About this Arc3 Preachers (tall) Table
105cm/ 41.5 inches tall. The Arc 3 Preachers (tall) table is a radical departure from geometric shapes.
It uses organic shapes (non primary shapes). This is much more modern and creates a more flowing appearance and a more dynamic feeling. This reflects the dynamic nature of church preaching. The preacher will rarely stand still on the stage. Instead they are dynamic, moving around, gesturing and expressing.
However, making organic shapes is much more difficult. It is even more difficult in stainless steel. We estimate that it is about eight times more difficult to make an Arc 3 compared with an Arc 2.
In fact the organic shapes we wanted to make had never been achieved in stainless steel.
Initially, we explored other materials. That would have been much easier. But other materials are not as durable as stainless steel. We want the table to stand up to the strain of being used in a church for 20 years and still look good. If we were to use a painted finish, a chip or scratch would need to be retouched. Stainless steel is raw which means that a scratch or knock will not be noticed in the same way. Most marks can be removed by carefully rubbing with a heavy duty scotch brite pad from the supermarket (like you would use to clean pots).
In addition, stainless steel and clear acrylic (with anti reflective film) are what designers and architects call ‘raw finishes’ .
Unlike painted or applied finishes, raw finishes are neutral in appearance and are more likely to fit into a variety of church interiors. They look good in a traditional cathedral or a modern warehouse church building.
The Arc3 Preachers table comes with anti reflective film. This is particularly important if you have a projector screen behind the preacher (most churches do).
Click here for more information on anti reflective film.
It comes flat (keeps the parts safer and avoids the cost of sending air). It requires assembly and we provide the tools and expect it to take you less than 5 minutes to put together.
Like our other tables, it is made by us here in Australia. It takes constant monitoring and problem solving to achieve our standards. We are pulpit specialists, so this is all we do. It takes commitment to this one thing to be able to make this difficult lectern at all, let alone to a high standard.
It is going to sit in the middle of your stage and your congregation are going to look at it a lot. We are committed to do whatever it takes to get the best possible result. There is no way that this would be possible by sending it away to have someone else try to make it.
More about the painful birth of the Arc3
Although still modern, to us the Arc2 range was looking a bit long in the tooth.
We tried 17 times to design a better lectern than the Arc 2. 16 times our select customers said they preferred the Arc 2. It was fruitless and exhausting. Finally Stephen designed a lectern shape that was amazing looking but impossible to make. We spent thousands of dollars and many hours painstakingly hand making just one. Our select customers loved it. They wanted to buy it. We had to find a way to make it at a reasonable price.
So over 2 years of trial and error, we finally worked out how to make it. It was impossible to make using conventional machines, so we had to make our own. We made machines from a metal cutting flame throwing torch, windscreen wiper motors from tractors and more conventional parts. In the process, we had 11 suppliers say that various parts were impossible to make, produced 436 design drawings, and we set fire to a tree. We think it was worth the effort!
