In the Beginning...

This is how a new woodwork project starts:  endless rough sketches, followed by scale drawings, yet more sketches of joinery details, and then a call to the lumber merchant.  I recently discovered one who carries a small supply of lumber from trees which grow in South Africa. This wood has traditionally been used to make the very unique style of furniture which developed in that country from the late 17th Century.  The designs are very much based on European furniture of the period, but ingeniously adapted to what was available to craftsmen at the foot of the Dark Continent. The large panels are of a pale, straw-colored wood called, unsurprisingly, Yellow Wood - Podocarpus Latifolius.  The cabinetwork is a darker-colored wood from the Black Stinkwood tree - Ocotea Bullata.  Both species have been logged within an inch of extinction and are now protected, and forests are being replanted.   I have tried for years to source a supply in the U.S. and was much surprised - and delighted - when I found the lumberyard which carries the two species.  It was only when I read the "About" section of the webpage that I discovered why:  the proprietor is a fellow immigrant from Cape Town.  I'm looking forward to the phone conversation when I place my order!