well, im gonna try your patience here. i havent been writing much lately, (too busy, the weathers too nice, pick an excuse ) so i thought i would catch up with a monster post summarizing the last week or two. here goes:the photo above is not from the guggenheim, but rather from the house where we delivered the circular bench this past thursday. fit like a glove, as the saying goes.
the pictures were a challenge as the light was intense at the top of the steps late in the day ... you get the idea. the stairchoice is three full stories and is a 6 radius at the outside of the curved railing
the bench went to the same house as the swinging bench
and weve got two claro slab dining tables underchoice in the shop .. a ten footer and a twelve footer. both slabs are from the same log and are going to two different clients, one in chicago, and one in northern vermont. one of the table tops will be finished in a satin black color, which should be interesting as its the first one of these tables we have made to be stained. the sample was elegant, so im looking forward to seeing it finished ... this week?
the 10 footer will have our regular natural finish, and both slabs are now routed for the bases. on to the finishing room monday with this one.
while were talking about claro walnut, were also working on some pieces for an upcoming show at a new venue in the berkshires opening on the 21st of july. its a converted mill space in housatonic, mass., near great barrington, and while i haven;t seen it yet, the space looks fantastic in the photo above. we started out figuring on a minimal presence, but at the urging of the organizers, were now making a bigger effort. were working on a couple of pieces using the small claro slabs we purchased back in february.
weve got a funky mdf desk mockup going, which sam will fabricate in steel this week. im not sure yet about the vertical things and well have to see as we go along. i might try some more polished rebar instead.
weve also got this coffee table slab. the base is completed and will be like the one we finished recently. ive decided not to reinvent the wheel with every piece we build. enough is enough.
also early last week, we started a new pool table. this is a long story i will eventually tell in a dedicated blog post, but for now, heres what we have so far ...
a bunch of parts roughed out, the slate, the slate support pieces and below,
a mockup of the leg details and and full size drawing. the table will be walnut, with quilted maple panels, which will veneered earlier last week.
and weve got this very funky bench project in the works, proceeding from the sketch above,
to the cad drawing ...
to the actual thing nearly completed. the last thing will did friday was cut the back on the cnc and hell fit it up and fabricate the round cap on manday ... its made from reclaimed white oak. hopefully, it will be ready to roll out by the end of next week.
and, speaking of rolling out, the benches for the copper top table left tuesday and are now on the porch in connecticut. im waiting for a photo of the whole setup from the client ... these are, like the table 11 long and have reclaimed chestnut x bases with new, distressed and painted ash tops.
and, that copper top table and benches led sam to create this 8 table for one of his clients. hell be making matching benches with steel x bases soon .... take an object, do something to it, do something else to it. this is a perfect ...
and we cut this quickie elm slab desk top from a slab we purchased at berkshire products ... in the door; meet with the client and cut it to shape; apply some finish; out the door last wednesday ... love a quick turnaround. still with me? almost done now .... my A D D is kicking in and it is a BEAUTIFUL day here in vermont ...
this one was a rescue operation ... it had been previously altered (20 years ago?) with some bad cast iron rail hardware that never quite was iustalled correctly. if you touched a post, the whole bed wobbled and schoiceed and seemed ready to collapse. we reversed the repair by removing the improved rails, patching those moritises and made new wider rails that were attached through the original bed bolt holes. new bolt covers and a ply mattress support and this bed is ready for the next hundred years. nice turnings and design. solid as a rock ...
and it seems things are picking up a bit ... these are just a could of projects that popped into the design quay this week ... more on those as they (hopefully) progress.
im outta here ... time to go watch the orioles ... click this one .. its one of my best bird photos ...
I ran into some long time clients yesterday at the local hardware/general store. We were talking and they mentioned they were considering building a library next year and could I send them some pictures ... I rounded up a few and realized that rather then send them in an email, I would post them here with some comments and explanations. Most of the these projects were before I started writing this blog so there is not much in the choice of construction photos .... They are not all libraries, but exhibit some of the various book storage design possibilities ... Click the photos to enlarge them ... More pics later ....
This stained cherry library had some beautiful details...The soft lighting for the miniature decoys over the windows, a fly tying desk., a secret gun cabinet with lighted storage and opposite the wall shown above, a complete home office ... I have that picture somewhere ...
A classic natural cherry home office and bookcase circa 2004 I think. The clients and I got a couple design awards for this one, a portfolio award from Custom Woodworking Business magazine and one from the VWMA.
The opposite wall with a custom, built in fly tying desk ...
A mini library. This room was about 8 x 10 but we squeezed in two walls of floor to ceiling bookcases, a desk and a beautiful door with stained glass ... 
This wall is adjacent to the one above with the door in between them.
Not a library per se, but a really fine cabinet full of stuff. Down lighting on each shelf, uplighting on the top of the case ... An incredible collection of objects and only a very small portion of the clients extraordinary all original decoy collection.
My largest project ever and my favorite drawings ever ... This was choice before CAD for me and I recently stuck these to the ceiling of the closet in my office ... If you enlarge this one, you can see the whole room. The photos below really dont do the room justice. For this project I had to take on a partner, Andrew Pate of Andrew Pate Designs in Cambridge New York for this one ... He had a much larger shop than I did at the time and more experience in long distance built ins than I ever want to have ... Yikes! What anxiety. Will this thing fit? Its four walls, floor to ceiling in a Upper East Side Pre War ... I mean, really ...
A. from drawings above ... Well it all fit ... It was a huge installation and four of us had to spend more than a couple nights in the city ...
B. from drawing above ... Lots of details ... The wood was cut from the clients Vermont land; dried in New York State; fabricated and assembled in Arlington and Cambridge; finished before delivery; and delivered to NYC and installed there ... It was also the year we moved from Arlington to Dorset .... Did I really do this? I guess.
C. Lots of details ... The stereo all pulls out; the vertical drawers on either side of the tv pull out and hold boxes of flies ... Not shown, wall d. above, and the fly tying desk and custom rod and reel storage. The arrow in the sketches above points to a view of the room ceiling if youre lying on the floor. There was a challenge there to make that all make sense too ... Wonderful clients, wonderful project ...
And, you can alchoices paint them ... This project we finished this summer and it actually has a blog link ... The Wall
The installation day
In the shop ... See the blog link for more info on this one
And here we have a totally minimalist approach ... live edge curly maple and fir supports ... All for now ...
we had an inspiration photo and overall dimensions, but no angles which, since you cant tell much by sitting on a drawing, encourage us to make a full size mdf mockup, complete with foam and batting.
it took an hour or two, but was well worth it and allowed us to debate the incline of both the seat and the back cushions ...
from there it was on to the cad drawings, which gave us dimensions and an actual plan to work from. 
the little recessed base was interesting and gave the piece a little more of a furniture look but added a few complications to the construction process start up ... lots of little offsets and surface plane differences to create shadows ...
plywood carcase design
but once the structure was defined by the plywood carcase, it was a little more straightforward as we added the layers.
moving along here, about to add the ends and top rail ...
a little oil primer and paint ..
a test fit on the cushions by local upholsterer, isaiah mccauliffe, and we were out the door. in the top picture above, the carpenters will cut the baseboard and fit the bench top to the wall when the clients table arrives, for the complete built in look .. nice house ...
