My wife's Art Deco jewelry box and table

[george wilson]

I made this table and jewelry box for my wife a few years ago. She likes Art Deco.You will either like this,or hate it,I suppose.

The table and box are made of lacewood,curly sugar maple,and Brazilian rosewood. The under frame is wrought iron. It is quite heavy. Each spiral took about 6' of 1/2" square hot rolled steel. The basic design premise is a tripartite format:everything is in threes.

The box is meant to look like New York in an abstract sort of way.The hanging elements on the apron are like a reflection of the box in water.

The taller doors in the box are for hanging longer strands of beads,etc. The two smaller doors have brass brackets for hanging earrings.

I had to make all of the drawer pulls and other hardware,to also reflect the three part format.

I will post other pictures of the box open as I am able. Hope you enjoy this,as it is a complete departure from anything traditional that I have already posted. So,maybe I don't look "myopic"(sp?)

Actually,I work in several different design disciplines,though you have only seen traditional 18th.C and 19th.C. examples until this posting.

[Leigh Betsch]

Count me in as a like it. How much of the black trim is iron work and how much is wood? I'm thinking about some iron work on a bed project I'm dreaming up, but I don't know much about the blacksmithing arts. I'm thinking about farming out the metal work to someone who does it for a living. Is it a matter of getting the right iron and a little torch work or do you need to have an ironworker?

[george wilson]

All of the black is iron work,except for the 3 brass discs that are really nuts to screw the front members to the back ones,Leigh.I made a bending form out of heavy sheet iron,and welded it to a bottom plate so the form would be strong enough to resist deforming when the actual spirals were bent.My inital form was large nails driven in the spiral shape into thick plywood. I heated the pattern rod,and bent it into the nail form. Of course,the plywood caught fire,and was kept wet. Then,I welded this master spiral to sheet iron. In the center of the form,where the spiral would start,I welded a "hook" to hold the end of the the bar that would become the spiral. With a large torch tip,I heated about 10" of rod red hot at a time. That was as much as I could manage to get hot.Then,I'd bend it,heat the next 10",and so forth. It was a huge pain. The form was the only way I could get all 4 spirals just alike. They'd look terrible if they weren't the same. This took a lot of work to do,and I am not a wrought iron type of person,but my wife wanted it. This table is springy due to the "buggy springs". I intend to make a couple of little brackets,and secure it to the wall. The cats walk on it,so I cannot keep expensive glass lamps on it right now. With the brackets,it should stop shaking when a cat jumps on it. The whole piece is pure fantasy,not really the most practical design!!

I didn't have an ironworker,and that 1/2" square steel isn't going to bend cold!!

[Leigh Betsch]

Well it's pretty sweet. I'm not going to buy and iron worker and it sounds like your method was a lot of work so when it comes time I'll look into one of these guys that make step railings and such out for wrought iron. Thanks for the info George.

[Dewey Torres]

WOW... the blacksmithing work (as well as the ww) is great. I would like to try that after I retire.

[george wilson]

Leigh,I might clarify: Only the under frame (?) of the table is iron,not the dark edge around the top,or on the box. The dark edges are Brazilian rosewood. Nothing edging any of the wooden parts is iron. The bottom of the apron is rosewood also.

[george wilson]

Leigh,the only trouble with hiring someone to do the work is; Can they do a truly good spiral(in this case),or whatever other curves you ask them to do. If I were you,and if you are good at drawing,I'd take a sheet of thin plywood and draw the full size work on it.Then,hold their feet to the fire if their parts don't match. I hate all those spirals that terminate in a straight line in their center. They all seem to look that way,too,because they don't take the time to cut the straight part off. They look terrible,even if the rest of the spiral is good.

I had a time getting a plasterer to make a symetrical arch in a door here. I finally had to make a full size template,and he got it reasonably close.At least,it wasn't lopsided. He got it within 1/4",so,for its size,it looked o.k..

[Peter Scoma]

I like that green moulding George. Looks sharp.

MrR

[george wilson]

My wife is in charge of paint colors. Although this house is a very close copy of houses in the historic area,she has chosen non traditional colors. She worked in the Book Bindery,then ran the darkroom gor several years,but she never liked the 18th.C. atmosphere.

[george wilson]

Speaking of moulding,Peter,all the mouldings in this house are larger than you can buy now,even if the new ones are a similar pattern.When we were renovating this house,I would be at work sometimes,and my busy little wife,who is full of energy,would be out here working. One of the first things she did was to tear off the oversize baseboards in the kitchen,damaging them,and throw them all away!! We could not find replacements. Can you say custom mouldings? I did not have my shop established here by then.It was nearly a year making shelves on weekends,and unpacking hundreds of boxes. Plus,no dust collector yet back then.