Curved Dovetail Console Table
Curved Dovetail Console Table
Sapele and Glass 37″H x 70″W x 15″D
Some pieces that I design and build stand out for me. They stand out because they are born in a moment of inspiration and they continue to develop in unforeseen ways as they are built. Something just feels different from start to finish. This is one of those pieces. The story is that I was testing a new process that I have developed for delivering clamp pressure for bent laminations. This is one of the two methods that I use to bend wood. I needed to develop a new system for a few reasons. The biggest reason is the Circular Tree Bench that I am working on. The curves in that piece are enormous and there are many of them. There would be no way for me to manually tighten all of those clamps. The new system relies on an impact wrench to mechanically tighten the clamps.
Below you can see pictures of the curves in process. I made two just to make sure that everything was 100% in order. It was! I ended up with two gorgeous curved pieces of Sapele and that is when this piece quickly came into being.
The curves immediately suggested structure to me and before I knew it I was building the table. The key to the piece was a short piece of glass that I had. I needed a way to create a wooden extension to tie everything together. I ended up creating a dovetail bridge that allowed me to seat the small piece of glass into the composition. Necessity forced this innovation and it is one of the reasons that I am so happy about this composition. Here is the table all roughed in.
The dovetails are hand cut to a very high standard so that I can freely shape into them later. I treat them like I am creating a landscape. The process is all about spontaneity and I cut and evaluate over and over. The dovetails become a composition within a larger composition of the table. The structure is celebrated as decoration.
Once everything was blocked out I refine the composition with a series of cuts and facets. I use these to mellow some of the components and balance the composition. I strive for a balance even in this asymmetrical table.
I should mention that i have treated the Sapele with a chemical that emulates years of patina. The color comes from within and can not be achieved with pigmented dyes or stains.
The Curved Dovetail Console Table can also be viewed in the portfolio section of my site. You will find a link for a 360° View which will allow you to rotate the piece.
By Nico Yektai -New York based designer/maker Nico Yektai opened the doors to his Hamptons studio in 1995 after completing the MFA program at the School For American Craft at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The rigorous technical training complimented his background in Art History, which he studied, at Hobart College in Geneva NY. Yektai has synthesized this background into a singular style that has gained him national attention. Visit nicoyektai.com for more information
