saki takeshita's wooden chairs shift hues at DESIGNART tokyo 2024

Dyed wooden chairs by saki takeshita at DESIGNART Tokyo 2024

During DESIGNART Tokyo 2024, Saki Takeshita presents her set of wooden chairs called eeyo whose colors have since changed after she has blown them with hot air. At the exhibition, her main materials are different types of wood, which include balsa, cypress, cedar, veneer, and laminated. She dyes them with different colors, and after drying the wooden materials, she exposes them to hot air at nearly 200 degrees. The changing colors are due to the reaction between the wood and the dye during the heating process.

Saki Takeshita tells designboom that in the course of her experiments, she’s found out that it’s possible to use the ‘eeyo’ method on other kinds of wood, and her several chairs during the event as can testify. ‘Although balsa wood absorbs the most dye water and thus has the greatest range of color change,’ she shares with designboom. There are no artificial finishings or added paints in the final product. The designer only lets nature and naturality take over her chair designs. Visitors during the DESIGNART Tokyo 2024 can witness the dyed balsa wooden chairs on the second floor of the Tokyo Midtown Galleria, which stays there between October 11th and November 4th.

all images courtesy of Saki Takeshita

Exposing dyed wooden chairs to nearly 200-degrees heat

Saki Takeshita varies the time she blows dry the dyed balsa wood with hot air, depending on the kind of color and saturation she looks for. Because of this, the designer can also shift the patterns and where the colors can appear around the wooden chairs. Her slabs can turn from green to pink, blue to red in no time, and she can choose where to point the hot air to unravel the reaction of the wood from the dye. She says that this method can allow graphic processing on the wood’s surfaces with natural grain and texture still being intact throughout.

During the DESIGNART Tokyo 2024, there are twelve gradient-like balsa wooden chairs on the second floor of the Tokyo Midtown Galleria. It is here that the designer showcases her material research, which she first presented in 2022. Back then, the gradience of the colors looked more muted and subtle, and her objects leaned more towards vase-like objects. This time, the dyes appear more saturated to further highlight the reaction of the wood and dye to the heat. She also adds that the color reaction may depend of the compatibility of the balsa wood with the dyes. Visitors have time to see the chairs in person until October 27th, 2024, at the Tokyo Midtown Galleria in Japan.

detailed view of Saki Takeshita’s eeyo, a set of dyed-balsa wooden chairs that have changed colors