Great Projects to Start a Furniture Design Class With.

Plant Stands (Workshop 2) or 

Stools (Workshop 3).  

Two Weeks to complete.

No drawings need to be submitted.

Any number of floor contact points other than 4 are allowed. 

Plant stands must hold at least one potted plant at least 6 inches above the support surface (table or floor). 

At the beginning of a semester class, when students haven't yet decided what they want to make or at least aren't ready with drawings or dimensions, these quick projects get their creative juices flowing, keeping them active in the workshop rather than sitting at their studio desk staring at their computers. Their semester project development can develop outside of class time, with a quick review each class day with the professor, one at a time for 10 minutes each while others continue working on their plant stand or stool. 

This is NOT recommended for their first workshop class given that students aren't yet familiar with where tools and materials are to use or how to use the power tools safely. A great project to teach them the tools, joinery, production sequence, etc., is this Joinery Box project. 

Projects from One Class

The leg limit (not 4) is intentional to encourage the students to think outside the 4-legs box.  Any number of legs are allowed from 0 (hanging), 1 (wobble base), 2 (rocker), 3 (tripod), 5 or more. Just not 4!

The stool project has a higher expectation given that their design must support the dynamic weight of humans. This is where a one-point (shallow dome) base or a two-point (rocker) design makes sense. 

Students enjoy this project!

With department head approval, a competition could be held asking departmental faculty to inspect all stool or plant stand designs to pick their favorite(s). The winning design might earn the student designer free printing/plotting for the semester.  Or perhaps a free t-shirt with the latest department logo on it. 

End the two week project with a photo session.  Have workshop 2 students bring in plants to adorn their stand designs with.  

I was asked one semester if a 3D printed plant stand was allowed.  My answer was yes, but only if it consists of at least 4 parts that need to be assembled after they are printed. 

This project turned the first two weeks of what had been a slow starting semester into a busy shop and enjoyable project making time.  The biggest challenge was getting the students to work on their semester project designs during that first two weeks.  Project drawings for that project should be submitted the first day of the 3rd week.  Materials should be on their way. 

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