EVERY TIME YOU GO AWAY
a client asked me to make this massive piece. it is his design
LATEST POST
… you take a piece of me with you.”
The preceding is a line of a song that dates back to a bygone era. In that generation, we hear nothing but blues, souls, and jazz. Even love songs are laced up and chased with legatos, stretching out the note at the end just a tad longer for effect, the kind that one hears of a sad song.
Love, or in this case, the yearning, cannot be construed only to mean the attraction to the opposite sex. Inanimate objects may also be a recipient of love.
Today, this piece of solid mahogany TV stand will go to its new owner. In its wake are days of countless hours of work. From mere planks, I cut, planed, and shaped them up into something. I labored to keep the lines straight, hitting perfect angles where the two timbers meet, trying to battle the wood’s imperfections or its tendencies to warp, cup, or twist.
The joints, too, are another point of concern. Where the timber meets and connects are its Achilles. Thus, if pieces of furniture come apart, they will fail on these joints. This inherent weakness brought about the innovations of wood joinery. The most popular method is the use of screws and nails. Then came dowels, mortise, and tenons and dovetails.
The dowels that I had on it should come up to its billing, and the wood glues better keep their promise of a chemical-strong bond. Else, all these marketing talks and guarantees of a tried and tested joinery method are nothing but an empty bravado if it breaks up.
This TV stand shall take residence in someone else’s family room and shall stay there for generations to come. On its long arms will sit objects and pieces of something that has been with the family for generations that went before.
This TV stand’s only demise will only be dependent on the moods of the owner. Even so, those modal swings will have to be tempered with the thought that, as big and hefty as it is, moving it about is like doing the task of moving a “man who can’t be move.”
Why do I remember all these songs?
I may have again given up on my dramatic tendencies. Forgive me. But I can’t help it. I guess you can’t too. It is always this perpetual feeling that whenever I part with something I make, it feels like it takes away a part of me with it.
I pray the new owner likes it. And if that or this piece makes him smile, I am more than repaid.
Get our weekly newsletter:
DOUGLAS REY B. BERIDO
drberido@yahoo.com | Kagudoy Road, Basak, Lapu Lapu City, Cebu, The Philippines