To quote Mel Fulks in a recent post about a bubinga desk project "Raised panels are traditional and live edges are edgy." And then to quote John TenEyck in his post about his very nicely done - Two White Oak Dressers - "I didn't post any pictures at the time because most folks here seem to favor more traditional designs, but I finally decided what the heck."
So now I jump into the fray with these very edgy and eccentric pieces - which I am glad to report - have been very well received by my clients. They are intended for a real authentic old Maine coastal cottage - a lovely blend of artistic and functional with no self importance (if a cottage can be all that). As my mother has said - "They aren't my cup of tea" nonetheless I share them here for the curious and the dreamers among you. I hope you can find something to like .
Started out with these big leaf maple slabs -
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I cut them up - made some puzzle pieces and then added some cherry bases - The colors in these photos under my shop fluorescent lights are exaggerated and unrealistic but you get the idea though not the real beauty and glow of these tops.
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The intent was to create 2 live edge right angle pieces. One as a side board for the dining room and one as a TV base/bookcase in another room. I looked for some time to find some natural right angle slabs but was never satisfied with the options. It came to me that I might be able to interlock some burls together puzzle pieces style to make up the shape I wanted.
The tops really were the beginning. I had the basic sizes of the "cabinets" but as I told my clients we won't know the shape and size of the base cabinets until I have the tops and can fit them into some form that works to my advantage. It was a challenging and I might add, scary process, cutting these up and working them to fit. I knew that I could not mate them seamlessly without straight lines or fair curves. That would have been too artificial with these burls and so chose to try to suggest that the live edge continued through the "joints" by hand cutting the irregular pattern and leaving as equal a spacing as I could throughout the matching cuts. Some of the 4 joints (2 per 3 piece top) came out better than others. Sometime the wood just fell away leaving a hole and sometime I just made a hole .
The two pieces are different in all dimensions. They are siblings but not twins. They are not great examples of the joinery tradition as there are more mechanical fastenings (screws and dominos) than I prefer to include in my furniture pieces. I couldn't see any way around it in this case.
After I made up the tops - fitted the pieces and added two 8mm x 40mm dominos per section to keep them aligned I traced their respective shapes on my 4 x 8 work table to reveal the size of the bases below. From there I started creating a parts list and milling my cherry. The 6 legs of each "cabinet" are mitered and glued with the tape and fold method. I then had 6 legs and a bunch of boards to connect together. Now what? The 2-1/4" top rails were domino/tenoned to their respective legs and then started the process of connecting them in an order that would allow the last pieces to go together. Once these were assembled I had the final dimensions of the base. I was then able to build the bottom shelf assembly and slip that into place between the 6 legs locked into the inner corners of the legs with screws from underneath and resting on glue blocks.
The rail boards came next and then drawer boxes and doors. Only after the bases were built and finished and the top pieces were dyed and finished could the tops go on.
And there we have it - edgy and with attitude. Care to share your attitude about them?
Thanks for looking.