Vlekken
Cabinet
Price on request
With a curious pattern meandering on its cheeks and delicately figured knots on its pout, Vlekken has a distinctively charismatic face that even Danny Trejo is likely to envy.
In brief
Dimensions
90 (h) x 36 (w) x 28 (d) cmMaterials
Oak & mapleFeatures
- Meandering ray pattern and delicately figured knots
- Handcut box joints along corners
- Espenaer's signature 'triple rails'
- Entirely crafted by hand in Amsterdam
Description
Vlekken is a small cabinet designed to store your wine and liquor, but is also perfectly fitted for other items of comparable height and size.
The cabinet is conceived specifically to expose the natural irregularities in wood, which are often considered deficiencies and blemishes in industrial production.
A curious tiger pattern meanders along the oak case and delicately figured knots in the maple doors give the cabinet a distinctively charismatic face. The irregularities are also where the cabinet takes its name from; vlekken is Dutch for blemishes.
frame_inspectAnatomy
expand_circle_downThe case consists of four wide oak boards joined together at each corner using box joints along the entire width. The boards themselves consist each of two individual boards arranged in such a way to emphasize the meandering pattern in this particular piece of oak and subsequently glued together in that arrangement.
The case rests on a set of four maple legs, relying on a version of the halflap joint. Stretchers consisting of a series of three slim oak sticks connect the legs at the bottom for stability purposes. The sticks are mortised into the legs.
The two doors are each connected to the case with two brass hinges. The maple was specifically selected for its peculiarly shaped figure, with the most delicate figures facing the outside of the cabinet.
carpenterCrafting history
expand_circle_downThe entire piece is made solely using hand tools. Solid oak and maple boards were cut in dimension with a combination of Western-style and Japanese-style saws to get the various components of the cabinet and subsequently planed flat with Western-style hand planes of different sizes.
The most delicate part was the cutting by hand of the finger joints for the corners of the oak case, using a very fine Dozuki saw and Western-style chisels. These were also used to cut the mortise and tenon joints used for the stretchers in the bottom part of the legs.
The wood was smoothed using a finely tuned metal scraper and bits of sandpaper and finished with three layers of pure tung oil.
