Ahh, a bed after my own heart. Commenters viewing it on Bruises Gallery’s instagram felt the same. They sighed, “I need this”. Two nailed it: “Dream bed”.

My deconstructing mind was smitten with the possibilities of a simple angle-iron bed frame onto which is welded or bolted or affixed, somehow, miraculously expressive head and foot boards. I imagined steel or iron rod, bent expressively, organically, asymmetrically perhaps with the use of a tool or form. Which I don’t know how to do. So I went on the hunt to figure it out

I found myself watching video after video of burly blacksmiths whacking red-hot iron into graceful swirls. I’d love to learn blacksmithing but I’ve got other fish to fry…

One thing led to another and another until I stumbled on a little video of a guy bending a steel rod using two disks screwed into a board to form a sort of lever. I also saw it done with steel rebar which is probably about the thickness of the thick wire I imagine using for that headboard. Hmmmmm. My how-do-you-do-that? researches never go to waste. I’ll use that idea somewhere for sure.

Deconstructing an object of desire and figuring out what it would take to make it is a process I go through several times a week: mashing up fantasy and design ideas with a lot of learning, and then realizing I’d likely not actually try it. I build it in my head.

I guess I’d have to hire someone to make a wild freeform headboard, with me standing over them pointing and gesturing…

To show the gist of what I want, I’d make it in miniature version using thick bendable armature wire and a hacked doll’s bed – the tiny prototype that would give me the pleasure of making, and dreaming, all the same.

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2 replies on “‘Dream Bed’ Dreams…

  1. I too have seen an idea for a Dream Bed (in a French magazine nauturally), which I’d like to adapt and have made into a four-poster day bed. The name for this sort of day-bed, (which I thought I’d invented), is an Opium Lounge…so it really would be a “dream” bed. One day…when I have the money and the space, I’ll make it a reality.. Meanwhile, you wouldn’t need to make a miniature or stand over an artisan to design this dream bed yourself. All you need do is make a template by drawing your asymmetrical swirls, actual size, onto large sheets of butcher’s paper…or directly onto a wall. (Or you could paint your design onto your bedroom wall and butt your bed up against the design, cutting out the middle man entirely. But you’re right. The metal bedhead is nice). Here’s another idea to play with when designing your taking-a-line-for-a-walk bedhead. Why not base your squiggle on a blind contour drawing? Just a thought. Karla 😊

  2. Dear Karla, I love your thinking, all the places your brain went to in a couple of lines to move toward the dreamy effect of the Dream Bed. Thank you!!! (A blind contour line is created by drawing an object while looking only at the object, not at the paper. …)

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