This 9 drawer cabinet was inspired by the reading of a first hand account by James Calder of the track he and 6 convicts cut from Lake St Clair to the Gordon river in 1840-42. In my current work I am creating a series of cabinets that look at the way early Tasmanian explorers, surveyors and travellers mapped and named the land, and as a consequence "made" it their own.

I have made this cabinet for him to store his reminisces of the journey and also to record the places that he named along the way (quite prosaically), "preferring a descriptive to a mere complimentary style of nomenclature"

I chose myrtle for the cabinet as Mr Calder’s accounts frequently mention travelling through myrtle forests. The computer engraved drawer handles are hand fabricated from brass. Each drawer incorporates some text from his account of the making of the track, which has been engraved into the drawer bottom using a CNC router.

Like most of my pieces this piece started as a series of small sketches, which have then been developed with Computer Aided Drafting. I use CAD a lot, as I like the flexibility and precision it offers, but still like to make a full size mock-up or model (often quite rough) to get a true feel of how the piece will appear in real space

I like to make pieces with drawers as I want the user to engage and interact with my furniture through the processes of opening and discovery.