MayureshV Woodworks | Timeless Design

Beautiful creations from wood, made by hand

ABOUT

Mayuresh Visswanathan

I create beautiful objects using wood and other natural materials. Working primarily with hand tools, I create furniture, sculpture, and art that explores the relationship between function and form. A love for wood and simple, timeless forms inspire my work.

I am based out of San Francisco and work out of the nonprofit Mission Community Woodshop, where I teach fine woodworking to students in addition to working on on my own projects, commissions, and creations.

I recently made a wall-hanging series of shelves out of curly cherry and abalone. It’s meant to display small, precious objects.

This was my first go-around with abalone in wood, and continues an exploration of natural non-wood materials with wood. This build features handcut stopped bridle joints, custom brass keyhole hardware for hanging, and a hand-rubbed oil/shellac finish.

#woodworking #art #craft #furniture #design

This whiskey cabinet was the final piece of 2025. Made with patina copper and cherry, this cabinet holds a bottle of whiskey and two glasses. The case has sculpted elements, hand-shaped profiles, and a coopered door. Patina copper has been used for the back panel and solid copper has been used for a hand-shaped pull. The cabinet is finished with a new oil-shellac finish method that I’ve been experimenting with; it brings the best of both worlds with shellac’s quick film building properties and oil’s durable, lustrous properties.

Thanks to @thebuildstagram for the great photos!

#woodworking #craft #art #designer #wood

The hammer cabinet is a special gift made for my woodworking mentor, a master craftsman and Hindu monk for over 50 years. I’ve always admired his reverence of wood, mastery of making the complex seem simple, and tasteful utilization of non-wood materials in his pieces. The piece’s materials and methods are representative of my learnings with him over the past few years.

The hammer cabinet’s sole purpose is to hold a joinery hammer that I created from a piece of koa and Japanese hammer head. The main material is old growth redwood, with accents of koa, soapstone, and brass. I selected the redwood partly for nostalgia, and partly because its tight, straight grain helps to accentuate the simple form. Yet, there is still some hidden complexity with a ship-lapped back, coopered door, hand-cut knife hinge installation, and hand-cut wedged M&T joinery. The cabinet is finished with shellac, and the hammer handle is finished with 30+ coats of polymerized tung oil.

Thanks to @thebuildstagram for taking these awesome pics!

#woodworking #handmade #wood #craft #art

My first serious project made @mission_community_woodshop

A little bit about the project: I wanted a spice cabinet for my apartment. I felt compelled to make a piece that allowed me to explore curvature, sculpture, movement, and through-joinery in novel ways.

The cabinet is made from bubinga and maple and can hold up to 20 spice jars. It features hand-cut sculpted through-tenons, shiplap joinery, and coopered doors with inlaid knife hinges. The cabinet also has custom-made brass hardware: a pair of matching pulls turned by eye and a hard-stop at the top of the cabinet. The wood is finished with 15 hand-rubbed coats of polymerized tung oil and polished to 4000 grit to impart a lustrous mirror-like sheen.

Special thank you to those who helped me along the way such as Dan M, Ben K, and Tom G who had key advice on cabinet-making, knife hinge operation, and gluing up coopered doors. Thank you to Eric Edwards (@thebuildstagram), who generously photographed this cabinet and did an amazing job. Finally, thank you to Viv N (@wonkform), who helped me tremendously with the hands-on aspects of the project such as talking through mistakes, helping with the late night glue-ups, and pushing the bounds of my attention to detail.

Some projects as of the past few months - cabinets, tables, new species of woods, learned to turn bowls, and new animal friends

My next two pieces of furniture are ottomans to accompany the lounge chair I posted a while back. Traditionally, most ottomans follow a nearly identical design to the chair they accompany and the piece as a whole may feel as an afterthought. When I designed these ottomans, my goal was to create a piece that could stand alone and make “sense” in a room without the chairs. However, when the ottoman was actually next to the chair, I wanted the piece to complement the chair in a way that elevates the chair into the spotlight. In essence, a piece that can stand firmly on its own, but is humble enough to support the star of the show.

Though the design was relatively simple, these ottomans taught me to pay attention to the details. Given the amount of parts and tight tolerances, machine set-up and joint layouts were critical. The piece has tons of hidden details in it like subtle sculpted surfaces, wedged tenon joinery, handmade plugs to cover hardware, and inlay strips in the cross brace. It features a lightly contoured seat, dominant cross-brace, and two-legged design. Like the chair it goes with, it is made from American Black Cherry and Ribbon Sapele with all hand-cut joinery and hand-sculpted profiles. It is finished with several coats of polymerized pure tung oil and some wax to create a buttery smooth surface. This ottoman is intended to serve both as a footrest and single-seating bench.

#woodworking #furniture #design #handmade

Over the past 4 months, I have been designing and building a pair of lounge chairs made from cherry and sapele wood. It has been the most difficult project I’ve completed to date, but it has been immensely rewarding.

The chairs feature a “floating” back rest, a deeply sculpted wide seat, and a dominant crest rail. Every joint has been cut by hand, and nearly every component of the chair has hand-sculpted profiles. It is the perfect living room chair for relaxing while promoting good posture over time.

#woodworking #furniture #design #furnituredesign #woodworker #maker #handmade #wood #timeless #chair

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Beautiful creations from wood, made by hand

ABOUT

Mayuresh Visswanathan

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