Mondrian - Style Jewelry Cabinet
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The Mondrian Cabinet is made from alder wood, with a polyurethane and wax finish, which I chose because it does not darken the color of the wood when applied. The colored rectangles are drawer fronts. The blue drawer has racks for hanging earrings; the three red drawers are for rings, pins, etc.; and the yellow drawer is for larger things like jewelry boxes etc. Behind the door are three slide-out racks for hanging necklaces and bracelets. On the back of the cabinet door is a mirror. The empty spaces are for the imagination, creativity, and convenience of the user! The cabinet is 31.5" (80 cm) high, 14" (35.5 cm) wide, and 7.5" (19 cm) deep. The ruler is 12" (30 cm) for scale.
The cabinet is an homage to Mondrian, a Dutch artist who founded the artistic movement called 'Le Stijl' at the beginning of the 20th century. The aesthetic of 'Le Stijl' was to abstract and simplify art to the asymmetric arrangement of rectilinear lines of different widths, usually in black, and rectangular shapes, some of which were colored, but in primary colors only, laid out on a white background. The cabinet, however, does not adhere strictly to the aesthetic of this movement: the background is the warm color of natural wood, which shows the hand-cut joinery, and the stained-glass window is made up of irregular non-rectilinear shapes. So the cabinet, while an homage to Mondrian, also says for me that there is a richer aesthetic beyond the rigid confines of 'Le Stijl'.