Evaluation of My Flat Pack Chair Project

Evaluation of Flat Pack Chair Project
I have really enjoyed this project, and I can say without a doubt that I have learnt a number of new skills. An example of this is using the scroll saw properly by being now able to saw in a straight line. In my opinion, my chair is relatively aesthetically pleasing, although if you look closer, you can see and feel a few bumps/lumps where there has been an uneven coat of paint. I used two colours which were Electric Monza Blue and Cherry Red to improve the appearance of my chair. I think this has worked well, as I think the chair with one colour on its own would have looked slightly boring and would have been disliked by children because of this fact.
A negative point that I would comment on is the application of sanding sealer. Although I have produced a fabulous effect consisting of vibrant colours and a smooth finish, I found that the edges are slightly bare and you can see that the wood has absorbed the paint resulting in a relatively dull finish. This is an aspect of spraying MDF wood without any sealer as featured on my piece about wood finishes. I think that this is a result of paying more attention to the face of my pieces, and not my sides. Next time, I have learnt that I need to apply sealer all over my product, and not just the faces.
If I had more time with my product, I would have probably added vinyl to my product, which is always nice to see on a product, but I think that the stickers I attached to my product made up for the lack of vinyl, and hopefully I will not loose and marks for this.
To get ideas for my chair, I went into my kitchen and had a look at the chairs in there. I noticed that all my chairs are made from wood, but for added comfort they have cushions. I took of the cushion using the strings, and when I sat down I found it quite uncomfortable. This made me realise that when a child would sit on the chair, it would be very uncomfortable. This would follow with a lot of moaning to the child’s teacher or parent/guardian. To save this major annoyance, I used my mum’s sewing machine and a small amount of fabric to make a cushion using some of the textiles skills that I learnt in KS3.
One problem which occurred in my product was the fact that one of the sides snapped of. This was a problem, because it did not make it look as good. Thankfully, I managed to patch it up neatly using some stickers, so nobody I asked for feedback with noticed this. If I were to do this again, I would be much gentler with my product, because I do realise that the chairs are made from MDF, which is very fragile compared to soft wood or hard wood.
In conclusion, I have thoroughly enjoyed making my chair, and I am overall satisfied with the final outcome. From this project, I have acquired some new skills which I am proud of, and in my next project I feel that I will take these on board with me to strive to increase my marks and grades in resistant materials.