This hand- carved love seat made of He- Mu (Lotus wood ) was designed in 2009 and has never been produced. There was also another copy of the drawing where I penciled in all the detailed dimensions for each minute part of the chair to be created ergonomically. But I could not find this particular drawing with detailed dimensions at the time of publishing this design at Shen's website in April, 2017.

While this chair meant to be created for two small persons being able to lie on the couch, snuggling and hugging together, yet the neck, the back, the shoulders, and even the arms would have been well supported simply by the curves carved. At the time when the design was created, I had requested to have this wooden love seat with layers of petal to be carved out of one piece of wood only, but was told that it was not possible to produce such a piece and that it would also be too heavy to lift and to transport. Although I felt that the weight issue might have been dealt with with each layer of the form to be carved very thinly. In any case, this design was never produced. I took this (the design) as an exercise to express my fascination and an inner desire towards a cordial human relationship.

He- Mu is a blond wood with many knots. Because of this, it is not often used for furniture making since one can hardly get a good chunk of wood without many holes and knots to make anything. It is mostly used in China for making small toys. However, I enjoy the dramatic and natural defect of this element and had designed other furniture pieces to be made with this wood in the past. My thought was that these small imperfections add to another layer of aesthetics that nature has to offer us.

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