Completed! Woven Upholstery Re-Design of Breuer's Iconic B3 "Wassily" Chair

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From 5 yards of striped upholstery fabric I created 125 yards (375 feet) of handmade webbing which I wove onto the iconic Marcel Breuer "Wassily" Chair frame.  

This is my first weaving project and it proved more challenging than I thought.  The armature created both opportunities and constraints that lead to hours upon hours of trial and error.  It was arduous both mentally and physically and infinitely, infinitley rewarding.

A friend jokingly called this project blasphemous.  Perhaps in some ways it is, but now the chair is more comfortable than the original and ar more tactile.  It has inspired new ideas for original armatures with alternate weaving strategies.

See more here and please post a comment below.  I'd love to know what you think.

Upholstery Re-design Underway of Marcel Breuer's "Wassily" Chair

About two years ago I purchased an old Wassily Chair frame at a thrift store in California, and since then I've been thinking of ways to return the chair to a usable piece of furniture.

The "Wassily Chair" was designed by Marcel Breuer in 1925-1926.  It is also known as the Model B3 chair and was created while he was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany.  Inspired by Breuer's love for his own bicycle, he created the frame of chrome plated tubular steel.  The original upholstery panels were made of canvas, but later productions used leather.

Wassily" chair, 1925
Marcel Breuer (American, born Hungary, 1902–1981)
Chrome-plated steel, canvas upholstery

Building upon the concepts and materials of the Eames Rocker that I transformed last year as part of BMoCA and Design Within Reach's White Space event, I've created my own lacing once again to weave upholstery panels in place of canvas or leather.

The project is still in progress, but should be done in a few days.

Ottomans Created as Part of New "Vogel Vau" Furniture Line

I recently began collaborating with my husband Mathias Leppitsch on a furniture line for a newly founded company called Vogel Vau, a design collective that is composed of us and our two good friends Sabin Aell and Randy Rushton.  Our first project is a set of three nestling ottomans.  I created the textile design which was inspired by my recent Powers of Ten series and Mathias and I worked together on the overall furniture design.  These ottomans stack one on top of the other and also nestle close together.   They are currently being exhibited as part of Design By Colorado's exhibition that is being held at the McNichols Civic Center Building in downtown Denver through April of 2013.

See more here.

Eames Molded Plastic Rocker Transformed through Upholstery

As part of the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art's White Space event, sponsored by Design Within Reach, six artists were invited to transform the Eames plastic molded rocker.  I chose to upholster the chair with hand made lacing that I made from some black and white plaid fabric. I loved thinking about the relationship between art and design and hope to work more with furniture. There is something so honest about working with form and function. The other participating artists were: Sabin Aell, Allan Andre, Donald Fodness, Alvin Gregorio and Xi Zhang.

The Process: Templates were made and attached, holes were punched to mark the drill hole locations, holes were drilled and the weaving implemented.

​See more here.

Pattie Lee Becker transformed Eames chair (process)

Pattie Lee Becker transformed Eames chair (process)

Pattie Lee Becker transformed Eames chair (process)

Pattie Lee Becker transformed Eames chair (process)

The finished piece:

Pattie Lee Becker-transformed Eames chair

Pattie Lee Becker-transformed Eames chair

Pattie Lee Becker-transformed Eames chair

Pattie Lee Becker-transformed Eames chair