Andreas Pfister, Parquetry Cabinet (WORLD 2022)

Photos:

Andreas Pfister

Country:

Germany

The cabinet is made in a veneer construction, with all the parts built around a shop made Basswood lumbercore that’s cross banded with commercial veneer. The final layer is shop sawn veneer of around 2mm thickness. Veneer of that thickness can be worked and finished like solid wood. • Species used are: European Walnut for the carcass and figured pear for the doors; the light part in the middle is figured and slightly spalted Poplar, the dark, inlaid pattern is from a wood that was sold to me under the sounding name of “Solomon Blackwood”. The inside is Satin- or Lemonwood (Chloroxylon swietenia). Drawer fronts are some sort of Rosewood (I think), sides and backs from fragrant Spanish Cedar and drawer bottoms are made from a beautiful piece of old growth Red Cedar. Drawer pulls Vera, the stand is Wenge. • This piece was an exercise in perseverance and humility. After full sun light had hit the doors for a few hours, one part of the veneers had cracked and some of the glue lines had opened up. I was devastated, and even though the cracks mostly closed in the normal climate, they remained visible. • I debated to re-do the veneered fronts but pretty soon it became obvious that I couldn’t just come up with something that excites me, that could pull me through all the work ahead. Short- I was simply refusing to let it go. So I started playing around with ways to repair these joints/ cracks, to actually focus on them. And gradually a pattern of inlaid strips emerged that I never ever would have thought of or knew that they were missing. They added a visual structure and surprise to these doors that left me speechless. I also managed to replace the cracked part with another veneer from the same piece.

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