Art Furniture
"Nikita's Puck"
42" high x 32" wide; laminated and carved birch, aniline dye, copper; copyright by James Mellick
My brother asked me to create a keepsake table for my nephew. I designed a pedestal table involving the nephew's dog "Nikita" and his favorite sport, hockey.
I proposed the following sketch of his dog doing a hand stand on a hockey puck as a base. I selected Birch because it had the warm amber color of the dog. The following images document the progress of creating my first work of sculptural furniture.
The head is carved and the tail is blocked up for carving.
Legs and body parts are laminated and blocked ready for attaching and/or carving.
Here body parts and carved legs are temporarily attached and fitted. The tail has been shaped. The front legs and tenons are carved from the same block.
This is a studio photo of the finished work. The 5.33 x 16 inch "hockey puck" base is solid laminated birch with mortises for the tenons on the front feet. It is ebonized with aniline dye. The solid birch top was redesigned from 24 inches to 32 inches in diameter.
This profile view shows the underside of the table top which is attached with "key hole" fixtures which I designed. These allow the table top to be locked in place and yet removable if necessary. Note the applied copper details.
This detail shows the copper eyes.