a walnut dining table with leaves

a little update to this blog post i originally wrote back in may ... 

the client has finished the room and recently sent me these two extremely

lovely photos of the table on site.  we have done other projects with these clients

and they are ALWAYS appreciative, and a pleasure to work with ...

beautiful room ...

 

May 14, 2017
trevor and tyler put this one all together today .. the finish came out really nicely, 

and though there is a little red spot in the photo above, it is a reflection from 

the red walls in the finish room where we take our photos..

it is a dark finish, but not as dark as it looks in the top photo.  

the color in the photo above is closer to the real thing.  

click the photos to enlarge them ...

origin of the red ( and the black) reflection here .. satin finish ....

 below is the table before we disassembled it for finishing ...

we started with an inspiration photo from another client, 

and made the two models below to check the proportions in the drawing.  we ended up 

lightening the cross bars under the base, and minimizing the 'feet'.

the low down view

bird's eye

here we go, laying out the boards for the top ...

gluing them up ...

trevor cuts the shapes for the top on the cnc. he also cuts the apron parts 

the same way and and joins them together with small dominoes, 

glue, and pocket screws top and bottom ..

sub top and runners visible in this photos,

as well as most of the other parts ...

lastly, the 'arcs' with their flat spots to glue to the central post,

and their dominoes for strength and alignment ..

testing the runners and the fit of the leaf before diassembling for
final sanding, staining and finishing.
good to go .. off to darien where it will hang out with a bed, and a kitchen
table we made for these clients in the past ... it is
always a pleasure to make multiple pieces for the same clients.

another big ash table

this is a truly big ash table!  80"
 square, 2.5" thick top with steel stiffeners

total estimated weight of the top, +/- 475 pounds.  i helped to load it, and it is all of that.

can't wait to see it in its new home ... 7/30 .. cell phone picture below..

looks like the chairs haven't arrived yet ...

cad drawing showing generous seating for 12 ...

lots of beautiful 12/4 ash from exclusively vermont hardwoods in bristol, vt

base with levelers and steel attaching strips

with one of the 1 x 3 x 74" steel stiffeners

i had the vermont coatings finish sprayed on by my neighbor bill tate ...

we actually didn't glue up the top until we got the 3 pieces to the spray booth ..
this one was a bear.  it was delivered to its new home yesterday ...

here are links to a couple of other 'big ash tables' ...
4.5' x 10' , 2011
and a recent one
42" x 10'8"

a fireplace mantel ... with ducks

fun one here !! we made this mantel for a client's rustic retreat on 

a tributary of the mississippi river .... on the central flyway

the masonry was going to be finished before the mantel, so we
sent a drawing to thebuilder, which he and the mason executed flawlessly.
 jon slid it right into place when it got there ..
click the photos to enlarge them ...

 essentially, the builder gave the mason several 2 x 8s cut exactly to the
size of the mantel (6" x 84") we were making to install  in the masonry.
the topp one was removable and that allowed the mantel box to be
recessed into the stone work

we sent an installation template for installing the backing block

it was commissioned by the folks we made this bed for in 2010,
one of our all time favorite projects .. lots of words and photos at that link .. 

 

we started with a mockup and full size drawing, mounted to the front outside wall of the shop

beautiful walnut from irion lumber (naturally), and trevor made some sample
pockets in mdf to fit the inlays into for the patinas.  there is a flush, no hardware, 'secret compartment'
on the right end that you open with a piece of steel that is attracted by some
rare earth magnets inlaid into the inside face of the drawer ... fun!!

all the ducks, with almost all their patinas on them

the central inlay on the bed headboard mentioned above ...

these two photos show how the inlays that are cut on a local waterjet

arrive for us to work with ... all the parts have little 'bridges' that keep the parts from flying around as they are cut.  those have to be sanded off before the pieces will fit together.

it's basically a high tech jigsaw puzzle

tah dah!

a 74" round walnut table, with leaves

a 74" in diameter round table with 2 leaves ... the base is similar to the last racetrack 

shaped table we made back in may ..

here's tha cad drawing with gracious seating for 8 when closed and 12 when opened ...

as usual, we started with some matched walnut from our friends at irion lumber

 

myron said it 'would be close', and he wasn't kidding ...

gold star for trevor ....

coming along

we decided that since the base didn't expand we needed to add drop down legs 

for when the table is fully extended

we used some simple folding hardware from rockler

trevor, doing the testing ..

and with the leaves ... apologies for the photos .. the finish room was JAMMED,

and time was limited, and i was tired, and excuse, excuse, excuse .. 

i hope to get a good photo from the clients once it is in place on monday ...

milton glaser

so, i came across this interview/blurb about milton glaser in a

recent issue of elle decor .. here's a link to the big online version

of the pages you see below .. though you can read the ones below 

if you enlarge them, the web thing is much better

the first page, above, is kind of an introduction if you are not 

familiar with his history or his work ..

the points highlighted with the orange lines in the pages above hit home for 

me as artistic statements .. my next stop was a visit to his excellent website ..

 excerpts are below  ..

 

don't miss the slideshow on the home page .. 

 and above are some highlights of his work ..

this is another in my series of articles on working vs. not working as you age ..so, born in 1929, 88, still working ... he is an inspiring guy ..

here's a link to another post from earlier in the year 

re: chuck close and paul simon and my artist friend, horst

 i am talking to myself, as i recently hit the big seven zero ... 

time marches on ...