another summer project

  this project was a table retrofit for some old friends.  we go back more than 30 years,

but this is the first major project i have done for them.  good things take time to cook.

they have had this table since the beginning, as it came down from Fred's

grandfather a founding partner at Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, a world famous

architecture firm founded in Chicago in 1936,

it started its life as a door that was too short for a ceo office in houston's

tenneco building, designed by SOM in the 1960s ...

 

the clients were looking for 'an Arts and Crafts feel' and they liked a

table i made fore some other clients back in 2005.  we did some back and

forth drawing exchanges and settled on the design you see in the first photo above.

there were some challenges ... the clients were looking to 'soften' the edges

and after i sent some samples, we settled on a bullnose design ... the edges of the

door were neither square nor straight so installing the new borders took

some time and effort, and a new $120. router bit ...

then, of course, we had to decide on a stain

and carefully strip the veneered door...

fortunately, it was still summer and i got lucky with a perfect breezy, warm day,

and the original (lacquer?) finish came off without a hitch

that about wrapped it up and off it went to its new life in its new form ...

i am pretty sure it is happier now ,,,

before shot

semi retirement

 it appears that one of the things i have 'semi retired' from is writing on this blog.  

my last post was in july, but aside from time out for a new hip october 12th, 

i have been more or less been working along, building stuff for 

both long time and new clients .. 

below are a couple projects from the summer and early fall ... 

i took this image from sam's instagram page as i only seem to have 

in process photos it was an interesting and challenging project.  

the slabs were 'a bit rough', with varied thickness and twists and splits, 

but we wrestled it to the ground in the end,

 and the clients were very pleased ... 

the rails are bolted in place on assembly

 

and we made some chairs and sent them off to seattle

lotsa parts

some shapes, mortises and tenons on the cnc

ready to roll!  seats woven by my friend sandy sherman at sandy sherman chair caning

 

lots more to follow soon ....