Ordnance Furniture Co.
Maker’s Statement
At present Ordnance Furniture Co. is a one-man design/build shop in Seattle Washington. Working with euro style baltic birch plywood and a small CNC gantry to fabricate, assemble, and finish the furniture shown on this website.
The idea to start Ordnance Furniture arose after I had successfully constructed a desk from a 3D model drawn while learning to use SketchUp. The design concept I started out with was inspired by a hollow core door table my mother built when I was young, and childhood experiences building balsa wood model airplanes. I took my recollections of the balsa wood wing construction and applied them to designing a desk made from plywood. And of course, after completing the 3D model I wanted to see if the design I was so proud of on the computer screen, could actually support itself in reality. The question of whether it would stand or not, was due to the fact that the design used mostly 1/4” plywood, had a three part top, and was supported by four triangular legs, all of which would be bolted together.
The ThinTable 003 laid out to display the seven assemblies that make up the desk.
That first desk did manage to stand on its own… But, barely. It was rather wobbly and soon started to sag under its own weight. So, for the next several years, my dining room became a dust-covered wood shop as I doggedly pursued solving these initial failings… By the third iteration, I had a desk that could stand on its own without sagging or wobbling too much. The solutions I arrived at to create a stable design, and the exploratory trial and error process, both on the computer, and with the wood were very stimulating, challenging, and fascinatingly frustrating. Occasionally, I even imagined the processes I was going through must be what engineers experience in the course of their work. And I liked it.
The ThinCredenza 001 X/3 shown un-assembled with it’s constituent unit assemblies.
My brother and I were brought up in a family where both parents were artists, a painter and a metalsmith. With the result that I’ve spent most of my career as a photographer, magazine art director, and VFX artist. Along the way I started making furnishings for myself as the need and urge arose. Always with plywood… So, I’m probably going to keep making this stuff one way or the other as a form of artistic expression as long as I can. The hope is, of course, that people will find them interesting enough to want one for themselves. Thank you for your time.
Pryor Praczukowski
Designer/Fabricator
Ordnance Furniture Co.