In 2021, when he made this white oak and white lacquer standing screen in his Ottawa workshop, Christopher Solar was calling the spirit of Sébastien Truchet across three centuries. Truchet was a Dominican priest with an interest in mathematics and art. And in 1704, after seeing a batch of decorative ceramic tiles intended for the floor of a chapel, he wrote a paper about the patterns and permutations possible when ranks of identical tiles are rotated and rearranged. Solar, too, is fascinated with the intersection of math and visual art; after finding a swirling Truchet pattern on a website where you could rotate the tiles with a click of your mouse, he adapted the design to this screen. Creating 48 identical MDF tiles, each 81⁄2 in. square, he veneered them, routed concentric fluted arcs into them using templates he’d made, then sprayed the tiles with white lacquer. After passing them through his abrasive planer to reveal the veneer on the flat surfaces, he splined and glued up the tiles and assembled them in their frames. It was a very demanding piece to make, Solar said. “I think if I were shrewder, I would not have embarked on it. But I guess I convinced myself that the headaches involved were worthwhile, because I wanted to see the thing happen.”

—Jonathan Binzen

Photos: Christopher Solar

From Fine Woodworking #306