Most often when I build I will do several pieces at once so that I have a whole mess of furniture to paint at the same time. At then end of one of these building sprees I will have a pretty big pile of scraps left over. Keep in mind, I try to buy as much of my wood from salvage yards as possible. So my scraps are often the sraps of the scraps of some other project from ages past.
One of my favorite things to do with my scrap pile is to challenge myself to make something beautiful out of it. Usually the result is a shrine or an art piece but on this day I had some really interesting scraps to build out of. I had made a piece with appliqued gothic arches and the resulting leftovers had big arches cut out of them. The same with the appliqued arches on this piece, they were just the opposite-leftover after I used the wood they were cut from.
The finish on this piece is quite lovely in person. I painted the piece red first, sanded back into the wood and prior paints, and then added the layers of purple. After sanding back into purple to reveal red, wood and woodgrain, I washed the piece with my secret recipe wash and then varnished the piece.
I named the piece "The Lotus Mahal" since the arches mirrored a shape I had seen on an ancient Indian temple of the same name. It is one of the few pieces of furniture that I have kept for myself.
Mixed Media Woods, 1960s turned divider posts cut down for legs, house trim, Handcut decorations, Latex Paint, Spar Varnish. Built and Designed By Brett Bigham of Black Dog Furniture Design, Portland, Oregon.
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