Woodwork With Inset Tiles

Dan Walters posted pictures of some of his projects having inset Grueby tiles. Those tiles are beautiful and rare, and they are displayed nicely in Dan’s projects. This motivated me to post pictures of some of my projects with inset tiles. The tile frames in the 5 small, splayed-leg tables are made of cherry, with the legs ebonized cherry. The large tile is 8”x8”. It was made by artist Jenny Mendes, who lives in Ohio. The tiles in the other 4 tables are 6”x6”. Excuse my picture with the sofa table. The tile in that table was also made by Jenny Mendes. The table top is cherry with wenge inlay, and the splayed legs are ebonized cherry. It measures 31.5” H, 57” L, 17” W. All the tables are finished with shellac sealer coat and oil urathane top coat. The tile in the wall hanging was made by Motawi. I made the wall hanging for my son, who lives in Philadelphia and heads a tree-care company. The pictorial inset represents a cycle in the life of a tree. The wood is cherry, the inlay is wenge, and the frame on the pictorial inset is bocate. You might wonder why I use so much cherry. The reason is that my Philadelphia son’s company cut down a large cherry tree some time ago, yielding about 500 bf of very nice Pennsylvania cherry—I still have about 300 bf of it. The cherry wood in all of these projects came from that tree, giving my son’s wall hanging a little extra story.