Scales

Originally created as a gift for a friend, I fell in love with this design and wanted to make a small edition to have one to keep and the rest to share and support my work.

My friend lives on the California coast, his favorite wood is Mahogany, and the city of Petra, Jordan (known for its temples), is an important place in his own story.  I chose Padauk as the seconday wood because it's known for its history as a wood used by royalty.  It was used to make the columns of Solomon's temple and though thousands of years later, still a wood of preference for french royalty of the 17th century.

The original concept of this board, knowing how well African Mahogany plays with light, was to create a lustrous "fish scales" pattern to complement the shape of the board and appeal to his culinary preferences.  The Padauk (darker orange) tiles are mixed in randomly to give it an organic feel.

I really didn't anticipate all these elements to work together so well.  I just wanted to make something meaningful for him.  

In the end it is a beautiful board and a real technical challenge.  There are 100+ pieces that all need to be exactly the same and the process of learning how to be good at this has been exceptionally rewarding.