another sir edwin lutyens inspired desk

here we have another desk in the sir edwin lutyens style

click the photos to enlarge them and see it happen from start to finish below ...

nice desk, and a job well done by my man chris bowlen ... 

this desk is the third in a series ...will built the first two at the links below ..

hardware by horton brasses in cromwell, ct

sir edwin rocked!  check out his wikipedia entry, then scroll down to his list of 'major buildings and projects' any one of which would likely occupy the typical architect for many years.  in a minor aside, the entry notes that he designed a little furniture and 'some of his designs are still on the market today'  .. 

this is one of our interpretations of one of his designs seen in the photo below.

our original client in 2009 sent us this photo, which we 'interpreted' into the piece you see at the top of this post.  that one is in cherry, bubinga and walnut, as was the second version we made in 2013 ..

the new cousin is in walnut, ebony, and walnut burl, and has a couple more drawers than the original.
 we're coming down the home stretch on it now ..

at 28" x 72" x 31" (the client is taller than most), it's the largest one we've made yet ...

we went back and forth a bit on the details and palette and finally settled on walnut burl panels with
an ebony line, quartered claro walnut borders and an american walnut legs, frame and top ..
we've done some finish samples and i'm pretty sure it will be striking when it's done ... 

it started out as lots of  parts

we started with our revised cad drawing of the original desk, lengthened it and added a second row of drawers and since it will be in the middle of the room, a stepped up back panel
and interior panels in the kneehole ..

chris roughed out the legs from a template modified from the original on our vega duplicator,
i did the final clean up and shaping of them .. just keeping my hand in .. i also worked on the structure off and on for a couple weeks while chris was in australia and new zealand .. i was happy when he got back.

we got the walnut burl veneer from ben barrett at berkshire veneer in massachusetts.  we've been buying veneer from ben for quite a while and he's always got some good stuff when we need it. we also got the drawer pulls from horton brasses in cromwell, ct.

tricky construction with the step up in the middle

and lots of edging on the top and the panels ..

only sixteen like this one .. probably 30 pieces on each panel ... lots of tape.
onward ...

a reclaimed chestnut farm table

we delivered a reclaimed chestnut table to manchester today ..

the wood came from our friend jef harris at vintage log and lumber in alderson, west virginia .. 

another view, before it left the shop today .. mortise and tenon .. 

3" rails .. 3" leg stock .. click the photos to enlarge them ..

42 x 90 ... 1.5" thick top

we took the leg design from a chestnut table with three leaves that we built for another client in 2003

rough boards that were floor joists .. 2 x 8s and 2 x 10s

ready for the clear finish ..

black friday sale !! goods to go right now ...

i thought this year i would try to keep up with the big guys by instituting 

a 'black friday sale' of the furniture featured in our virtual gallery. the photos

above are just a few of the items available for immediate shipping.

click the link above to see larger photos and pricing information.

it is a sale, and prices are somewhat negotiable ... 

 

email  dan@dorsetcustomfurniture.com

or call us at 802-867-5541

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL !!!

a live edge claro walnut table

here we go .. claro walnut table number .. hmmm .. looks like number 31 counting from the slide show.  this one took some back and forth to get the right slab, but in the end, the clients got a real beauty. 

it is the third slab we have used from log #41. the one above is 41 #2 and the one below, #3, we used for this table back in april.  we used 41 #4 for the bed headboard in the previous post .. 

click the photos to enlarge them.

these three log mates had incredibly similar grain, not unexpected, considering they are separated by only 3" and a couple of saw kerfs.  sam made the steel 'nakashima style' base above, and trevor, jim and i did the shaping, sanding, and scraping necessary to go from the raw slab to the finished table.

jim took this shot of trevor 'working on the table' and me with my drawknife and best tin tin hair impression.  you've likely seen these posts before so i'll just add a few process photos and then tell you that the table had to go into an elevator (it just fit, standing on end) and on up to the fourth floor of a new jersey apartment building ...we had to send a piece of cardboard to the clients so they could check that it would actually go into the elevator, which wasn't the biggest one.

the slab was +/- 48 x 102, and the elevator door was 42 x 84 .. we had inches to spare ...

close up of the (really heavy), nicely welded steel base.  fortunately, sam designed it to be knocked down into three pieces for shipping, the two verticals and the 1.75" solid steel bar that connected them ..

before

after .. not bad for a night time cell phone picture

a claro walnut slab headboard bed

we finished this fun project yesterday for a client in northern vermont ... the headboard is 

a +/- 48 x 100" slab of claro walnut.  the design is based on the bed below

 that we made a few years ago for a client in florida.

we started, as usual with a cad drawing and a mockup .. click the photos to enlarge them ..

the client accepted the concept and we were on our way ..

in this photo, we've got the plywood box for the platform and the ventilated ply tops cut. 

in the end, we cover the ply boxes with dark stained walnut and edge the plywood with the same material ... in this photo we are locating the boxes prior to drilling holes in the slab for the carriage bolts that secure the boxes to the slab.

the boxes were cut from continuous pieces of claro so that the mitered grain of the boxes matched as it went around the corners.  they looked really slick ..

we added our custom cast patinated brass diamond pulls to the drawers and we were good to go.

the slab will be hung on the wall at the clients home using the same system of 'french cleats' that we used on the first bed .. here's a link to that blog post where you can see how that works ..

photographing projects like these is always a challenge due to their size, but with a little photoshopping to remove the background clutter, you can get an acceptable 'record' image.  

not quite like the recent photo in the times of a new york city bed.  that one has a new york city price on it too.our version is a bit less in price.  neither of these are original ideas.  i had a client/friend visit the shop yesterday, and his parents had an (according to him) identical bed, only with a glued up rather than one piece headboard.  he remembered them having it in the 60s at least, maybe earlier. 

recylce, reuse ...

for more images of our claro walnut and other furniture please 

see the slide shows in the previous blog post ..

note below from the client enclosed with the final payment ...

30 live edge tables

well, here's something i've been meaning to do for a while ... organize my claro walnut pieces into a slideshow. so, at this link you can see about 30 different tables, about 10 coffee tables, and a few other assorted desks, sideboards, headboards and a bench or two.  i've been working with this wood since 2008.  with most of the photos, there are links to blog posts about the projects with verbal descriptions and more in process photos.

 click any photo to start the slideshow ... click through them at about one per second if you like.

the links are in blue in the upper right hand corner

there are also two other relevant blog posts from march of 2013

'how  much does a claro walnut slab table cost?'

and

'what kind of steel base can i have on my live edge table?'

you can see other public albums at this link by clicking the 'more' button at the top of the album page.

seriously, there are thousands of pictures from our 6 years of blogging there.

sketchbooks, the essential tool

i've got a couple projects going on, and one of them is going to go on for a lot longer.  the 'cleaning the cellar in the shop' project i should be able to finish up in another 10 or 12 hours of effort, but the 'digitizing the sketchbooks project' will likely go on for another couple years.  so far i have scanned and saved the highlights to this album from three fairly recent ones. 

 you can scroll through the slideshow at this link.

this is maybe a third of it ...

i've been sketching sporadically since 1980 when i bought betty edwards' book 'drawing on the right side of the brain' to learn how to communicate with my clients.  while cleaning the cellar last sunday, i found a fresh box of sketchbooks, likely packed when we moved to dorset from arlington in 1996 containing some drawings from 1988.  the one above is sam's, and he would have been 5 and a half in january 88, the date of one of will's first drawings i found below in the same sketchbook.  will would have been 3 and a half then.  fun ...

i wish i could draw like that now .. i have written on this subject before, and i think it's an important one.  the hand often is a link to the subconscious.  we sometimes don't know what we will draw until we start, and every sketch is not a winner.  some are though, and it is hard to come up with them if you sit down with the intent to 'come up with something new'.  set that pen or pencil free .. see where it goes ..

click the photos to enlarge them ..

this series of sketches and photos below are just a few highlights from the slideshow

'trout desk'

'duck bed'

sometimes new ideas come from existing pieces.  the sideboard and mirror combo are from 1987.  the sketches below from a proposal for a client are from 1988.  

'take an object. do something to it.  do something else to it.' .... jasper johns

 i leave you with a couple more from sam from 1988 ..

yeah, real fun ...