Mortise and Tenon

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Mortise and tenon joints are two pieces of wood connecting where a projecting tongue (tenon) of one piece is made to fit into the corresponding cutout (mortise) in the other piece.

Veneer

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Veneer is thin sheets of decorative material, usually wood, but also occasi

Broken Pediment

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Pediments whose lines are interrupted either at the apex or the base, or in both locations are referred to as broken pediments. They are found especially on Late Antique, Baroque, and Mannerist architecture, and on Chippendale furniture.

Claw and Ball Feet

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Claw and ball feet (or ball and claw) termination mainly used on cabriole legs in the first half of the 18th century (though earlier examples occur), representing a bird's or dragon's claw clutching a ball. It derives from an oriental symbol of evil in the world — the dragon's claw grasping a pearl.

Cabinetmaker

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The term "cabinetmaker" emerged as more sophisticated methods of furniture building emerged in mid-17th century England and colonial America. The earliest American settlers brought deeply embedded woodworking traditions with them on their long voyages to the New World. They made good use of the abundance of timber that resulted as they reshaped the forested landscape.

Resist Dyeing

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
A method of patterning yarns or cloth by protecting selected areas so that they are able to “resist” the dye when the material is immersed and remain undyed.

Themes in Traditional Indonesian Arts

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
In most of the more than three hundred ethnic groups in Indonesia, one encounters the tradition that when claim­ing the new land, the mythical founder first had to deal with its autochthonous inhabitants—some of them human, some of them the spirits that had always been there, associated with the natural world and predating the arrival of humankind.