what's happening now

we could be setting the record here these days with 'stuff going on at the same time 

right before the holidays' at dorset custom furniture this month.

started a couple weeks ago with this railing from sam's shop

and a stand for a 1953 packard hood ornament

and a maple leaf belt buckle .. first one of these i think ...

 and then these last week

 

and this one cemented in place, just before the snow ...

 

the terrain and the recent crushed stone fill around the new stairs made

this one a challenge.

and then, the snow

and the new railings at the dorset field club

still more to go there with railings at each set of stairs

and will's been busy .. here he is modeling a 'goatskin necklace', the trimming from 

a natural skin head installed on a recent banjo he finished.

more photos of this and other many other banjos at seedersinstruments.com

and i've finished some new pottery, just in time to give it away for christmas ...

and while it may not look it, this was a challenging redo, given the existing tile,

slightly out of plumb walls, and complex existing infrastructure under the old vanity.

after

and trevor's got a 42" round table with 4 -20" leaves

 home stretch; ready for light stain with black details soon ..

 and at the very last minute, a client we've been working with since may added these counters to the mix.  this one is 28" wide by 12'8" long by 350 pounds or so.

 this one is 5' x 6 feet by about 350 pounds or so too

 

 and this rather substantial claro walnut slab arrived last week from good hope hardwoods ..

63" at the wide end; 13' long; 3" thick in the rough ..

 trimmed er down a little at the local jk adams factory where we had it delivered

(they have a forklift)

 great figure !!!!!

 trimmed and in the truck.... now in the shop .. in the on deck circle for next year

and jim just sanded and reoiled a set of six of these outdoor chairs ... 

ugh! .. he was glad to deliver them back to the client

and the last two pre-christmas projects that should be finished at the end of the day today ..

above another 'x based table' from reclaimed barn parts; last coat of finish today

 

and this custom cue rack ... finished now, and i'll install it this morning

and on christmas eve, a last minute 'gift certificate' for a slab top coffee table .. 

i'm sure it was a hit with the client's wife on christmas morning

lit the tree at the shop yesterday .. 

merry christmas to all !!!

rudolph .. by sam, 1986

some custom barstools, and other news from the metal shop

 we delivered 8 barstools to the hill farm project today.

 welded steel, leather by isaiah maccauliffe at bespoke upholstery in manchester, wood by dcf, design by san, sam and nina mooney of ncm design in manchester.. it was an interesting piece of 'mass' production and they came out comfy and elegant.  and relatively affordable ..plus, sam just finished four
shorter ones with no swivels or seats for a friend who will finish them up himself.
they are really affordable that way.  contact sam for details

 swiveling seats and steam bent backs by sawyer bentwood in whitingham, vt.

blackening and finishing by mr. jim

stool frames with swivels recessed into the bottoms of the seats to hide them ...

 and we've got three interesting rebar pieces going to a new pizzeria in sebastapol, california.

they will all have danby vermont marble tops by herb johnson at 

johnson marble and granite in proctor, vt.  they will be on their way monday.

the steel things sticking out will hold the pizza peel and the freshly assembled

pizzas will slide off the marble, onto the peel and into the wood fired oven.

the marble overhangs the ply support by 1" all around.  

the peel and the marble are the same thickness.

 and another section of rail is in

 the trout are biting .. check out 'old toothy' here .. click to enlarge it!!

 

happy and productive man in the new metal shop .. 

sam's off tomorrow to a hammer making weekend with pat quinn in glens falls, new york

a railing for a tansu stair cabinet

chris and i installed the railings today. all in, all done, as they say.  

i am happy to cross that one off the to do list.  we made some other stuff

 in the room there, like the mantle with burl and abalone detials, and the coffee table.  you can even see some of jim's (aka mr. lucky) carved glass work from the 80's on the coffee table.  nice room.

back in 1989, when we had been at our craft full time for 9 years, we built this sweet 'tansu stair cabinet', based on a postcard my clients had picked up in a hotel in japan or china, i forget which.  anyway, i'd already made them a bunch of stuff, and in this spot, they had one of those slightly treacherous 60's era welded steel spiral stairways, and a desire for a place to hide the stereo.  the stereo went behind the double doors, and originally, i think, the speakers went behind the single doors.  that was fine for, oh, 24 years, until grandchildren came on the scene .. time for a railing ... click the photos to enlarge them.

we did a little photoshop work, talked about different combinations of wood and metal ..

and finally made a plan.

chris and i made some poplar temporary posts and took some cardboard to the house and made some rough templates and notes on fitting the posts to the treads and figured out how to attach them.  luckily, there were all those drawers we could remove and we just screwed into the half lapped posts from inside the casework .. a true no brainer.

we were able to translate that information into cad drawings from which we made the 'real' cherry posts and rough templates on the cnc.  we took those back to the site and installed the cherry posts, took some more notes, and turned those notes into cad drawings and the templates below that sam could weld the actual railings together on.

we hand shaped the top caps to mimic the original handraill and fitted them to the railings in the shop.  today, it all fit and we bolted them in place to make a surprisingly rigid assembly up to code and ready for kids.

it all fit like a glove, and in the background you can see the end 'volute' of the original hand carved handrail.  this was a satisfying project, and a nice visit with an old friend.  good job sam and chris !!!