update 10/31 ... were on the home stretch on this project now. well be delivering the sideboard and table today and the 8 chairs later in the week. coincidentally, we have another dining room coming up next. an oval table (52 x 86), 8 chairs and a corner cupboard ... click the photos to enlarge them ...
the 8 chairs before the arms and the finishing ..
here we have our arm adding process. essentially, we use the mdf too keep the arm blanks parallel to the seat rails until we can do the joinery and the final shaping
the completed armchairs ...
10/16 ... on our website you can see a type of furniture we refer to as our studio style, which could also be thought of as a signature or default style ... the kind of stuff we have made for 25 years for many clients and for our own home. it design nidea originated with a client who spent some time in germany and commissioned us to build a custom desk for her like the furniture she saw when she lived there. i later came to understand that what she was describing to me was actually furniture in the biedermeier style. that was in 1986, before one of the definitive books on the style was published about 1992 and, believe it or not, before the internet and google even. so we kind of made it up on our own. these pieces are direct descendants of that german and austrian idea from the mid 1800s. must have been in my german blood. click the photos to enlarge them.
the construction process for these designs requires first building the piece and then completely disassembling it for the coloring and varnishing. the pieces above are for the sideboard that is part of this commission. it is identical to one in my own home except that the center detail will be part of an oval instead of the angled geometric one in the photo below.
loyal readers have probably seen this one before ...
heres how it goes ... in the early stages, all the details are left flat so they can be registered with each other and then the shadows and bevels are cut when the individual pieces are disassembled for coloring and finishing ...
at this point, nothing is glued, though the web frames are screwed to the insides of the face pieces, and the piece is completely rigid.
we leave the lower rail element uncut at this time too ... and then the drawer faces and the central element are fitted tightly in the holes. the final fitting happens after the case is finished and glued up ...
dovetail time ...
pulls and more finish tomorrow ...
the palette for this project is natural cherry and curly hard maple, with ebony and black milk paint details
here will is reassembling the table base that he made a few weeks ago.
the top and leaves of the table have a curly maple and ebony inlay that we routed out and filled back in. ... here lorne has finished installing the ebony borders before fitting up the 1/8th" central curly maple veneers.
once the bottom of the top is finished, the base is assembled and installed, the table is flipped, and the top is final scraped, sanded, and finished on its base ... runners again from our friends at moin hardware.
tah daahhhhh ... with the leaves in, before the fnish. 10 x 42" wide
a quick finish sample/palette study for the clients
we will be wrapping up the chairs and the sideboard this week ... delivery time soon ... more on all of it as we finish up ....
lots of pieces to keep track of ....
one more time .... every year, as im lugging stuff around the shop, i threaten to swear this event off, (its almost 20 of those threats now), and every year, once were all cleaned up and set up, im looking forward to it getting under choice again ... its a chance to catch up with the friends and neighbors who might not stop by if they know were working, and a chance for the thousands of folks who come to vermont for the event to maybe stumble across our studio and buy or order something from one of us. lots of woodworkers come by, and sometimes, even mr. lucky stops by, and, well, thats alchoices fun too. click the photos to enlarge them ...
look for the yellow signs ...
see the amazingly clean office
and the (almost) sawdust free workspace ...
this year we got some lucky free publicity in one of the local shoppers ...
and we have a few new versions of old pieces
and kit and penny get to hang out in the finish room for the weekend
with her colorings and kits jewelry ... (rush photos here; much better in person ... )
gold wire and lots of precious stone beads
banjos 4, 2, and 1
and an expanding recycled chestnut table ready for finish next week
you can admire the freshly mowed the lawn and the freshly smoooothed drivechoice ... sams steel lily in the foreground ...
and check out the mountain pinks (wild azaleas) down by the pond ...
and this year, due to our superior organization (hah) and early start, we even had time left at the end of the day for a beer .... just woke up from my nap ... bedtime now ... see you this weekend. if youre in town, come on by ... dan
Its happened every year for the last 18 years ... Hundreds of Vermont artists welcome their friends, neighbors and strangers into their studios for two days of show and tell. Its about education and community ... Its about cleaning your studio a little more than the usual ... Its an opportunity to maybe put some prototypes and experimental pieces out and see what happens and what people might say about them ... Its like going to a craft fair without the travel ... In short, though I sometimes resist and carp when its time to actually get it together, but now, at 9:00 Friday night, Im ready, and Im sure by the end of Sunday, I will have had another enjoyable and stimulating weekend .... And, Mondays a holiday ..... Click the pictures to enlarge them .... The building above looks like it might be a big outhouse, but its really my sawdust shed .... The post immediately below is from last year ... We have a new custom hat artist, Denise Tilley showing her hats here at our shop .... more on all this later ...
Birds Eye View from the front step
Wills working on banjo #2 and carving some maple leaves on some table legs, and were going to make a slab top table out of the English elm thats leaning up there...
Sam finished up a nice lily that has been lurking outside the metal shop unfinished since last fall
Visitors willing to walk 600 feet to the house can see the 26 x 9 table with the first five pieces of granite in it ...
In the shop, we have the 20r, but we had to disassemble it for the weekend ..
One of those good deal, experimental pieces, I mentioned earlier
Penny organized her colorings and will hang them in the morning ...
Chris Bowlen stopped by to show us the bench Sam made the metal work for ... very cool ...
A group of us, along with some high school art students made a sculpture at the Northshire Bookstore to raise awareness of artists in the community ....
Looks like its going to be a perfect weekend weatherwise ...
