Liquor Cabinet #1
This is the first piece where it all "clicked" and when I realized how my creative brain operates. Really... I remember a feeling like a whole network of switches were suddenly properly aligned. Designing after that became much more interesting, attractive and obsessive at times.
I made this piece in my final year a Sheridan College in 1990. It's made of genuine South American Mahogany (the good stuff) and stainless steel rods hold the suspended cabinet in place. The drawer has hand cut dovetails, lined with a burgundy leather to accent some of the streaking in the marble. The handles were made by coring into a hunk of granite, which required many, many hours of remaking, final sizing and polishing. The design was wide open since it was a student project and didn't have to meet anyone's criteria, however I was confined by the size of the marble, which came to me via my brother's wife, who's father had gotten it in Pakistan way back. This piece of marble is 20" x 40" and has some beautiful subtle colours in it. So, my only design parameters were to hold it up 34", and contain a small collection of choice liquor.
The design worked out so that it would happily hold 5 bottles. When I took this picture, I raided my Dad's supply for props and in my haste in the school's photo studio, with a paper (Duh!) bag holding 5 bottles... yeah, 3 broke on the studio floor, and man, what a plume of alcoholic gas! The worst part is that aside from eliminating 3 of my Dad's bottles in the worst possible way, there was a single malt he had brought back from a business trip from Britain, and wait... it's gets more painful... that precious bottle was mixed with white rum and some other pungent jet fuel, so the aroma was not as pleasant as if the bottles had broken on separate occasions and were not mixed together. What a smell. Aaaaanyways, the whole School of Craft and Design thought there was some kind of party happening somewhere.
I'm happy that I hung on to this piece, but admittedly, it's very rarely properly stocked. Still looks great, and it’s placed right by the front door, deliberately, in case there’s a fire, it’ll make it out.
I made this piece in my final year a Sheridan College in 1990. It's made of genuine South American Mahogany (the good stuff) and stainless steel rods hold the suspended cabinet in place. The drawer has hand cut dovetails, lined with a burgundy leather to accent some of the streaking in the marble. The handles were made by coring into a hunk of granite, which required many, many hours of remaking, final sizing and polishing. The design was wide open since it was a student project and didn't have to meet anyone's criteria, however I was confined by the size of the marble, which came to me via my brother's wife, who's father had gotten it in Pakistan way back. This piece of marble is 20" x 40" and has some beautiful subtle colours in it. So, my only design parameters were to hold it up 34", and contain a small collection of choice liquor.
The design worked out so that it would happily hold 5 bottles. When I took this picture, I raided my Dad's supply for props and in my haste in the school's photo studio, with a paper (Duh!) bag holding 5 bottles... yeah, 3 broke on the studio floor, and man, what a plume of alcoholic gas! The worst part is that aside from eliminating 3 of my Dad's bottles in the worst possible way, there was a single malt he had brought back from a business trip from Britain, and wait... it's gets more painful... that precious bottle was mixed with white rum and some other pungent jet fuel, so the aroma was not as pleasant as if the bottles had broken on separate occasions and were not mixed together. What a smell. Aaaaanyways, the whole School of Craft and Design thought there was some kind of party happening somewhere.
I'm happy that I hung on to this piece, but admittedly, it's very rarely properly stocked. Still looks great, and it’s placed right by the front door, deliberately, in case there’s a fire, it’ll make it out.
