Even unfinished, this slab of claro walnut crotch wood promised such a wild and complete, but dark, expression of grain and figure it would have been wrong to cut it into smaller pieces. Changing the profile, a lucky accident left from an earlier project, also would have rendered that expression … inchoate; and though the 3/4" chamfering of the edges, the bull nosing of the shortest side, and hours of sanding helped to articulate its depth, the expression remained darkly quiet. A strong foil for the claro walnut is the repetitive, though not tame, figure and lighter color of the leopardwood. The stream of the more subtle and dark moradillo keeps the leopardwood from dominating this coffee table's interplay of woods and shapes.

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