rory Dodd

Sarah Kay

Simon Maidment

Stefano Santilli

Valentina Gonzales Wohlers

William Warren

There was a sample of the material used in the making of Lloyd Loom furniture.  In my photo you can see clearly the wire passing through the warp of twisted paper tubes the furniture is made of.

As ever the Harley has presented this exhibition superbly.  There are activities for children and the Bodgers will be at the Open Workshop event in May.  Guess who's going?