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Benjamin Le Signed Postmodern Wood Inlay Dining Table 1990's Axi - $9,000 (glendale)
45th ave near grovers
condition:
excellent
make / manufacturer:
Axi Furniture
model name / number:
Benjamin Le Dining Table
size / dimensions:
72" x 42" x 30"
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Elevate your dining experience with the Postmodern Benjamin Le Wood Inlay Dining Table, a true testament to exquisite craftsmanship. With its striking multicolor wood inlay tabletop and a sleek lacquered finish, this piece is a focal point for any dining room.
Designed and manufactured in the 1990s, the table stands 29.5 inches tall and is 72 inches long and 42 inches in width, offering ample space for dining essentials. The robust wood construction ensures durability, while the personalized touch of the original design by Benjamin Le Studios adds a distinctive flair to your interior decor. This indoor dining table is a blend of functionality and style, ready to grace your home with its timeless postmodern elegance.
California furniture designer Benjamin Le turns furniture into art by creating unusual designs with aniline-dyed, inlaid veneer.
Furniture designer Benjamin Le said he began experimenting with aniline dyes because "I like things colorful," -- a sentiment that is readily evident in the brightly colored swirls and patterns which characterize the line produced by his company, AXI Contemporary Furniture in Fullerton, CA. It's a look that has found widespread popularity very quickly, since the company grew from zero to $1.8 million in annual sales in only four years.
Le said that he thinks his furniture became popular so quickly because it's unique, both in the design and the colors. "I think only one or two people do this type of work in this country," he said. "I try to bring art into furniture. The patterns, the artwork is unique. You don't see much like this. And the colors of the aniline dyes, combined with a polyester resin finish we use, really brings out the beauty of the wood." He uses Sanply veneer from Jacaranda Inc., which is a paper-backed veneer with a layer of aluminum underneath, which helps reduce bubbling, Le said. He added that he likes the way the birch and maple wood grains stand out with the aniline dye. Using veneered panel products also allows him to incorporate design elements he likes -- a lot of curves, circles and angles.
AXI lays up its own veneers, using four shop-built vacuum presses. All components are built in-house, Le added, and he himself determines how each piece is to be constructed. Le said that he had no real formal training in furniture production, but just figures out a way to build his own designs. "I'm not looking at other furniture and how its built and trying to build like it," he said. "I just figure out a way to build my own. So it's a little bit different, but it's not very complicated."
Le said he was drawn to aniline dyes because he wanted colors in his furniture, and it was the only finish that offered him bright, primary colors. He develops all dye colors himself by trial and error. While some are easy to create, others pose problems with fading, he said. "Some colors take three or four steps before I can get to the color I want and keep it from fading when exposed to direct sunlight. I have to mix different chemicals to get the right color." Le said he works with Keystone, his local aniline dye manufacturer, to try different chemicals to reduce fading. Because of the problems with some of the colors, Le said that he doesn't play around too much with the colors he uses, once they are chosen and perfected. He said he adds only one or two new colors to his designs each year.
The polyester resin finish is applied to the aniline-dyed veneer using a process that was developed by Le. It's a time-consuming application that is sprayed, poured and sanded in five or six different steps to achieve a high gloss. About five percent of AXI's aniline-dyed furniture business is custom work, with the balance in Le's line. However, Le said that each piece AXI produces is hand-made and, therefore, slightly unique. "For almost every piece of furniture, we draw the design on the veneer, cut out the pattern, stain it and glue it back together. It's like a puzzle," he said. "Sometimes, I also do a real inlay. For example, for one buffet I inlay walnut burl into the white birch. But all the furniture is hand-cut, hand-stained and hand-glued. So no two pieces are exactly alike." The trickiest part of the construction is gluing the veneer patterns back together after they are stained, because the seams must be very tight. "I have to hire people who have good skills with their hands to cut and glue tightly, because you want the seam to be tight. Most people who see my pieces think that the design is just drawn onto one piece of veneer. But it's cut and inlaid, it must be tight"