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| Detail from 'Founding Fathers writing Table' (Click Image for picture viewer) |
Silas shared his thoughts with me about his 'Founding Fathers Writing Table'. Like the Founding Fathers, Silas is a master at his vocation and has a knack for being where the action is. So when curators and fellow master woodworkers Bill Jewel and Jacques Vesery invited him to participate in the "National Treasures: History in the Making" exhibit at the Architectural Digest show (March 18 - 21, 2010) in New York City, he was ready.
"National Treasures: History in the Making"
"Bill Jewel, of Historical Woods of America, approached me about the possibility of an exhibit using American woods from the homes of the Founding Fathers. I was intrigued, but my concern was trying to make a marquetry image with a limited palette of woods that grow in Virginia."
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| Founding Fathers writing table (Click Image for picture viewer) |
"In my mind the piece had to reference history, yet be of a contemporary design. I opted for a writing table with a trompe l’oeil top depicting a surface that had objects of the 18th century. To make trompe l’oeil believable on a horizontal surface the objects need to be relatively flat. My starting point was paper and something being written on it with a quill pen. I chose words from the Declaration of Independence, as if Jefferson were working on a draft. I put the words “this truth” and crossed it out, writing about “these truths”. I needed some additional flat objects to fill the composition. An open envelope with a broken wax seal. Old-fashioned glasses. Brass keys."
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| Marquetry trompe l'oeil table top (Click Image for picture viewer) |
"The woods offered were limited in tone. The darkest wood was walnut, the lightest a creamy colored ash. The rest of the woods were somewhere in between. There were some golden tones that I thought would be successful for the brass in the glasses and the keys. To get a darker “black” for the ink and a few of the other parts I used the endgrain cut of the walnut. There was only one wood offered that had any significant figure, but in some ways it was the most important tree of all the historic woods. It was a horse chestnut tree documented as having been planted by George Washington in Fredericksburg. It was the last standing of thirteen symbolically planted by Washington between his sister’s and mother’s houses over two hundred years ago."
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| Marquetry with figured horse chestnut and other historic woods (Click Image for picture viewer) |
"The board I was offered was of a very limited size but I was able to cut it into veneers and cover the top surface. The fact that there was both heartwood and sapwood, and some figure along with the unusual grey color, made it ideal for the background because the plainer woods of the marquetry objects would stand out in contrast. A few years ago I had worked on the Walden Woods Piano and was challenged in a similar way to use a limited palette of woods, all from temperate forest and nothing tropical. In the Founding Fathers Writing Table the focus was even narrower, with all the woods coming from Virginia. I did use at least a little piece of all the fifteen woods that were offered."
National Treasures - History in the Making
Presented by William E. Jewell of Historical Woods of America, with co-curator and wood sculptor Jacques Vesery, the exhibit made it's National debut March 18-21, 2010 at the Architectural Digest Home Design Show in New York City.
George Washington's Horse Chestnut Tree
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| The Horse Chestnut Tree |
Silas Kopf Woodworking
A note from Silas Kopf Woodworking regarding the "Founding Fathers Writing Table" ~ The wood for this piece all came from Virginia plantations of Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Patrick Henry). There are fifteen different species used. The background of the top is horse chestnut and is documented as having been planted by Washington. The primary wood is walnut from the Mount Vernon whiskey distillery. Other woods include tulip poplar, cherry, mulberry, boxwood, osage orange, ash, red oak, maple, white oak, cedar, pecan, elm, and sycamore.
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| Founding Fathers Writing Table 52" Wide 22" Deep 30" High (Click Image for picture viewer) |
Trompe L'oeil!
Enjoy these detail images and the related dialog with Silas in the comments section below:
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| "A quill pen" (Click Image for picture viewer) |
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| "An open envelope with a broken wax seal" (Click Image for picture viewer) |
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| "Old-fashioned glasses" (Click Image for picture viewer) |
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| "Brass keys" (Click Image for picture viewer) |
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ReplyDeleteI took a look at your website and first of all thank you for giving me so much “space”. Secondly, you are doing a good thing for the whole field.
ReplyDeleteI hope you garner lots of publicity. It's a resource for anyone interested in marquetry and inlay.
Thanks for sending the narrative about your creative process for this profoundly American piece and for giving me permission to publish your additional remarks as comments.
ReplyDeleteComment fields should be more like forums, encouraging more viewers to join in.
The post looks great. I appreciate that you were able extract presentable details like the glasses.
ReplyDeleteCalling out details like the quill pen and the old-fashioned glasses felt like a 'teachable moment' for expressing my amazement when I realized that you had modulated the shadow of the quill as it passed across the heartwood.
ReplyDeleteThat's when I took a closer look at the artful rendering of the glasses and other objects.
It's interesting how constraints are one way of drawing out an artist's depth of skill.
It was good of you pick up on some of the subtle things in the composition, such as the shadows changing species. Another thing I did was to give the glass in the lens more of an effect by making the lines behind the glass distorted. I also changed the tone of the woods slightly, as if the glass were not completely clear. This is something I have done on cabinets where I have depicted wine glasses, bottles, or glass vases. These details might not be readily apparent, but they presumably enhance the picture by making it more realistic. Doing marquetry with meticulous consideration of the drawing can be something that allows the viewer to explore the picture with greater depth.
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