Walnut and resin illuminated river
My own take on the contemporary river table design combining led lighting
Once complete a stand is fashion to support it and a finish coat is applied and polished to a high gloss.
This combination of Wood resin and lighting can be used to great effect as a wall finish, lighting panel or even a under lite floor floor covering. in a domestic and commercial environment.
Talk to me about your requirements or ideas and lets see what happens!
Most of the main elements i put into my work have a bit of a back story of their own. The walnut used here is not exception. Locally grown it it naturally fell in a gale some years back. The rest of the tree long since been removed, the main trunk lay on the ground at a local estate for a number of years slowly seasoning. While removing a topled Yew tree I was asked if i could make use of it. Having had little experience with Walnut in the round I turned to my fathers vast experience and knowledge.
we had a look and poked and prodded for a bit. The bark was long since gone and the out layers of the log were rotten. to me it seamed a total loss at over 2'6" (750mm) and 8' (2.4m) long. Dad suggested i took a slice down one side with the chainsaw. the saw sunk easily into the soft yielding timber till shavings started to come from the saw. a smile crept onto both our faces there was good wood in here, but just how much?
I decided to take a chance and send it to the mill along with the yew and holly i had collected earlier.
Its like Christmas every day at the mill. unwrapping logs waiting to see whats inside. Often its the case that you can not tell how good the grain is in a log till you open it up. that also dictates what type of cut is used to dice up the log, ie quarter saw, plain or live sawn.
Although the log had been down for a number of years it still had a high moisture content from laying on the ground.
These need to be stacked with sticks between and covered outside so they can continue to season and dry slowly. 2 years later a 3"slab is brought inside to reduce the moisture content further to below 10%
There have been a lot of river tables made in the last couple of years so i wanted to do some think a little different. most river designs i have seen have been 2" thick at best, i need to go that bit further to make this special. 3" thick would give it volume, but may
be bit too dark to show of the beauty of the wood.
The waney edge board is sawn right up the middle and split in two. once they have been through the planer and cleaned up. i cut a grove or rebate along the length of both waney sides deep enough to conceal a strip of LED lights.
The waney edge board is sawn right up the middle and split in two. once they have been through the planer and cleaned up. i cut a grove or rebate along the length of both waney sides deep enough to conceal a strip of LED lights.
Lighting the timbers up on the bench for the first time i feel the need to break away from the conventional river table design and take it to a new level. the attractive grain and light feature lean me towards a vertical stand alone feature piece.
Once clamped down to a flat surface with a dam each end resin can start to be poured in 10mm layers, each one providing a different effect tinted with blues swirled into the resin gives a real depth and clarity.
the led lighting illuminates the wood and resin from within letting the colored light break through.
