There are many areas to work in as a furniture maker, but probably the one that has evolved most effortlessly for Jonathan has been his work in fine woodworking cabinetry designs. It is, more than in any other area of his work, the design of the cabinetry  that seems to bring out the best in Jonathan’s work.
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The Rikki has softly bowing drawers and side panels as well. Handles are hand-carved ebony. A very gentle, sensuous piece to grace a bedroom. Works extremely well in darker woods.
36″ (wall-mounted) x 26″ x 72″.
Drawer fronts and cabinet sides were carved to undulate wave-like surfaces, the drawers more deeply to provide hand pulls. The top "wing" was carefully laminated to include a slight upward twist at the tip to give more resistance and support to a heavy sculpture to be placed there.
Homage to Georgia O'Keefe.
Shown in spalted maple, hardrock maple and ebony;
78″ x 21″ x 66″.
Named for Georgia O'Keefe for the dry desert-like images seen in the spalted door panels. One of about a dozen new designs made for a one-man show called "One Tree". All the pieces in the show are inspired by and built from one rare, amazing bigleaf maple tree brought down by disease, (the inimitable spalting). The show sold out, but there are still a few, very few, pieces of this unbelievable wood in the studio.
Shown in Macassar ebony, quilted maple, silk, gold;
96″ x 24″ x 78″.
The Kimono Cabinet was commissioned by a client, the wife asking me to surprise her husband on an important birthday. The request was "pull out all the stops". I did. The Kimono Cabinet has six secret compartments, each with a separate sequence of movements before the compartment can be found or opened. The doors are opened by engaging a hidden magnetic field which releases locking pins. When a door is opened, another magnetic field is broken, and after a 1.5 second delay, lights in the cabinet slowly ramp up to illuminate the interior. All the curved forms in the Kimono Cabinet are bent, tapered laminations. The drawers are all hand-cut dovetails on curved, sequenced fronts. All hardware was handmade. Certainly the most difficult, time-consuming and spectacular piece I have been asked to make.
Shown in bubinga with ebony handles:
26″ x 18″ x 42″.
Usually contains drawers handfitted for silverware, lined with silverware cloth. Can be fitted for any use. Curved members, bent laminated; drawers hand dovetailed.
With its graceful curves, cabriole legs, and ornamental back splat, a Queen Anne side chair is a bucket list build for many woodworkers. Dan Faia had a very specific Queen…
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