New Project for Museum Show

During a lull between commissions this past few months, I took advantage of the time to build a new spec piece that will be shown during the Santa Cruz Woodworkers show at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History (MAH) this coming summer. In the run-up to the show over the next few months, I'll publish occasional posts detailing how the the piece was conceived and executed.

In this first post I'll give you a couple of detail shots as teasers of what's to come, just to whet your appetite. The piece is a chiffonier, which is a fancy word for (usually) a narrow, high chest of drawers - much like a lingerie chest. The design evolved originally from a desire to use a couple of long, narrow, live-edge, book matched pieces of walnut I've had for a while. As I tinkered with what to do with these pieces, I went from table top, to table base, to cabinet doors. Their use as tall, narrow cabinet doors was what led to the idea of the chiffonier. But once I got to the overall size and shape of the chiffonier, I ended up going in another direction where the walnut pieces didn't work, so they're still in the shop waiting for another spark of inspiration. The final design for the chiffonier features a trapezoidal mahogany case with a shaped cornice and base of wenge, book matched spalted maple doors and drawer fronts, and aluminum accents.

Stay tuned to find out how the various elements were made and how they came together.

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