BDC :: Burn Design Collective

Howard and Alayne first met through Howard’s wife who was at the time her boy’s preschool teacher. When introduced at one of Alayne’s art exhibition openings the two hit it off, chatting about design and art.  As the two families became friends, Howard and Alayne renovated her 100 year old bathroom, winning 1st prize in Canadian House and Home’s 2009 renovation competition.  After several other projects together, the idea gradually came to them to collaborate artistically in some way though at the time it was just loose talk.  In 2012, Howard began experimenting with a Japanese technique called Shou-Sugi-Ban (burnt Japanese cedar), a traditional Japanese material used for outdoor cladding as it is resistant to rot and fire.  After burning his first cedar board, Howard thought the alligator look of the charring was interesting but needed something more.  He asked Alayne to add a bit of life to it, some color to elevate the board into something with artistic merit.  She did and they were both thrilled with the result.  At this point they still didn’t conceive of the collaboration.  In fact, the idea for BDC might have been born the night of that Mexican dinner… or maybe when they were all sitting around the campfire talking… or was it when Howard built a wine cellar in the basement of Alayne’s new house?  In fact neither Howard or Alayne can actually recall when it really began.  It is said that the best collaborations are the ones when no one can remember whose idea it was.  Howard and Alayne like to go with that because they both have really bad memories…

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{A quick peek of the process}

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{A few of the finished pieces}

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Coup is thrilled to host the premier showing of BDC!

Join us for one night only, on Saturday, June 15th @ 7pm. Come meet the artist, Howard Pruden and Alayne Spafford, and have the first look at their beautiful collaboration.

 

For more information, please go to www.burndesigncollective.com