Daughter wants a Maya-style table

[Hilel Salomon]

Anybody out there know what one is? I have a vague idea, which leads me to second question: Any good freeware for drawing up plans for a table???? Thanks, Hilel.

[Lars Thomas]

No idea whay Maya is, but for sketching, it's tough to beat Sketchup.

[John Schreiber]

I searched a bit in the web and I don't see anything which I would identify as wooden Maya or Mayan style furniture. All I could find was either stone blocks or fabric slings and hammocks. I think you need to ask your daughter for more detail.

Another vote for SketchUp. It's free. Well supported and if not easy, at least far easier than any other 3d design software.

http://sketchup.google.com/product_suf.html

[Dusty Fuller]

I haven't seen (and didn't see) any furniture specifically labeled "Mayan" in a trip to the Yucatan a couple of years ago. Perhaps contemporary furniture built by people of Mayan descent, but nothing old. Most of what I saw of the Mayan culture was built from stone... benches, altars, steps, etc. Most of their stone carvings were representative of people and animals or other concrete objects common to life and religion. She may, and I say this again "she may", be wanting you to do something in wood like what the Mayans did in stone, which is some pretty impressive stuff. Do a search for "Mayan gods", "chac-mool", or "pre-Columbian Maya". Anything mentioning Maya will work. Keep us posted with what she comes up with and some pictures if you do it!

[Hilel Salomon]

Thanks to all of you,

My daughter, her husband and two children (one more in the oven) live in France, and when I mentioned that I had a ton of walnut including some thick boards and would build her a dining table, she and hubby came across a photo of a painting with a lady sitting in a chair with the following caption: "McDermotte and McGough's portrait of Jacqueline on a 1920s Mayan-style chair which like the table was made for the American Museum of Natural History." The chair looks like the Mayan designs I've seen, but I too searched at length on the internet and couldn't find another reference to it. Fortunately the table can be seen in the photo, and what I wanted was some form of drawing software so that I could send a drawing to her and have them fill out the dimensions they want.
I've downloaded the software you folks suggested and will attempt a drawing. When it's done, I'll post it. In the meantime, if anyone does come up with an existing drawing, I'd appreciate it. Thanks, Hilel.

[Hilel Salomon]

I just looked up Mayan architecture and was able to see a few hints as to the origin of the so-called Mayan table. The pedestals are beams with "steps" on each side looking somewhat like a few of the structures under Mayan architecture. Anyway, being drawing and visualization impaired, I will try to come up with a drawing. My kids laugh at me, but I can remember thousands of dates, unnecessary facts, phone numbers etc., but couldn't tell you what color dress my wife was wearing this morning and would make a lousy crime witness. Art and architecture were pretty much eliminated as possible careers by the time I was 5 yrs. old.
Again, Thanks!! Hilel.

[Hilel Salomon]

Here is an attempted sketch. There is a beam attaching the two legs, with pegs on each side, but it was hard enough to draw this.