Mara Black Oak Wall Mirror

Details

Mara draws one long line before it reads as a mirror. The frame swells into a wide, almost round lobe at one end, lifts into a single crest along the top, dips low through the middle and runs out to a narrow point at the far end, then closes on itself without once turning a corner. It is a single wave, and it is far wider than it is tall.

The band is not the same thickness the whole way around. It is heaviest at the round end and across the top crest, then thins steadily toward the point, so the mass gathers to one side and your eye keeps moving. The profile is rounded over rather than flat, and the crown of it catches one continuous line of light around the whole ring. Above a console or a low bench Mara stretches out along the furniture instead of sitting square on the wall.

Black, and still oak

This is the one black piece in the range, and the black is not opaque. The surface is matte, and pale gray grain runs lengthwise through it, so what you get is a gray-streaked black rather than a painted one. How far the streaking comes forward depends on the boards your piece is cut from and on the light it hangs in: in some rooms the frame closes up to near-solid charcoal and reads as one monochrome shape, in others the grain steps out and you can follow it end to end.

The glass is set down inside the band, and the black edge stands forward of it, so a thin shadow follows the opening the whole way around and you take in the depth of the wood before your own reflection. A closed loop that narrows to a point this fine has to come out of solid stock. Nothing is laminated over a form here, and there is no seam anywhere on the ring.

Cut in Konya, one at a time

Every one of these is made by Mehmet Ali, born in Konya, with thirty-five years and more behind him at the bench. He still does the shaping himself. The mirrors are the youngest thing the workshop turns out, about two years old as a line, while the workshop itself has been running a great deal longer than that.

There is no stock to draw from. Work on a Mara begins when your order does, at the measurement and the finish you name, and the particular run of gray it comes out wearing will belong to the boards it was cut from rather than to these photographs.

Which size to take

Nine sizes, from 60 x 25 cm (24 x 10 inch) up to 200 x 85 cm (79 x 33 inch). The proportion holds steady across all of them, so the largest is not a stretched version of the smallest, only more of the same long horizontal shape. Measure the console, sideboard or bench you want it above rather than the wall itself, because Mara looks right when it runs close to the width of the piece beneath it. Every photograph shows it hung the long way, which is the orientation it is drawn for.

Leaving the workshop

So far these have gone out to around twenty countries. Yours leaves wrapped in protective material and travels worldwide with a tracking number on it. Keep it clear of damp, and lift the dust off with a dry soft cloth, since a dark matte surface shows it earlier than pale oak does. Caught between two sizes? Send us the measurements of the wall and of whatever sits below it before you order.

Mara is the only black frame in the range, so it stands on its own under Black Oak Wall Mirrors. If what draws you is the long horizontal line rather than the dark finish, Sora tapers along its band in much the same way in pale oak, and Oran holds one slower curve across the same run of wall.