Early 2008 - A Coffee Table

In the summer of 2007 we took a raft trip down the East Fork of the Chulitna with our Talkeetna friends and spent a night at a place that has the most amazing collection of river-washed rocks. In the midst of carousing I had the idea of using some of those rocks in a coffee table so I brought back a whole mess of them (which incidentally and for the record pales in comparison to the volume & weight of what most of of our friends brought out). Then in January/February 2008 we had a most enjoyable vacation in California and Arizona - and while in California we stayed at my sister Mary's house in LA. Two things while we were there - we went to the Gamble House in Pasadena, regarded as THE outstanding example of Greeene and Greene archtecture/design (they being Charles and Henry - leading lights of the early 20th century Arts and Crafts movement), and we spent several mornings and evenings in my sister's living room which featured a coffee table custom built for them that was derived from more or less the same style as what we had just seen in Pasadena. Suddenly it all came into focus... and shortly after we returned to Alaska my design was more or less complete.
The size and dimensions are pretty close to what is in my sister's living room, the "cloud lifts" (the offsets in the horizontal spreaders) are stolen from both Greene and Greene and the guy who built my sister's table, the square plugs are both a Greene and Greene touch and what I previously explored in my dining room table, and the choice of materials - mahogany and walnut - I've used on several other pieces. AND I used the Chulitna River Rocks....
This little detail roughly doubled the time I spent on the project, but it was a really interesting exercise, allowed me to stay true to my goal of stretching my boundaries with each project, and I think added greatly to the aesthetics of the finished piece. It's certainly unique....
I've been getting more and more comfortable with chisels, and wanted to incorporate a classic Arts and Crafts detail, the butterfly splice, into my table. Even in as close a detail as shown above, it actually looks okay! The butterfly itself is lacewood.

With this project I really think I've elevated my hobby to a new level. Every joint on this piece fit perfectly and honestly, I think it would have been almost as stable if I hadn't used any glue at all! Most rewarding...

The finish is oil with two coats of rub-on polyurethane on the table and shelf tops, and wax.