Legacy of the Antipodes artisan Laurent studied for eight years at the prestigious French trades university, The Companions of Duty (French: “Les Compagnon du Devoir”) to become a master furniture and cabinet maker (French name: “Ebéniste”).
As part of his Compagnon graduation process, Laurent needed to deliver a furniture “masterpiece”
that would be used as furniture in their Muizon office, in the Champagne region of France.
The magnificently finished veneer furniture piece – which took no less than 300 hours to complete – has many distinct design features. These include curved fronts using European Sycamore Maple veneer, and laminated ply substrate volcanic fault-line style design on the edge of the doors to expose the contrasting African Bubinga veneer and internal shelving for documents.
Laurent was also required to make his own jigs to press and laminated the substrate layers together. Demanding an unbelievable level of complexity, creativity and technical skill, a project of this kind is rarely found in Australia. We are showcasing it here to demonstrate the truly unique talents of both our master craftsmen who are company directors.
The Jigs
The Volcanic Fault-Line Design
