The Silhouette Chair for LINLEY

Our first conversation with James at Linley began with general enquiries about our fabrication specialism and craftsmanship, and if we might collaborate with them on an ambitious project. He wanted to know if it would be feasible to form a seamless curvaceous metal seat back.

We assured him that it was indeed feasible, and that we’d be thrilled to be part of the project.

At this first contact, what would ultimately be The Silhouette Chair wasn’t even specified to be made from a single sheet of copper. The key for Linley was merely that it had to be perfectly seamless, with ‘no visible joints’.

The challenge for DMark was not whether we could produce a seamless finish, but which method to use. There are only two ways: weld multiple sections together and ‘finish out’ the seams, or create it from a single metal sheet. We favoured the latter.

From the outset, we said we could produce in either aluminium or copper, having extensive experience with both. By pooling ideas and conversing directly with Linley’s Head Designer Lee Deason, and Linley’s wider team – and after various samplings – copper felt like the right choice. We also agreed it would be even more special, and a particularly unique characteristic, if DMark could achieve it with one single copper sheet. We knew we could.

The seamless copper seat would be the chair’s standout feature, and would appear to float above the beautifully fitted walnut frame. The composition would also include a solid copper cross-brace leg support.

Through early design iterations we decided to support the smooth copper seat with a lightweight custom-made tubular aluminium framework. Lee had seen images of a steel car bucket seat DMark had made, which had a traditional wired-edge around its continual outermost edge, and took inspiration from that. We would go on to tailor and wrap the single copper sheet meticulously around the chair’s framework, just as we would with a traditional wired panel edge.

Metal forming isn’t easy at the best of times, but copper is easier than most metals to shape with finesse, unlike stainless steel, for example, which is far more unforgiving. DMark had to complement the sleek and subtle curvatures, and ensure the pristine finish the project demanded. There was to be no welding, of course, and we had to get it absolutely spot on, or we’d be back at the beginning.

Working closely with Lee and the rest of the Linley team assured us of the talent and design capabilities we were working with, and ensured we quickly secured their confidence in DMark as being as qualified and experienced as anyone to achieve the required standard. That said, we did underestimate the efforts involved in physically manhandling a large copper sheet across the workshop day after day!

Making the metal do exactly what you want it to, is a dark art. One of the key tools in our arsenal to help us do this, is annealing. Annealing makes the metal more pliable, and easier to form.

To make copper more ductile, it must be heated until the surface is dull or cherry-red, and then immediately quenched with cool water. This makes the metal significantly more workable, and the beauty of this approach is that we can be very ‘localised’ – only softening the copper where we need to at any given time.

Ultimately it means balancing the sheet metal so we maintain a state of equilibrium between the areas that require shrinking and the areas that need stretching. After working specific areas, the metal will, of course, work-harden again, so you’re constantly weighing up how much fatigue is in the panel, how much to soften, and where. You have to ‘anneal wisely’ and be mindful of over-working, which can eventually cause fractures.

The main areas of focus were the deep seating area, the two adjacent side zones, and where the copper sheet wraps itself around the tubular frame.

With this high-end piece, there was no margin for error. Any bias in the seat-back would soon be apparent. Fine, complex sheet metal work with concave and convex surfaces, and elegant combinations and transitions of the two, are very difficult to get right, and we rely heavily on our eye for subtleties, but we also stick to precise points of reference so we don’t get drawn ‘off-piste’.

For this project and many others, we used aluminium (and sometimes card) patterns to give us constrained surface profiles bisecting up and across the seat’s geometry. Hammering, wheeling, shrinking and planishing as we progressed, the copper panel began to take form, and we always had proportional markers to check against. We did not need to build a buck for this job – the aluminium framework served two purposes!

Together with correct templating, an integral framework, and artistic licence in some transitional areas, DMark created the perfect proportions, informed by extensive experience in coachbuilding, automotive panel making, and antique work.

It had to be perfect, as we knew it would come under intense scrutiny, not least from attendees of the Masterpiece Art Fair. But if there’s one thing we like at DMark, it’s a challenge – and the opportunity to show what’s possible with years of knowledge, experience… and patience.

There’s also the swell of pride when you step back and look at the finished article, knowing that the days of diligent craftsmanship made all the difference. The finish we achieved on the seat’s back side, tirelessly working through every abrasive grade – from 60 to 6,000 and beyond – and days of polishing, in some way belies the amount of shrinking, hammering and filing it needed to achieve its final contour. But it’s a beautifully comfortable finish, even if we say so ourselves!

The Silhouette Chair was a statement piece, and a different direction for Linley, who are purveyors and makers of fine furniture, interiors and accessories primarily using wood. It’s an exploration into what’s possible when fusing fine sheet-metal work by DMark with upholstery and quintessentially fine furniture-making. The wider Linley team – and David Linley himself – were delighted with the results, having seen the finished chaise on display at Masterpiece. It went on to win several awards, including The Design Society’s International Product Design Award 2015. The chair’s unique solid copper leg-brace even adorned the front cover of Superyacht Design magazine!

The Linley Silhouette Chair also travelled the world, stopping off various high-profile locations, such as the Monaco Boat Show, establishing itself as one of the world’s finest modern chairs and a testament to British design and craft.

We’ve learned over the years that you just don’t know what might happen when you answer the phone and instinctively say ‘yes, we can do that’. But we’ve rarely regretted it – DMark has taken on some remarkable projects, and been proud of our contributions.

To find out more about this project, or to discuss yours, get in touch.