I just finished up a William and Mary desk I have been wanting to build for a long time now. Sometime back I saw a photo in a book of a ladies writing desk that I loved and this is my interpretation of it. The photo I had was horrible and had no information about the piece at all so I just took the concept and ran with it. I am actually putting together a set of scale drawings with full size patterns and a 250-300 page tutorial that I should have finished up in the near future. I am also working with Horizon Lumber who will make wood packs for the plans.
For this piece the primary wood is curly cherry with a curly cherry crotch for the lid and panel in the door. The secondary wood is poplar. The finish on it is a natural finish. I typically use shellac but due to the difficulty finishing the base I opted for an oil varnish home brew I like to use which gave me a little more time to work. I also glazed the piece to give it a little more of an aged look. I really enjoyed building this piece and actually plan to build another one in the near future possibly out of walnut. My intention was to keep this for myself but it just wasn’t meant to be. A few days before I finished it someone came to my shop to discuss another piece and bought it. Oh well, my next one will be nicer anyway
I also wanted to add kudos for Horizon Lumber who has some of nicest cherry around. The photos of this do not do the wood justice. I will be having professional photos of this piece done to try to really capture the true beauty of the wood.
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