Off To The Marble Mill

Our client for the black vanity sent us the specs for the sink she had chosen and in looking it over, I noticed the highlighted sentence below ... After talking it over with my marble cutter, Johnson Marble, in Proctor, Vermont, we decided it would be safest if we got the actual sink and faucet since the top was going to New York City ... We have time to do it right, but not time to do it twice .... Click the pictures to enlarge them ... We started by cutting a section out of the cardboard so we could trace the inside outline of the sink bowl.
Cut some holes for the faucets ... Interestingly, the pipe for the faucet was not in the center of the fixture and was a different size .... glad we checked
looking from underneath
Set it up right side up and then we had our finished template ...
Off to the marble mill, a fantastic old facility adjacent to the Vermont Marble Museum in Proctor.
Coming in the front door .. Its a great old industrial space ....
Looking back the other choice from the far end...
Showing the honed finish
A rough slab of Danby Montclair, with nice black/brown markings ...
showing the layout .... I forgot to take a photo of the building from outside, but its very cool the choice it relates to the rest of the site ...

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this custom mahogany coffee table is ready to go now ... its based on a design by ramsay gourd and we have made several of them over the years.  this one features some particularly nice figured mahogany from our friends at irion lumber and a rich reddish finish to be friendly a bubinga piano that resides in the same room.  it will be on its choice to california this week or next.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

trevor ran most of the parts below on the cnc and then with the help of some techniques and jigs hes developed over the series, assembled and finished this one.

the top photos a little oranger than it really is and this ones a little redder ... still trying to figure out my new camera.

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as i was a little rushed setting up for open studio, i feel a couple of our pieces that we finished last week deserved a few more comments and photos, so here they are, along with some other photographic highlights from the weekend ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

above the open studio shop photo is a better photo of the claro wlanut slab table we had on display this weekend.  it is leaving tomorrow with the ladderbacks to spend the summer at the vermont visitors center in guilford.  a lot of folks (about 600,000 stop there per year) enter vermont from massachusetts and connecticut on route 91, and were hoping that some of them will see our work and contact us with new commissions .. it seems like we ought to be able to get at least one or two out of 150,000 or so.  summers a good time here ...

 

this is a close up of the under structure with our new base design using polished and welded 5/8ths" rebar.  people almost smiled when they noticed the rebar ... it fits in with our bethlehem steel and bridges series too.

for the copper table, which was the other big furniture hit of the weekend, we started out with a 1/2 size model a month or so ago.  i did that on my own nickle, even before i actually got the commission for the big table.  i figured i couldnt go wrong with whatever i wound up with, and i was intrigued with the clients concept as well as my concept for executing their ideas.  it also was a test of my local sheet metal shop on the execution of the design ...

the clients loved the model and i even found a half size chair mockup i made a long while back to contribute a sense of scale.  this is it in the raw and our only objection was that the copper didnt lay perfectly flat and humped and rattled occasionally, a problem i expected to get worse as the individual sheets doubled in size.  i also figured there are only so many nails you can apply before it would look too naily.

so, our solution was to get some weldwood contact cement and glue each copper piece to the plywood and 2 x 10 substrate as we went along.  before we got our veneer bags, this was our typical process for installing central inlays in our dining tables.  it also works great for male/female lamination forms. these are mostly 2 ton hydraulic jacks you can get quite cheaply on line or at your local hardware.  i think i have about a half dozen.  be sure to support the table underneath before cranking them up.

 the last little bit of design was stablilzing the two base pieces and supporting the 9 span, which we did with sams help and a little twisted and welded steel ...

 tah dah ...

after sanding and sort of polishing the copper and the nails with some red 5" round scrotchbrite pads we found at the hardware store, we applied a chemical called liver of sulfide (outside please... rotten egg smell) and today, after some back and forth, i oiled it with a polished on coat of linseed oil which blended the fingerprints from the weekend and made it look like a beautiful old penny.  i absolutely love the look and i have a couple proposals to send out for other sizes and different bases.  liver of sulphur is available from dickblick art supply.  clean the copper first with dish soap and a little ammonia. follow the directions and rinse neutralize (2 spoons of baking soda to 2 cups of water) the copper when it looks they choice you want it to.  the initial cleaning seems really important ... 

here jim patinas the 1/2 size mockup.  you can clearly see the before and after here.

a view down the tables 11 length ... its off to Connecticut tomorrow ... 

 and we have a 10 claro walnut table that is virtually finished, slightly ahead of the house where it is going to live. it needs only a final topcoat and some polish.  i thought about setting it up on its base for the weekend, but its really heavy, and the shop was too full, and maybe wed drop it, or someone would scratch it ... in the end, we left it on edge, covered with soundboard and only occasionally allowed interested visitors to have a peak ... enlarge this one.  it has a great fiddleback figure over its entire length and is without a doubt the most consistently figured slab i have ever seen.

   we did set up its blackened base though .. folks are alchoices amazed at the minimalness of the structure, but that is made up for by the weight of it.  steel prices have skyrocketed lately though and that is the reason we are exploring other base deisgns like the rebar above.  just the steel and the cutting was $1800. and then the pieces still have to be drilled and tapped, ground and polished, sanded, patinated and finished, a process that almost doubles the cost of the steel.  i get a lot of inquires on these, but few takers.

 

 sams spark screens above and wills custom banjos below were also much discussed items.

hes got a pete seeger type longneck in the works at the bottom of the photo above.  the fretboard for that one is as long as the entire new daffodil  picolo banjo below. 

 skin head, nylon strings, canary wood inlays, antiqued brass hardware, warm tone.

kits jewelry is back in the safe and

pennys colorings are back in her home gallery ...

the rhododendrons and peonies are blooming, most of the garden is in and dinner is done ... lights out ...

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a couple of cherry dining tables

 

we wrapped up a couple of cherry tables this week, and they couldnt be more different, probably, if they tried.  the table above, a slab of 8/4 cherry with small bevels and rounded corners, has a welded metal x shaped base, no ornament, straightforward and uncomplicated.  forthright, i guess you could say.

it goes with this painted, built in banquette that we recently installed for our clients.

 

  we had originally discussed having one of our shaker style metal bases, and i went so far as to paint some mdf mockups that we put with an mdf top and tried in the space.  we decided in the end that the mockup was too long, but the right width.  the shaker bases are expensive though, and the table was only 32 x 60,  so we discussed other metal base possibilities.  click the photos to enlarge them.

i had a mockup i had made for another potential client a few years back and when i sent her the picture of it, she said her friend had a table with an x base, and she really liked it.  it turned out it was one sam had made for her friend last summer.  so, we were home free.  the other table was 8 long and so had a 3" square tubing base, but since this table was shorter and narrower, we went with 1.5 x 3" rectangular tubing and no center stretcher. 

to replace the rigidity function of the center stretcher, sam added wings to the tops, which, when screwed to the table took achoice even the slightest shake.

  

  end view in the shop, before the finish ...

no legs on the corners to facilitate sliding in to the banquette.

and at the same time, will was whipping up another version of our round, tapered octagonal pedestal tables.  this client , who is also local, was visiting the shop and saw this one back in january, which was slightly smaller, (42" in diameter vs 48" above) but the same in every respect.

both tables are simplified versions of the original design we made back in 2003.  that table was larger to start and had three leaves, as well as some painted details, and a more elaborate edge and center inlays, but certainly related.  take an object; do something to it.

 

i had hit the highlights in the previous post in january, but here are a few more in process photos anychoice.  above, veneering the edges of the propeller base.

the center burl inlay border installation.

another cherry table coming up soon ...as soon as we finish a curly maple trestle table that goes to the same client as this one ... more on that later ...

the next cherry table will be a 42" x 116" version of the one below, from 2005.

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