Riverstones 2 Cabinet

The Riverstones II Drinks Cabinet was made for the Studio Furniture 18 competition and exhibition at the Bungendore Wood Works Gallery. This design, with its fluted panels in river red gum and distinctive wenge legs, has themes and ideas that we have been playing with for years. It was the first Dunstone Design piece to start playing with fluting in a serious way.  Riverstones II was the first purely exhibition piece that we’d made in years. With such a great client base, most of our experimental work has been to commission. With Riverstones II, we simply got to play. One of my key concerns was to show the use of “difficult” Australian timbers (hence the red gum) but also show that we are not completely parochial (hence the wenge and rock maple). This line of investigation lead to the Mutawintji and ultimately Parachilna.

River red gum is a notoriously cranky timber to use. It moves, cracks and generally misbehaves. Many makers consider it to be little better than firewood. Over the years, we have become something of experts at the use of red gum in fine furniture. The fluted panels on the doors of Riverstones II was our way of showing the world just how beautiful red gum could be.

Riverstones II didn’t win the competition element of Studio Furniture 18 but it was well received by the audience. We enjoyed making it and I am very happy with the design.

Dimensions: 800mm W x 440mm D x 1000mm H

Timber Types: River red gum, rock maple and wenge. Other timbers available (POA).