a patchwork chest

well, chris and i finished up an interesting claro walnut patchwork chest this week.

we had a little help on the snakeskin and leather from isaiah mccaulliffe and his crew

at bespoke custom upholstery in manchester, vt .. the python was from edelman leather and the 

brown bomber jacket complement was from universal leather.

inside was northeast aromatic cedar paneling, planed thin to balance the veneered panels

the design was based on this claro walnut credenza we did for a client back in 2013.

we started with the cad drawing and a steel base by sam

and then we made a pile of shop sawn veneers from the various slab cutoffs we keep on hand

and worked our way through the process.  first step is to cut the veneers to shape and

temporarily tape them together with masking tape while we fit the pieces to each other.

          

 then the masking tape is replaced with veneer tape which is more easily removed

from the panel faces after they come out of the veneer bag.

once you've got the four panels cut to width and mitered, the next step is to glue up

the box.  in this case, we glued mitered clamping cauls to the faces of the panels with

brown paper bag strips to hold them to the panels while we (gently) clamped them together.

as i recall, we glued first the two opposite corners, let them sit, then finished up with the 

other two corners once the first pair were set.

we used the base as the reference for square and kept the pieces vertical with the L shaped 

supports to keep the panels plumb and square ... we also clamped in a temporary 

bottom of melamine to keep the case square.

once the corners were glued up, we knocked off the temporary cauls and
sanded off the paper bag remnants ... this trick works slick for tall miters.

glowing in the sun in the finish room

delivery to the client next week ... should be fun ... 

a claro walnut desk for sale

we made this desk a while back for a show at a gallery in massachusetts.  it stayed in the gallery after the show closed until the gallery was flooded by a broken sprinkler pipe.  the desk survived, but the gallery didn't, and we moved it to the local arts center where it has been on display for sale until recently.

 while it was there it acquired a pretty substantial scratch in the top of it and we picked it up a couple weeks ago to refinish it.  it's ready to go again now and looks good as new.  i thought i'd post it here for sale for a while before i return it to the gallery.

it's got a drawer and a secret compartment, and it could also work well as a small dining table for 4 or 6.  the dimensions are +/- 44 x 66 x 29.5 high, the base is steel with a natural satin finish.  the walnut top is one piece and the grain is really nice.  lots of figure and curl ... the price is $8500.  please call me at 802-867-5541, or email me at dan@dorsetcustomfurniture.com for more information.

and if that one doesn't work for you, but you like claro walnut, i have two other possibilities:

this dining table is about 36 x 90.  it's in a gallery in chicago, but i would be happy to retrieve it for you, polish it up, and ship it out.  please call or email for a price on that one.  it has a dark bronze shaker style base, and nice grain in the top.

and this slab is available.  dimensions in the photo below.  it's finished and hanging on the wall, ready to be something ... coffee table?  desk?  a dining table?  a headboard?  your choice ..

call or email with your ideas ... 

all for now ...

labor day

 

 it's hard to believe it's labor day, historically thought of as 'the end of summer'.  the calendar says we have three more weeks, and i like to think of summer going until the golf courses close and paddle tennis season starts.  so, in my head i at least, have 6 more weeks of summer.  the weather has been sooo spectacular here the lately, that i've been distracted from my writing.  taking a break i guess.  there has still been a lot going on though.  we picked up the desk above from the local arts center where i had loaned it to them last year for their receptionist, hoping to sell it.  we realized that it needed to be 'on its own' in one of the galleries, so we brought it back to the shop to refresh it ... good as new now, and still available.  see the link above or the 'stuff for sale' link in the 'pages' section off to the right there ..

below are a few of the things that have been happening the last couple of weeks.

we finished a base for a 60" round coffee table.  the design was by a new york interior designer and the top was fabricated by our friends at kb woodworking in cairo, new york .. they are the go to folks for fancy veneer work of all kinds ...

our part was pretty simple and involved a curved form and a little joinery .. we shipped it to the designer's finisher for bleaching and it will eventually end up on the east end of long island ..

and we finished up a collection of pieces for a house that will be finished shortly.  we'll be delivering them all on the 11th ... above is a new version of a sideboard we first made back in 2009.  a little different arrangement of the dimensions, and the mirrors and so forth, but essentially, the same piece.

and sam made some funky custom door pulls for a local builder's new frig.  it was a collaborative design, and they came out pretty cool .. the door panels were made from a tag sale bed headboard.  pretty creative project all around.

and trevor and i visited a project we did back in 2009, a house in grafton where we did a lot of work.  after five years, there were some rope lights that needed replacing, and the client was concerned that the weight of the center speaker (very heavy) on the ends of the cantilevered shelf support had bent the shelf.  we'll be making a new version with a thicker top piece and hopefully, we can slide the old one out and the new one in without messing with the wiring, which was pretty complicated, to say the least.

on the way back, we visited another project to check templates for an upcoming railing project that sam will be starting before long .. the rolling door and stools below are also part of that one ..

reclaimed chestnut ... installation check in the upstairs of the metal shop ..

four more of these stools

and the rest of the new house project .. a claro walnut slab coffee table

a dining table and six chairs

and the two swiveling lounge chairs from this blog post

 

chris is working on another pop up tv cabinet .. more on that as it comes together later this week .. 

and we had our first wedding among the 13 cousins ... that would be lizzie, in the white in the middle, sitting on the porch of her new house ... true to the family spirit, they are building it themselves, in their spare time, and for the party, the living room was stacked floor to ceiling with the flooring.