Zebrawood Shelf

A two-tiered striped shelf with drawers.
Zebrawood is an African wood with natural thin zebra-like stripes. There is no other wood with such stripes.
Because of its unique wood grain, it can easily get twisted and warped, so it needs to be set aside for at least 10 years before being processed. It is a quite rare wood and is hardly ever seen at lumber markets these days. Even if it is sold, it is quite expensive, and you can rarely purchase a big piece of solid wood.
Compared to my other works, the structure of this piece is quite simple.
The shelf top is a square board and the 4 posts are straight, but I was very careful on how to show the wood grain. For example, I used not just a single board, but combined some boards together to create a stronger stripe pattern. And unlike my other pieces, I slightly colored the wood. This is because the contrast of the original color of stripes were too strong and were irritating to the eyes. However, I only colored the white wood grain light brown, so only professional people that have much knowledge about trees would be able to tell the difference.
As I used traditional wood joinery techniques, no metal parts have been used.

• Category
  Wood and Bamboo
• Materials
  Zebrawood, Paulownia Wood
• Dimensions
  H 68 / ø 31.5 cm
• Year of creation
  2019
• Instructions
  As a transparent coating is applied, this shelf is waterproof.
  However, please avoid sudden heat (placing under the heater, near a hot kettle or iron kettle etc.) or use of sharp blades, hammers etc. as this may cause damage to the wooden body. Please also avoid nail polish and other chemicals as this may cause the coating to peel off.
  Please be aware that wood expands and shrinks depending on where it is used as it absorbs and releases moisture even after being processed. For example, even by moving the shelf among nearby regions in western Japan, a distortion may occur as the humidity is different.
  The distortion is very small, but this may cause a slight defect.
  Please be aware of this as it is the nature of wood.
  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.