well, after about 35 years of this kind of work, i have come to really appreciate the process of design, as much as the event of making stuff, which also is a process, and not a list of a linear progression of steps.  we do something, analyze it, do something different, analyze that, and step by step, move it all forward in small increments.  to get to the model above, ive been working with the builder, the client, and two different designers for a couple of weeks now.  it was a lot of work, but i think weve got a handle on it now, and it has been interesting.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

it started with some architects sketches for a more or less traditional kitchen, with a pantry in a separate room off to the right.  

we went with that originally, and i had just finished my shop drawings below, when i was informed that there was a new designer on board, up from florida, with some new ideas of how the kitchen should look.

 

he wanted a more streamlined, clean and modern look ... 

 after quickly revising my drawings to reflect his initial input above, trevor and i visited the site again and waved our arms and pencils and cardboard around with everyone for a while, until i realized that it was going to be a little more complicated then that ...  i offered to make a scale model.  time was short, but we got on it 

so the site looked like below thursday afternoon ... 

and the model looked like below friday morning ... 

so after another meeting friday morning, it was back to the shop, and mid afternoon, back to the site with the model below, adjustments and additions completed ...hot glue and double cardboard ... nothing better

north and east

east and south ...
back to the new shop drawings monday ... a couple more model changes and were good to go ...

so now, the confusing little room is gone, it all feels more open, clean and spacious, and, its the weekend ... 

for more on models and mockups, see these previous posts

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I had a wonderful conversation with Kari a few weeks ago in which we both agreed that the space between the front & back legs of a bench does not need to be open (in line with the legs). That conversation confirmed an idea which has been brewing in my head for a few weeks: using panels in addition to stretchers between my front and rear legs. I think this will add both mass and stability to the bench.
After we talked I worked on some sketches of how to construct the legs.

The legs will be a 2x6 & 2x4. The double panels between
the stretchers will be 3/4" OSB on the outside &
3/4" MDF on the inside.

Today while waiting for a meeting to start, I sketched some more. Im pleased with the choice the design is coming together.

This shows a cross section of the bench construction.
Sorry the leg cross sections are backwards, thats
the order I drew them.

I need to do a little more research and then finalize it.
How is your bench leg assembly constructed?

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Upcoming Shows

Couple things coming up ... Next weekend, again, in Woodstock is the Seventh Annual Vermont Fine Furniture and Woodworking Festival . I wont be having my own booth, but Lisa Laberge, of Lisa Laberge Interiors will be using a dining table and chairs of ours for her booth Out of the Modern Woods. Shes creating a 10 x 20 room decorated with all Vermont made furniture and might also have room for my skinny console, a new piece were working on that should be finished this week sometime ... The top is ready to finish and Sams welding up the base tomorrow .... Well also have a new steel and wood sculpture there in the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers booth. (the Guild has a pretty slick new website at that link ... check it out) Havent started that piece yet but we have it figured out and hey, nothing focuses the mind like a fast approaching deadline.
Also in the last minute department, this week well be reworking a prototype bench Sam and I made last summer, for an upcoming show at the Southern Vermont Art Center. We had some furniture there this spring and they invited us to place a bench in one of the galleries for the upcoming fall shows that open October 1st. I worked on the bench for a couple hours this morning and I think I have that one figured out too ... Ive got four days to get it all together ... Ill keep you posted ....
as it is now
first attempt
thinner verticals, bigger circle piece
photoshopped in the back set ...
the skinny console again

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A Saturday of Design

I spent this Saturday working on designs. Not the usual furniture or building designs that I would normally speak of here or even the Sawdust Chronicles 2010 Build Challenge design that I should be working on. Instead I was working on branding. In preparation for Woodworking in America I want to design and produce a Penultimate WoodShop T-Shirt and Business Card.

The Penultimate Bench

Saturday started with a quick and dirty SketchUp model of the basic workbench design I have kicking around in my head. Itll have two bench top slabs (probably OSB or LVL) with a row of tool trays down the middle (similar to the Veritas bench or Bob Langs 21 Century Workbench). The legs will be flush with the edge of the top to provide a vertical clamping surface (similar to most bench designs to come out of the Popular Woodworking crew).The initial vises will both be Veritas. The twin screw I have sitting in its box on the floor under my current bench will get the face vise position, while the new Quick Release Tail Vise I plan to pick up at WIA will go at the tail. Ill probably add a plaineing stop and maybe even a quick release face vise to the opposite tail, but time restraints, lack of SketchUp expertise and a lack of confirmed design meant that I left them off this model.

Once the kids went to bed on Saturday night my good friend Aristotle Dreher came over and we got down to serious business. I kept SketchUp going and turned my one bench into four. I colored in the penultimate bench, left the others in black and white. I emailed the image to Aris laptop across the table from mine and he kicked his Adobe Illustrator skills into high gear.

We added the logo in the same color as my current blog header and in a similar font. The web address was added to the bottom and at Aris suggestion, "fancification" lines were added to the upper left and lower right corners. Viola, we had the front of the new T-shirt.
For the back, I made a big QR code in the same color as the logo and added the web address below it. Im hoping that for those who see the shirt and dont know to snap a quick photo of the QR code with their smart phone, they will at least ask me what the hell it is and start a conversation.

Finally, as late Saturday turned into early Sunday morning we made a draft business card. Last year (during the 3 hours I was at WIA) I ran into Tom Iovino. Even if I hadnt known who he was, it would have been easy for me to keep track of his contact info with the business card he gave me. Mines got a bunch more stuff crammed onto it, but I like it just the same. Lets hope it gets the job done.
During the week I should get both the shirt and cards ordered. Then its time to buckle down and get my Sawdust Chronicles Build Challenge design done.
So the question for this week, what are you doing to prepare for Woodworking in America?

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Geroge Walker Design Matters

Up to this point in my writing career, I have not spent a lot of time touting other bloggers. but, lately, as part of my mission of sharing information, I have been trying to reserve a little Sunday morning time for reading what other people find interesting enough to write about ... A couple of weeks ago I bumped into George Walkers blog, Design Matters, (a sentiment I certainly share), and its a good one. Very professional, readable, and deep. Lots of information there. Georges approach is centered on what he refers to as Traditional Design, how we should look at it ... what it means ... how to use it in your work ... all good stuff. He is also a contributor to Popular Woodworking Magazine and a frequent speaker on the woodworking lecture circuit. Enjoy ....

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new table design

A client sent me some links recently to tables that she had seen online that she kind of liked but not exactly ... The size she was looking for (60 x 86) was not a standard one for most manufacturers so, I made a drawing for her. Working with ovals to define the curves, I played around with the proportions until I arrived at something that had some promise .. I got her ok for the concept and gave the drawing to Trevor, who cncd up a quick 1/6th scale model to look at. After a little more back and forth, we came to an agreement and we were off. Click the photos to enlarge them ...
The 1/6th model is on top of the bottom of the English elm table we finally finished this week ...
Without the top showing the interior flower kind of concept ...
We started with 4 really nice wide boards of walnut from Irion Lumber ...
and after the top was glued up started in on the 16/4 pieces for the base. From the model drawing, Trevor made full sized patterns to help layout the cutsAfter mitering them on the tablesaw, we added 3/4 inch hardwood dowels that passed through the center of each section to allow us to later run timberlock bolts up through the x cross base and into the four sections.
Before gluing up we also added some long grain walnut to reinforce the short grain out near the ends of the arcs. We tried a bunch of different approaches to clamping ...
and then hit on the idea of a cut out piece of plywood collar, clamps on the bottom, and cross clamps on the top, which allowed us to view the place where the four miters came together ... It all seemed good until we added the actual glue which for a minute turned the whole process into a small wrestling/clamp juggling match which we eventually won ...
Before adding the crossed base elements, Trevor routed and glued and screwed in a half inch baltic birch play reinforcing spider that gave us all confidence in the integrity of the glue up ...
A little more sanding and it will be off to the finish room next week ...
Were liking it and have already discussed a couple of variations on the theme ...

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the scott lenhardt show

well, you just never know whats next around here .... a couple years ago, at the last minute, we helped wills friend, scott lenhardt, get some stuff together for his first new york show .... scott is a graphic and fine artist and sculptor, most famous for his burton snowboard graphics. as you can see in the flyer above, hes got a show opening at the firehouse gallery in burlington this coming friday. below is a description of the part of the show will helped him with this time ... click the photos to enlarge them ....
scott had a rough prototype with him and some ideas for changes on his first visit a couple of weeks ago ... hes got 6 colorings and 6 birds so he needed 6 painted houses. we brainstormed it a bit and after some adjustments, arrived at the final prototype and the six houses.
naturally, the cnc was involved, as was mdf since they had to be simple, fast to construct, and easy to paint. they left thursday to be wired and painted and i imagine scott is installing the colorings and birds this morning as hes off to burlington later today and the show set up starts tomorrow ...
lots of details for a smallish object ... lights, cords, (groove down the back), discreet hanging on the wall, (french hook), ventilation (slot in the tops at the wall intersection), wiring accessibility, (rare earth magnets and 26 guage galvanized spray 90ed into place), frosted glass, hold the coloring (velcro), etc ... will got them all i think ... interesting project and were considering making the run to attend the opening ...
we also made two sort of big mitered frames (3 x 5) that led to the creation of one of our best ever construction jigs ... next post ...

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interior design dining rooms

one of our favorite projects is creating a custom dining room ... we have a project coming up where well be doing an expanding dining table with a hard curly maple inlay, 8 chairs, and a cherry and curly maple sideboard. we get to make the pieces relate, in essence, determine the style of the room ... the designs for this new project are loosely based on the furniture in my own dining room above, with of course, the clients unique input which is based on their own experience with a table i made for the clients brother in 1990 or so ... round and round it goes. click the photos to enlarge them ...
this is part of the proposal for that project ..
meanwhile, for a potential client who is coming to visit this week to discuss furniture for her dining room, i rounded up photos of different projects of different styles, most of which consisted of at least a table, some chairs and a sideboard ...while in the natural cherry photo above this one, we were going for a more contemporary look, here were shooting for the traditional, with the dark, carved mahogany legs and stained mahogany and walnut chairs with burl backsplats ...
here, weve clearly taken a contemporary slant on the traditional, dark, arts and crafts style, taking our cues from the designs of greene and greene and stickley, but by using natural cherry we have (hopefully) brought it up into the present.
hanging fir and burl table lantern ... inlays in the top and 0n the aprons of the table
here we have the one board bubinga dining room ... plain and simple design, the table top and face of the sideboard was made from one 46" wide, 19 board of bubinga ...
here, the view from the other end ...
another take on what we refer to on our website as our studio style, a mix of natural or stained woods with painted details and accents. (love the milton avery boxers over the mantle) we used to make quite a few windsors, but, not so many any more ... im encouraging the padded seats ...
the sideboard for that table ..
and another ... for more, check out the dining table, seating, and sideboard sections of our website for other styles and designs ...

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