Monday, April 9, 2012

the wood that you have ...

we finished this unusual coffee table last week. i never would have come up with this design on my own without having an unusual shaped piece of wood to start with. you work with the wood that you have ... it's actually a very cool piece in person, and everyone who has seen it so far has had some kind of positive comment to make about it. of course, it's hard not to like wood like this ....
it's vaguely nakashima influenced with its simple, square legs, but the box originated with the project that involved the other half of the original claro walnut slab.
that project involved one of the 3 original claro walnut slabs that i purchased from goodhope, oh, back in about 2006. in 2010, one of my clients purchased the last of those slabs to use for an interesting console that had to be notched around a carving from bali that hung over a wall hung heater. the design was driven by many factors, and i can't find a photo of the finished piece, but when we were finished, we were left with the half slab you see below with a piece missing on each end. click the photos to enlarge them. more photos of claro walnut can be seen by clicking on the 'claro walnut slab tables' category below the archive
the cut for the console table marked out in tape ...
the leftover has been standing in my office closet since and the project has been on again, off again for a couple of years ... i am glad it's finally finished.
above is the cad drawing from the console project and you can see the shape of the coffee table slab in the negative space of the plan view ...
no date on the sketch, but i'm betting it's from 2009 sometime ..
and here's what i did with the left over, though i now see i somehow got the notch for the box in the wrong place from the sketch ... we somehow got past that though, and the table will be delivered soon ... it will be a cool story if it ends up in the same room as the console ...
not much to detail on the process ... the box is mitered play with a ply top with 1/8" thick veneer, rabbeted and dropped into the open end so only the veneer was left and then flushed off and beveled. looks like solid wood, though you know it can't be ... fun project ...

2 comments:

Steigerhouten said...

Very good art. Thanksfor making useful furnitures from rough materials.

Mike Lintro said...

Very cool design for a coffee table. Where did you get the large flat piece of wood? I would like to have something similar made for me. I would do it myself, but it would not turn out very good. I should have taken woodworking or something when I was in school. http://www.kurtsander.net/en/services.html