models and mockups

below is a post i wrote for the guild of vermont furniture makers blog back in 2009. i was waiting for photos of the actual show at the furniture society before i put it on my own blog, but i didnt attend the conference and so, never got any photos ... i wanted to have it here on my own space and low and behold select all, copy and paste, and here it is ... looks like i used my old camera ...

here are a couple of links to some other built projects .. models can be fast and extremely helpful ... click the photos to enlarge them
the big tables .. long mdf model in foreground
the claro walnut desk two mockups; one with the photo on top in cardboard and a welded steel one far right foreground
the duck bed ... and aluminum sample before the stee, copper and brass ... foreground center
5/9/09
The Furniture Society Conference is coming up again and, just every year, I think Ill go, and then I dont. I expect this year will be the same. Like some other things in life, we think we might be more interested at first, but then are distracted by more interesting things. Happens all the time. I did, however, submit an entry in the Designs in Miniature event which called for photos of models as design tools. Since I have a fair collection of them and find them valuable study and sales tools, and I like to build them, I sent some in. Here are the pictures. I dont have many of the pieces, but I do have ALL the models ... Click to enlarge the photos ...
Tapered cherry cabinets from last fall 1/6th scale, 30 x 21 x 6
revised models
One of the finished cabinets
More models and some finished tables below
One of my favorites from 1990
happens to be currently in my home office
Night pictures are alchoices a little color challenged .. the tops are natural curly maple

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Deardorf Camera Repair

well, we have put our toes into what i would imagine to be an extremely teeny tiny niche market ... we have a friend, george bouret, who is a professional photographer and gallery owner in pawlet, vt. he bought a new lens for his antique deardorf view camera. it had a different focal length from most other lenses used on this type of camera so he needed a holder that would position the new lens one inch closer to the film. will whipped up the new one and after a little fine tuning ... (angling the bottom slightly as the holder had to swing into the opening because the top metal holder was fixed) off he went ... i dont expect much repeat business on this one but george says even the normal replacement lens boards are hard to find and really expensive if you can find them .... who knows ... maybe well be retiring soon after all ... ahhhh, just kidding ... what would i have to write about then? click the photos to enlarge them ... original on the right ..
new one on the left, before modification ... good to go now ...

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real spring 4 24

 

 real spring is here !! after a pleasant, but strange, fake spring back in march where the temp went up into the 70s and 80s, now its really real spring.  the leaves are just starting to pop; the asparagus are up and were eating them; the crab apple tree went from greenish to PINK in 3 days.  and, weve had some serious rains a couple days apart to get the streams up for sam, the fisherman in the family.  click the photos to enlarge them.

 this display only lasts a day or two, but its cool when its up ...
                                       the toads are back and singing, and laying  millions of eggs in kits pond ..

 theres a little shelf holding up the air conditioner outside the metal shop where mrs. robin makes a nest.  she was starting to build on top of last years, which can be messy and risky, so kit whisked achoice the old nest and temporarily set it on the top of the grill ... it is an exquisite object, perfectly round in a choice thats hard to imagine a bird pulling off.  the clay and grasses are from the edges of one of the ponds, and then the fresh grass lining in the nest below ... perfect ...

 kit thinks shell lay one more today and then start to sit ... beaurtiful !

and i finished stacking next years wood yesterday ... earliest ever.

and sunday, we did some spring cleaning.  borrowed an 8 foot step ladder, vacuumed off the ceiling fan, the top of the entrychoice closet and washed the insides of the velux windows !!!  wood heat can be messy, but with oil at $4.00 a gallon, ill take the mess thank you ... im getting the hang of the new blogger interface, but its a bit of a struggle ... grrrrrr ... i do like how fast the pictures enlarge when you clcik on them.

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new camera !!

well, another 3 years, another camera. i think i got my first kodak 1 megapixel camera in 2001. what a novelty that was ... i used that for a couple of years, and then a friend who worked for field & stream sold me his e10 olympus. that was really the camera that got my attention. it took (and still takes) incredibly clear and detailed images, but it eats AA batteries and takes about 60-70 seconds from when you push the shutter to when you see the photo on the 1.75" screen. that one got me started though. click the photos to enlarge them ...
in 2006, i bought a nikon d70, which took some great pictures, and then in 2009, the d90 you see below with the scotch tape over the shutter release. it will take a minute to get comfortable with the canon, but im pretty impressed so far. these handheld, casual snapshot images are compressed from 6 MB to 200K and they are still incredibly sharp.
after briefly and unsuccessfully trying the nikon d7000, i went with the canon t2i, which as mr moore prophesied, more powerful (18 mega pixels) and less expensive, than its predecessors. this brand new t2i was less than either of my nikons.
it seems to do really well in high contrast situations. all photos here are handheld on the P for program setting which automatically selects the asa and exposure ...
our dining room at sunset
the kitchen, same sunset
my d90 ... i ran over it with the electric seat in my convertible, and after about 4 months at the repair shop, waiting for parts, it came back and the shutter button shot across the room two weeks later ... it still works though and will be fixed when the part comes in. it seems that nikon is shutting out its independent repair shops from receiving new parts, which is sad ...
the new one ... ive already dropped it once .. no problem !! havent tried the video feature yet ...
ill leave you with this one, a zoomed image, shot from the same seat on the couch as the shot of the dining room above, cropped and lightened ... its all there ...

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