Saturday, September 16, 2023

forms for some curved stone steps


 
well, here we are, trying to figure out if we know what we are doing ...
we have the information below ... 
click the pictures to enlarge them ...
 all we had to do is make some sense of it so that the rise 
starts at the desired final grade, the three rises are equal, and
the last step into the house is the same rise as some steps
that are already finalized about 30 feet to the left of these ...
the existing entryway slab slopes 2" from the door out 
which was another complicating computation ...

you may recognize the ceiling from this blog post 
back in february of 2022
and i thought the ceiling was tricky!
 it was, but so were the forms for the curved steps !
 
we started with a cad drawing more or less based on 
measurements from the blueprints and those taken on site .. 
at some point the offset for the stone facing on the risers was 
 changed from 4.5" to 1.5" ('thin stone' facings) and  
new drawings were made.

 

from the new drawings we decided that it would be a good idea
to make some full size masonite patterns showing the 1.75" overhanging
nose of the bluestone treads and the 1.5" offset for the stone facing.
you can see them in the top photo  ..  that gave us the 
inside radiuses for the wacky wood on the curved forms
and the tops and bottoms of the actual form pieces in green above ...  
algebra 201!
once the first form was in place and we confirmed the rise and run
with the set up/full size mockup in the first photowe were able 
to make the forms for the second and third pours below 
 

viola!  
base for the riser and bluestone of the first step poured yesterday!

Monday, September 11, 2023

shop tour ... 2010

 well, blast from the past ...
i used to have a link to this video on the home page of my blog
but for the last few years it has linked to a 'page not found' ...
miraculously, it has somehow been restored though i have no idea how.
there it is, under the blog archive that, surprisingly- starts in 2007
up to almost a thousand posts now and over 2,000,000 page views ...
check it out!
use the link above as it will allow you to go to full screen
2010, it was a while ago ...

Monday, August 28, 2023

the crowbar !

long story coming here … 
I made the drawing below in 2010.
Somewhere I have a picture of the two crows I photographed 
in the snow in Burlington, VT. I had recently stumbled over the drawing a few days
before I got an email from a long time client who was looking for 
a ‘bar cabinet’ ... on a whim I sent him the 'crowbar' sketch …
The next day he sent me a picture of a crow on his balcony,
and he decided that ‘the word was out’!
We were on … click the pictures to enlarge them ...
next came the cad drawings 

after a few back and forths on the overall layout, 
we started to make up some sample panels
this was the first ‘real panel’ attempt … 
along with the clients, we were working with
 an interior designer, Ashli Mizell, who suggested smaller crows
 in the distance, and ‘softer mountains’.  she helpfully included 
some mountain images that we incorporated into the final design.


as we moved along, we made a full size mock-up 
and added our colored pencil crow cad drawings …
and then we started work on the crows …
there are between 40 and 50 individual pieces of ebony in each crow.
for the ebony, we were able to use 3” long fretboard cutoffs from Will’s
 stash which created feathers of slightly different colors that are 
easier to see in person than in the photos of the finished piece. 
the crow on the right is our version of clients' balcony crow.
kristian placed the ebony on a piece of mdf in a grid with
double sticky tape and cut the part for the crows from them
on the cnc ... it took about a dozen of will's variegated blocks 
and some other larger pieces of ebony to get all the pieces ...
we chose mahogany for the mountains, greenish poplar for 
the ‘fields’,and flaky quartersawn sycamore for the sky.
the three main woods are all slightly different thicknesses, which
create a bit of depth and gave us a place to add some black over
green painted borders.  that led to a discussion of what to use for the top
of the bar, and we chose some Vermont quarried verde antique with both
black and green colors inherent in the stone.  pretty stunning stuff!
all together now!
a couple more here ..
there are a few mirrors
a paneled back for the view from the balcony
an unfinished panel close up
there were a few files

i have a long time thing for crows, and often use them to
decorate my pottery ...
i'd also like to thank karen bonderchuk for her lovely book, 'a crow a day',
which i consulted as we got underway, and as we went along ...
crow anatomy consultant, though she didn't know it til now !
thanks karen!

Saturday, July 29, 2023

repairs and restoration

 i had a chat with a friend about 'repairing things' recently ... 
we have done several repair projects, for several different clients, 
and after our chat, i sent him this link ...

it takes you here ... 
click the images to enlarge them
 there are 34 separate posts on my blog about us repairing stuff.
it is an interesting and often fun and rewarding part of our business.
after i sent the link off i actually took the time to cruise through
the various projects, some of which i scarcely remembered.
these projects tend to come and go quickly.
and below are some excerpts from other writers' take on the process ...
so true here
below are some images selected from the link above
showing some of things we have fixed in the last 40+ years ... 
rereading these posts this rainy afternoon has been quite a trip for me ...
it's a long story
with a happy ending  
and how about this one?
we didn't have to do much, but it sure was fun having it here for a bit
someone spent some time on this one
and we spent some time on the one below
one of the finest writing arm windsors i have seen
all the original pieces were available
tah dah!  all in, all done
one more ...
we had to reattach the top to this 'papier mache' tilt top table
with the little scraps of abalone inlays in the oval border ...
who even knew there was such a thing?
ok, last one  scroll down




 

Thursday, July 27, 2023

triangular louvers

the week before last, we had a a request for some triangular louvers ...

                                        well, i've made them before.  23 years ago to be exact, 
and for my own house!   the problem was, i had to 
figure it all out all over again ...
kristian ran a ladder up to the one on the front of the house,
and checked some angles and spaces
and he worked from a cardboard template the
builder supplied for us .. 
we framed one up from the cardboard, and took it to the house 
for a test drive ... all good!
one full triangle and two halves, one for either side of 
a chimney on the other end 
        the half louvers escaped without being photographed,
but we'll get an onsite photos soon ...
we have three on our house