A recent commission brief caused a few disparate memories to crash into each other in my mind and the penny finally dropped about things I've been thinking about, forgotten about, intended to do and forgotten I wanted to. Years ago I saw a Ming Dynasty table at the NGV, and its significance sailed straight over my head. Something about keeping toddlers off the exhibits will do that. But the clanging sound in my head is the penny still going down the deepest well in the world.
The table in question is a corner-leg design, where three mitres meet to create the illusion of grain running continuously in all directions. I recently learned the version of this I've been doing is a wildly degenerate method, and now I've seen the real thing boy, there's no going back. This table is 450 years old, is still standing, and is assembled without glue, but rather is held together with the interlocking joinery alone. THIS was the type of thing I wanted to make when I got started: where every component is structural as well as decorative.
In my research I discovered that there isn't a single English language text on building this style of furniture. There are academic and historical documents, some including detailed diagrams of joins, but there's no 'woodworker's guide to Ming furniture construction'. So I'm going to write it. One blog post at a time.
I haven't been this excited since I first picked up a chisel.