by Brian LeFevre
I designed this piece to replace a series of gathered tables under a window for my wifes plants. The design includes elements and shapes to match other Eastlake period antiques in the room. The 5 leg design allows us to use the space under the table to store our hand drums. We searched for a marble to match other pieces but were told that the black with red and white striping is not available in America. We went with a red based marble top because my wife needs to place large plants on this table in the window and the red accents the walnut. This is the largest single piece I have designed from scratch after repairing or expanding several Eastlake pieces. The buttons are hand turned on my lathe. The legs are a glue up of walnut that was cut down in Iowa in the 1970s. Turned on my lathe and then doweled into the skirt boards and screwed in place with steel flat head slotted screws from my Grandfathers collection. I had to make a jig to flute them on the lathe. The veneer is applied with hot hide glue and roller on walnut and then applied to the base with hot hide glue and pin nails. It is common in Eastlake pieces we have to find plywood, so using plywood under the marble was acceptable in place of a glued up panel of poplar. I used dovetailed red oak supports under the plywood to keep the marble flat. In order to achieve the aged walnut lightness I experimented with a variety of wood bleaching processes. I found Daly's 2 part bleach to be the most consistent and with a water based Light Brown Dye from General Finishes was able to get very close to the other antiques we have. Quite a bit more hand work than other projects but it opened a lot of doors to hand tools for me. -- Thanks, Brian LeFevre 303-249-7418