Tables With Glass
I am currently building a new table which will feature a glass top. I wanted to take a moment to visit my previous tables. The new table is at a formative moment and I want to make sure that I will be pushing new ground!
My tables have demonstrated a progression:
The first tables that I designed took advantage of the clear nature of glass to reveal the complex movement of the structure below the table.
I revisited the Glass Hall Table format and demonstrated a different approach to the wooden structure.
Glass Hall Table
Maple and Glass 35″H x 54″W x 15″D
I began to think about ways to bring the glass into the composition. I used tow moments to embrace and wrap the ends of the glass in wood. This approach started to make the glass an integral part of the composition, not just a functional surface.
Cocktail Table
Sapele and Glass 20″H x 62″W x 32D
The progression continued with the cocktail table. I used a singular moment to bring the leg and stretcher overt the tables surface.
Curved Dovetail Console Table
Sapele and Glass 38″H x 70″W x 15″D
This is a bit out of order,but in terms of progression it is next. I now have taken the step to have the glass cut to a unique shape. The result is that the glass becomes part of the composition in a different way. I felt that this piece was very successful and i am feeling emboldened to pursue a larger table with a piece of shaped glass.
Pedestal Table #9
MAple and Glass 30″H x 20″W x 20″D
Mirror With Drawers- One and Two
I have started work on two new versions of my Mirror With Drawers series. I thought I would take a moment to examine where I have been as part of my process of determining how to evolve the series. The exploration was born while I was co-teaching the fall concentration at the Penland craft school in North Carolina with sculptor Joël Urruty. We brought furniture designer Peter Harrison down to give the students a different perspective on technique and creativity. Pete fabricated a small box out of Baltic Birch plywood during a demonstration to the class. The box was kicking around the shop until I took it and incorporated it into the first mirror with drawer.
I wrapped the box in Bubinga veneer after cutting the end of the box to give it an unusual angle more in keeping with my design sense. The rest of the piece is made of cherry and ash. the two woods highlight the shifting overlap that is characteristic of my work. The ends of the cherry boards end in decorative dovetails. This treatment of dovetails is quite unique and becomes a central part of the composition. Another version of unusual dovetails appear on the sculpted drawer front.
A few years ago I revisited the format with a slightly different approach. The first piece gained a lot of attention with the drawer being at the core of the experience. I have always liked to overlap parts so it seemed natural to introduce a second drawer. This time I used a single color of wood for the shifting frame. This field of dark, oxidized, sapele set up a perfect contrast with the yellow shimmer of the avodire veneer of the drawer boxes. The drawers became even more interactive as they open in radically different directions.
Mirror With Two Drawers
Sapele, Avodire and Mirror 72″H x 15″W x 15″D
View Piece. Mirror with Two Drawers
Leaning Dovetails
Leaning Dovetails
Cherry 36″H x 17″W x 20″D
I recently added the Leaning Dovetails to my website. I completed the piece a few years ago but it had not made its way onto this version of my website. The catalyst was it’s inclusion in a show at the Silas Marder Gallery. The Leaning Dovetails had a prime position and I was delighted to see this piece again with fresh eyes. Pat Rogers of the Hamptons Art Hub included the piece in her rundown of the Thanksgiving art events. View Story
The leaning Dovetails are based on a notion that has crept into a number of my pieces. That notion is the dovetail as more than a structural joint. My approach transforms them into a landscape within a larger composition. I think of them in terms of a painting: like an interior still life in which the artist introduces a window or a painting on the wall, thus adding a composition within the composition.
The Leaning Dovetails connect to the wall with a clip that is hidden within the thickness of the cherry wood. The mass of the piece comes off the wall in an unusual angle. This sets up the possibility for the piece to immediately become noticed by anyone in the room. The angled thrust pushed all the way down to the floor where the piece adopt a delicate, expressive, stance.
