Add to her work the grouped efforts of those under the umbrella of Le Corbusier, she's partially credited for much of the furniture. It's my understand that she put forth more than partial effort.Chris Pyle wrote: ↑Wed Sep 27, 2017 10:23 pmBrian, I had never heard of Charlotte before but I'm curious to know what you like about her designs. Not something I find very interesting at all. To my eye, her work vacillates between garish and somewhat dull. However, I do enjoy reading other's thoughts when it comes to design (either their own or their influences).Brian wrote: ↑Wed Sep 27, 2017 9:50 pmChris, I think that is a fair assessment. I feel similarly. That bit about red oak made me chuckle a bit as I've really had a dislike for red oak formed as a youth. It just seemed almost a depressing material to use...until I saw big panels of it quarter sawn and now I think....wow...red oak! Left without a finish other than by hand plane, and in quarter sawn orientation it is a gorgeous material. I've had the same experience with douglas fir, I always thought it to be junk as a kid. As a woodworker I don't think that way at all, I really enjoy it in its quarter sawn orientation.
Still, there is some call to the wild for me and live edge, but the state of it has worn on me a bit. Some of it I see done very very well with excellent proportions and an avoidance of gaudiness in the same way that Charlotte Perriand can make an otherwise dull looking skirted bench into a sex pot of design inspiration.
As to the slab tables: a family member has asked for a slab table and I'm in the process of trying to lead them down a different path. It's simply not something I'm interested in putting any effort towards. I don't despise them but there are plenty of people knocking them out because they are *hot* right now.
I enjoy her work as a study in proportion. Her work which stands out to me are things such as the Tokyo Bench, which is incredibly simple and yet masterfully proportioned. I really would challenge anyone to attempt to better the proportions of that bench before writing her off.
If it doesn't have intricate joinery it likely will not pass 'go' with most of us and I accept that, but their is an architectural mastery to this work that reveals itself when we can step away from the detail of construction.
I can accomplish joinery technique without much pain but proportion is where I anguish, so I can greatly admire when someone gets it so perfectly right.