Bamileke 天圓地方
Ming-style joinery × Bamileke form
A chair that puts Ming round-back proportions on the Bamileke earth-spider throne. 'Round heaven, square earth' is the structure itself: curved arms, a circular base, a square walnut seat with birch inlay. Cut by hand from 10 acrylic templates and 6 MDF molds, mortise and tenon throughout. Yodex, Taipei, 2018.
Form studies
A Ming round-back chair uses continuous curve to carry flow and hierarchy. A Bamileke throne uses grounded geometry tied to its cosmology. Paper templates let me test curved arms for heaven above a circular base for the underworld, square seat bridging them. I retuned the angles many times before it stood steady and still read.
Templates and shaping
Every template and mold hand-cut at compound angles. Saws, rasps and chisels only, no CNC. Walnut for the frame because the grain holds fine joinery, birch for the inlay because it reads lighter against it.
Joinery and finishing
I carved the birch X into the seat, marking where the two references cross. Every joint hand-fitted, Ming style. Eight hand-rubbed oil coats: enough to protect the wood, not enough to hide the grain.
Specifications
W55 × D43 × H74 cm · hand-cut walnut with birch inlay · mortise-and-tenon joinery · 10 acrylic templates, 6 MDF molds · exhibited at Yodex, Taipei · 2018
Gallery
- Challenges1/2
My first joints failed and the base rocked. I recut the molds and retuned the leg angles until it held. Getting two aesthetics into one chair without it turning heavy meant cutting the ornament back.
- Insights2/2
A joint fits as well as the template that guided it, so the hours went in before I touched walnut. Nothing here is decoration: the heaven and earth reading is the shape holding it up.
Swipe to explore