I’m lucky to have a wonderful husband who does some beautiful woodworking on the side. He gets the talent and the work ethic from his dad – Joe Weidenbener - who is retired now and in is work shop almost full time, turning out some gorgeous pieces of furniture.
I wanted to show you one today.
Joe designed and built this stunning dresser and jewelry box set and now has it for sale!
Both pieces – which are separate but designed to work together – are completely made from hardwoods, except for backs and drawer bottoms.
There are several things that make these pieces special: The unique design, the quality craftsmanship and the interesting, spalted maple and poplar pieces used for much of the construction.
Spalted wood pieces have unusual figuring – or essentially lines and colorations – typically caused by fungi or other significant stress on a tree.
For these pieces, Joe used spalted maple that was collected from a single tree. He also used solid walnut dividers and highly figured spalted poplar on the drawer sides and backs, which make the inside as beautiful as the outside.
There are just too many details here to mention. But I love that on the jewelry box, Joe created drawers with dozens of compartments that can be used for necklaces, rings, scarves and other accessories. It’s really as much the perfect piece for practical reasons as it is for its beauty.
Joe entered the dresser (the jewelry box wasn’t finished yet) in the 2012 Indiana State Fair, where it won second place. Can you imagine what first place must have looked like?
You can see more photos of this amazing piece on a “for sale” page I’ve created for him on this website.
And tune in tomorrow when I'll share a Q&A with Joe about how he created this fantastic piece!
