Project 9 of 52

" Shuttered Veneer"

Walnut veneer

Zebrawood veneer

For this weeks project I wanted to give everyone an idea of the kind of stuff that inspires me as a woodworker. As a cabinet maker I tend to veer towards bigger woodworking projects like furniture pieces even though all of my projects so far have been small in scale. You know, there is only so much space in the shop to have all these projects in storage awaiting the gallery showing. The good news is that I am gifting some pieces and when my photographer Jason Flynn said he needed a coffee table I said done.

The design I thought was maybe a little ambitious, but I wanted to play around with the idea of a camera lens as it snaps a picture. Considering a lens is always round I didn't think it made for a good coffee table, so I went with a rectangular oval shape.

I decided to use two types of veneer. The background is American Walnut and the foreground is African Zebrawood. I started this by wanting to create a traditional star burst pattern of alternating veneers but thought most people have seen some sort of that in different applications. I instead took the walnut veneer and made them 4 inch by 4 inch squares and used a checkerboard pattern to make the rays coming from the center. Yes I did cut 90 squares by hand if you were wondering.

I glued the 4 inch squares of walnut to a mdf panel because when veneering you want to use the most stable substrate and mdf does not shrink or expand with weather like wood will. I cut the rays of Zebrawood and basically connected one giant puzzle of wood pieces.

I also edged the sides of the table top with the corresponding wood and grain direction to give it a look of solids blocks glued together.

After all the pieces were glued I lightly sanded and put linseed oil on to bring out the grain pattern in both. I finished the table top with 6 coats of lacquer because it is going to be a coffee table and will get some use. The overall dimensions are 55 inches long by 24 inches deep.

As you can see there is a 2 foot ladder as the base at the moment. I know thats pretty out there, but was for only picture sake, so don't worry. This table when done is going to have a metal leg creation I am giving to my welder to create that Jason and I will design. As for the woodworking part it is finished and is ready to take up shop in Jason's home. When the base gets attached I will post the picture.



This project has been given as a gift.