While at work, when both Morgan and I should have other preoccupations, Morgan sent me a link on gchat to An American Bookshelf in London. She wasn't suggesting I make it, but rather just sharing something cool. Yet, I thought, could I make that? The answer was a definite no. That bookshelf was too big of a project to be my first foray into woodworking. I'm handy, but I'm not that handy.
So I offered up some alternatives to her. California? Not enough horizontal sections. Louisiana? Our adopted home, but we're not that attached yet, at least, to the whole state. What iconic shape would be easy enough to recreate with fibrous cellulose, have enough horizontals, and represent something we actually care about?
As a new New Orleanian, I thought of the iconic river that defines my great city in the south. I don't know my cardinal directions, but rather relative ones. Upriver, downriver, river-side, lake-side: these are the city's descriptors. I looked at a map, and realized I had hit upon something, something possible.
I decided to make a bookshelf in the shape of the Mighty Mississippi.
I bought a jigsaw and three 4x8-feet sheets of half-inch plywood, and began. Morgan helped me create a template, and I created three complete rivers and layered them.
I needed to project from the wall more than an inch and a half, so I created spacers by taking a door knob drill bit and and attacked some scrap plywood 40 times. The result: 40 circles of the same material. I also wanted some sections to have a solid shelf, so for those I jigsawed short segments of the overall shape.
I combined everything with wood-glue and pre-drilled holes for five and a half inch screws, which entered from the back. Staining it espresso made it fit with our overall decor, and hanging it was a lot easier than I expected.
This is the result:
Very Cool! Great idea!
ReplyDeleteImpressive! Great idea Morgan!
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