From the author

I had never made a piece of furniture, let alone done any type of woodworking project in my life. I knew though that wood, especially hard wood, was expensive, and for my first project, I wanted to keep the budget as low as possible while still producing as close to professional results as I could. During the beginning stages of it's construction, I relied solely on found wood and scraps. After some research and advice, I discovered that gluing a great deal of thin and/or small wood scraps together required joinery, a term that I only vaguely recognized.

The first piece of joinery I added to the table was in fact not a joint at all: a circle. After having added a circular "joint" to the table, I was educated by a woodshop technician on how proper joinery works. Factors like grain orientation, maximizing surface area contact, and making sure the joint could handle stress from different directions of force were all things I needed to consider. Moving forward, I decided to study existing joinery and what characteristics made them so strong. On the table top, I focused mainly on perfecting the bowtie joint, but when I moved on to the legs, I made the choice to start inventing my own joinery designs to challenge my knowledge.

Throughout the design process, I would make some attempts at planning out what the table top's design would look like, however, I eventually I decided to let my intuition carry this process. I also struggled with choosing a design for the legs, however, I would also come to let intuition take this process over as well. I trusted in my ability to make designerly choices which is why I focused on craftsmanship. I knew that within a simple construction, small details showing exemplary craft are what really shine. And after all, that's what this whole design was about: the details.