Pierced Side Table

Not very common in my career is a request for a reproduction of a previous piece, though such is the case with this pierced side table, a different version previously appearing in this blog/portfolio:  Craftsman Style Side Table. Though Craftsman inspired it includes the uncommon design element of pierced legs as well as one of my “trademarks,” namely utilizing different woods in one piece, in this case quartersawn white oak, African mahogany and black walnut. What is not obvious in the picture is the fact that the legs are not perpendicular to the top but rather splay out in both the x and y axes exactly 1°. More than one woodworker examining the piece thought that the legs were ever so slightly tapered. They are not. Nonetheless the eye immediately understands this departure from the norm, and even if the brain can't place it, the disturbance of protocol is distinct and pleasing. Another departure is the asymmetry, such as three different thicknesses in the component pieces of the legs, the two widths of shelf boards, the very pattern of the tabletop. It's unlikely you would find anything like this in the Stickley catalog as symmetry is de rigueur in commercial furniture. I find a little asymmetry rather refreshing, the piece holding the eye a blink longer.

Singular wooden ware + hand carved teaspoons at:   FlyingCircusStudios.Etsy.com