How To: Make a Bent Wood Bowl

created at: 12/14/2010

I’m an enormous fan of bent plywood furniture. The subtle curving shapes of the precedent-setting Eames chairs are amazing:

created at: 12/14/2010

And while it’s not impossible to do at home, it would take a lot of gear, time, and money. Individual layers are steamed and then laminated (glued on top of each other) over two-sided forms, forming curved plywood.

created at: 12/14/2010

And while this hand shaped bent wood bowl is no Eames lounge, it’s still pretty cool, and demonstrates how the steam bending of plywood works. Layers of 1/8″ plywood from the craft store are steamed on the cooktop in an Asian-style food steamer, then shaped with a bowl and glued together.

created at: 12/14/2010

With some better woodworking, like stacking all the layers together and cutting them at the same time on a bandsaw (or for the lucky of you, a laser cutter), this would actually be a pretty sweet project.

Make a Bent Wood Hand-Shaped Bowl [Dollar Store Crafts]