Riley Hearn, Altar Standing Desk (STUDENT 2025)

Student:

Tertiary

Name of school or tertiary institution, name of woodworking teacher (if you have one), and name of photographer:

Sturt School for Wood. Tutor: Peter Young. Photographer: Riley Hearn

Country

Australia

The Altar desk was designed to be a refuge for the work you hold dear; a place to write, to paint, to give time to the special practice that grabs your heart and mind. The elevated stature of the desk secludes it within a space, standing above and apart from the other functions of its surroundings, and letting Altar remain as a private sanctuary. An open leg structure ensures that the silhouette of the desk remains light and unimposing despite its scale, even in small dwellings. The predominant use of lightly-coloured American white oak further reduces the visual weight of the piece. The visual simplicity of the overall form, comprised of straight lines and quadrants, belies a sophisticated construction that ornamental details reveal. Each leg is made of two boards, matched for colour and figure and then mitred on the long edge to reduce weight and waste. Fine shadow gaps are cut along adjoining component help delineate the coplanar faces. The drawer front and apron are cut from a single, bookmatched board to allow for a continuous grain match while still incorporating the quadrant curves used throughout the piece. These quieter details give space for the louder embellishment of the little blue pull, which invites interaction and reveals a drawer in matching blue, with ample storage to comfortably fit a ream of A3 paper or any colection of supplies with which the Altar desk would be put to use.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.