Outdoor Curly Redwood Burl Slab Bench with turquoise inlay

It is finally finished, we added more turquoise as per our clients request, now it is assembled and will be crated tomorrow and then it will ship to London. This bench was made in memory of a loved one that passed away. What an amazing project to work on.

WOW, curly burl redwood bench.... shipping to London

We were asked to create a bench, that is in memory of a loved one from a client in London. This piece has been oiled with an outdoor oil so that it will withstand UV rays, temperature changes and a lot of rain.

It took awhile to find the right piece of redwood, we wanted it to  be spectacular and really have an impact. Once again we are using redwood burl curly grain. This is our most favorite type of redwood burl to work with, when it is oiled, the grain looks like waves or tiger stripes. It is absolutely phenomenal.

Here Tim is planing the underside of the slab, to make sure that is flat

The top side of the bench is leveled off with a router.

Then it is rough sanded

The edges/sides are carved to look wavy

Here are the two burled pine stumps that will be used for the legs

 

 It's all coming together nicely, here is an idea of what it will look like.

Here I am oiling the legs, you can see how the color is really starting to come out

 

We decided to inlay a piece of maple burl wood into the center of the slab and do some turquoise inlay to accent it.

 

This is the vine design that I carved on all the corners and inlaid with turquoise

 

The bench is sanded, inlaid and ready for oil.... 

 

After we thought we were finished with the bench, our clients asked for more inlay, because is didn't feel completed.... I kind of felt the same way. So I removed the turquoise in and around the maple burl, and made it a bit wider.

 I then carved out the existing turquoise and green leaves in the vine design, and made it wider and more visible. I also replaced the green malachite leaves with turquoise so that it would stand out more. 

I went with a vine design, becuase this bench will be outside and also, I feel that there is always a part of a loved one that is still with us after their bodies are gone. So the few leaves on the branch/vine are a symbol of life....

 Here is the larger inlay design that was added to both sides of the bench

In this picture you see one of the new inlays on the right hand side, the next day I added the other larger inlay design on the upper left hand side...  After these were finished. I added three more coats of oil to the bench.

The bench top is re-oiled,  here are a few close ups of the inlay