John finished up this little beauty this weekend. This is the third cabinet in this line that he has made. This one is has so much going on it is hard to know where to begin. The main wood is some beautifully figured cherry. He chose spalted ambrosia maple for the door panels. Ambrosia is a term for the reaction that the tree has to ambrosia beetles causing a gray oval coloring, and spalted is a term used for the mark left behind by a fungus that gets into the wood causing black streaks and other colors. Nature leaves her mark and the results are spectacularly beautiful.
The top has a copper and malachite inlay to fill a hole in the piece and a butterfly inlay to prevent a crack from splitting further. You can also see a mark in the top where the log roller grabbed the log before it was sawn (lower left corner).
I was reading an article today and learned that the Japanese term yugen means the "profound mystery of things". So it seemed a fitting name for this cabinet. Even with all the trauma the wood endured, beauty prevails.
We listed a small meditation cabinet in our etsy shop today. Hope you are having a splendid weekend!
This piece is exquisite!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing the way nature leaves her mark in such unexpected and beautiful ways!
I love the copper and malachite inlay, gorgeous!
Exquisite hits the mark! That's a word I don't use often, but find it completely appropriate here. Thank you for visiting my blog, I don't think I've heard from you before and am glad you said hi so I could find you.
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