Writing Desk
Wood Design fall 2018
Professor Mark Maček
Made with locally sourced Texas Pecan
Awarded “Best Apprentice” in 2019 Texas Furniture Maker’s Show
Featured in Fine Woodworking Magazine, June 2020
A compelling artifact, whether a drawing, writing, or structure, invites the viewer to participate in the act of imagining. A working desk must likewise engage the imagination, inviting participation in the act of bringing ideas into being.
Using modified quarter-lap/chidori joints integrated in a reciprocal structure, this desk subtly skews expected alignments. Horizontal beam members intersect always in the same relative positions, giving the structure a rotational movement. The beams cant slightly to allow the next to slide under, moving clockwise around the desk.
Upon first glance, each joint appears to be exactly the same. Upon closer inspection, however, the legs each have a unique role in the chidori joint. Each leg is conceived as a continuous bent beam, which rests on another in a different relative position in plan. Each joint is three dimensionally unique relative to the viewer.
Reciprocal Writing Desk establishes a language of reinterpreted Japanese joinery to engage the mind in questions of ambiguity and transparency, conducive to the creative process.