a fireplace mantel ... with ducks

fun one here !! we made this mantel for a client's rustic retreat on 

a tributary of the mississippi river .... on the central flyway

the masonry was going to be finished before the mantel, so we
sent a drawing to thebuilder, which he and the mason executed flawlessly.
 jon slid it right into place when it got there ..
click the photos to enlarge them ...

 essentially, the builder gave the mason several 2 x 8s cut exactly to the
size of the mantel (6" x 84") we were making to install  in the masonry.
the topp one was removable and that allowed the mantel box to be
recessed into the stone work

we sent an installation template for installing the backing block

it was commissioned by the folks we made this bed for in 2010,
one of our all time favorite projects .. lots of words and photos at that link .. 

 

we started with a mockup and full size drawing, mounted to the front outside wall of the shop

beautiful walnut from irion lumber (naturally), and trevor made some sample
pockets in mdf to fit the inlays into for the patinas.  there is a flush, no hardware, 'secret compartment'
on the right end that you open with a piece of steel that is attracted by some
rare earth magnets inlaid into the inside face of the drawer ... fun!!

all the ducks, with almost all their patinas on them

the central inlay on the bed headboard mentioned above ...

these two photos show how the inlays that are cut on a local waterjet

arrive for us to work with ... all the parts have little 'bridges' that keep the parts from flying around as they are cut.  those have to be sanded off before the pieces will fit together.

it's basically a high tech jigsaw puzzle

tah dah!