French Cherry - part 2
Along with the two armoires I covered in "part 1", there was also a 6 drawer high boy, an 8 drawer lady's dresser, 3 bathroom vanities, a queen bed and about 13 interior doors.
(This next paragraph is really geared toward "woodies" and techy people, skip it if you want...)
The two dressers were really special. They were made using an old style of frame construction that makes it possible to hold together virtually without glue; it's called a sliding French dovetail. Most people are familiar with the proven dovetail that you'll find when you pull out a drawer on a nice old piece of furniture, or possibly on a recent studio-built piece. (I'll ramble on / discuss the definition of studio-built furniture sometime in the future.) This kind of dovetail is like a long key with a very shallow taper, so that it slides easily all the way in and then finally firmly engages all along its length as it reaches the end. Between each drawer, there was a reinforced frame with this sliding joint machined on both sides to lock the cabinet sides in place with precision. It took more time to machine initially, but the assembly was brilliant. As I slid in each frame, the carcass became stiff and was pulled square and even. I remember standing there admiring it in the open garage doors at the end of the long day. "Wow, I don't even need to glue this or put clamps on it!" The next morning I was up early, eager to disassemble the trial "dry" framework. It was a breeze to pop out each frame and then add a bead of glue and nudge it back home. It was almost sad that it was the last time I could play with it again. Eventually, as a rounded front frame work went over the carcass with it's nicely bordered beading around the drawer openings, this fancy-shmancy construction was hidden forever. Even if someone took out a drawer and inspected the inner construction with a keen eye, it would be impossible to know if this joint was there, or if it was just a common dado joint. (Although, I guess you could take the solid cherry back panel off it you really needed to see it...) This was all done just before a digital camera was always lying around my studio, so it was never photo-documented. (You'll just have to believe me, OK?)
OK, on to less wood talk.
Except... this is more cross appealing I think... As I said, the high boy is a 6 drawer. First glance says it's a 5 though. Well, as the last picture shows, there's a special and less obvious top drawer hidden in behind the graceful moulding that wraps around the top. It's got a nice smooth finger groove concealed on the bottom to allow it to silently slide out on beautiful drawer slides, using one finger. The same with the 8 drawer lady's dresser which appears to be only a 6.
While the armoires are huge and powerful, these elegant pieces are very inviting at their more human scale.
This vanity had just a bit more flair than the other two I built, so it's nice that the master bathroom it went in was so big that I could get back far enough to take a picture. Every bit of space under the sinks was utilized by having 2 top fold down "drawer fronts" for a compartment amongst the pipes. The stool's top hinges up for more quick storage. The gentle sweep on the bottom of the legs was actually the mark of when I began my small table series. Since my tables are stand alone pieces and aren't supporting slabs of marble as with this vanity, the design has evolved in proportion.
The headboard's double-S was Dianne's idea. She sketched it out and faxed it over, I refined it and made up templates for her leather guy. As always, storage in every possible area was called for, so 6 deep drawers on soft casters were designed in.
A couple years later I did a curly maple home office for Dianne. Fabulous. More on that later.
Sorry, I don't have a sarcastic, witty ending for this one, just a great deal of pride and gratitude for yet another person to take such a leap of faith in a designer / maker.
They're happy, I'm happy, there ya go.
