we had an excellent first day of open studio weekend saturday. we started off with a long list and a pretty big pile of disorganized stuff friday morning, but by 5:30, we had it all together, the studio doors were locked, and kit and i were sitting by the pond. click the photos to enlarge them ...
we added the leather seats to the chairs first thing and put them upstairs out of the dust explosion that occurs once a year when we clean the shop for this event. this is what it looked like around 9:00 am, and the photos above and below were taken just before i shut out the lights at around 5:00.
as you come in the door there are two slabs of claro walnut that we finished in anticipation of clients who were arriving friday after lunch to discuss a coffee table, which they ordered. the weekend was off to a good start ...
they considered the two we had put finish on, but in the end, selected one that we hadnt prepared ... bonus ..
these 6 ladderbacks we built to go with the claro slab table with the rebar x base that we finished thursday. that table and chairs will be going to the guilford, vermont, welcome center on route 91 for july, august, and september as a display piece to troll for new work. the state offers space to crafts people who ask for it for free in three month blocks. i was lucky to get the summer block and my contact told me that over 600,000 people stop there in an average year. it is a beautiful space. imagine that ... we have high hopes for that piece of marketing.
probably the most commented on item of the day was this copper top table we finished on friday around 2:00. (cut it a little close) .. its 3 wide and 11 long.
its based loosely on an antique french provincial wood top table image from the internet. this table will get its own post as the whole process was interesting. you can see most of the half size mockup behind the chairs photo above. 
it turns out that the mahogany coffee table will be around for another 3 weeks or so so we found a place for that .
sam finished the base thursday for this bench we fabricated from an offcut of a table we made two years ago. it was originally about a foot wider and had some issues, but after some judicious trimming, made a nice little bench ... i actually sold it today and it will be going to a local home where theyll use it as a coffee table on a covered porch ... perfect ...
sam had two of his three spark screen/fireplace inserts on display and they received some excellent reviews ...
and will dropped off his new daffodil banjo that he finished wednesday on his choice to a gig in glover, vermont, waaaay up north ...
rum drinks and beer for my crew ... kit got her jewelry set up in the finish room ...
and penny set up her colorings in the finish room with kits jewelry and then took a rum and a tour of the shop with trevor ...
we go back to the late 70s with jim and penny, and you couldnt ask for better friends ... all for now ...more photos tomorrow ...
here was a fun one ... a curved couch, not 
we started out with a 1/8th scale model, which you might remember from a post earlier in the year ...
the cad drawing, from which we made the model, was made from a paper template that the builder sent us ... it was a little rough, but surprise,surprise, when we checked our cardboard cuts in the space, they fit not closely, but exactly. you dont often get stuff like this on the first shot ...
from the elevation in the cad drawing above, trevor made the cardboard parts for the model and we had at it.
he cut the seat planks on the cnc after altering the cardboard pattern drawing and then we created a framework for the bench seat to sit on ... it has a slight angle for comfort (about 1.5 degrees ) and the back is angled at 8 degrees from the seat face. its surprisingly comfortable even with no cushions ... we fooled with various concepts for the tapered, angled, (part of a cone) backboards on the front and in the end chose a simple butt joint with a combination of construction adhesive and micro pins. sort of carpentry like, but the options were limited and in the end, since the wood is reclaimed and there are other distressings, it looks great.
the backboards were vertical, and not tapered, and we made them narrow and since they are against the wall, nailed them on.
neatly fitted and applied by trevor ..
we had a brief study on the table which will stick off the end and made it 18.5" wide, and so, even with the seat support below it. it will have a vertical support element when everything is assembled later in the week after we complete the staining and finishing, and install it on site.
