Shaker Hall Table

Life Cycle Series. #1

This hall table utilizes the first of four slabs that comprise an exclusive series of tables whose designs flow naturally from the sweep in the slabs. The series of slabs, a work of art in themselves, is called Life Cycle. More on that below.

For the top, both faces have been carefully planed by hand, polished, oiled, and waxed. For this piece, I experimented with a Shaker form, adding a curve to the front to complement the slab in a cohesive way. Decorative and functional, it works best with a wall as a backdrop. Some call it functional art.

Wormy spalted maple live edge slab top polished with tung oil and waxed; cherry pedestal hand rubbed with boiled linseed oil.

DIMENSIONS (W x H x D)

70″ X 31 1/2″ X 16″

The Story

The slabs came from a tree, that after decades of weathering the storms that sometimes buffet our country home, succumbed to the onslaught and toppled back into the forest. How many years it lay there is unknown. During that time the trunk became the host for all kinds of living things. Many species of beetles and worms feasted on the rich nutrients treasured in the sap and cells of this once majestic maple. Various fungi joined the banquet. That cycle of life was arrested and captured when we dragged the drooping log out of the forest, sawed it into slabs, and stacked them outside to dry. Hence the name, Life Cycle for the slabs.