Entry Details

Wall Cabinet Contest
March 1, 2005

Entry Details

# 108

Brian Crane

Portland, OR

Dimensions (inches):
	Width:	29
	Height:	49
	Depth:	9.5
Materials:		wiggle wood, maple veneer, quilted maple, Russian birch plywood, museum glass, dip-pen and ink drawings, brass hinges and pull.

I have been a musician for 25 years and this wall-hung cabinet "GuitarMoire" is a reliquary that stores all the music I've created or been a part of creating.

This is only a fraction of the records, CD's, T-shirts, stickers, posters, flyers and pictures that clutter my house. Too precious to throw out, too many to display on limited wall space. I had previously done the 4 cross-hatch dip-pen and ink wash drawings and just hadn't gotten around to framing them. This was the perfect opportunity to incorporate them, so I designed the frame and panel door to hold the mounted drawings and museum (grade) glass as the panels.

This image show the design inspiration of my Gibson Les Paul's headstock on the right and the 1/4 scale model on the left. The full scale drawing followed these and was the final step before construction.

The construction took a few months. It took a male/female form to bend each half of the top and prooved to be unusually difficult. The joinery would have been nearly impossible without the full scale drawing to lay the pieces on and transfer the angles. The swooping side pieces were done with a vacuum bag. All the bent plywood was made with wiggle wood, veneer and plastic resin glue.

The door and frame were finished with oil and then sprayed with a water-based poly. I really wanted the carcass to be this big black shadow to show off the maple and drawings. I thought this would draw attention to the items inside when opened. I ended up mixing and spraying many (sorry, lost count after a while) coats of black lacquer. I instantly gained infinite respect for the piano finishers.

See, not all woodworkers are insane. Right?

Judges Comments

AJH : The figuring of the door/frame works well with the black lacquer around it, and the black-ink illustrations inside it. "GuitarMoire" is the perfect title for this piece.
EW : This is a very cool design. I appreciate the overall form and I think you have adapted it well to this design challenge. Nice artwork, by the way, and a very creative concept. I would like to have seen you pay a bit more attention to the fairness of the long curves. Fair curves are hard to define, but easy to observe. In this cabinet, I felt the curves could have been smoother -- both the outer curves of the cas and the birdseye maple face frame.
LG : Perhaps not all woodworkers are insane but the dedicated ones knock on the door more often than most. You have a unique design. The appearance of this cabinet is striking and I'm a bit surprised tuning pegs aren't protruding from it. Nice.
RJ : I think this is a marvellous fun piece. It looks off-beat until the purpose becomes clear whereupon it no longer seems idiosyncratic. The panelled door seems appropriate and it's framed boldly. A successful piece.