The Sycamore Sea
Click on a picture to see a larger version.
This page demonstrates how individual is each floor we make.
This floor was created for a speculative developer in a London house
opposite Tony Blairs heavily guarded home.
The parquet elements of the field of the floor are of European Sycamore,
a very lovely wood which glistens, has chatoyance and depth. The viewer
tends to see into the wood rather than onto it.
An acer, acer
pseudoplatanus, this particular stock was drawn from Hungary.
Around 25% of the stock was rejected for inclusion in the floor because
of defects such as knots or discolouration.
The battens, cut to shape on CNC machines, are 10mm thick and are bonded
with a rigid adhesive to a 12mm hardwood plywood underlay, itself fixed
to the softwood board floor. There are alternately left and right hand
battens which you can see if you analyze the photos carefully.
The border is of cross banded South American Tulipwood (D.
decipularis) with wenge (Millettia
laurentii ) tramlines. On landings the decorative border is omitted
to avoid fussiness in small spaces.
In making the floor the craftsman has to pay close attention to randomizing
the slight variations in colour of the battens to avoid crowding groups
of very similar colour together. At the same time it is not desirable
to so alternate the light and dark battens that another pattern is set-up.
the aim is to reflect as close as possible ripples of water. That image
is much more evident when the floor is seen by eye than fixed by photography.
The finish is water based two pack polyurethane. |