The Partner's Desk

We're coming down the stretch on a pretty big (60 wide x 74 long) 'partners' desk. It's actually for a husband and wife home office ... The sketch above was my initial concept; the cad drawing below, sort of where we ended up. It had a curve on the end for a while, but that was dropped and I had to change the number of butterflies to get the 'grommet' butterfly in the right place, but other than that, it's pretty much as drawn. Click the photos to enlarge them ...
We were able to get some really wide mahogany planks from Irion Lumber. In fact, we were able to make a two board top and two board solid end panel ... It came in just a tad shy of 60" wide.
The interior case of the drawer box is 3/4" baltic birch ply and it now has a center 1/2 partition for rigidity. The solid wood panels are attached but 'floating'. As they expand and contract with the seasons, the set back of the drawer faces will increase or decrease with their movement. Since we're sort of at a midpoint in Vermont's humidity cycle, they are currently set back about 3/16ths" from the vertical members of the face frame.
I've think if you enlarge this picture, you can see the screws attaching the side panels through slots that Trevor very cleverly made with our Festool Domino ... Good, creative tool adaptation...
We also had to stabilize the end panel with this 8" tall dovetailed box with a hole for the cord to go through. There will be a surge protector/plug strip in this box and the cord will pass through the drawer box and emerge to plug into the wall at the end of the desk.
We also added a piece of 1/4" x 2" steel to the top of the panel which stiffens it and gives a 'stiffener' and method of attachment for the wide top too. The horizontal face frames are glued to the box and will remain stationary with the drawer fronts ...
Ready for finishing. the bottom file drawers have 3/16ths x 1/2" brass bars for hanging Pendaflex files ..
End view
The parts are finished but we will probably not assemble it until it's time for delivery the week of the 15th when they hope to have the house completed .. We'll see ...

Stuff, Ready To Go Right Now

For the past several years, I have been sort of out of the show circuit for a number of reasons. Too busy being the main one ... This year, however, I got into it again a bit. As a result I have a number of 'show's over' pieces that I would like to move to new homes. My house is full. My office is to the brim ... I'm planning some more new pieces .... Stuff like that .... Anyway, the line up is below ... I'll post some prices but we'll consider reasonable offers too ... Check them out. If they're not for you, maybe you know someone ... Thanks ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...

The mahogany console above is part of a series of Empire inspired consoles we made from about 2003 to 2005. I must have sold 8 or 9 of them then. This one I made for one of the last shows I did and I still have it now .... Reduced from its original $3950. price to $2950. Champlain Black marble top .... It's 20 x 52 x 32 high and has a matching mirror too ....
The table and chairs here are part of our 'Bethlehem Steel' series and they are on display for the holidays at Long Ago and Far Away in Manchester Center, Vermont ... Stop in there this coming Thanksgiving weekend for the annual Denise and Dawn Wallace show/sale of Native American jewelry... The table is $3500., the chairs are $950. each and the set price is $8500. for everything .... Free delivery in 75 mile radius ...

'Bridges' Bench .... Made by Sam and Will and I for the 'State of Craft' show at the Bennington Museum this spring and summer ... celebrating 50 years of craft in Vermont ...
More info on this piece here +/- 52 x 15 x 18 $2450.
I've got several chairs like this one .. I've got one exactly like this one except it's a rocker ..
painted mdf with natural mahogany arms .... $1275.
I've also got a blue one in solid painted mahogany with blue canvas cushions ... (very comfy and substantial) $1750. And a red mdf rocker and a blue mdf straight ... photos available ... more info here ... l
And this is a prototype painted and carved bench ... It's got some blue leather on it now with a little flaw in the leather finish ... priced to move ... $750. as is or with new leather or fabric ... cool item.
SOLD !
An indoor/outdoor chestnut and painted steel bench ... a big one .. 15 x 72 x 17 high $1450. 'The skinny console' ... This was kind of a joke piece we did for the Woodstock show but I've almost sold it several times since ... Fun in person, and in the right narrow space it will be really effective as an accent piece ... English elm and natural finished forged steel .. $750.
And I have this big slab of beautiful claro walnut ... Just waiting to be a dining table, coffee table or desk ... +/- 48 -50 wide by about 9' long x 1.5" thick ... spectacular grain ... $2900. plus your base ... Looks like I;ve got another piece in the foreground there .. It's a piece of birch burl and I'm going to add a walnut shelf to it and make a wall hung piece ...

Jewelry ... As usual, Kit has a number of pieces of fine handmade jewelry in gold and silver, from the high end to the low .... lots of earrings too. Give her a call at 802 867 0139 ....
Beach stones ....
She also takes custom orders and does repairs and remodeling to antique jewelry ...

Sculptures ... I've been dabbling in sculpture as a 'hobby' for the last year or two and have been surprised to sell a few of them ... I've got a million designs and I'm always ready to start the next one ...
Animal Rhythms #1 .. We've made 4 versions of this sculpture, indoor, outdoor,small, wood, steel ... This is the original in painted mdf .. made for indoors, floor mount as shown or wall mount on 'hinge' brackets allowing for adjustable shadows ... $2450. as shown
Sunrise/Sunset ...painted wood and rusted steel ... indoor or outdoor ... $1500.
The redwood slabs ... I go back and forth between sell these/don't sell these ... The price is high, but the wood is spectacular !!!! they can also be mounted vertical .. indoors only
Right slab close up
Left slab ... click these pictures to see the wood details ... $3000. plus delivery and hanging .. Dancer #1 ... welded steel and locust ... indoors or out ... $1500. about 32 x 9'
'Revolving Doors' Photo above is the wood prototype ... Steel version is ready to hang in a new location ... painted as above (sort of) ... Revolves in the wind and at times, disappears ... Raw steel on the shop floor ... $1850. plus installation in your trees or house ...
'Double Discs' Two slices of a 105 year old silver maple branch ... from the one time largest silver maple in Vermont. lit with dimmable strip lights ... looks great at night .. indoors or covered porch ... very cool ... $850.
And these two curved pieces of thick ash are just aching to be a pair of benches or some kind of vertical 'wing' sculpture ...

Interested in any of this stuff? Give me a call at 802 867 5541 day ... 802 867 0139 .. night ... I'd love to load any of these pieces up for you tomorrow ....

A Classic Parsons Table

Google 'Parsons Table' and you get dozens, no thousands of images of flat toppped, four legged tables. And in Wikipedia we find ... "While the form is generally credited to Parsons The New School for Design in New York City, according to an article in The New York Times that referred to archives at the Parsons School, the table developed out of a course taught at the school's Paris branch by the French designer Jean-Michel Frank in the 1930s.

As the article states, "Frank challenged students to design a table so basic that it would retain its integrity whether sheathed in gold leaf, mica, parchment, split straw or painted burlap, or even left robustly unvarnished. What grew out of Frank's sketches and the students' participation was initially called the T-square table ... " The first example, as recalled by Parsons instructor Stanley Barrows, was constructed by the school's janitor and displayed at a student show.

Well, simple to design for sure. Kind of like a little kid's drawing ... Think about making one that will have a smooth glossy fancy finish and the problems multiply. 'No Seams !' was the instruction from the designer we are working with. 'No Seasonal Movement !' is what I heard when she said that. We chose 1" veneer core maple plywood for stability and had at it ... Click the photos to enlarge them ,,, First we made the hollow legs, mitered them to a point and cut off the unmitered corner with the chop saw...

A little glue and some spacer blocks at the bottom and we had our two short ends below
We used dominos in the joints of the short ends but they caused more trouble than they were worth when it came to clamping up the long sides so we just made two pieces of mdf below, clamped the short ends to them and fitted the long rails while they were clamped up ... Theory is theory, reality is reality ...
This was definitely the way to go ...
It all worked out fine ... a little sanding tomorrow and out the door to New York for the 'special finish' ... I hope to see a photo when they're done ... Looks easier than it was ...
Ready to roll 11/18/2010 .... 2.75" square legs and aprons, 15 x 66 x 36 high ... dimensions by Elizabeth Bauer Interiors ...

Libraries We Have Built Over The Years

I ran into some long time clients yesterday at the local hardware/general store. We were talking and they mentioned they were considering building a library next year and could I send them some pictures ... I rounded up a few and realized that rather then send them in an email, I would post them here with some comments and explanations. Most of the these projects were before I started writing this blog so there is not much in the way of construction photos .... They are not all libraries, but exhibit some of the various book storage design possibilities ... Click the photos to enlarge them ... More pics later ....

This stained cherry library had some beautiful details...The soft lighting for the miniature decoys over the windows, a fly tying desk., a 'secret' gun cabinet with lighted storage and opposite the wall shown above, a complete home office ... I have that picture somewhere ...
A classic natural cherry home office and bookcase circa 2004 I think. The clients and I got a couple design awards for this one, a portfolio award from Custom Woodworking Business magazine and one from the VWMA.
The opposite wall with a custom, built in fly tying desk ...
A mini library. This room was about 8' x 10' but we squeezed in two walls of floor to ceiling bookcases, a desk and a beautiful door with stained glass ... This wall is adjacent to the one above with the door in between them.
Not a library per se, but a really fine cabinet full of stuff. Down lighting on each shelf, uplighting on the top of the case ... An incredible collection of objects and only a very small portion of the client's extraordinary all original decoy collection.
My largest project ever and my favorite drawings ever ... This was way before CAD for me and I recently stuck these to the ceiling of the closet in my office ... If you enlarge this one, you can see the whole room. The photos below really don't do the room justice. For this project I had to take on a partner, Andrew Pate of Andrew Pate Designs in Cambridge New York for this one ... He had a much larger shop than I did at the time and more experience in long distance built ins than I ever want to have ... Yikes! What anxiety. Will this thing fit? It's four walls, floor to ceiling in a Upper East Side Pre War ... I mean, really ...
A. from drawings above ... Well it all fit ... It was a huge installation and four of us had to spend more than a couple nights in the city ...
B. from drawing above ... Lots of details ... The wood was cut from the clients' Vermont land; dried in New York State; fabricated and assembled in Arlington and Cambridge; finished before delivery; and delivered to NYC and installed there ... It was also the year we moved from Arlington to Dorset .... Did I really do this? I guess.
C. Lots of details ... The stereo all pulls out; the vertical 'drawers' on either side of the tv pull out and hold boxes of flies ... Not shown, wall d. above, and the fly tying desk and custom rod and reel storage. The arrow in the sketches above points to a view of the room ceiling if you're lying on the floor. There was a challenge there to make that all make sense too ... Wonderful clients, wonderful project ...
And, you can always paint them ... This project we finished this summer and it actually has a blog link ... The Wall
The installation day
In the shop ... See the blog link for more info on this one
And here we have a totally minimalist approach ... live edge curly maple and fir supports ... All for now ...