Torchiere with a twist – FineWoodworking

It’s been almost twenty years since Jesse Shaw spent a yr on the Heart for Furnishings Craftsmanship in Maine, however the passions he found and strategies he explored whereas there proceed to light up his work. “Steam-bending actually captivated me,” Shaw says, “I liked that you would bend wooden like magic.” Academics David Caldwell and David Upfill-Brown had a lot to share about learn how to make the magic occur. On the time, Shaw had been musing over one thing he’d learn, in a e-book referred to as The Curves of Life, concerning the significance of spiral shapes in the whole lot from mollusk shells to the Milky Means. He determined to braid these two new ideas together and try steam-bending a spiral. After producing a coatrack from a twist of steam-bent sticks, he discovered a perform he thought higher suited the spiral type, and he had quickly made the primary of his standing lamps. However what shade may match the vitality and pleasure of the interlaced legs? A serendipitous discovery made whereas holding a skinny slice of wooden to the sunshine revealed to him “the hidden magnificence throughout the wooden.” And he had his reply: The shade of his lamp can be a rolled cone of burl veneer.

—Jonathan Binzen

From Nice Woodworking #291