CWB Portfolio Awards

Sometimes we enter design competitions, sometimes we dont. This year though, I felt The Duck Bed was one of our all time good ones, so, off it went to the Custom Woodworking Business Magazine Design Portfolio Awards contest, where we were happy to receive an honorable mention. Loyal readers may have seen the original posts for the bed back in April of this year, but, if you missed it then, its worth a look. The bed was a technically demanding and rewarding project on many different levels. The clients were old friends (that alchoices helps), and everyone in the shop was involved in the project. Will did the turning, carving, and finishing; Sam did the mini sculpting and patinas; Trevor did the cnc work on the inlay pockets and walnut inset, and Jim was there as alchoices to help you do whatever you needed help with at the time .. fun project.
Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Our neighbor and sometime collaborator, Steve Holman, (see The Big Tables") also won an honorable mention for the piece he did for the Bennington Museum Show State of Craft ... 50 Years of Craft in Vermont that took place earlier this year ...
The overall winner in our category, Residential Furniture was Parnian Design of Scottsdale, Arizona. They nudged us out with a project that took Parnians craftsmen 8 months to build and
was two years in the making by designer Abdolhay Parnian. ... nice commission ...
Weve had luck in CWB Portfolio Awards in the past and so has Steve ... Honorable Mentions before for Harveys Sideboard, once for Nancys Screen and just two years ago for Elliots Poker Table.
In 2005, we were the overall winner in the Specialty Products division for our mahogany,curly maple and walnut traditional style pool table ...
Below are few photos from my earlier duck bed posts describing the process of building the bed ... This post is the last one I wrote and has links to all the previous ones so this is the place to go for a start to finish tour of the project ... Feel free to comment or email if you have questions on our techniques or execution ...
First rough mockup on site ...
Will, adjusting his music before carving the posts ...
Headboard template test fit with inlay designs still in progress ...

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A Christmas Jewelry Box

Will recently completed this nice jewelry box for a client to give to his wife for Christmas ... It was a surprise, but the cats out of the bag by now Im sure ... It was a nice little project ....Click the photos to enlarge them ... Above is the back side ...
From the front .... We used a piece of figured cherry left from the new trestle table we delivered the weekend before Christmas ... The square trays are about an inch tall and slide side to side or lift out easily ... The mirror was a last minute addition ...
Will did the walnut inlay with the initials on the cnc ...
When he glued up the box, we werent sure whether the outside was to be stained or not. Since the bottom of the drawer and the top compartment are covered with a suede like fabric, we shellacked the interior before the glue up and taped it off for staining and finishing the outside ...
Will fitted up the drawer and installed the hinges before disassembling the box for finishing ...
The dividers, taped off
From the front before finishing ... Weve got a CAD drawing somewhere ... I think its about 10 x 14 x 7 high

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