Rustica Table

Back again in rapid succession!
While I'm waiting around pre-finishing I thought I'd get started on my next project: a table for Rustica Bakery.
Rustica is the place that I have been working at part-time as a Barista. It is a European bakery and coffee bar producing some of the best products of both fields I've laid hands on AND they wont brake the bank. The space is also not shabby. Not super "swank" but comfortable and approachable.

Mmmm Flax Seed Levain (bread) and Dogwood Coffee in the background.

Espresso being pulled from the lovely Synesso machine I get to work with.

The place of course already is outfitted with seating and tables but there are a couple tables that had never meant to stay. One of which is the bigger table (6 seater) pictured to the right. This is where I see this table project going.
As the name suggests they have a bit of a "rustic" aesthetic going on but it is certainly no "Caribou" cheeky log cabin thing. The aesthetic reflects the product, though more time and effort has gone into their product as it should. There is a level of refinement yet the beautiful variation and humility that comes from things man-made. This of course is more true with their product than the decor, but shall we see what I can introduce?

These are the two main planks I will be using for the table top. This is Red Elm. Craig will perhaps recognize these as a couple he left behind in New Brighton at a local sawyer's barn.
The design I've been fiddling with is HIGHLY Shaker inspired.
This is where we get a little conceptual...
Though Rustica definitely has a European edge to it, it is not in Europe though one just may mistakenly think so when enjoying some baguette and cheese. The decor has more "Americana" than the baked goods and coffee. The interior and identity gives suggestion of perhaps "American Farmhouse". Course grain woods, rusty brown reds, heavier proportions...
Of course something of a Shaker nature should fit right in along with a native tree that tends to have an American connotation... not to mention a similar color palate.
Red Elm typically gets put into gnarly, knotty, heavily rustic pieces. A couple reasons being that the grain structure is, as I see it, inherently rustic. Also the fact that Elm is not a dense nor overly strong wood means that heavier cuts are used to compensate. However I feel a lot of what we see in Elms are perhaps overly compensated a tad, or that compensation wasn't even in mind as much as just wanting a heavy aesthetic.

Well, we shall see what I can do with it. Hopefully it will be strong enough to withstand some punishment. If it goes over well, perhaps I will have a couple more to build... maybe not in Elm, I just may have a lead on some air dried Ash...