Anatomical laser-cut chairs

Lisa Jones's Symbiosis chairs start to get at the potential of cheap and ubiquitous laser-cutters -- the backs are and seats cut with highly intricate designs inspired by human anatomy. Shown here, the Venus Chair from 2006.

Lisa Jones: Symbiosis Chair Series, 2006 Lisa Jones: Symbiosis Chair Series, 2007 (via Cribcandy)

• [Patrick Dodds]

  Interesting phobia you have Raya – do bees / wasps / hornets give you the shivers?
  Personally, I like the metal legs – set off the wood nicely.

• [raya]

  Not the creatures themselves, just their nests. I actually love bees, wasps, and hornets. During one particular summer in my childhood I remember that if I went outside with no shoes and sat perfectly still, a yellowjacket would land on my foot and crawl between all my toes. It was the weirdest feeling. It tickled, so I had to be very careful not to twitch and injure her or scare her into stinging me. It was a very cool experience.

• [minTphresh]

  kinky!

• [technogeek]

  #4, #5: Could be scroll-sawed, but laser-cut does make producing multiple variants a lot faster and easier.

  I like… but darn it, the metal frame spoils the effect.

• [barjoe]

  Beautiful. Very good gallery material – now if she could just do an ergonomic series that wouldn’t break up when sat (lounged) on she would have an industrial success as well as an artistic success.

• [FoetusNail]

  Having worked with CNC laser and plasma cutters, and having used plasma cutters to make steel silhouettes, I get the impression this was handmade. The reasons I question the method used to create this wonderful piece are as follows:

  1. The edges are not burned, which may not mean much if she went in and sanded all those surfaces.

  2. It appears that the chair is a reworked preformed chair. The plywood is formed and appears to be steamed and pressed into shape, while this could have been done after cutting, why bother when plain chairs are readily available. If it was laser cut, in most cases it would have to be bent after cutting, unless cut on a very high priced 6 axis machine. Forming this piece after cutting would be difficult. If this is the case, it in no way subtracts from the artistic merit of the piece.

  3. While the piece appears symmetrical it is not. This could have come from a full drawing, but why not draw one half and then copy? If a drawing was made and copied, then laser cut, it would be symmetrical.

  So, due to the lack of burned edges, the bent wood, and the lack of perfect symmetry, my guess is this was hand cut from a stencil. Which BTW is no mean feat.

  I love her work, I just think she is working by hand, which I usually prefer, from preformed blanks. We experimented with getting a plasma machine to give a hand cut appearance, but the cutting time goes up exponentially. The time on these machines, inches cut, can be expensive; all those little wiggles and inconsistencies that come natural to us, become very time consuming and expensive on a machine.

• [pepperink]

  It’s GORGEOUS, but looks like it would break if you sat on it.

• [buddy66]

  That chair would leave more welts on your ass than an inspired dominatrix!

• [FoetusNail]

  Are we sure this was cut with a wood-burning laser?

• [Anonymous]

  Pretty, but for ergonomics and durability it might be better to take cues from the windsor chair or the traditional granny rocker.

  –CHarlie

• [raya]

  It’s beautiful, but I could never, ever sit on it. I’m not sure I could eat in the same room with it. I think it’s hitting a phobia button. I look at it and think of honeycombs, which also give me the willies.

  Anyone else having this reaction?

• [buddy66]

  Death. Tombs.

• [curtismayfield]

  now if she would only do this to a La-Z-boy, I would purchase several

• [ivan256]

  I agree with #4. Seems like something you’d do with a 100+ year old technology (scroll saw).

• [uebertragung]

  Pinched. Ouch!