Statement on tables
Personal Statement On The Making Of Tables
I have been fascinated by ‘tables’ from the time of our first setting up home in 1963. I built our first table using Burmese teak saved from an old 1930’s table that had been abused! It was and is still a rectangular table in the refectory style; long and narrow.
This first table was followed in the seventies by several more tables for our home, all very traditional in style!
The favourite of these is a little pedestal Chess Table now much battered and distressed by decades of use which has a Yellowwood and Stinkwood top with Jacaranda and Oak undercarriage. Another favourite is a small Coffee Table which also has a Yellowwood top and Beech wood legs. This was followed by my making desks for our children.
Having practised as a sculptor and lecturer for the past fifty five years, the making of tables is a logical extension of my sculpture activities and since 2003 I have been making tables for selected clients as a happy and exciting side-line or hobby.
Craftsmanship has always interested me and applies equally to the making of sculpture and the making of tables (furniture). It is basically the making of functional as opposed to non-functional ‘objects’.
Dona Meilach in her book ‘WOODWORKING The New Wave’ puts it so well:
Mike Edwards
“…..whether any of the pieces illustrated (she wrote) has an obvious use or exists as intellectual stimulation the artist’s creative processes are the same”
Dona Meilach
HOW A TABLE IS BORN
Making bespoke tables for Mike Edwards is enjoyable as it not only involves the designing of a particular table and the choosing and selection of a particular wood but also fitting these into a particular space for a particular purpose for particular people.
After discussions with the client he prepares a few sketch ideas and once a basic idea has been agreed, working drawings and construction methods are prepared and sometimes a scale model is also made. Costs are obviously determined by the design, the dimensions and the selected wood species chosen for the table.