Hawaii Furniture Adventure
This past winter was a cold one, even by upstate New York’s standards. It seemed to be below zero every time I looked at the thermometer. When I took an inquiry from Hawaii, I was jealous. When he offered to fly me there to install the piece, I was excited!
The piece was a custom dining table using language that was new to my line. It started with a sketch and a model. The goal was to create a piece that could be packed in a box and flown on a standard commercial flight. Concrete was quickly eliminated as a material option.
This table required a full size mock-up to gage stability and strength. The full size mock-up continued the development and a workable design came together.
Meanwhile, outside the weather was pretty bleak.
The table came together pretty quickly. Here it is before the final disassemble to sand and finish the components. This is the last time the table will stand in my studio before flying to Hawaii. (The glass top is not as large as the actual top, it is just the biggest piece of glass that I had kicking about my studio. The client ordered the glass locally.)
At the end of the day I had 140 pieces to package and reassemble.
I created a custom size box to house all the wood pieces and stuck all of the hardware and metal components into my suitcase.
And in no time at all I was en route to Hawaii! Flying over the midwest I spied these amazing irrigation patterns with a fresh coat of snow.
Landing in Hawaii, I did a quick weather comparison and realized I made a strong decision! Note that the weather alert for Hawaii is a high surf advisory- what a change from all the snow and cold advisories that I had been used to!
It turns out that the TSA has their own custom packing tape! They inspected the box full of wood pieces and tidied the box back up, and left their calling card.
The table took a little over an hour to assemble and I was delighted with the results. The client had ordered the glass top at almost the same moment that I started the table, but I was faster than the glass company and the top would not arrive for a few days!
The rest of the day was spent exploring Oahu with an amazing tour with my client. The following day, I hopped over to Maui to meet up with a friend who just happened to be vacationing there. What a beautiful place! I completely forgot about the weather back home!
By the last day of my trip, I got a text from my client, The glass had arrived and the table was complete!
I am very pleased with the language created for this table and am currently completing three new pieces for my line using similar components, including a round top version of this table! Pics soon!
Nebula Table in Interior Design Magazine
The 2014 Interior Design Fall Market Tabloid features an amazing full page feature on my Nebula Table. You can click on the images to see the larger images. If you’re a subscriber, be sure to check it out on page 146, it looks amazing in glossy color! If you’re not a subscriber and are a fan of design, I highly recommend Interior Design Magazine, definitely my favorite read every month!
Also, check out this cool video on the machining of the brackets for the Nebula Table
Acrylic Argon Coffee Table
Acrylic Argon is a stunning new coffee table made from 1.5″ thick acrylic, aluminum and stainless steel cable. The Crystal clear acrylic allows an unobstructed view of the helix twist of the cables. The four legs are made from 2″ thick solid aluminum. To affix the cables, I came up with a new proprietary piece of hardware, allowing each cable to attach in a single point. This adds to the overall feel of the table creating an amazing visual experience. The edges of the acrylic pick up the interior elements and reflect them like a prism. It’s really a amazing combination of materials that is best experienced in person.
This is the second lucite table that I have done with Plexi-craft. This is the follow-up to Acrylic Divergence. The combination of the sleek lucite and my aluminum joinery and Stainless steel cable is a winner! Expect more pieces in the future!
Video: Nebula Table- Machining the brackets
After the great response to my Barossa Wine rack video, I shot some more footage and made a video of the machining of the aluminum brackets to the Nebula Table. The corner brackets are a variation of those used on my Divergence table. I start with solid aluminum blocks that are 1.5″ thick. These are cut down and machined into the elegant shapes that you see. They are finished by blasting with glass bead- the same look as a Macintosh computer! Note all the different precision measuring instruments it takes to make one piece!
