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Reader's Gallery

Greene and Greene Influenced Queen Bed

comments (4) December 17th, 2012 in Reader's Gallery

Sohrakoff, member

17 users recommend

This took over a year to complete, but was worth the effort. I designed a bolection inlay for both the headboard and footboard.

Headboard bolection inlay. Black walnut, redwood, pearl.

Close up of bolection inlay. Black walnut, redwood, and pearl.

This took over a year to complete, but was worth the effort. I designed a bolection inlay for both the headboard and footboard.

Photo: Ivan Sohrakoff

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I spent over a year building this Greene and Greene influenced bed. I didn't use any specific plans, but referenced the Greene and Greene drawings for basic dimensions. The bed is made from african mahogany with bigleaf maple panels, ebony pegs and splines, and a bolection inlay out of black walnut, redwood and mother of pearl. Some of the pearl was repurposed from an old asian fan that had been engraved. All the pieces of both the wood and pearl were hand drawn and then cut. Please contact me at ivan@5tons.com if you have any questions or comments.

Design or Plan used: My Own Design - Ivan Sohrakoff

posted in: Reader's Gallery, mahogany, inlay, bed, ebony, greene and greene, queen bed, bolection, bolection inlay, cloud lifts

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Comments (4)

Sohrakoff writes: Thanks for the comments. I am calling the inlay "bolection" simply because it is the same method used on the Greene & Greene panels and that is what they called it. Intarsia also seems to fit, but I'm not sure if that is actually inlaid and raised above the panels, or just he knitting together of pieces.

I drew my inlay out on paper, then made many copies of it. I then milled some inlay stock to various thicknesses, and taped about three pieces of the thin wood together with the drawing on top of the stack held together with double-stick tape. I used a scroll saw to cut the main shape as well as the interior cuts of each piece. I then had around 3 copes for each inlay piece, and chose the best combination of wood grain and thickness to best fit the inlay. I sanded the edges of each final inlay piece, and then used them to trace a fine line on the panel. I routed the panel with that line, and then fit the pieces into each routed cavity. I then shaped, sanded, and finished each inlay piece before the final glue and setting of each inlay piece.

I couldn't find much on this process either, so this was done by trial and error, so hopefully this explanation helps someone.

-Ivan
Posted: 10:20 pm on December 18th

grin writes: I love your bed, The craftsmanship is second to none. In my mind, I would call the technique you used for the panels "intarsia". Bolection is often a term used for raised moldings around some sort of framework. Again, great work on your bed.

Eric
Posted: 1:00 pm on December 18th

david38 writes: great looking bed
Posted: 11:32 am on December 18th

MichaelM writes: Hello Ivan,
great piece of furniture.
Could you comment / explain how you did the boletian inlay. There is hardly any literature in the web, explaining this technique.
Best regards from Germany

Michael
Posted: 3:32 am on December 18th

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