A memorable commission came

from a wonderful textile artist and her woodworker husband.

They wanted a coffee table base made for their daughter who was moving into a new home.They gave me free reign for the style -I used a piece of wood he had already crafted using the natural organic shape and raw edge. They had previously commissioned me to make something to hang a sentimental piece of pottery in their home. The criteria for this commission that guided me was driven by two small energetic boys that were likely to climb onto the coffee table given half a chance. This was a challenge in as much as the wood was very narrow at one end and also barrel shaped underneath naturally from its trunk shape, again only on the one end whilst the other end was wider and flat underneath. I had arranged for the wooden top piece to be delivered but not to have its final finish until I had finished man handling it. I started by scribbling quick pen drawings into my sketch book and then with the wood in front of me, decided which design would work thinking mainly of the stability that the coffee table needed and the robustness of the overall design to withstand the trauma it might encounter by two little boys. Next stage involved creating full size drawings and making jigs for the two different shaped legs. I analysed every catalogue I could find to come up with an average height for coffee tables and based mine on that information.

 I decided on 16mm round mild steel and love to use tenons and rivets, punched holes and wraps and curls, texture, so would include the lot which would also add rigidity to the design.

This was a dream commission in that I had no budget constraints so could spend time doing what I really enjoyed. This does not happen very often. The legs and table top support would

each be made from one piece with  3 punched and swollen holes. The upper two holes would connect to the opposite leg and be joined by a rivet on either end of a piece of round bar. The lower hole would be threaded by tapered round bar and snuggly wrapped and curled around the lower leg. The lower legs would flare out, more so one end than the other to compensate for the narrow top width of the table top, the look would be subtle rather than obvious.

Pig tail feet on each leg would spread the load and also appeal to the boys. The top of the legs would have a round bar sunk just over half way down its width to swell out its sides and accentuate the deliberate 90 degree bend to form the underneath table top supports. This also helped with increasing stability for the table as a whole by eliminating another join. Two of these supports would curve to marry up with the curve of the tree trunk and the other leg ends flattened. They would eventually join the table top with screws for a permanent fixture. The lower tapered round bars were heavily textured using top and bottom swages under the power hammer, as were the legs and locked all the legs together creating a really strong structure. The centre of this welded and wrapped with round tapered bar so the weld was not visible.

Now the fun part really started when assembling all the bits together. For extra hands I cajoled the students I was teaching at the time to hold various parts for me while I tweaked to fit. Getting all four legs on the table at the same time whilst using a spirit level for the table top was a real challenge but luckily a phone call to Bruce Beamish, an industrial trained smith who͛’s always willingto help me soon suggested a few different ideas that might solve the problem which they did. Part of my challenge came from lack of equipment but it͛s amazing what you can rig up to make do.

All this time I never once showed the design so was a little apprehensive when they came to collect and I presented the bill. Needless to say they were delighted but unfortunately I do not have a decent photograph of the totally finished table in its forever home, just progress photos.

Do you have an item that needs a custom stand?

Or a piece of beautiful wood you would like made functional?

I make custom orders and would love to hear your ideas and help bring the piece to life.

Contact me here.