Channel Cocktail Table at the "My Grain" Exhibition

The Channel Cocktail Table is one of the first custom furniture pieces that Kevin designed and made, while he was still in school.


Measuring 54" long x 21" wide x 16" overall height the main body of this table is crafted from a rare sampling of quartered English Oak veneer, which was sourced from my core stash of vintage woods.

The tempered glass top was set on offsets of satin stainless steel which were meticulously inlaid into the concave curve of the pedestal top.

This table was first displayed in juried "Studio North" exhibition at the 2010 Interior Design Show (IDS10). It was here that the table caught the eye of Gord Peteran, who teaches Furniture Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD).

Peteran said he "was struck by the simple understated grace of the table. While the table was basically composed of three simple forms made out of three different materials, there was a sophisticated relationship between them that is not common in contemporary design nor is it usually present in young makers work. Upon closer examination the quality of execution was beautiful."

The Channel Cocktail Table will be on display at the upcoming "My Grain" exhibition at The Guild Shop in Toronto, which opens July 16th.

Channel Cocktail Table

In tandem with designing the Levee Cocktail Table described in the earlier post, Kevin also sketched out a series of ideas that would ultimately manifest as the Channel Cocktail Table.


The Channel Cocktail Table measures 54" long x 21" wide x 16" overall height. The main body of the table is crafted from a rare sampling of quartered English Oak veneer, which was sourced from my core stash of vintage woods.

The tempered glass top was set on offsets of satin stainless steel which were meticulously inlaid into the concave curve of the pedestal top.

This table was displayed in the Studio North area of the 2010 Interior Design Show (IDS10), which was also the first exhibition of Kevin's work.

It is numbered 2009-#002

Pedestal Jewel Box from the "Boxed Jewels" Exhibition

In 2006 The Guild Shop in Toronto showcased some examples of my work at an exhibition called "Boxed Jewels". The following Pedestal Jewel Box was one of the pieces on display.

Oddly enough it's only been recently that I've finally made the effort to have this thing photographed, largely because this design became the inspiration for a custom watch winder box we recently completed .

This Pedestal Jewel Box measures 12-5/8" wide x 11-1/8" deep x 49-1/2" overall height. When open it measures 16-3/8" wide. The pedestal is made of FSC certified Nero Vermelho which has been sculpted into an entasis shape using the same geometric proportions used by the ancient Greeks to construct the Parthenon in Athens.

The exterior of the split shell box is crafted out of some of my core stash of rare veneers - in this case the last of my spectacular Amboyna Cluster Burl that was first used to make the Amboyna Bed back in 1998.

The box interior is made of African Padauk, with the 5 undulating drawer fronts sculpted from solid stock. The drawer boxes are solid mahogany fitted with sliding dovetails. The drawer bottoms are lined in black Tuscany leather.

The Knitting Cabinet

Last year Teresa re-celebrated her 39th birthday. To commemorate the event I made a special gift in the form of a Knitting Cabinet.



It took a great deal of planning to work out the design of this piece because multiple considerations had to be factored in. For one thing there had to be storage for multiple skeins (balls) of yarn. Since she sometimes takes on larger projects using multiple skeins it seemed prudent to have a flexible array of cubbies for storage.





In addition to the yarn she actually knits with Teresa also has a core stash of yarn which originally belonged to her late mother. The required an additional deep drawer for storage.



For the cabinet interior I used aromatic cedar, and made the dovetailed drawers out of the same material. Concealed Blumotion linear ball bearing slides allow the drawers to be opened and closed with little effort.

The cabinet exterior was crafted from a rare sampling of Curly Birds Eye Maple which is part of my own core stash of wood. Corner beads of solid Makore were inlaid to help accentuate the grain of the lighter wood. The inlays also help to visually integrate the main cabinet with the wood on the supporting base. The base was fitted together with mortise and tenon joinery.



As an avid knitter Teresa is particularly fond of her collection of ebony and rosewood needles. For these I created a dedicated drawer with interlocking horizontal storage to accomodate all the various sized needles.



Special supports were crafted out of solid domestic sycamore, with each support made of a series of specially shaped pockets that can hold any size of needle diameter. (The syamore turned out to be extremely well suited for this task since its fine grain allowed for very precise cuts without chipping or breaking.)

An additional drawer stores patterns and miscellaneous supplies.

The interior was left unfinished to allow the Cedar to freely respirate, thereby permeating the cabinet with its scent. The Curly Birds Eye Maple and Makore exterior was hand rubbed with boiled linseed oil.



On the large drop lid door I wanted to personalize the design with a customized detail. After much contemplation I decided to commission a custom wood carving from renouned wildlife artist Ron Richards. The resulting artwork was a raised relief showing three hummingbirds hovering in flight. Hummingbirds represent abundant life and joy, and they were chosen as a symbolic representation of our children.

Overall dimensions are 20-3/4" wide x 15" deep x 63" high.

At the present time I am undecided about adding some small drawer pulls to the design. While the drawers function well as they are I am thinking that pulls might provide a nice finishing touch. Perhaps I could turn something that's both decorative and functional - perhaps looking like the end of a knitting needle?

What do you think?