Jacob Aune of Altare Design LLC, Aroma Park, IL, is a finalist in the 2015 Custom Woodworking Design Portfolio Awards with his project “Lion Statue Pedestal” entered in the Commercial/Institutional category.

Project Description: A private school commissioned this piece for their library in April, 2014. They had been the recipient of a bronze lion from a benefactor and desired a suitable pedestal to display it.

Due to the weight of the lion, they requested something substantial and unlikely to tip over.

Project Construction Details: The first feature that jumps at the eye is the hand-carved, lion crest. This was carved from cherry that was glued to a solid walnut board which became the background for the raised details. Every surface on the carving was finished with a chisel and no sanding so the details would remain crisp.

Other features are more subtle but no less important. Doric columns are a reflection of the columns in the classical-inspired library. At first glance, one might think the columns are 3/4 columns glued into the pedestal corners but that is not the case. They are fully round and behind them are pieces of walnut with a cove that fits around the columns.

The top is a 12 piece radial match. For this piece, we didn't want a lot of loud details so we opted for the clean lines of rift-cut oak and avoided inlays or borders. In a nod to careful craftsmanship, we took care to ensure the points remained intact and visible should anyone remove the statue.

The most overlooked aspect - but one critical to the success of the piece - is the bent, solid oak apron for the top. It was steam-bent around a full circle then scarfed together to create the appearance of a seamless ring. Being solid wood, we could then cut the beading into the apron. Even the 1/8" thick edging around the veneered top was bent in a similar manner.

Materials Used: The main carcass was built from cabinet-grade, oak plywood. Other than a few internal, structural elements and the veneered top, everything else is solid hardwood with red oak being the primary wood and walnut used for the dark contrasting elements.

The carving was done in locally-sourced, air-dried walnut and cherry.

Rift-cut, red oak veneer was used for the top.

Equipment and/or Software Used: The walnut coves behind the columns were cut on a 3-axis CNC. We don't have a molder and CNC is much safer (and faster) than the old, cove trick on the table saw. CAM software was BobCad.

The setting-in work to create the background for the carving was done on the CNC but everything else was hand-carved.

Design work was done on Sketchup.

Other than the above, the rest of the job was done with conventional woodshop machines and hand tools.