Incollect Magazine Issue 7

Incollect Magazine 123 “My designs draw partly from the playful forms and colors of mid-century designs and also from elements of boats and architecture,” says Eben Blaney. As a child, he was surrounded by the materials, shapes, and overall composition of wooden boats constructed by his father in his coastal Maine boat shop. He liked to watch his father as he shaped, bent, and joined oak and cedar into boat hulls, an experience that provided early inspiration for woodworking. It also provided him with a memory bank of images and ideas that, he says, “fed my mind with sculptural forms.” Blaney likes to construct and shape his furniture designs from wood using a combination of machine and hand tools. The wood itself, the natural qualities of each piece, and how they fit together also help shape many of the details that he includes in his final designs, he says. “Whether it’s an exposed tenon, a pegged joint or a strategically placed reveal I enjoy selectively incorporating certain traditional fine woodworking elements into new, often non-traditional forms thereby embracing the structural properties of solid wood while creating visual interest and distinctive handmade details,” he says. This quality is, in many ways, his signature. Even with his more minimal and sleek designs that don’t feature visible features of joinery, the warmth and character of the variety of woods he uses help play a defining role in making each piece unique, he says. “A significant part of what I do as both a designer and maker is in reading and selecting wood that, when cut and shaped, reveals grain that harmonizes with the lines of my designs. Also, color and texture emphasize or create contrast between certain parts of a piece, depending on the desired effect within the particular item, and within the room it will inhabit. In this way, wood and its selection provide an additional layer of expression for me and my designs. I love the challenge of working with a material that has endless variation.” Eben Blaney The Townsend Coffee Table is built to order with a hand-sculpted base, and mortise and tenon joinery. The elliptical top has a beveled edge, shown here in ash with a custom blue grain filler and white bleaching stain with a walnut base. An all-walnut version is available, along with many other choices of woods and finishes. Spare, elegant, and useful are the criteria that guide Maine-based furniture artist Eben Blaney’s work, but don’t be misled — the furniture has a rich and glowing lusciousness that is palpable. His hand-sculpted, custom-made-to-order Crane Console is one of his most requested designs. Other editions, including a version in poplar with a yellow lacquer finish, are available, the edition shown here is in South American mahogany with an ebonized finish that allows many of the rich reds and browns of the wood to show through, along with the distinctive grain.