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Drop-Leaf Table in Black Walnut Wood Boston, Massachusetts

This singular table was a first attempt at formulating my own design sense in wood. The concept was premised on a falling leaf, and the table itself seems to be floating through the air on its delicate, dancer's legs. The top emulates the five lobes of a maple leaf, while the banding around the edge provides a leaf-like framework to support and interlock the slender legs. The fifth corner of the table top is turned down to create a naturalistic curve, and emphasize its free suspension in space. The suspended 'stretchers' add to the defiance of gravity, and defiance of rules for furniture-making.

In 1976, I exhibited this table in a show of "Wood and Fabric" at The Society of Arts and Crafts, in Boston, Massachusetts. I had started it in the woodshop of the University of New Hampshire in 1974, and finished it in my own shop in 1975.

While I received a thorough education in craftsmanship at the North Bennet Street School, I emerged from their program without the ability to transfer my classical training to new designs of my own. I began this process at UNH, and quickly found my own form of expression, having gained the prerequisite skills at NBSS.