730 Days of Blogging

12/6/09 ..... Whoa ... Another year goes by. This was the 30th year for Dorset Custom Furniture and my second year of writing about it ... Stephen King, in 'On Writing', says 'Writing is refined thinking.' I agree with him on that. For me, photographing and writing about what we do makes me 'think' differently about work and life in general, the interactions with clients and friends, nature and family, and everything else that goes by in our sometimes rushed charge to get through the workday. It was a challenging year but we still had some very interesting projects ... a stairway we built in Vermont and sent to California, a desk interpreting the style of a famous British architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, a banjo project, a room of walnut paneling, some slab top tables, some very cool metal chairs ... and many others. Thanks for reading and if we made something for you this past year, thanks for that too ....

Sunrise 12 4 08

Well, a year ago I told myself I would write a blog for 6 months and see how it went .... Writing ... it's interesting. It makes a record .... I can see the broad scope of the last year by scrolling back through the posts .... While it's not all here, it's more than I have for the previous 28 years of doing what I do. Those other years are mostly a bunch of little pictures in big portfolios. Nice to look at, but essentially, they're just pictures in books. Ditto the website .... There's not much life there. Pictures of furniture I can see pretty much anywhere, but this year, we have projects, processes, people I work with every day making things, asides like 'a walk in the woods', golf, 'repairs' and 'making a casket', more like, really, the actual stuff of life and work. Definitely not just the pictures. So, on we go .... making stuff. Sharing our methods, keeping our clients in the loop .... Year 30 coming up .... Looks to be a challenging one, but on we go, not knowing what lies ahead except that it will be interesting. Thank you all for reading and responding; I've met some great folks on line here and hope I helped some of them with their projects and inspired others to reach higher with their craft. While I'm rambling, Kit and I send you our best wishes for the Holiday Season .... Peace ....

A Death in the Family

My Mom and Dad 2005

Sam, Saturday afternoon with the finished casket

My Mom died yesterday. It was quiet, graceful, and not unexpected, but still, as always, a shock. I'm happy she made it to the 4th as my birthday is the 3rd and forever after would have been tinged with a sort of bittersweetness. Now though, I can think that every 4th of July party is a little bit for her, fireworks included. I practiced that concept last night and though it was hard for me, my friends agreed it was a good thought. As I did for my father two years ago, I built the casket along with my two boys, my wife, and my employeees. Everybody pitched in and it went more quickly and smoothly than the last time. My mother was a quilter and I took that as an inspiration. The red, white and blue was, believe it or not, an accident ... She always liked blue .... Building a casket for a loved one is a cleansing experience and was summed up beautifully in an email I got from a client after I told her the news. I hope that she doesn't mind that I share it here.

"Hi, I'm very sorry to hear the news about your mother. You and your boys making the casket is really special. She will be enveloped by people that love her. I told you how much I love the smell of the wood in my dressing room furniture, it makes me think about the furniture like it has life and significance. I get it that it feels cleansing to you to do this for her. It didn't sound grim to me, more like a very special goodbye."

That about says it all.

Click the pictures to enlarge them

End of the first day

A quilt my mother made for us

The quilt inlay

Hardware

My father's casket ... 6/27/06

Thoughts on Mortality

We lost two friends this week. Both were elderly and lived long and happy lives, but still, it gives one pause .... The first, Peggy, was the mother of friends we have known since the early 70's, (both of them, the friends and the mom), and the second, a client for both Kit and I and a woman totally involved in our local community who we encountered, going about town, many days a week. Both will be missed. I was asked by Peggy's family to make the box for her ashes, an act I consider a high honor. I have made a few 'funerary items' as I believe they are properly called, and each has been a thought provoking and meditative process, a time to reflect on who that person was, how they affected ours lives if I knew them well, and how I might live my life to reflect the values and knowledge gained from knowing them ... Just after I put the final coat of finish on Peggy's box, I looked out and saw a mink in the pond with a chipmunk in its mouth and reflected on the natural course of life ... We're here, we live and make an impact on others we come in contact with, we're gone, leaving behind little traces of ourselves with whoever we meet ...

Peggy's box ... simple and elegant, just like her ....

On our way to the service .... It was a beautiful day ...
Below are some other 'boxes' I have made for friends and family members over the last couple of years. We seem to be getting to 'that age' ....

This was my first casket, for my father, in 2006. I was sort of carried away by the thought of it and maybe went a bit overboard on the details ... Fortunately, I had a lot of help on this project ...Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

I was a bit more subdued when we all made my mother's casket last summer ...

This box was for Kit's mother's ashes ...

Painted pine and a fir top

Above, for another friend's mother ...

Writing this post made me think of a photo I took a few years back of some advice on how to live your life. It's from 1692 and it about sums things up for me. I took the photo at a client's house, shortly before his wife died, and I think of it often ... Worth a read .... click it
The closing's great ... 'Be careful,Strive to be happy' ...

I have written something about designing and making the dovetailed box above in the post below this one ...

cremation urns .. a meditative process

we've made a number of boxes for friends' ashes over the years.  i always find it an honor, a time to reflect, and a time to appreciate the person and the relationship we had.  the boxes and caskets below were all made in the last 7 years and i expect as time goes by to make a few more each year. our friends are getting older. click the photos to enlarge them.

the box at the top of this post was for the mother of a good friend;  her daughter in law's box is in the photo above; both boxes are in stained butternut.

this one was for a good friend's mother; cherry and curly maple.

a matching pair ... the husband above in november; the wife, below, a few months later.

both in stained quartered cherry

 

and we knew them since the 70's

a friend for 43 years who passed on this past summer .. birdseye maple and steel; family effort; sam on metal; will on dovetails; dan on the box bottom, the lid, and finish

kit's mom;  milk painted pine and douglas fir

mother in law above ... father in law below

reclaimed pine

a few more boxes from the archives below

"put a piece of glass in that sub top so horst gets some light in there"

 

 

 

not an urn, but a 'treasure box' .. 

and here are two casket i made,
one for my dad , a dancer, an engineer, a fisherman and a hunter; cherry and walnut

and one for my mom; a mom and a quilter; various woods

 there is a detailed post on box making with dimensions and step by step steps at this link

 they've all been spur of the moment projects and i haven't varied the theme much

 and often i get one of these

jump at the chance to make one if it comes your way.  you won't regret it.  it's wonderful thing to do.

Casket Dimension Info

I'd like to amend my comments below in the more clear light of several days later. I don't want to have anyone head into a project like this at a difficult time without knowing that it's a big one that you probably can't complete without considerable experienced help. Looking back and talking with my two sons who helped me and guestimating how much time my other employees spent, I have to say that it probably took between 80 and 90 manhours total. Of course if you eliminate the quilt inlay and buy the hardware rather then making your own, and do a simpler finish, you could probably halve that effort. Still, it's a great thing to do, but not something to be undertaken lightly. My original post is below, written on the day before we actually finished. I don't regret a second of it ......

This is something you too can do. I've done it twice now and it feels like you're accepting the death but also doing something about it. No matter what the funeral directors say, there's a law that says they have to use what you give them if it fits in the vault .... I had trouble getting construction information on short notice so here's some help if you find yourself in the same situation. Inside dimensions of my mother's casket are , 22 x 73 x 12.5 .. industry standard vault dimensions into which it must fit are, I believe, 84L x 28 W x 23 H ...Design backwards from the outside in. Rule of thumb is four inches wider and 5 inches longer then the person. The hardware has to fold probably ... Please check with your funeral director to confirm dimensions. Keep it simple ...