Revisiting Design of Foot-soaking Bowl

New Foot-soaking Bowl

Four years ago, Levi and I spent the summer making 200 foot-soaking bowls for the Andaz Hotel on 5th Avenue in New York. I'm currently working on a new version for the hotel to test that is more user friendly that is not as breakable.

One possibility I'm looking at is spraying the outside of the bowl with several coats of clear rubber using a product called LeakSeal. I bought a can of this stuff, but I am waiting for a warm day to use it, as I'm not going to be spraying this stuff indoors.

The other option is to add a drain and handle. The current design forces one to turn the bowl completely upside down to empty it. The shape of the bowl and the weight of the bowl both make it a bit awkward to do this. So, I'm thinking a drain and handle or maybe just a drain will help. The handle would come in handy when moving the bowl around the shower, making it less likely to slip out of one's grasp and drop on the stone veneer floor.

I'm currently in the process of making three of the foot-soaking bowls, one with a drain, one with a drain and handle and one for the rubber coating. I located the drain where it is only visible by peering into the far corner of the bowl. The handle is simply a cutout, hoping this will maintain the bowl's attractive shape.

I've also increased the amount of clay by a little bit when making these so the wall thickness will increase a bit.

Me at the Andaz with bowl