Fiddleback maple, eastern maple with cherry, English walnut, imbuia, cuta

72" x 32" x 15"  2000

The Autumn Leaf Entry Table is a sculptural piece, intended to be a dynamic presence in an entryway or living area. It also provides a highly crafted surface for displaying a vessel or piece of art. The intensely figured fiddleback maple top is curved along all four edges and visually floats above the upper arches. A pair of marquetry oak leaves float down the face of one of the curved fiddleback maple side panels. The finish is lacquer and wax.

Narra and leather with satinwood, guatambu and kwila 

43”h x 26”w x 50”d  2004

The Ginkgo Rocking Chair is a sculptural piece carefully designed and made to solve the three goals faced by the chair maker; comfort, strength and beauty.  I choose to use traditional mortise & tenon joinery in all my chairs to insure strength and durability for generations to come.  The individual backrest flex independently of each other and float within deep mortises in the chair’s crest or top rail, allowing them to adjust individually to the sitter.

A double-bevel marquetry design made of hand-sawn veneers, sweeps across the backrest.  Marquetry is a technique where different natural colors of wood veneers are carefully cut to fit precisely together, creating a design in a single, smooth surface.

Narra, an ecologically harvested wood from Papua New Guinea, was carefully selected for its consistent color, calm grain patterns, and tight ‘beeswing’ figure.  Satinwood (Sri Lanka) guatambu (Central America) and kwila (Papua New Guinea), work together creating the falling ginkgo leaf design.

The rockers and backrest are tapered, bent laminations.  The leather upholstery work is performed by myself.  The finish is hand-rubbed oil.

European pear and bubinga with satinwood, ziricote, holly, arariba, bay laurel, imbuia, narra, cypress, holly, hornbeam, walnut & black locust

22” h x 20” w  2001

Hand-sawn pear veneers tabletop with double-bevel marquetry. The sense of shading & dimension is achieved by combining various shades of natural wood colors to create a feeling of shadows and layers. The piece is finished with hand-rubbed shellac.

Black walnut with  narra, cypress, maple, satinwood, bloodwood, mesquite, holly, leather upholstery.

40" x 18" x 18" 

Hand-made dining or desk chair with independently flexing back rest for exceptional comfort.  Marquetry and inlay imagery in various natural woods sweeps across the backrest.  

I use traditional mortise & tenon joinery in all my chairs to insure strength and durability for generations to come. The finish is hand-rubbed oil.

Maple and wenge with fiddleback maple, pear, bubinga, rosewood and abalone.

22" h x 20"  2003

The Carpe Diem Table is a small, 3 legged side table. The round top, made with hand-sawn wenge veneers, provides a patterned canvas for the fish marquetry image. The legs are solid maple, carefully chosen so that the grain pattern follows the curve in each leg. The curves and subtle facets are shaped using wooden hand-planes and spokeshaves. The bead along the bottom of the round apron is made of wenge.  The finish is hand-rubbed oil.

Table - Fiddleback maple, maple, bubinga 108” x 45” x 30” 

Chairs - Maple, patterned upholstery 40” x 18” x 18”  1998

The Fiddleback Maple Table is a commissioned piece designed for a special dining area.  An important early design consideration was that the dining space was very open and clearly viewed from adjoining rooms.  It was important that the table and chairs relate to those areas without being locked into the surrounding design elements.  The table is viewed at nearly eye level when seated in the lower, adjoining living room, making the tables base an important focal point during the design process.  The dimensions were arrived at based on the size of the dining space, the number of people the table was meant to seat, and pleasing proportions.

The surface of the table top is highly figured fiddleback maple veneer applied to a 1 1/8” thick core. The veneered panel is softly boat-shaped and is edge-banded with 2 ¼” solid maple, mitered at the corners and beveled.

The solid table base is made from carefully chosen 3” thick planks of very white colored, tight grain maple. Overlapping bridle joints are used to join the legs, feet and upper rails, adding strength and visual interest to the base.  The long upper rails that support the top are curved along bottom edges to mimic the curve of the tabletop.  The stretcher is a bent lamination, made up of multiple layers of 1/8” thick bubinga (Africa), sawn from a single plank and glued back together over a curved form. The table is finished with pre-catalyzed, semi-gloss lacquer for durability.

The Maple Chairs were designed to accentuate the aesthetics of the table while also being able to visually stand alone.  Dimensions slowly emerged through experimentation and input from the clients, based on the level of comfort of a full size chair mock-up.  Comfort, strength, and beauty were all given equal importance.

The chairs are joined using traditional mortise and tenons.  The vertical backrests are bent laminations that join a low stretcher rather than the back seat rail, lengthening the backrest and increasing the amount of flexibility and comfort.  The upholstered seat frames are removable. The chairs are finished with semi-gloss, modified acrylic lacquer.

Kwila (Papua New Guinea)

40” x 24 1/2” x 18”  1999

The Kwila Coffee Table has solid wood legs, rails, and top.  By focusing on a single species of wood, subtle details such as the textured transition from the legs to the tabletop and the slightly curved horizontal rails become more prominent.

Kwila (pronounced quee-la) is an ecologically harvested wood that is only recently known in North America.  The hope is that by using lesser known species such as kwila, pressure will be taken off of wood species like teak, that are in trouble from over-harvesting.  Kwila has become a personal favorite for its warm, rich color and strong presence. The table is finished with special finishing oil and wax.

Eastern maple, fiddleback maple

40” x 18” x 18”  2000

The maple for each of the individual chair parts was carefully selected for its creamy white color and calm grain patterns.  The focal point of the chair is the curved backrest made of intensely figured fiddleback maple with the geometric design at the sitters shoulders.  The individual backrests flex independently of each other and are quite long, as they attach well below the seat.  This increases the length of the backrest, providing great comfort and an interesting design element.

The chairs are joined together with mortise and tenons.  The upholstered seat frames are removable.  Upholstery work performed by myself and the finish is hand-rubbed lacquer.

Black walnut and wenge with kwila, elm, maple, red oak, narra, red narra, sassafras and imbuia

29" h x 19" w  2011

Sawn black walnut veneers provide the backdrop for marquetry imagery on the tabletop, apron and shelf of this slender lamp table. The outer face of the legs are slightly pillowed to mimic the round apron. Wenge edge banding and bead below the apron accent the rich color of the black walnut. Hand-rubbed oil finish.

Redgum, black walnut

40" x 23" x 17"  1997

The design for the Redgum Coffee Table evolved from a special plank of colorful red gum, also called sweetgum. Red gum is a common tree from North America. Walnut creates a rich colored border for the top as well as the legs and rails. The legs are 5-sided and attached to the rails with traditional mortise and tenon joinery. The table is finished with a special finishing oil.

Black walnut with narra, hornbeam, maple, bloodwood, pear, holly. leather upholstery

40" x 18" x 18"  2008

Hand-made dining or desk chair with independently flexing back rest for exceptional comfort.  Marquetry and inlay imagery in various natural woods sweeps across the backrest.  

I use traditional mortise & tenon joinery in all my chairs to insure strength and durability. The leather upholstery is performed by myself. The piece has a hand-rubbed oil finish 

Black walnut and wenge

42" x 23" x 17"  1999

The coffee table Waterfall evolved from some very special planks of black walnut that had been milled approximately 30 years earlier by the customer's father. The walnut had been allowed to air dry, preserving its subtle range of colors. These colors and grain pattern echoed the same sense of movement that had inspired my thumbnail sketch chosen for the table.  

The black walnut planks were sawn into 1/16” veneers, then applied to a high-quality plywood core. Captured, walnut edge-bandings strengthen the surfaces that are used for joinery. A pair of walnut stretchers add support to the design from below. Wenge pieces are attached to the horizontal and vertical edges, creating a dark, sculptural border with a contrasting texture. The table is finished with acrylic lacquer.