An Artful Signpost

A couple months ago, Sam made this really cool signpost for a farm stand down the street. He offered to help them install it but they said no, they'd get to it ... Well, time went by and I forgot totally about it until bang! ... there it was on Tuesday, stuck into some wet cement ... Next day, the braces were off and the signs were on .... It's (imho) totally sculptural, an artful and structural blend of farm implement parts, some of which were left over from the Williams Store railing project. There was a short debate over painting/not painting it and I'm glad they left it to rust. Looks great! ...Click the photos to enlarge them ...

bloggavacation

My post on July 10 was, believe it or not, my 350th blog post ... a stunning statistic for someone who dreaded completely, and went to great lengths, to avoid writing anything at all throughout 16 years of formal education ... goes to show that you just never know how things are going to turn out. In honor of that 350 number, I decided to take a two week blogging break and do some vacation like stuff with my 'spare' time. The post below is a quick overview. During that time, I acquired a pretty substantial backlog of stuff I want to write about ... I plan to do a little more writing tonight and trickle the other stuff in over the next week or two ... Quick overview below ... Click the pictures to enlarge them ...
I spent a wonderful long afternoon at The Shelburne Museum .... I had forgotten the depth of utterly fantastic woodworking stuff on display there from tools, to the carousel above (which is a totally amazing display of turn of the century carving and painting), to a houseful of carved decoys, sneak boxes and punt guns, some great architecture and the restored Lake Champlain steamer ferry, The Ticonderoga. More on that later for sure.
I finished the second of the famous Stieg Larson books and reluctantly cracked the third the day before yesterday ... I read the first one way back the week after the 4th of July. I'm actually surprised I'm not reading the third one now except after a thousands pages or so, you actually can stop reading for a minute or two. I'm sure I'll be back at it in an hour or so. The one above is 600 pages and I think it took about 4 days. Boy was I tired at work. Avoid these books like the plague if you have anything even remotely important to do ...
I fooled around with a mockup for a hanging, spinning steel sculpture I want to do. The one above is painted 1/4" luan, reddish on one side and reddish/brownish on the other. After several failures, I am awaiting 350 lb test stainless steel 'large salt water game fish' swivels from Cabelas.
And the boys in the shop have been hard at work on an 18' wall unit/fireplace surround/bookcase that we'll deliver and install next week sometime ... Will's got a different project going on too ...
And I managed to get in a couple of rounds of golf to boot ... above, one of them, a first ever for me, fivesome ... what a hoot ... All for now; more soon ...

Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers Summer Show

The Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers invites you to attend a special exhibition titled “A Step Beyond: Collaboration and Innovation, New Work from the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers”, to be held at the Firehouse Center for the Visual Arts, at 135 Church St. in Burlington, Vermont, from July 9th - 18th. An opening reception will be held on Friday, July 9th, from 5:00 - 8:30 p.m.

This show will feature collaborative work by some of the guild members who have
collaborated with other Vermont craft artists, incorporating materials like forged steel,mica, stained glass, carved slate, and LED lighting. It will also include pieces with newprocesses, approaches and techniques that are innovative to the individual makers. This show is part of the statewide "State of Craft" exhibits throughout the year, sponsored by the Vermont Crafts Council to mark their 20th Anniversary. The show will bring to Burlington the work of professional level fine furniture makers from every region of the state, and is the first time the Guild has held a major gallery show like this in Burlington.

For more information about the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers visit VermontFurnitureMakers.com

The above info is from a Guild Press release regarding a furniture show that opened in Burlington last night. The space is on Church Street in the Firehouse Gallery next to City Hall. It's a wonderful venue and it looks like the members who are exhibiting stepped up to the plate for this one .... Check it out if you find yourself in Burlington ... It runs through next Sunday ...While you're here, also check out the New Guild Website at the link above. Click the photos below to enlarge them ....
Set up was yesterday and the organizers Johns Congdon, Lars Larrson and Dave Hurwitz really had their act together ... The show, just before the first visitor ... The turnout was amazing and went on until I left at 8:00 ...
We're exhibiting "Bethlehem Steel #3" and a set of six contemporary ladderback chairs. That's Bob Gasperetti's tapered piece in the background ....A detail of Johns Congdon's sideboard, which he designed in collaboration with his wife. This is the back side of the piece ... On the other side there are 5 drawers with handmade silver hardware ...A detail of Erin Handley's pear woodside table A detail shot of Mario Messina's hanging lamp
The gallery on Church Street ...

A Custom Walnut Vanity

I put a few pictures of this project up in a 'what we are working on post' last week. It's finished now and while it was pretty straight forward, there were a couple of interesting wrinkles ... Our client liked the onyx top and the way that the sink was carved out of the solid block .. The metal base that came with it though didn't go with her decor though so we got to make a new one, and a matching mirror. The vanity had to have an interrupted back rail to accommodate the holes that were already drilled for the faucets. Sam rolled us a couple of pieces of steel and he also made a couple of curved brass pieces to line the opening of the mirror frame ... Click the photos to enlarge them ...
The finished vanity base with an mdf mockup top/full size drawing in place.
With the top removed to show the two custom steel pieces.
better view ...
The onyx top and the base that came with it ... I haven't seen it in person, but the onyx started out as a block 6" + thick and they milled the sink from the solid ... Very cool, but hmmm ... seems like there would be a lot of waste ...
Ahhh, the mirror ... Everyone likes the mirror. The light sconces are antique brass and Joan asked if we could 'add some brass details' to the mirror frame .. We tapered the frame like the legs and added some curves and small round headed brass pins to hold the brass in place.
Close up of the brass detail ...
Will, fitting the brass prior to antiquing it ...
Ready to apply. The steel parts were painted black ...

mr. oriole feeds the kids

I was having my coffee yesterday morning when Kit said that the baby orioles were on the feeder. I didn't have my tripod at home, but managed to get a couple of decent hand held pictures anyway. This is something I have never seen before and I don't know how long it will go on, but it is a really cool thing to watch. This morning I was prepared, and the light was a little better. They didn't stay long, but I did get a short video that you can see at the link below. Click the pictures to enlarge them ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89oXq5AjUqY
Scene of the action ... I usually have my coffee while sitting on the couch in the foreground with the wide purple arm. To take the pictures yesterday, I rested the camera on the green couch arm and the feeder is about 8 feet from the window in the orange circle ...

An English Elm Slab Table

We're working on a new table project with a client in Connecticut. We went back and forth on the design a bit and explored various shaped tops and base options ... Yesterday we finalized the shape and size of the top and we glued up the planks today .... The grain matched nicely, and it's going to be an interesting looking table ... It's our first time for English elm, but it won't be the last I'm sure .... Berkshire Products in Sheffield, Mass. has a good supply of wide, interesting and reasonably priced slabs .... Check them out on the internet, or check them out in person ... Very cool wood source ....
The English elm has a really nice natural brown color, quite different from any of our domestic hardwoods... The table will have a polished steel base similar to a table we finished recently ....
I actually made the trip to Sheffield to meet the client and select the wood ... I thought I might find some other interesting slabs, and they had plenty to choose from. I came home only with the two for this project, an unusual display of restraint for me ...
The client has a built in banquette and we explored various shapes for the top ... Here we were thinking about trying to use the natural edge of the bookmatched slabs
and various shapes for the steel base. Below is an inspiration sketch from the client from which we made a quick model on the cnc ...
It was cool, and I may revisit it later on, but for now, we have moved on ...
We also explored several oval variations, but in the end settled on a 'regular' 42 x 78 oval ...
This was a photoshopped 'fatted' oval, a shape we sometimes use to add width to the ends ... In the end, the 'real' oval shape was the most pleasing ...
Glued up now, ready to cut to shape ...

Update .. Trevor cut the oval shape on the cnc and routed the cut piece to receive the base ...
We had some cracks that we filled with eboxy tinted with aniline dye ...
All together now
The client decided the natural elm was a little too light so we made a board with various color/dye strength options ...