m[E] modern furniture

beverly hills beidermeir pt/1

it all began with a picture, yes this picture. this IS a story of brilliant artisans, articulate cabinetry skills, determination and a little hollywood magic. material [ENVIRONMENT] was interviewed and contacted to build a set of beidermeir cabinets and a bar with back cabinet. the challenge was accepted and the game was on. as we only had A photo we scaled the piece proportionately to the room, which was at the time just timber framing. envisioning these pieces in place required template building and placement for all to sign off on. the choice of woods was next; olive wood for the main body [the wood of peace] door panels were to be olive wood, laurel burl; split and book matched, with details of walnut burl and cherry wood. after weeks of laying out the burls and the book matching the panels were sent to our laser inlay master. the cabinet bodies were coming to life in the shop during this period. coming all together at assembly time the antiqued hinges and hardware were installed and the pieces were readied for the finishers.

now, comes the hollywood part.... if you notice in THE picture there are gilded decorative pieces adorning the top and center of the arch. as we needed to assure our client that there would be no discrepencies in the cabinet figures, handcarving these intricate pieces was ruled out. i thought, i live in the land of movies & sets, hmmm?. after researching & meeting with many set building shops i met a group that would take on the challenge with m[E]. their claim to fame, heretofore, was producing anime' dolls like the simpsons for the big studios. so creating antique pieces was stepping out big time. graciously and with the use of incredible minds powering computer 3D modeling programs we took THE photo and created these winged, amphibious,snake/tailed, horse/headed figures and the shell applique, casted them in resin, hand carved details by the modelers and finally had our specialty finishers gold leaf them! what a GREAT journey to completion.