Then the lady came to request a chair I had never made before. At this time, I’m very reluctant; it seems like I don’t want to do anything. Not everything. Only standard products because I’m tired of cluttering myself with projects I don’t finish and chairs that never see the light of day. Then I have nowhere to put them; they get lost, they bother me, and it makes me angry.
The lady is a loyal customer. Very decent, more than me. She showed me her sunbeds in Palomino and the deck she built to accommodate them because those things are very large. She unfolded her Chinese chair brought by the Chileans and said, “I need three of this size; they rust quickly, they get damaged, but I can fit three.” I looked at them with skepticism. But then I thought about how uncomfortable my sunbeds are for reading a book or just being there without falling asleep. So I thought back to what Heleen from Omarcity told me, ‘I need chaise lounge old design.’ I write better English than she does.
I saw that thing.
I kept the sunbed to make three of them, stole the measurements and everything. Then that late afternoon, I took some photos of the chair and copied the sketch with my faithful Illustrator.
Thank you very much to the University of Los Andes and Digital Workshop for giving me this tool.
I traced the chair with the modifications I thought were necessary, and this is how it turned out. The chair got into my head like it hadn’t in a while. It went to Tayrona, the New York subway, my mind, and the face of the guy at Bedford’s Deli Grill. Just like everything.
It was dawn, and I sent it to Yulitza in PDF format. Today she arrived at ten; let’s say they start making this; it has the same curves as the Mono chair; EVERYTHING in 3/4-inch tubing. Bending the tube is more complex. It was difficult, more challenging than anything else we’ve done in our Santa Marta workshop. V-shaped legs, a single piece, interlocking joints, a 1.8m sunbed.
It was never easier; today, I recognized the machine I’m in because doing this on the street is not possible.
Text and photography by Rafael Zúñiga // @pase_bonito
