trout fishing in america

well,  what can i say ... i was trying to rehab my insulted rotor cuff at the pool table in my cellar the other night, but it was too much for me.  i sat down and started pulling things out of a bookcase at the end of the table.  hadn't checked it out in years. 'trout fishing in america' by richard brautigan caught my eye and i remembered what a trippy little read it was... inspirational as a creative writing example.  this guy was something.  it's been a long debate about exacty what kind of something he was, but for a couple hours you can really be entertained.  below are just two examples of the 40 or so short essays available in its 112, five and a quarter x 8 inch, pages.  catch it if you can ... click the pages to read them ...

 

and in case you were wondering ... i give you here, the 'mayonaise chapter'.

found some old 35 mm slides too ... we'll get to them later ..

some carved scrolls for a mantle

we recently carved some butternut scrolls for a mantle that one of our clients was making.  we had sort of an internet fuzzy photo to use as an inspiration, but we did some google image research and came up with the drawing below.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

 

we were pretty happy with it, as was our client, but i did put  it up on the door for an hour or two to make just a few refinements before it went into our cad program.

draw over it ... copy what you need

the reason we decided to do that was that, as you can see from the first photo, the element had to be 13" thick (!!) to complete the design.  after a little thought, we realized we'd need a whole bunch of pieces (about 20, not counting a couple of miscuts and practice pieces) and that led us instantly to the cnc.

after we finished the first one, we checked it on site before we did the second one ... good to go.

 this is an onsite photo after the finish was applied

 

i have the actual cad drawing somewhere and i'll post that later ... all for now ...
on site 12/14

some of our 'transitional' side chairs

we've been making these 'transitonal', biedermeier inspired, side and arm chairs now for about 15 years,  even after making literally, hundreds of them, they are still a challenge, start to finish.  curves, compound angles, compound angled leg tops, angled mortises and tenons, you name it.  they are, i must admit though, extremely comfortable, and work in both traditional and contemporary settings depending on the wood and finish choices.  click the photos to enlarge them.

they look easy, at first glance, when they are finished.  they're not.

these eight bubinga and lacewood chairs will be leaving for england from westport connecticutt december 6th.  they will accompany an expanding bubinga pedestal dining table we made about 10 years ago.

12/11/12 .. this just in.  a photo of the chairs with the bubinga table we made a while back.  the clients are moving themselves and their furniture back to england this week ...

 by now, we've got most of the parts that can be cut on the cnc, programmed into the cnc.  folks have commented that we would get more legs on the planks if we bandsawed them individually, which we used to do.  yeah, it can be done, but i did enough of them to know that after you saw (and sand them for a few hours), getting the mortises in the right places after you cut them isn't worth the savings in wood.  wood's cheap compared to shop time.

 there are a lot of cool visuals as these chairs are in the works

here trevor is cutting them on the cnc, adding the mortises in all the right places as he goes.

and here they are with the cherry tables we finished recently.  the tables are made from a pair of 10 foot bookmatched cherry boards and can be assembled into one 10 foot table for large gatherings.

the arm chair version from a previous set

custom sideboards and buffets

we have made quite a few different sideboards and buffets in the last 25 years, and the form is one of our favorites.  there are 27 sideboards on our regular website, but since we are working with some clients on a new designs, i felt compelled to organize some of my favorites here.  the curly maple one above is one   actually, i like the challenge of the sideboard/buffet form, and there's not one shown here that we didn't enjoy designing and building.  the sideboard directly below is from my own home and we have made several variations on that one using our 'studio style' cherry and black design theme.  click the photos to enlarge them.

 

 60" wide x 20 " deep by 34" high.  natural cherry and black milk paint.  1987

there is a blog post on this sideboard/dining room at this link

 a variation on our sideboard circa 1988.  72" long x 20" deep by 34" high

                                  

this one and the one below are similar in design with figured cherry panels and quartersawn cherry edge details.  one with an edge inlay, one without.  one with black details; one all cherry and one with curly maple details and crotch mahogany veneers.  same drawing, different results .. 'take and object; do something to it; do something else to it'.

 ditto here with black painted legs and 'burl and bar' edge inlay.

mahogany and curly maple; crotch mahogany veneer panels ...

a fancy and complex variation on the theme above in cherry and maple burl 

with subtly curved doors and drawer faces ...

the black walnut bar/sideboard above was a fun project.  mirrors, lights, glass, 

repeating details ... all fun. there is a pretty long blog post on that one here.

not exactly a sideboard, but sort of the same idea

 

and here's a stylish one that accompanied a table with similar design ... we worked the details over carefully with the client and while we we stuck for a label, included it in the realm of 'art deco' though it is strictly 'diane and dan deco'.  an extremely fun project from the early 90's.

here's the table that it went with.  lots and lots of details on that one.  often, the table and sideboard are designed to complement one another and make the room seem to be totally custom.

 

this custom bubinga sideboard was made from the 6 feet we cut off the end of a 20' bubinga plank that we used to make a 14' x 48" wide table that went to princeton, new jersey, next door to the governor's mansion

  i've got a better photo somewhere .. +/- 2002.  dawn of the digital photo age

 

this figured cherry sideboard had a table with it

as did this cherry and maple burl sideboard from +/- 2003.  this sideboard was made from virtually the same drawing as the first, curly maple sideboard in this post.  'take a design, do something to it'

this country style sideboard was one of the first sideboards i made back in the very early 80's...

 and this one, from the early 90's, was an engineering challenge with it's suspended box and turned supporting columns with brass feet, and curly maple veneered doors.  the inside was almost completely drawers on runners that pulled out to store not only silverware and dining room stuff, but also music cds, at the time a semi precious commodity.  times change ... another 'diane and dan deco' project ...

this is not really a sideboard, but it's a cool piece.  it was designed to go against a curved wall, (the 'front' in this photos), but we made the drawers go both ways and they had pulls on the other side too, so it can also be placed at some time in the future, against a straight wall.  multitasking ... and on and on ...

this one is from last spring.  it's 9' long and had to go through the window when it got to new jersey .. oops!  but it made it ... it now has a stone top and you can see the details of its construction in this blog post.

i'll add a few more as time permits and update our progress on the upcoming sideboard below once we get it under way in early december ... all for now ..

    12/2 ... a few more sideboards

 studio style again with cherry and black and ebony and burl details.  the pulls are blackened brass, custom cast for us by horton brasses in pensylvania.

and this piece, while technically not a sideboard per se, has certain sideboard buffet qualities to it.  storage, interest, detail.  'fun with walnut'  ...  blog post here

 a little mahogany 'arts and crafts' thing here ... hardware from stickley.  design by dan and mary

 something tall with a little paint ... this one we designed with the client who wanted a top set of shelves, but also wanted it to be 'light' and wanted it to store a lot of stuff too.  in the foreground are some of our windsor chairs from the mid 80's when we used to make a lot of them ...

 my first sideboard.  1973.   before i even had a house to put it in.  i made it from a book entitled 'fine furniture you can make yourself' and i believe it was by someone named christoforo, but i can't seem to find it at the moment.  it's around here somewhere ... anyway, you can see what happens to a linseed oil finish on pine over the course of almost 40 years.  it gets pretty dark.

 close up