a few more favorites

in a previous post i promised 'a few more favorites'

and here are 'a few more' ... with almost 1000 posts to choose from, 

it gets a little tricky ...

click the pictures to enlarge them ...

interior design, and

'the spaces we make'

the blog post for the link above is mostly highlight 

general thoughts on architectural and interior design, and

comments on the furniture design/make process ...

 

drawing and thinking : thinking and drawing ...

this is an excerpt from an article by ashley ericsmoen,

an australian based furniture designer/maker and professor of design ... 

i have been drawing for pleasure since i bought the book

'drawing on the right side of the brain' by betty edwards,

back when i had to learn how to present my ideas to 

potential customers back in the late 70s. sadly, i made it

through high school and college without ever having an art course.

there are two relevant posts at the link above and both are 

discussions of the creative process

and two articles recently in the new york times and the new yorker

on ideas and creativity

new york times   temple grandin .. visual thinking

 new yorker  'how should we think about thinking?'

'handwork'?  'machine work'? cnc? does it matter?

 

some cnc work ... 1997, using a cnc at a friend's shop

all 'handwork', no cnc ... 1993?

a cnc router is 'just a tool' that lets us

do things no one would likely pay us to do without it.

the tansu stairs .. both of them 

                                     

these stairs went to california, along with about 15 lineal 

feet of railings for the second floor

the photos the client sent that we used for the concept drawings;

the builder provided onsite measurements to create the shop drawings.

the original tansu stairs,  a local project we did in 1989 ... 

with the railings we added in 2014

sam's belt buckles

pretty much anything you want on them ...

and in case you missed it back in july, 

there's my 'old man project', still a work in progress ...

there are 6 posts there that i still add to from time to time .. 

story of my 51.5 years of life in vermont, and a little bit

from before i stepped off the bus in arlington to visit my sister.

i had $6. in my pocket, and everything i owned in one hand.

all for now ... 

a quartered oak hanging cabinet

i finished this cabinet up on Christmas eve, around 10 in the morning ...

just in time, as the clients arrived Christmas day from connecticutt.

i took this project on in august, thinking i would still have at least one employee

into october.  turns out, my last one left just after labor day, leaving me with

a 10'6" wall hung cabinet to navigate and install on my own ... 

lots of dominos and pocket screws to join the 2 halves of the long cabinet

i next had to figure out how it was going to hang ...

fortunately, there was a 7" high baseboard that the back of the the

bottom of the cabinet could rest on ... if i got my hanger system right.

1/4 x 2 steel on the cabinet, rabbeted wood on the wall ...

with long screws ...

 once i had that all figured out, i had to figure how the cabinet doors would slide ...

 i had my mini mockup to test my runner concept

 1/8 th

1/8 th inch x 1/2" brass strips 'pointed' on the table saw to 

accept some little wheels typically used on sliding glass display cabinet doors 

 tricky setup and fancy waste

all hanging good and ready for doors

i had to have sam make up some hardware for the veneered sliding doors

kind of a fussy inlay job with the points, but a 1/8th " router bit and a good 

template on the cnc did most of the work

doors are in

a little finish to match the window trim and we were good to go ... 

great clients .. sam did these steel railings and
i made the wood parts for the clients last year ...
it's a really nice house .. shout out to ramsay gourd architects
and ian jensen, vermont country builders
more photos of this house on ian's website at the link above

wood and metal furniture and summer in vermont

 not much blogging this month  .. it is summertime in vermont and there are lots and lots of 

distractions.  you've got your birthdays early in the month ... dan, sam, and will .. wow! 68 for me this year.  at my birthday dinner, i had a distinct and extremely lucky 'pop the champagne cork event'.  we were outside, and when i popped it. the cork went straight up about 8 feet and came, seriously, right back down into my outstretched hand .. didn't even have to move to catch it ... for other distractions you've got your golf, your tennis, your horseshoes and general beer drinking, your convertible rides, your live music here and there .... summer's short in vermont, so we try to make the most of it .. we have been working though .. below are some highlights ... 

click the photos to see them better ...

 here's the rundown

 

a reclaimed oak bethlehem steel coffee table .. left tuesday ..

ditto on the cherry and steel huntboard

leaving next week

and a couple of crotch walnut bedside tables coming along ...

a small claro walnut and steel coffee table out the door ..

some new belt buckles by sam

chalkin' up the states .. sam's just finished new jersey, michigan, virginia,and new york above,

and now the south carolina palmetto thing ...

and will has updated his website with his five latest banjo projects ... lots and lots happening in his shop.

check it out on his website or instagram feed

a steel base for a 3m acrylic table top .. can't wait to see that when it's finished

with the polish and clear coat

and a couple of steel and white oak nesting tables .. after

before

and a 'sap spout maple' bethlehem steel console

cool wood ...

parts and pieces

a couple of add on railings to get folks down the steps in north bennington ... 

 

and we have a nibbler for a conference table using the crotch mahogany 

slab we are trying to find a home for .. so we made a model ..

it'll be sharp .. hope it goes through ...

steel base in 3 x 3 square tubing and angle iron

finished the bar ... see the previous post ..

 and there's a cool project coming up involving a python snake skin ... a new one for us ..

and we've got a 10' walnut table going with self storing leaves..

should be ready for the finish process early next week

and we cut about 70 mdf stair balusters on the cnc for an architect friend who's building a house in florida

  and then you have your yard and garden ... crazy apples above ..

 the garlic is in .. bumper crop ...

and we're about to be buried by everything else that kit grows ...

the employees will be lockin their car doors once it all starts coming in ..

                                                   all for now .. i'm sure that's enough