maple leaf mirror

To my surprise the jury awarded this mirror “Best of Show”. As I eavesdropped, the only comment from the people around me was “what mirror?” It is subtle, almost unnoticeable. People walked past it, drawn to the quilted, figured woods. The attraction wasn't as obvious.

Letting the light refractive quality of the wood delineate the artwork.

Some of the novelty of using figured woods has worn off. Don't get me wrong, seeing a beautiful piece in a lumber yard or someone's shop still sends chills down my spine, or makes me “covet thy neighbor's wood”. But when its used in furniture I like it to be featured sparingly or stand alone. The showy wood gets left out if I have a complicated design, or if I have a nice piece of wood, I leave the showy designs alone.

This design is showy and very complicated, and if created in a loud wood with lots of contrasts the stems would be indistinguishable from the leaves, or which leaf is in front and which is behind would get lost. In this project the leaves were created with the changing direction of the grain, and hence changing the light refractive directions. That eye catching, light refractive quality in maple and some other woods, is called shatoyance.

Shatoyance is what gives birds eye and quilted maple that quality of jumping off the surface. It's kind of like a child's hula dancer toy. As the light catches her one way, her hips appear in one position, a small shift and her hips seem to dance the other way. The leaves on the mirror seem to shimmer and dance as the light of the room catches the different grain directions. It became almost like creating my own figured wood but in a controlled pattern.

To better show what is happening in the leaves, such as which leaf is in the foreground and which is in the background, shading was used. This is accomplished by slightly toasting the wood using hot sand, no paints or stains are used. At the bottom of the frame, grain direction and shatoyance are solely used to delineate the leaves and here it borders on such subtly that the design will get lost if not viewed with the light reflecting from the correct direction. A work could potentially be created that just looks like a piece of wood but if you move into just the right position the graphic art appears.

The pictures are executed in double bevel marquetry; a technique where thin veneers are combined to create a picture, that is then glued down to a plywood core. The four separate sides of the mirror are made this way, then the joinery and miters are cut, the four corners are then connected in one stressful glue up. I went back and inlaid a few leaves over the joints so it would tie the design together at the corners.

I love this subtle use of grain direction and light reflection to create a picture. It's almost into the realm of graphic art. But like so many of us who are drawn to furniture, that added dimension of utilitarianism makes it so special. Maybe because it has two uses - perhaps the art is good, but if not, you can always shave in the mirror.