so, here's yet another staggering statistic

station WXYK, 107.1, 'the monkey', in gulfport, mississippi posted a photo of our stairs back in july of 2012.  i have been hearing reports from friends that this photo has been 'floating around on the internet' for a while now.  i guess so ... i got an email from my client about a week ago who had gotten an email from her sister-in-law on the 4th of january telling her that she had seen her stairs on facebook.  at that time, the photo had, i think, 491,000 shares.  i checked today, and it has gone over a half million shares now ... viral, i'd say.  so, unfortunately, the monkey forgot to give us credit for building them, if they even knew.   i think we missed a major marketing boat ..  maybe next time.  but then, there's a link there now, and, it's still going .. 9,000 shares in three days is not too shabby. 

here's a link to an april 2014 blog post about adding a railing to those stairs ..

and here's a link to a blog post on an even bigger set we built and sent to palo alto in april of 2009.

 below we have our other staggering statistic, one million blog page views ... and after about 6 years of blogging, i was considering hanging up my pen ... i think i'll go for a while longer now ..

i'd love to hear some comments here .. thanks!  dan

happy new year ... again ...

new year's day .. a time of reflection and optimism .. today's sunset above augurs well for 2015.  red sky at night; sailor's delight .... isn't that the saying?  2014 was an interesting and challenging year .. a little above average, actually.  some jobs just flowed; some jobs were like pulling teeth .. some had easy deadlines, and some, like the last three weeks of them, were rapid fire, one after another rush, rush, rush.  it's also possible that in reality, my management skills may be fading as i enter my 36th year of this grand production.  all's well that ends well though, and it's onward to 2015.  while i've been working on this slide show of the highlights of 2014 for a couple of weeks, i just finished it today, in time for the new year.

here's the link to it 
click an image there and arrow through it.. while you are there,
you can also access more albums from other years, like the ones below
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
live edge tables
furniture from reclaimed lumber
sam's metal work
a hundred or more dining tables
digitized sketchbooks
stuff you can do with a cnc router
happy new year to you all, and all the best for 2015.

what's happening now

we could be setting the record here these days with 'stuff going on at the same time 

right before the holidays' at dorset custom furniture this month.

started a couple weeks ago with this railing from sam's shop

and a stand for a 1953 packard hood ornament

and a maple leaf belt buckle .. first one of these i think ...

 and then these last week

 

and this one cemented in place, just before the snow ...

 

the terrain and the recent crushed stone fill around the new stairs made

this one a challenge.

and then, the snow

and the new railings at the dorset field club

still more to go there with railings at each set of stairs

and will's been busy .. here he is modeling a 'goatskin necklace', the trimming from 

a natural skin head installed on a recent banjo he finished.

more photos of this and other many other banjos at seedersinstruments.com

and i've finished some new pottery, just in time to give it away for christmas ...

and while it may not look it, this was a challenging redo, given the existing tile,

slightly out of plumb walls, and complex existing infrastructure under the old vanity.

after

and trevor's got a 42" round table with 4 -20" leaves

 home stretch; ready for light stain with black details soon ..

 and at the very last minute, a client we've been working with since may added these counters to the mix.  this one is 28" wide by 12'8" long by 350 pounds or so.

 this one is 5' x 6 feet by about 350 pounds or so too

 

 and this rather substantial claro walnut slab arrived last week from good hope hardwoods ..

63" at the wide end; 13' long; 3" thick in the rough ..

 trimmed er down a little at the local jk adams factory where we had it delivered

(they have a forklift)

 great figure !!!!!

 trimmed and in the truck.... now in the shop .. in the on deck circle for next year

and jim just sanded and reoiled a set of six of these outdoor chairs ... 

ugh! .. he was glad to deliver them back to the client

and the last two pre-christmas projects that should be finished at the end of the day today ..

above another 'x based table' from reclaimed barn parts; last coat of finish today

 

and this custom cue rack ... finished now, and i'll install it this morning

and on christmas eve, a last minute 'gift certificate' for a slab top coffee table .. 

i'm sure it was a hit with the client's wife on christmas morning

lit the tree at the shop yesterday .. 

merry christmas to all !!!

rudolph .. by sam, 1986

furniture from reclaimed lumber

we've been making furniture from reclaimed lumber for many years now.  i am in the process of collecting the photos of this furniture in one place and have created this slideshow where you can see some of them.

here are just a few of my favorites ...

the 'bridges' bench   .. made for the 2010 bennington museum show 'state of craft: fifty years of crafts in vermont'.  the theme of the show was 'continuity' and this piece involved 4 members of our family.

one of our early chestnut projects ... it was a project for a friend, and it involved this table, 

a gateleg pull up extension table, and 8 chairs

i put my feet up on this one every day.  it was an early collaboration involving me and kit, and our metal working son sam

part of our series 'empire deluxe' ... reclaimed chestnut and vermont marble

and who doesn't love a nice post and beam custom pool table

and about 50 more photos and blog links here

sunny winter light

friday morning was clear and sunny and the winter light was beautiful .. 

love the way it rakes horizontally across the house.

click the photos to enlarge them

makes the cherry glow

turkeys love it too

and the frost on the windshield was excellent