An Auspicious Symbol
The concept behind this stool's design is inspired by the swastika, an auspicious symbol in Jainism. It is one of the main elements in the emblem of Jainism. It is also the most common symbol drawn during any new beginnings, prayers and religious activities to signify peace and well being.
The table's form Is of the swastika shape, with each leg representing the fundamental realms In swastika's arms: Heaven, Human, Animal, and Hell.
Human
I chose a human head motif to convey an inclusive narrative that celebrates our shared humanity. A head represents all races, castes, religions, and identities. I considered multiple ideas to convey my intention, such as a human body, which had the problem of gender representation, or a human palm, but ultimately I felt that the human head was the most appropriate and inclusive choice.
Hell
To symbolize the harsh, unforgiving nature of hell, I went with a violent, sharp hand motif. I wanted the imagery to be sharp and a bit scary. In spiritual contexts, hell is often portrayed as a realm of suffering and torment. I didn't want to make a monstrous, fiery, or figurative representation that could be controversial, hence I went with a sharp hand motif, which leaves enough room for interpretation.
Animal Kingdom
I wanted to capture the richness of the animal kingdom in a minimalist yet evocative manner. The aim was to showcase the vast tapestry of life that coexists with us. I considered different shapes of eyes and horns, but footprints felt like a better option to represent the animal realm subtly yet effectively.
Heaven
To represent heaven, I chose the image of a meditative posture, conveying the peace, tranquility, and enlightenment associated with this posture. According to Jainism, heaven is where enlightened beings reside, hence I wanted to depict a meditative posture. It felt the most apt representation, as every enlightened being in Jainism is portrayed in a meditative posture.
Prototyping: Refining the Structure Ensuring the structural integrity of the stool was the most challenging. I selected wood with extended plies on two sides, one side to the sitting area and the other for the leg joints. The first prototype showed It was necessary for lengths on all sidesto be equal. The second prototype confirmed the idea and felt stronger In structure.
Woodworking Precision: Embracing the Details To make the structure strong, I created wood joints and clamped the pieces at precise right angles. I had to carefully measure each piece of wood to make the perfect joins as the wood weren't of always same size because of cuttings, expansion and sizes. Even then, there were few inaccuracies. I solved those problems with filling the gaps with extra wood, sanding or even remaking pieces.
Marquetry Challenges There were few miscalculations in depth which led to marquetry issues. I resolved It by adding an extra layer of wood to make It even. There were also problems with wood breakage which was solved by glue and wood fillers. Another issue was with incorrect sizes, in that case I sanded the pieces to make them of perfect size.
Wood fillers: Most of the wood pieces had slots on one side which made the pieces look unfinished. I used wood filler to cover those gaps and sanded it for an even looking piece of wood. Wood filler had to be made and mixed several times to avoid wastage. The measurement I followed was removing food filler of the size of golf ball and mixing It with hardener of size of a pea. Hardener had to be in right quantity to avoid too quick and too slow drying.
The making process was a continuous cycle of refinement, with every choice, no matter how seemingly small It may have seemed.
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