Patrick Downes

Rockport, ME

Lola’s Jewelry Mansion, 2009

Salvaged birch, maple (Moosehead Lake), reclaimed walnut, ash, Eco-felt (made from recycled materials), ink and graphite

24"x16"x51"

Not for sale

Collection of Lori Ann Crossley

Photo by Jim Dugan

This cabinet will house a collection of jewelry from around the world. I had to satisfy Lola’s need while satisfying her tastes, which are wide and varied. A Mainer herself, she hoped for wood salvaged locally. I acquired much of the lumber— river birch and soft maple—from DeadHead Lumber Company of Scarborough, who salvaged it from Moosehead Lake and surrounding areas. I’m also using reclaimed ash and walnut reclaimed from a barn in Pennsylvania. My intent was to keep the design simple. By “floating" the cabinet within a larger structure, I wanted very much to allow the birch and maple pulled up from the bottom of a lake to return, in a way, to where it was found.

To me, furniture is a subtle language. Like a well-crafted sentence, furniture can offer clarity and stillness, humor and flight, and something of poetry. Since I began making furniture little more than a year ago, I’ve used ornery wood, cantankerous wood, wounded wood, and old and brittle wood. I not only accept the flaws, I appreciate them. In these pieces, there are dents, holes, tears, tool marks, and rough spots in the smooth surfaces. I may always try to balance the elegant with the rough and the lofty with the earthbound. – Patrick Downes