A Whimsical Chaise Lounge Inspired by the Look of Low Tide

Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is a world-renowned incubator for design talent. For the institute’s 2023 graduate degree exhibition, Boston-based alumnus Andrew Riiska debuted Lion Turtle, a whimsical chaise lounge inspired by mossy rocks peeking out of the sea at low tide, named after a character in the TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. The stone-pine base is carved from a single slab, while the upholstered blobs are covered in merino-wool felt donated by Graf Lantz. Riiska molded and stretched the felt to achieve the forms without stitching, a technique borrowed from millinery. The bulbous legs were turned on a lathe, made from aromatic cedar tree trunks Riiska once used to play on at his grandfather’s property. The apron support is made of sugar pine (so named as it smells sweet when cut) Riiska unearthed behind an oil tank in his mother’s garage. In fact, all the wood he used is salvaged.