Kit's Jewelry

I've been writing about the woodworking shop, the metal shop, the music, the yard and garden and there's one thing I haven't written about yet except in a few scattered mentions, Kit's jewelry. She's been making stuff like the items pictured for years now but no longer has a website, she doesn't much like sitting at the computer. You can however, get an idea of the various styles that she is known for from the photos below. She finished the necklaces and earrings above today. They are made from Nova Scotia beach stones in the style of Turin, a famous 20th century jeweler. One of her clients supplied the stones and will be taking the finished items back to Nova Scotia with her for her friends and clients there. Anyway, if you are interested or have a project you'd like to discuss, give her a call at 802-867-0139. She also does fabulous repairs and can do amazing reconfigurations of your antique jewelry ... Clever gal ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

Knitted cuff bracelets

Silver and Malachite

Opals, I think

The Danby Bluegrass and Old Time Music Festival

Yesterday was a beautiful summer day, actually one of the first hot sun, blue sky, put your shorts on, summer days of the season and I took advantage of it to go to the Danby Bluegrass Festival with some friends. Will and his Goldtown group, were playing with some other friends as The Johnny Davis Band so it was an easy decision to hop in the car and go. Compared to the other acts, they were definitely the youngest, but they ripped through a number of bluegrass standards and some of their own stuff and were well received by the crowd. I know they had a good time too ... The site was picture perfect, the other performers were real fine and it was just a great afternoon .... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...

I got there in time to see Smokey Greene sing that 70's classic, "Drop Kick Me Jesus Through The Goal Posts of Life" ... I last saw him do that locally in the 70's before we both quit the bar scene. I missed a great photo op of a small group of line dancers doing the dkmjttgpol line dance ... quite the sight. Smokey closed his set with about 20 people on stage helping him sing some classic standard, though I can't remember which one it was.

Next up was Will and his friends doing their stuff...

Will, getting down some good banjo licks ...

Acoustic Blue ... Classic standards and gospel, with Smokey helping them out..

the crowd

The last set I caught was by Junior Barber and his friends from Platsburgh, New York.
Junior as a dobro player is right up there with Jerry Douglas imho, and it was great to see them perform. I'm sure the group after them was great but we had the 'Lilly ' party to go to, where there was an acre of blooming daylillies, an acre of friends, a 1/2 acrre of pot luck food, and about a half hour of professional quality fireworks. It's an annual event for at least the last ten years and never fails to be great. Had I checked my email before bed I would have found an order for one of our fanciest pool tables. Today I feel like I went through the 'goal posts' for the winning point.

The Zebra Wood Tables

Will is working on a pair of zebra wood side tables. They're small, 15 x 18 x 22 high, but challenging. They are based loosely on the table shown above that we built in the Fall of 2007. Click the photos to enlarge them ...

Cad drawings

First step ... layout the solid wood for the veneers

join up the veneers for the tops and shelves

might be an interesting table for the future ... The zebra wood is cool no matter how you arrange it .. I'd also like to do a small wall piece eventually ...

Veneered the flat sawn faces of the legs

The flat sawn stuff is really different than the zebra stuff

Tables knocked up before veneering the aprons ... with violin

more on the violin restoration later

Pretty Slick

'the lesson' 5/08 Pretty slick this modern technology ... On the urging of my wife, who was out for a girl's night out with some out of town friends, around 9:00 Saturday night I started a book. Sunday morning I finished it and placed the order. Today at 1:00, 76 hours later, my book and it's free friend arrived. Nicely bound and professionally done, and, I might add, what you'd probably consider a reasonable price for the effort. A friend/client of mine started the site a few years ago. It was called my publisher, but as of 2023, that company no longer exists . If you've got a high speed connection, (you'll need it for uploading) you can download the software (11mb) and have at it. It's surprisingly straightforward and there's a how to video if you need it. They've got a 2 for 1 deal on your first book and I've received other promotional incentives since I ordered. VERY professional. The formats are somewhat limited, but hey! I'm no book designer and I'm happy to have the creative box to keep me from wandering off into a project I would never finish if I had, like, total creative control. Anyway, if you've ever dreamed of seeing your stuff in print but couldn't bribe the right person to get it there, try this .... it's pretty slick. I have seen other books done on a Mac site and I hear they're also good and about the same price, but this one sticks to that favorite maxim of mine: KISS, 'keep it simple stupid' .... Click the pictures to enlarge them. Below are some compressed versions of a couple of the scanned drawings I uploaded ... (Actually, if you do decide to try this, email me, (dan@dorsetcustomfurniture.com) and I'll send you a link, and, if you use it, I get $20. off my next book..... thanks ...) 'the dining room' 'farmhouse window' 'corner store' 'magic carpet' the actual book .... looks real ! ... it is ! another page products and pricing ... big coffee table books, regular books, paperbacks,calendars ... check it out ....

A Distressed Walnut Table Top

We're working on a distressed walnut table top for a client who has a masonry pedestal. We're just making the top and the apron/stiffener. It's nearly finished and looking pretty good. Click the photos to enlarge them ...

The rough lumber form Irion Lumber in PA ... Beautiful boards, all from the same log.

Glued up and cut to round with a circle cutting jig on the bandsaw.
Here's one way to do it ... circle cutting jig There are simpler ones, like a board and a nail

We like this next process. It's quite fun. You move the pin that you use to cut the table round out away from the blade and one person spins the table (Trevor in this case) and one person (me in this case) holds the belt sander square and level. Once that kicks in, then you actually have to keep the top from spnning too fast. Sanding the cut edge this way takes only a couple of minutes .... Don't skip grits .... Don't let it take off ....

Trevor mortised the six round apron parts with the domino and glued them up in a circle using the band clamp, adding small moldings to the bottom edge to reinforce the glue joints.

View of the table bottom.
More later this week as it's completed

The client's pedestal

A Summer Afternoon

Beets

Well, if you look up to the title of this blog, it's called a 'photo journal', so, occasionally, woodworking readers, you'll have to permit me to wander through the woods or my yard and issue a journal report. This is one of those times.
We have had an excruciatingly wet and cold summer to date. The joke was, in Vermont, last month was renamed Juneuary. Anyway, today when the phone woke me from my after work nap, it was one of those 6 o'clock afternoons where all the light is right, everywhere you look, and everything is beautiful and all seems right with the world. Kit gets ALLLLLL the credit for the gardens. I applaud and eat. Click the pictures to enlarge them ...


The front porch

The slanting sunlight in the dining room

This way to the porch

The back yard

Kit's vegetable garden

Outside the garden, 'buffalo rising' a new steel sculpture by Sam and Dan

The front walk garden ...

The pond with goldfish

Some decorative grasses ...

Day lillies and blueberries .. It's their time to shine

The shadow on the stairs on the way to my home office where I write this ...
Let's hope we get more 'summer afternoons' soon ...

A Custom Bookcase

We've got a nice painted cabinet project going. Though I've known the clients for a while and have done a few repairs for them, I have to give my friend Ceil Petrucelli, of Ceil Petrucelli Interiors, some credit for getting them to come see about this project .... She's a great interior designer and got the ball rolling with a concept sketch for them. The cabinet is about 88 x 50 x 16 " deep and will hold the tv/stereo equipment, books and photos, and at the same time, dress up a long blank wall. C lick the pictues below to enlarge them ....

The concept

The CAD drawing

Gluing on the face frame

With the cabinet base

We've got an unusual 20" wide spalted maple board that will make a one piece top for the cabinet ,,,

Close up of the one piece spalted maple top ...