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This piece employs a number of difficult
techniques and a truly magnificent wood. The
burr ash top is made from an amazing log that we found while
shopping for something else entirely. It is unique in our
experience: partially burred, but nothing like burr ash veneer which
is not uncommon, and strongly figured with ripple in places. I could
stare at it for hours! It is solid, but cut to about 6mm (¼")
thick and bonded onto some plain white ash. This is for three
reasons: 1) to be sparing with such an unusual wood, 2) for
stability, and 3) to facilitate the book-matching of the top. The
tricky bit has then been to attach the solid black walnut edge with
a perfect joint - easy with veneers, but quite tricky in the solid. The
legs are really where all the work has gone though. The concept was
to imagine taking something like a cucumber and slicing it in
quarters longitudinally, leaving just one point near the middle
where the cuts don't quite meet. Then each quarter is bent outward
into the same pleasing curve to form a pedestal. We wanted the
analogy to go as far as there being a definite skin (black walnut),
and flesh (ash), and for the legs to end in such a way that you
could see this effect clearly. Unfortunately
for us of course wood is not quite as easy to work with as
cucumbers, and we had to go through steam-bending, followed by
laminating, followed by laborious hand-shaping to get what we
wanted. We are delighted with the result, and were amused when a
group of students on a workshop visit examined the table for 10
minutes or more, and still couldn't work out how we had made it!
(The college can remain nameless). This
table is one of two we made to spread the considerable cost of jigs
and formers, and bring the price down a little. The first (in
rippled maple and black walnut) was made to commission. We would be
happy to use some of the same ideas in another commissioned piece,
but this is the last one to be made to this actual design. October
2002 - awarded Craft Guild Mark
No 338 by the Worshipful
Company of Furniture Makers |
