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!

art show ...

 6/13/2023

the dorset field club, where i play golf, paddle tennis and tennis is having its first 

one day member art show.  each member/artist was invited to show two paintings,

two drawings, or two photographs representing their artistic leanings ... 

the list of participants is lengthy, and i look forward to seeing the show tomorrow.

i had trouble selecting just two works from the many drawings and paint splashes 

i have made over the years ... there is a slideshow at this link of 

some of the paintings, drawings, pottery, and woodburnings i had to choose from.

  use your arrow keys to click quickly through it.

in the end, i selected a couple of small ones for the show, like 7" x 11" or so ..

over and out ... more after the show

 

6/17/2023

ok ... the show's over, and what a hit it was!

it was a very rainy and dark afternoon, but when i got 

there at 5:00 the place was full!  so full, i couldn't really take any 

pictures of the art til the party ended at 7:00, and folks filtered out.

there were over 30 members contributing, and the outpouring 

of  'hidden talent' most folks found 'pretty amazing' ..

who knew?

below are some photos, without all the people ...

click the photos to enlarge them ...

those are mara and kristian's sheep in the lower left corner

a few of the larger works ...

a close up of one by nancy howe

my two small paintings look a little lost there 

to the left of dr. henley's dog portraits and just to 

the right and below pam marron's barn ...

the 'pirate' was a hit with me ... 

i spoke to the artist and she said it was one of her 'smaller ones'

it's a wrap! a few folks still at the bar, 

but by the next morning it was all gone ...

thanks to leida rodenburg and patti campbell for putting this all together ...

lots of furniture photos to see on my website and blog ....

another interesting repair ...

   

this one came in last week ... missing a few pieces, 

but the main parts were all there 

had to make up a few of the missing inlays

a little glue and masking tape

getting everything to match involved some stain, 

some acrylic colors, and some shellac and wax

ready to go back home ...

nice spot for it!

a custom round dining table with 3 leaves

 

 we delivered this one recently

here it is on site

it is a 60" round with three 15" leaves, in cherry,

with an ebony and maple burl edge inlay ..

this photo shows the layout on the bottom of the table,

runners, stiffeners, and apron attachments.

the leaves, in the end, had center stiffeners not attached yet here

with the base and sub top attached

an ancestor of this table that we first made back

in about 2015 ,,,

cad and cut list

seating layout

another pool table

so, we more or less wrapped up another pool table last thursday ... 

it will be very similar to the one above, from 2012, 

only an 8 footer instead of a 9 footer.

we started with the cad drawing from a couple 8 footers we made in 2016.

from that drawing, we made some new jigs for sam to weld up the parts

jig for the ends off the cnc

the side rail jig was made once the parts were cut from the cad

drawing with the proper lengths and angles .. 

before sam could weld, Kristian had to grind and sand the steel parts.

all welded and ground with an acid wash patina applied ...

some assembly still required ...

while sam was welding, Kristian and i were in the wood shop 

fabricating the cushions, rails, and blinds.

we cut the pockets for the brass diamond on the cnc

and will was gracious enough to pull away from his

 seeders instruments business long enough to felt the rails in 

black simonis cloth for us ... he has done many rails in the past 

when he was working in the woodshop with me,

but none since 2016 ... he hasn't lost his touch though

 

we may not see this table fully assembled until it gets 

to its new home in northern michigan.  it will likely be 

leaving this coming week or next and we don't have 

enough clean room in either the woodshop or the metal shop

where it  can go ... the base has been assembled as have the

slate, rails and blinds, so it will be up to the mechanics who

set it up to send us a picture of it in place ...

rails and blinds in the wood shop

it all fits ..

Might be my last ... we'll see ...

it was set up in upstate michigan on wednesday 2/24

looks like a good spot

the cue rack has not been hung yet ...