EBANO

EBANO

EBANO is a contribution to an exhibition with ‘MONO’ as its theme. The theme inspired me to make a monochrome and monolithic cabinet covered entirely with small bits of ebony offcuts from the crudely cut exterior of the ebony tree trunk. Ebano’s rugged exterior is an illusion that creates the impression that the shape is made of a stacked formation of black stones. 

The idea for the shape came from the French semainier commodes that were popular during the late 18th century. At an early stage of my apprenticeship, I made a small semainier for my wife, just 20 cm wide. ‘Semaine’ means ‘week’, which describes it function, with seven drawers, one for each weekday. The chests were small enough to fit into the bedrooms of the small Parisian flats. At first glance, it can be difficult to see were the drawers are located. The seven drawers increase in height towards the bottom, just as the ebony cladding increases in thickness. When the bottom drawer is removed, a large secret compartment is revealed in the base of the piece.

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EXHIBITED:

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INSPIRATION:  EBONY OFFCUTS

Several of the boxes from Pierluigi Ghianda’s workshop were full of offcuts of black ebony cut from the outside of the original plank. The rugged surfaces come from the process of removing the outer white part of the trunk, which does not have the same properties as the black core. This was done using axes and chainsaws. When I opened the boxes, I was immediately inspired to make a piece covered entirely with these magical surfaces. 

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Despite its rugged exterior, the cabinet is a high-precision piece. All the pieces were first cut into more or less the same thickness and then given parallel sides. I chose to place the widest pieces at the bottom of the cabinet and using gradually thinner ones towards the top. The corners are chamfered at 45 degrees to allow me to continue the texture all the way around the piece. 

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