For years, Geoffrey Warner bought flitch-cut slabs for his tabletops and sliced away the natural edges to create uniform boards. But the more the Maine furniture maker worked with beautiful full-width planks, the stronger his urge became to feature their live edges instead of removing them. Warner learned to deal with the bark, knots, and fissures in these planks, but the thorniest question was how to hold them up. Like many, Warner was inspired by George Nakashima’s use of live-edge slabs with simple, rectilinear bases. Embodying reverence for nature and a minimalist design aesthetic, Nakashima’s designs are so powerful they can be hard to shake. But Warner went in a different direction, designing curvy bases that celebrate a joiner’s flair for structure. Employing stout proportions, springing curves, and heavy shaping, Warner found forms that resonate with the organic edges of the slab tops and have the visual heft to hold them up.—Jonathan Binzen

Pro Portfolio: To watch an audio slide show featuring a variety of Warner’s furniture, go to FineWoodworking.com/extras.

From Fine Woodworking #222

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