| Have you ever wondered why table tops always have either straight edges or simple geometric curves? It's the same with their legs. Straight, simple curves or turned patterns, but always symmetrical. Not like trees. They're all wobbly. It's as if the furniture makers want to get away from the treeishness of their material. They could use plastic or metal or glass. Sometimes they do. |
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My tables and bookshelves try to retain a bit treeishness about them. If the tree grew its grain in a particular direction, then I try to go that way too. OK, there are limits. Table tops work best if they are a good bit flatter than a tree and furniture has to stand up without roots.
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These shelves are made to fit into an alcove. The twelve pieces of oak are loose - not fixed together at all. The uprights can be moved to other positions. They don't fall over because the three lower shelves have their ends just touching the sides of the alcove. The uprights are two inch thick boards and the shelves are one inch. The front edges are the waney edges of the boards with just the bark and any soft sapwood stripped off. These curved edges are smoothed with a spoke shave while the shelves are planed flat and smooth. The wood is finished with tung oil. The gaps between the shelves are larger than a usual bookshelf as they had to accommodate a television boxes of sheet music. |
| A towel rail.
The sunflowers faded but there will be more next year.
The rail is now in Amsterdam and is being used to hang a quilt on. |
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Contact: biff@biffvernon.freeserve.co.uk
Lincolnshire
©Biff Vernon 2004
