Zipper Round Coffee Table, 35 x 15 Inches. Ash, concrete, rubber, powder coated steel.

Art and architecture come together in the form of the works done by new Fiercely Curious furniture designer and fabricator, Carlos Meza of Black Table Studio. On a sunny afternoon, I took a trip to Carlos’s studio to see him transfer his architectural skills into his own artistic creations.

For the Architectural Digest MADE Design show, Carlos crafted a table made half out of ash wood and the other half concrete, separated only by a thin layer of rubber.

“In architecture, this is called an expansion joint. It allows for a barrier between the materials.”

This is not the only technique Carlos carries over into his art. The table features a zig-zag design at the top that can be recognized at teeth in the architectural world.

 While the wood has already been set when I visited, both the rubber and the concrete still needed to be molded for the table to be complete. I watched as Carlos and a friend programmed a large scale CNC machine to cut a piece of wood that mimics the teeth in the table.

After the piece is cut, Carlos makes sure it leaves enough space in between the actual design on the table for the rubber to be poured into. He attaches a layer of tape to the newly cut piece of wood so the rubber cannot stick to that but rather sticks only to the wood of the table and creates the perfect edge.

He mixes the rubber with black pigment in order to create a separation that stands out amongst the two materials. With everything mixed together, Carlos is ready to fill the mold. He carefully fills the empty space with the liquid rubber with precision, making sure it's even all the way across. Once this is done, there’s nothing left to do but wait until the rubber has been dried and though the rubber looks as though it will come out perfectly, apparently nothing is certain.

"It's always a gamble when casting, things could go wrong. Each time is a risk.”

With the casting of the concrete still in the future, one can only hope this piece comes out as fantastically as it should.

 To see just how well Carlos’s risk paid off, check this beauty out here:

Zipper Round Coffee Table (shown at AD MADE Design show).

Thanks!

Taylor