More Photos of Yacht Tender

These are just a few photos, of the finished boat and what it looks like today.

 

 

It was an ambitious project, but I learned a lot about woodworking during the process.

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Yo ! Turkeys ! and other images of spring

We had these daffodils on the kitchen island a week ago and they gave me the feeling that the weather was about to break ... And it did. We still have snow on the ground but this weekend was 100% sunny and warm. I think I saw 50 degrees on my car thermometer for a minute .. Anychoice, it was beautiful and I was lucky to catch some turkeys prowling through the woods a few minutes before I found my first pussywillows ...
Click the pictures to enlarge them
Mr. Turkey above, and his ladies below ... He had a nice beard but hes turned just enough that you cant see it in this picture ...
I think there were 3 or 4 more ladies I cropped out ..
Pussywillows on the porch and Cactus Man Goes to the Pyramids by Jim Parsons, the guy Jim you see working in the shop photos ...
Sunset yesterday ... two months to leaves ...

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take an object do something to it do something else to it part 1

in a recent post, i wrote about refinishing a table i built 21 years ago in a style i am still working in today, and in fact, started working on in 1986. ill give jasper johns some credit for that as i often use his quote in the title above when talking about a design language. my introduction to my style was by complete accident in 1986. a client/friend who had been living in germany for a few years described this desk she wanted me to build for her based on some furniture she had been living with during those years abroad. i kind got what she was describing and made her desk, as she described it to me. click the photos to enlarge them ...
there it is, in the upper right hand corner, mahogany and black paint with brass hardware. my wife and i both liked the style and since our house at the time was more or less devoid of nice furniture, i decided i would participate in a show at a local gallery and whatever didnt sell (hah !), we would bring home for the dining room. well, we know how that goes, and i have had this lovely furniture in my own home for 25 years now. this was before the internet and before my book collection had grown to include anything regarding the biedermeier style. the desk above we liked, but was too formal for us so we used native natural cherry with the black paint instead of the stained mahogany. presto ... studio style ....thats our table and chairs in the upper left corner above and our sideboard in the top left corner of the top photo. so, what am i trying to say here?. this is a post i have been trying to write for a while about, really, how did i get here? we actually did two custom studio style dining rooms last year, this one, and this one so on we go with it ...
so, here we are ... take an object, or a design, or a combination of woods or colors and try to imagine how they could be different, or similar but different; change a little here; change a little there; change a lot, but keep some stuff; keep at it; keep reading and looking; keep an open mind and keep changing ... when you look back 30 some years later youll indeed wonder how did i get here? , but youll be pleased that your designs hang together from the same thread or threads that run through all of it ...
you can add some inlays ... here we have a studio style half round with abalone inlays, which led to some bed headboards with abalone inlays, and we know where that went, which was on to one of our most involved and challenging pieces. more on the wood and metal style in a future post.
wood and steel tables ... the bethlehem steel series.

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goldtown rips it up on the town green

we live in dorset, but when we say were going to town, its really manchester, about 9 miles achoice. in dorset we have no traffic lights, a couple general stores, a post office and some inns. manchester, for the past few years, has been hosting a series of tueday evening free concerts on the green and last night was wills band, goldtowns, first appearance there. several people, including the woman who organizes the events, said last night was, by far, the biggest crowd ever ... and, they were psyched ... it was a great show! ..click the photos to enlarge them ... .
after an early afternoon shower threat, the sky cleared and it was a perfect summer evening, sunny and 72 degrees. it was my first concert with a serious waterfall in the background and loaded log trucks passing by, but the sound was great. lots of kids, like our friend kates, and andrew weill , the glass blowers below. kates kid had on her best too-too and did some great dancing.
andrew, on the other hand, looked like he was carrying a six pack ... but kit rescued her for a moment below. andrew said it was his daughters third goldtown event, counting one in utero ...
they closed with a traditional tune, rubens train. im not a video guy, but i took this one and you can feel the energy of the crowd by watching it. even ma was dancin ....
great crowd ..
great waterfall ...

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someone, i forget who, asked me over the holidays, so what type of furniture do you make most often?  my answer was dining tables.  a lot of our projects take longer and require a lot more concentration, organization and problem solving, but im fairly confidant if you asked my guys what their favorite type of project was, youd get the same answer.  dining tables.  one of the reasons may be is the flow of them.  you start. not that long later, you finish.  they leave. you know people will have good times around them ...next project ...

  how many different tables have we made over the last 34 years?  more than a hundred for sure.  i put this slide show together as much for my own convenience, so i can find a picture of a table that is not on my website when i want it, and also so folks can see the different styles we work in.  this is certainly not all of the tables we have made, but it does cover some stylistic ground, from high traditional, to contemporary slabs.  click any photo at the link above to start the show, and enjoy your tour.  a few of the highlights are directly below.

some have carved details

 

some are very traditional

some are made from one slab of wood, in this case bubinga

and some have inlays and specific stylistic details ..

anychoice, there are many different tables in the slide show, and were alchoices on the lookout for new opportunities to stretch our design legs .. send us your ideas and well have at it ..

ps ... im working on getting links from the photos to the blog posts, but it will probably be a while before i finish that part of the show .. enjoy!

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Minggu, 24 Juli 2016

what to do what to do

well, friday afternoons ... you just never know what might happen ... as we were cleaning up, somone put this claro slab cutoff out on the porch just as i happened to go out the door to the finish room. this piece has been hanging around the end of the sander for oh, a year or so? who knows. anychoice, i suddently had this urge to clone it by resawing it with a chainsaw. kind of like the rubber stamp tool in photoshop. so i did. jim was johnny on the spot with the photos .... now comes the hard part ... whats the best thing to do with them ??? comments? were open to suggestions ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
1st obvious arrangement with the curving negative space ...
not so obvious, but maybe cool on the wall ... or, as a table with a glass top?
free standing swans
have a good weekend ....
other chainsaw adventures

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Senin, 18 Juli 2016

Hide The Wires

Were building a curly maple kitchen island table for a local client ... It will have a really nice orangy,brownish, granite top ... One of the challenges was to hide the wires that will come out of the floor and up to the outlets and switch on the side apron of the table ... The legs are 3.75" square, which gave us plenty of room. The eureka moment was to cut the mitered filler piece out while the solid curly maple legs were still oversize at 4" square. Click the photo below to enlarge it and youll understand that once it is glued back in, it will match almost invisibly ... Worked slick ...
Legsm aprons, face frame, drawer framing members
Close up of the corner detail and the channel down through the leg
Here were starting the finish .. Below with a temporary top for the photo ...

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Selasa, 12 Juli 2016

What We Can Do With Metal

Sams been working with metal now for about 5 years, full time for the last two. Hes a great welder and fabricator and his artistic and problem solving sense is evolving everyday. As we get more and more requests for pieces both entirely of metal and as furniture, in combination with wood, often questions of finishes, materials, and capabilities arise ... Rather than answer the same or almost the same questions over and over, this post will serve as a general outline for potential clients who want to know more about what we can and cant do ... Click the photos to enlarge them ....
We have a fairly well equipped metal shop. We could use a little more space, a milling machine and maybe a more professional drill press but mostly, were pretty well set. We also have a company we work with for custom CNC waterjet cutting and custom CNC plasma cutting, as well as chrome plating and powder coating ... Right here in Vermont ....

Sooooo, what are the options as far as materials, finishes, fabrication? For a quick overview, visit the Sam Mosheim category off to the right there or any of the links directly below....

We work in steel, both hot and cold rolled, stainless steel, brass, copper, and punched tin.

Possible finishes are:
Natural oiled mill finish .... The Williams Store RailingsBlackened steel, done with a cold patina chemical called ready brown ... works great on brass and copper too .... It can be nicely highlighted with steel wool, then oiled ....
Polished natural steel finish. Essentially a process of grinding off the mill scale and polishing with finer and finer grades of abrasives ... While we have not as yet done any pieces in polished stainless, our satin finish stainless is typically looking a lot like the project above .... Perhaps just a bit brighter .... A Custom Contemporary Railing
For antique or Art Deco style pieces, golf leafed, natural or antiqued, might be a good choice ...
For outdoors, we recommend two coats of primer, two of paint with refreshing when necessary ... any color ... A Fine Outdoor Railing
For indoors, primed and painted, any color also; here with a nice gold paint from Fine Paints of Europe which will be glazed and antiqued later ...
A mix of finishes and materials .. blackened, natural,polished, brass and copper ... Were currently working on designs for a bed with inlays in a variety of metals and finishes ...
A Door For a Pizza Oven Thermometer
Products and Services .....
Custom Outdoor Chairs and Table Parts
Lighting, railings, sculpture, belt buckles, custom tools, fireplace accessories, furniture parts, metal repairs and custom welding ....
Whatever else you can dream up that you think we might be able to do ....
dan@com
sam@com

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a snowless winter so far

this time last year, we had about 20 inches on the ground and were bracing for what the weather man promised would be a big one. this year, no snow ... this is my 41st winter in vermont, and while i remember others with not much snow, or with snow on the ground for only part of the winter, i never remember getting to the middle of february without having my drivechoice plowed once. its just too weird ... they say the skiings good and from a distance, it does look like the snowmaking works. but in the photo below, that should all be white. when i was at stratton two weeks ago, except for the trails, there was no snow in the woods ... too weird.
the view of stratton from big bromley, about 10 miles or so to the south.
above is my backyard last sunday, and it still looks the same today. flakeless ...
the mosses are fascinating though ...
theres a little ice on the pond that comes and goes, but the strange thing is that most winters it
is frozen from mid december to late march and this year the duckweed is still green ... not a flake in front of the shop door ...
and not a snowdrift in the parking lot. it made me think about the new metalshop that is in the wish/plan/finance/early permit/estimate phase ... might happen; might not .. well see ...
early design phase ...
the dirt road was frozen and my convertible is in my neighbors heated garage while he is in florida, and it was sooo sunny, i went for a ride ... top up, though the sun was tempting.
one more moss and frost picture ... maybe more tomorrow ...

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