The Lazy Susan, A Project By Tori Herfert

Project Description

Summary of your project. My project is the Lazy Susan.  It is a rounded out and carved out piece of wood that has been sand paper smoothed down and stained with a dark Oak coloring.  This sits on top of a turn table and is able to hold all different types of spices and sauces.  The purpose of my Lazy Susan is to sit on the dining room table and act as an easy way to “pass the salt”.

Project Posts/Timeline

I projected that this entire project will take me about a week to finish, and so I have decided I will probably be doing it this week since finals are quickly approaching I think it will be best to get this done earlier so that if I need to make changes there is plenty of time to do so.

TIMELINE FOR FINISHING:

1. Decide on the final style of top plate I will be using for my main part of the lazy susan.
2. Once I have decided, I will carve out the design I want on the lazy susan.  I am almost positive I am going to go with the circular cut out design, because I want everything to fit and there is a chance if I go with the other cut design it will have different elevations and won’t work properly.
3. Next, I will stain the wood with the stain I bought from Home Depot.  I bought a very pretty OAK color stain, but I may want to do more than one coat to make it nice and dark.
4. After staining the wood, I will sketch out flower designs to paint on top of it.  I have not for sure decided if I am going to do this yet, because I am not a great artist and I do not know if it will turn out great.  I contemplated doing laser cutter outlines of flowers, but this would increase the amount of unsteady levels which would make it harder to put more sauces and spices on it.
5. Next, I bought a bucket that I want to place in the center or on the side of the lazy susan so I need to figure out where to place that.
6. Lastly, I will attach the wood to the spinning piece I bought from a spice section in Target.  I have not tested if this works yet, but it spins at a pretty smooth and pleasing pace.
7. Decorate with sauces and spices!

Top 5 Constraints

For my project, most of my constraints will be based on if it is functional and aesthetically pleasing.

My first constraint is based on aesthetics.  The aesthetic I am going for is a very classy deutscher werkbund look.  I like this look because I like classy look of the buildings and art that is created this way. The way I am thinking about doing this is by using lots of different coats of wood stain. I also want to incorporate a modern and classy log cabin look to tie into this deutscher werkbund aesthetic. My concern is that the wood stain I purchased will not be dark enough, and I will have to start over.  There is also a chance that the colors will look uneven and made by a fifth grade art class.  I have been researching ways to stain wood to be in perfect condition.

My next constraint is based on my projects main purpose.  The purpose of it is to house different items that often get passed around at dinner time, so I need to make sure that it has room and can store all of these things.  My house tends to use lots of different sauces and spices, so I am going to make it a good size to house all of these.

My third constraint will be to make my lazy susan spin well.  I have not quite figured out how I am going to make it spin smoothly.  I have been doing research on different things I can use to make it spin and one idea I have is to use a pre-made spice rack.  They sell spice racks on different websites such as amazon.

Fourth, my constraint is money.  A lot of the things I want to buy, such as nice wood stain, are pricey.  The stains I was looking at are very nice and good quality but they cost a solid amount of money. I was also looking at nice pieces of round wood to use, but they also cost a lot of money.  I am going to have to pick and choose what I end up spending the bulk of my budget on, because if I get everything I want it will be quite pricey.

My last constraint is the aesthetic of flowers. I love flowers, as you know if you watched my upcycle presentation.  I am going to try and incorporate flowers into my lazy susan, but I have not quite figured out how.  One idea from a review comment I received last week was to use two pieces of glass as my lazy susan top, and smash flowers in between.  This would be awesome, but again, with my budget I will have to see if I can do that. If I decide to do that, I will not have to buy wood or wood stain and might end up saving money.  I also was thinking about painting flowers onto the wood, however I am not the best artist.  This could take me lots more time.

Design Review/Project Prototype

Background if you have not read my other posts: I will be making a lazy susan for my dining room table.  I have decided to do this because I wanted to create something that would be useful and I could take home with me after the completion of this project.

The main aesthetic I am going for is the deutscher werkbund aesthetic we learned about in class.  I like this aesthetic because it is very clean cut and simple and this is what I would like my final product to look like.

For my prototype, I decided to design a couple different ways that I want my wood to be carved out aesthetically.  I was thinking about keeping it flat, but I cannot decide if I should go through with this or not.

My Ideas:

• Keep the top of the lazy susan flat
• Carve out a round center
• Curved top

The reason I would like to keep it flat, is because I feel like the different carvings on the wood could keep it from its full capacity of holding things.

The carve out round center would be to look aesthetically pleasing.  It is important to make it look aesthetically different and fun which is why I am considering doing this.

The next style I thought about was an elevated curve.  I would also do this to make it aesthetically pleasing.  I have to decide what I like best, but now that I have these different wood options, I can pick one to go with and stain it.

This prototype portion of the project has helped me think lots about what I want the final product to look like.  I know for sure that the wood must be dark, but that is all.