reMADE RIVER RED GUM LECTERN

MATERIAL

Part of the red gum timber was originally purchased at a house clearance auction, the lot consisted of two railway sleepers sawn into 30 mm boards, this was bought on a whim as there was to little timber to make anything of substance, not having worked with red gum I was curious to machine the timber.

The remaining timber was purchased from Building Bitz recyclers Wonthaggi which consisted of 4/ 1800x150x150mm reclaimed house stumps, the copper foot rest and makers plate are made from recycled copper water pipe.

METHODS

The construction is based on traditional furniture techniques, the three main frames are mortise and tenon for grooved frame work, panels are chamfered on the rear side to slot into the grooved frame, and the assembly of the panels are carried out by a simple lap joint. The internal shelf is jointed by a common housing and the top is jointed with biscuits (the only exception to traditional methods), both top and middle rails are biscuit jointed, all joints are calculated to allow for seasonal movement, no pins, nails or screws have been used in any part of the construction. The finish is applied after finishing with 400 paper, 2 coats of tung oil are rubbed in and allowed to dry before the final finishing wax.

CONCEPT

The lectern design was conceived to allow the user to feel as relaxed as possible, the rear foot bar, shelf for additional notes, and the flattened top to allow for the user to have a drink at hand.

The design is as simple as possible so not to detract from the speaker, the body of the lectern is slightly tapered to drawer the viewer’s eye above the lectern. Yet at the same time the lectern is elegant, with a traditional solidity and a contemporary reference to twenty first century design.

Copyright Glyn Evans 2009