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Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

Here are some more images of boiled leather furniture by Tortie Hoare, the winning project from New Designers Part 2 2010 (see our earlier story).

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

The collection is made up of two seats, a desk, side table, stool and stand, all upholstered with leather boiled in water to make it rigid.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

The chair above has also been upholstered with linen, and the table below has a leather sleeve for storing papers and a laptop

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

The stool below has a hard seat created by shrinking leather over a removable jig.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

The table has a coffee holder formed by two-part moulding, while stand is for storing keys and has steam-bent legs.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

Hoare developed the range while studying at Bucks New University in the UK.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

More information in our earlier story.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

All images are by Paul Wilkinson.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

Here's some more from the designer.


Upholstered in linen and leather.

I discovered when I tried to make this chair that there are few ways of creating an eco friendly 3d shape which is also structural. I discovered when I tried to make this chair that there are few ways of creating an eco friendly 3d shape which is also structural. Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

This drove me to research for a new method or material which I could use to create my designs.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

From this research I came across the medieval process of boiling leather to create armour.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

From this I undertook much experimentation, and I created my brief for my final major, which was to turn the material and process from being an out dated material, and combine it with other materials to create contemporary furniture.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

I allowed the different processes of forming the leather that I wanted to try in each piece dictate the designs and furniture that came from it.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

I have the small key stand, the process investigated here was clamping and in the wood I investigated steam bending - combining the 2 processes creating continuity between the materials.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

For the stool, I wanted to try shrinking the leather around a removable jig to create both structure and form.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

I also wanted to play with our conceptions of leather, as we generally expect it to be soft.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

Therefore by creating the dimples as if there were buttons challenges our understanding as the leather in this is in fact structural and solid.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

The desk I was looking at sewing, and I decided to create a pocket for papers or laptops.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

I wanted to create a clean piece of furniture where the leather and the wood flowed into each other.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

The side table I used 2 part moulding to create the coffee ring in the top of it.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

The ring is ironic as usually if there were a wooden top, a stain like that would be upsetting, and yet here it is functional.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

There is a nice contrast of the metal lineal frame, and the leather formed planes.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

The ridge seat I have used the sewing to create structure.

Leather furniture by Tortie Hoare

Having the legs run up into the leather, then the leather underframe running into the wooden legs, I think that this created an interesting and interlinking relationship between the 2 materials.


See also:

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New Designers 2010
Part 2 Awards
Industrial Makeshifts
by Simon Hasan
More
furniture stories