by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 10, 2016
Three Roads Diverged in a Walnut Wood I believe table bases ought to have some relationship to their tops.This beautiful slab of American black walnut features a trunk and two branches, so that’s where I went with the base too. Four long and strong bowties,...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 10, 2016
Nefertiti candlesticks in russian olive Named for the famous bust of the Egyptian queen, these candlesticks will make a graceful addition to your spare table setting. As a pair, with their abstract suggestion of heads and chins, they bring up thoughts of conversation...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 9, 2016
Completion/Incompletion This piece finds the grey area between stool and end table. It’s stout enough to sit on if you like. This piece was to be sold at this year’s Benefit Auction at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, but a generous donor snatched it...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 5, 2016
Cut This One Off at the Knees This open-faced cabinet is an example of when the geometry just works right. All the angles are 30, 60, or 90 degrees, and the overall dimensions are exactly 3 x 5 x 1 feet. The diagonals on the face would create an equalateral triangle...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 9, 2016
Crotch walnut end tables Where a large limb diverges from the trunk, there’s a tremendous load bearing on that joint. The tree has to do something to keep the limb from simply splitting off and falling, so typically the wood fibers above the crotch weave...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 4, 2016
Osage Orange 6-Drawer Dresser Sacred meets profane. We’ve got here a stark contrast between the refined minimalism of the white lacquered case and the gnarly, audacious self-awareness of the faces. The three osage orange boards are sequential from the same log,...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 9, 2016
After George (a coffee table) A good designer is continually learning. I found I needed a remedial course in the sensibility of the mid-20th-C. West-Coast master George Nakashima, and this coffee table taught me a lot. It’s not meant to masquerade as his work,...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 9, 2016
Silver and Goldilocks (side tables) When wood dries, it cracks. That’s just the way of things. It’s caused by shrinkage when it dries out, and it’s as predictable as the rising sun. That is, unless someone interferes, cuts the logs, treats them, and...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 8, 2016
Almost 90 Degrees (for Gerry and Bob) This bowl is almost a...
by LongGrainFurniture | Aug 8, 2016
Bowl in walnut and walnut burl A burl is a tree’s reaction to an injury, such as an insect infestation fended off, or damage from an impact. It’s essentially scar tissue. On a living tree, it looks like a knob or a tumor, usually on the trunk near the...
