The Shelburne Museum

Interested in spending a day or so looking at a bunch of humbling woodworking and artwork? A trip to The Shelburne Museum would be worth your while then ... I big recently went to see a Ansel Adams show and found that that was just a small part of how I spent my time there ... I had been a long time ago when the kids were small (15 years maybe ??) but had forgotten the depth of their collection ... I do remember the Dentzel carousel though ... probably the best carved and painted carousel you'll find anywhere ... They have extensive documentation of the ongoing 'restoration' and conservation on Facebook and there is more info there ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
the artistic color choices and details are really good ...
In person, they sort of seem almost alive ..
and they are housed in a beautifully detailed round barn at the entrance to the museum ..
with beautiful framing
and a wonderful quilt exhibition on the lower level of the barn ..
Two other displays of interest to me were regarding painters who lived and worked for years in the Manchester, Dorset, Pawlet area, Ogden Pleissner and Jay Connaway ... They both had a whole building dedicated to their work and Pleissner's actual studio (below) was assembled there on site
on to the tools
and metal stuff
and the working blacksmith shop which Kit's counts as perhaps one of the things that sparked Sam's interest in blacksmithing and metalworkThen there is an excellent collection of carved decoys in original paint, with info on the makers as well as at least a half dozen sneak boxes and market guns displayed in a house moved to the museum from its original location in North Dorset.
Then there's The Ticonderoga, a 220 foot long steam powered ferry that was moved from the lake across a mile of frozen cornfields to its present location ... It has recently been re-restored and is a gleaming example of curved and angled ship's carpentry ...
I didn't have time for the Electra Havermeyer Webb mansion which houses Electra Webb's high Federal furniture and other objects from her New York City apartment ... Been there, done that ... It's beautiful ...
There is much more to see than I have covered here .. check it out if you are in the area ... You'll be glad you did ...

The Wall

It's not a Pink Floyd project, but it is a wall for sure ... about 18' long and 8' high ... A couple little pieces and a touch up on the paint we're all set ... This one's been going on for a while and at the end of the day yesterday, the shop seemed quite a bit bigger than it has for the past couple of weeks .... Ron and Jackie and Buddy (see the previous post) were on hand to pass out the beer at the end of the day ... We've been working with them off and on since 1983 ... We'll go back in and finish it up today .... It was a total room transformer ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....
This was a 'discussion drawing' that shows the basic elements but not all the details. Some of the proportions and measurements changed after we got to this point, but rather than spend more time drawing went from here to full size layout sticks that we made on site. We have done all these elements in other pieces before so everyone is already familiar with the basics and detailed drawings weren't necessary.
Taking shape in the shop ...
We managed to set it up temporarily in the shop to check everything and cut the crown molding in the shop .... If you're not a carpenter, on site crown work is a total pain .... We had to rent a 14' U-Hual, which was an incredibly good deal at $67. It all fit in there with space left over ...
Getting close ... Will and Jim attach the last piece of the shelves ...
Since the fireplace is 99% decorative, I made a few sketches for a fireplace 'screen' that Sam will construct later .... Beutiful day ... Lake Paran Bluegrass Festival starts tonight and Will's band will be closing the show ... Set up for yet another Guild furniture show tomorrow ...
The power of paint .... here's a 'before' shot early in the design process ...

Architects + Artisans

Dorset Custom Furniture got a nice mention and post about our work on the blog Architects + Artisans ... 'Thoughtful Design For a sustainable World' ...
"Architects + Artisans is a sophisticated, well-informed provider of content, images, and knowledge concerning excellent architecture, artisanship and sustainability for the 21^st century. It is not just about designers – but about the people and products that make a well-designed place ring true. It is written and edited by J. Michael Welton, whose work on architecture, design and travel has appeared in The New York Times, Interior Design, Dwell, Green Source and Travel + Leisure. "

Michael titled his post about us 'Clients as Friends, Friends as Clients'. Since we're currently working on a wall of cabinets and a fireplace surround for our friends who own Mother Myrick's Confectionery, his post is very appropriately titled. Our first project with Ron and Jacki was in 1983 when they opened their candy store in Manchester and we have been friends ever since. I appreciate his publishing our work and encourage you to check out his blog.

The Mother Myrick's Confectionery store in Manchester, Vermont, 1983

Our current project for them, a wall of bookshelves, a place for a tv and a fireplace surround ... It will be installed this week sometime ...

Eliptical Arches

I think if I had to pick one thing that a CNC router can do unquestionably better, faster and cheaper than a human can do it, it would have to be the cutting of ovals and other elliptical shapes .... I tried a few back in my early days of carpentry and custom sash work and they are about impossible to do easily and gracefully by hand ... I am the proud owner of an Ovalcompass, a two axis manual compass like thing that I bought in the early 80's ... kind of works ok if you're coordinated and careful and the elipse you're drawing isn't too big. Two nails and a pencil and string ... been there, done that .... not much fun .... But ovals in CAD ???? Sweet. All day long, any size you want, perfect EVERY time.

Here's an example. The challenge ... cut four different length half ovals, all the same height, in 12 different pieces of 3/4" pvc board, with matching offset grooves for 1/4" jamb material, and get everything to line up inside and out, starting from the centers of the boards outside and the ends of the boards inside .... Yeah, maybe you can do it by hand, but I'll race ya ... Actual set up and run time, about two and a half hours hours plus a little programming ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
Here's the before .... the pvc is fitted and the joint is in the center on the outside, behind the keystone ...
The joints on the inside are behind the beams where there will be filler pieces added later... the oval openings are the width between the vertical framing ...
All the same height ... four different widths. One dimension was only 1/8" different from the other ...
All in, all done .... perfect reveals and my hat is off to the architect, Ramsay Gourd for another elegant design ... He's got a nice website and lately has been writing a blog on architectural design ... The builder is Mark Breen and the gentleman who organized the pvc department was Eric Gutbier, who was on hand to identify which part was which as Trevor cut them ....

An Artful Signpost

A couple months ago, Sam made this really cool signpost for a farm stand down the street. He offered to help them install it but they said no, they'd get to it ... Well, time went by and I forgot totally about it until bang! ... there it was on Tuesday, stuck into some wet cement ... Next day, the braces were off and the signs were on .... It's (imho) totally sculptural, an artful and structural blend of farm implement parts, some of which were left over from the Williams Store railing project. There was a short debate over painting/not painting it and I'm glad they left it to rust. Looks great! ...Click the photos to enlarge them ...

bloggavacation

My post on July 10 was, believe it or not, my 350th blog post ... a stunning statistic for someone who dreaded completely, and went to great lengths, to avoid writing anything at all throughout 16 years of formal education ... goes to show that you just never know how things are going to turn out. In honor of that 350 number, I decided to take a two week blogging break and do some vacation like stuff with my 'spare' time. The post below is a quick overview. During that time, I acquired a pretty substantial backlog of stuff I want to write about ... I plan to do a little more writing tonight and trickle the other stuff in over the next week or two ... Quick overview below ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
I spent a wonderful long afternoon at The Shelburne Museum .... I had forgotten the depth of utterly fantastic woodworking stuff on display there from tools, to the carousel above (which is a totally amazing display of turn of the century carving and painting), to a houseful of carved decoys, sneak boxes and punt guns, some great architecture and the restored Lake Champlain steamer ferry, The Ticonderoga. More on that later for sure.
I finished the second of the famous Stieg Larson books and reluctantly cracked the third the day before yesterday ... I read the first one way back the week after the 4th of July. I'm actually surprised I'm not reading the third one now except after a thousands pages or so, you actually can stop reading for a minute or two. I'm sure I'll be back at it in an hour or so. The one above is 600 pages and I think it took about 4 days. Boy was I tired at work. Avoid these books like the plague if you have anything even remotely important to do ...
I fooled around with a mockup for a hanging, spinning steel sculpture I want to do. The one above is painted 1/4" luan, reddish on one side and reddish/brownish on the other. After several failures, I am awaiting 350 lb test stainless steel 'large salt water game fish' swivels from Cabelas.
And the boys in the shop have been hard at work on an 18' wall unit/fireplace surround/bookcase that we'll deliver and install next week sometime ... Will's got a different project going on too ...
And I managed to get in a couple of rounds of golf to boot ... above, one of them, a first ever for me, fivesome ... what a hoot ... All for now; more soon ...

Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers Summer Show

The Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers invites you to attend a special exhibition titled “A Step Beyond: Collaboration and Innovation, New Work from the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers”, to be held at the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts, at 135 Church St. in Burlington, Vermont, from July 9th - 18th. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 9th, from 5:00 - 8:30 p.m.

This show will feature collaborative work by some of the guild members who have
collaborated with other Vermont craft artists, incorporating materials like forged steel,mica, stained glass, carved slate, and LED lighting. It will also include pieces with newprocesses, approaches and techniques that are innovative to the individual makers. This show is part of the statewide "State of Craft" exhibits throughout the year, sponsored by the Vermont Crafts Council to mark their 20th Anniversary. The show will bring to Burlington the work of professional level fine furniture makers from every region of the state, and is the first time the Guild has held a major gallery show like this in Burlington.

For more information about the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers visit VermontFurnitureMakers.com

The above info is from a Guild Press release regarding a furniture show that opened in Burlington last night. The space is on Church Street in the Firehouse Gallery next to City Hall. It's a wonderful venue and it looks like the members who are exhibiting stepped up to the plate for this one .... Check it out if you find yourself in Burlington ... It runs through next Sunday ...While you're here, also check out the New Guild Website at the link above. Click the photos below to enlarge them ....
Set up was yesterday and the organizers Johns Congdon, Lars Larrson and Dave Hurwitz really had their act together ... The show, just before the first visitor ... The turnout was amazing and went on until I left at 8:00 ...
We're exhibiting "Bethlehem Steel #3" and a set of six contemporary ladderback chairs. That's Bob Gasperetti's tapered piece in the background ....A detail of Johns Congdon's sideboard, which he designed in collaboration with his wife. This is the back side of the piece ... On the other side there are 5 drawers with handmade silver hardware ...A detail of Erin Handley's pear woodside table A detail shot of Mario Messina's hanging lamp
The gallery on Church Street ...