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).

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.

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

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

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

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

More information in our earlier story.

All images are by Paul Wilkinson.

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. 

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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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