Sora Solid Oak Wall Mirror

Details

Sora runs long and low across the wall, and the first thing that registers is that the frame is not the same width twice. The left end is the heaviest part of it, a broad flattened mass of oak, and from there the band thins steadily as it travels right, until at the top of the arc it is down to roughly half the width it began with. Light reads that graduation before you do: a wide soft highlight on the thick end, tightening to a narrow bright line along the half-width stretch above.

The outline is one closed curve with nothing repeated in it. A single arc carries the top edge up from the left and crests just past the middle; below, the lower contour drops away on the left, then lifts back into the body so the shape pinches slightly through the center before the right end rounds over and closes. No corner anywhere, and no straight run either. Hung the way you see it here, with the long edge lying across the wall, it settles above a bench or a low console without crowding the room.

Thick at one end, half that at the other

The oak sits in a light-to-mid honey range, warmer where the light falls on it directly. The grain is fine rather than loud, quiet lengthwise lines that turn with the band and stay with it the whole way around. The finish is matte, close to satin, so the wood reads as a shape first and a pattern second.

The glass is set back into the wood rather than laid over it, so the reflection sits inside the oak rather than level with its front face.

A tapering band is also why this cannot be made the cheap way. There are no corners to miter and no length of molding that would fit more than a few inches of the outline, so the width has to be cut where it is wanted and worked back by hand. It is solid oak throughout, not a veneer skin over MDF.

Mehmet Ali shapes every one of them

He was born in Konya and has spent more than thirty-five years with wood. The mirrors are the newest work to leave his shop, which has been running a good deal longer than the two years they have existed, and he still does the shaping himself.

Nothing is sitting in stock. Your Sora is started once your order comes in, cut to the size you choose, and the color and figure it ends up with belong to its own boards, not to the ones in these images.

Which size to take

Sora comes in nine sizes, the smallest 60 x 28 cm (24 x 11 inch) and the largest 200 x 95 cm (79 x 37 inch). The flattened proportion holds at every one, so a small Sora is the same long, low shape as a large one at a different scale.

• 60 x 28 cm (24 x 11 inch) to 85 x 40 cm (33 x 16 inch): a narrow hallway, a short wall, the space above a shelf.
• 100 x 47 cm (39 x 19 inch) to 140 x 67 cm (55 x 26 inch): the range that suits most entryways, over a bench or console like the one shown here.
• 155 x 74 cm (61 x 29 inch) to 200 x 95 cm (79 x 37 inch): for a wall you are willing to give over to one piece.

Packing, and living with it

Pieces have gone out to around twenty countries so far. Each one is wrapped in protective material and sent worldwide with a tracking number. Keep the oak away from damp air, and wipe it with a dry soft cloth rather than anything wet. If two sizes both look plausible on your wall, write to us before you order.

If the tapering band is what holds your eye, two more of the oak wall mirrors are worth opening: Olin, which thins almost to a ribbon at the waist and builds back up at both ends, and Arel, deepest in wood around a broad circular lobe and lightest over the long oval beside it.