Who’s The Fairest Tri-fold Spalted Beach Wall Mirror
About The Project
This tri-fold wall mirror and its companion lower shelf are made of spalted beach. The colors and patterns in spalting are the result of decay and fungal attack. Moisture is required for the growth of the fungi, so often this happens with downed trees. You may have noticed spalting in beech, birch or maple firewood.
There are typically two main visual elements in spalted wood, zone lines and white rot. Zone lines are the signature black, wavy lines that form at the boundaries where different fungal colonies meet and build defensive walls against each other. White rot is caused when fungi consumes the wood’s lignin, effectively bleaching certain areas of the wood to a lighter color. As the wood decays, it’s important to harvest it before deterioration occurs and stabilize it afterward. The colors and patterns in spalted wood show the true beauty of nature; it's impossible to manufacture anything as unique and beautiful as this.
The doors are veneered with the bookmatch technique. Two consecutively cut veneer slices were opened and glued to the doors along matching edges, much like opening two opposing pages of a book. This results in the two doors creating a mirror image of each other. The shelf is veneered with the lower sections of the veneer used on the doors. This results in the grain continuing from the doors down onto the shelf.
The black metal pulls and hinges compliment the dark spalting zone lines.
When closed the mirror shows the beauty of the spalted wood. When open it shows the beauty of the viewer.
