UPDATE

Hey friends,
my blog is not up to date right now...
i am working on a new design/page.
since i have had this blog forever i think it´s time for a facelift.
please check out my facebook page until i figured it out.
i´m also on instagram - look for "laura_kampf" and follow for snaps of my work.
cheers!
laura

babybed

i am very proud of this project because it´s the first time that i really started a piece from raw timber. 

i love everything about that process! going to the sawmill, choosing the slabs, tking them home, thinking of the most efficient way to cut up the slabs, planing them, glueing them back together in concideration of the gain, and then handeling it very, very carefully during the build.

the design evolved during the build (as always i didn´t make a scetch). this bed is made of 3 slabs of oak and 3 slabs of walnut. 
 

 

Mel´s Table

Soooo, it´s been a couple weeks since my last post...that´s because i quit my job at urban outfitters, found a new workshop, moved there and started working on my first jobs being self-employed.
so far i absolutly love it!
that might be because my friend mel asked me to build a desk for her. she is a brilliant writer... so building her a desk was a super exciting job!
i am really happy with the finished piece.

 

 

 

 

MAKING IT

SIGNS, SIGNS, SIGNS
I want to feature and contribute to my FAVORITE podcast out there:

MAKING IT 

it is a weekly podcast about making things and if you are into creating, building or designing you should check it out.

This weeks episode is about signs. and they asked their listeners to show off the signs they have made...

so here are mine:
Thanks Jimmy Diresta, Bob Clagett and David Picciuto for the weekly inspiration - keep up the great work!

Dinner für Spinner

Another table...but this one is special because it´s for my dear friends Eva and Steffi.

I had a blast building it. The frame is made of 7mm thick steel - i never worked with steel that heavy...the wood is from recycled scaffolding boards that i cut in smaller strips and glued back together to take the tension out.

What I like most about it is the super simple and reduced design. Can´t wait to have dinner with them!

 

 

Dickes B

This is my passion-project right now. I was asked to build letter for my friends wedding.

I started with the B because it is a bit more tricky...and it took A LOT of testing until i figured it all out.

I absolutly love the raw look of the steel and how it still looks very elegant because of the warm lights...can´t wait to see the final installation on their wedding day!

DJ Booth part 1

This is the first project for our new DJ Booth.

I bought these lights on a fleamarket a couple weeks ago. I had 3 strips of 20 lights, cut them to pieces, glued them together (yes, GLUE-it´s a shame but i can´t weld aluminum), wired them and boom-good to go. the background is made of ply, and different paints. simpe but effective.

Can´t wait to see the finished booth!

 

Dinnertable

a table, who would have guessed?!

here are some snaps from the build.

this is my favorite dinnertable so far.

 

Mint Condition

still hooked on building tables...

i didn´t document this one at all because it started out as a little side-project-i didn´t know i would like the result so much.

anyways, here it is:

 

 

the hatch could house powersocket so all those ugly cables can be hidden in it...

or anything basically, i haven´t decided, i think i will wait and see who is taking this one home.

Acacia Couchtable

2 weeks ago I helped my friend Brian with setting up his new Kitchen.

After all the work was done he gave me the cut offs from his countertop because he is a really nice guy.

so when I got home I found 4 wooden legs that I cut off a chair a couple months ago because i liked the shape. 

So I started with laying out the Material to figure out a shape and the proportions to make it work with what I had. That really is my favorite way of designing. It is so much easier to come up with a concept because you are limited and not overwhelmed by possibilities. Also it is very rewarding to build from scratch!

 

That´s the rough layout.

I started with building the underconstruction and attaching the legs...for me it is easier not to worry about the next steps when i start building. In this case I wasn´t even sure how exactly I wanted the table to look like when I started. That keeps the design process very flexible and fun because you design on the fly. 

...and yes, that is the carpet from "the shining"...

Couchtable

This is a table I built a month ago but I haven´t had the chance to post about it.
Simple design but I think it works quite well.
The tabletop is made from Scaffoldingboards that I took to my friends at the woodmill to have it planed.
My favorite thing about this table is the edge of the tabletop - there is no endgrain visible because i covered the crosscut with a really thin slice cut off from the side of a board. it´s a little detail but effective because it looks really clean.

But this table already found a new home. So next week I will post my new Couchtable that I built last weekend.

UO "Motel-Sign"

I am a huge fan of signs especially the old Motelsigns in America - i like everything about them- the shapes, fonts, lights, materials, rust, colors...all of it.
When I built the "Spacelord Motherfucker Sign" a while ago i knew I had to do more stuff like this...and now I finally found an opportunity to do so.
I have to mention that i built the entire thing out of recycled materials i had lying around in the workshop. The only thing i needed to buy was a sheet of 0,5 mm steel. it was around 30 euros. the rest was "free".
That is why the proportions are slightly off. If i´ve had enough budget to buy everything i needed, i would have build a bigger "outfitters-lightbox" to match the Urban better...but i think it´s fine as is. 
"every little defect get´s respect"

 

This is the finished sign...

 

I started with this ugly green sheet of MDF I never used because I hate the color.

In this case it doesn´t matter because it will be covered with a sheet of steel. 

 

I used lots of Sprayglue.

 

Here I roughly scetched out the type.

    I never worry too much about being super exact it´s more important to get a feel for the size and the proportion.

 

If your steel is not too thick you can simply jigsaw it by hand. I used 0,5 mm steel - it worked fine.

I started with cutting one side of each letter and used this jig to make sure all letters have the same width. that was a huge help!

 It is really important to make the letters look old, as if they were hanging outside for 30 years. That way the Sign will look authentic. I left all the sawdust on the steel and spraypainted over it. when the paint is dry you can sand over it and it will get a really nice distressed finish. It´s cheap and easy.

I also used acid to get a bit of rust.

And that´s it.

Next I started building the lightbox for "Outfitters"

This is the same technique i use to build the "thank you for the music lamp" (i posted a making of video a while ago. so if you´re interessed in how it´s done please check out the video)

After that i cut out and painted the lightningbolt...the same way I build the Urban.

And that´s it.

I cut some 2x2s to build a frame where all the elements can sit on and wired up the lightbox.

i´m really happy with it.

And I got some new ideas for the next sign during the build.