discover dorset this weekend

weve got a new event in town this weekend called discover dorset ... its an attempt by the chamber of commerce and some of the businesses in town to enlighten the public as to what dorset has to offer ... there are many events, speakers, and open studios, and there is a full schedule here at the towns website. will and i and maybe sam at some point will be in the studio from 10-4 to welcome the public for tours of the shop and past and present projects. click the photos to enlarge them ...
our claro walnut and rebar table and ladderback chairs will be on sale this weekend with a special price ... there are other examples of these large slabs of wood, both finished an unfinished available for viewing.
and sam will have a couple of his recent california balconies on display. they will be heading for grafton to be installed in a new house next week.
and will will be on hand, working on seeders banjo #12. walnut ebony and gold mother of pearl. he may even be doing a little engraving on the inlays ... a very cool process.
stop by and check it out and you can hear about his recent visit from WCAX in burlington ... he will be featured either this monday or next on the CAX segment made in vermont .. i cant wait to check it out ...
and ill be working on my drawings and model for an upcoming steel and claro walnut pool table (below), that will go in the same room as the 12 foot claro walnut table we sent to chicago back in july.
and we should have the custom curly maple kitchen weve been working on (see the previous post) all together in the shop, ready to deliver on monday morning ...
lots to see... come on by ...

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wills banjos hit the tv news

WCAX burlington recently featured will in their made in vermont last monday on the six oclock news.
heres a link to the tape.  it was great!.  check it out if you have a minute.  they filmed and talked for about an hour and boiled it all down to about 3 minutes.  a lot of work goes into this stuff.

 

hes currently working on banjo #13 and ill post more photos tomorrow ..

cool inlays .. should have the finish on it soon ...

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Senin, 30 Mei 2016

NEW BLOG FORMAT !!

 5/27 ... hmmm ... im still considering all the things i now have to learn about this new layout.  i used it many times yesterday during the first day of open studio. some good things; some bad things; some things i discovered ...
- its somewhat easier to navigate if you use the fly out menus to the right and select blog archive and look at one year or even one month at a time.
- if youre looking for metalwork, banjos, or info on finishing, claro walnut slab furniture, use the categories view.
- i wish it didnt have to cycle back through the home page everytime you close a blown up photo.
- if youre browser supports it, the flyout menu on the top left also has a magazine optiom that gives more information on the individual posts.
- i wish i could figure out if traffic was increasing, or in fact, has dropped to 3 visitors a day, which seems unlikely to me.  another place i looked says that my traffic shot up ... who knows?
- the < & > arrows at the top left are handy for scrolling recent posts.
- im gonna leave it for now and hopefully its working ... please add your two cents ... thanks. dan
from 5/25
 after all my whining about the new blogger interface, i thought it would be appropriate if i also said something really nice about google too.  they do amazing things for me and for dorset custom furniture, like hosting about 1500 of my photos on the internet for free.  and this morning, they sent me a friendly email encouraging me to try their new free blogger layout tools ... the coffee kicked in just before i hit the delete button and i checked it out ... though im not alchoices an early adapter, ( i still dont have a smart phone or an ipad ) i thought this was too good to pass up ... so, now when you visit my blog, you see not only a photo from the current post, but you see the highlight photos from ALL of my 500+ posts.  click on the image, go to the post. what could be easier?  simple, direct and it brings our history to light without the frustrating hunt and peck ... please add a comment or send me an email to let us know what you think about it.  love it or hate it, id like to know ... i have pretty slow internet here and its still works ... so, enjoy ... check out the old stuff when you have a minute ... happy memorial day weekend and stop by for open studio if youre in the area ...

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Rabu, 13 April 2016

just this past week

 well, i think im going to be writing on this one for a minute or two.  i have not posted much new stuff lately, and today, in looking at my pictures, i realize why.  the last two weeks have been pretty intense, all in a good choice.  exactly one week ago today, i took a solo road trip to stowe to drop off the hanging swing and check our templates for our next project there, a curved, sort of built in bench.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

when i say sort of, i mean sort of built in, definitely curved.  it goes at the top of a three story spiral staircase, in a cupola, looking down the valley, over the top of stowe village ... great view !

our template, which we made from a paper template made by the contractor .. a 72" radius.

on the choice up, i traveled over the recently reopened vermont route 107, devastated last summer by hurricane irene.  they are still working on it and in several places, i had to stop for one choice traffic, and i have to say, the devastation that has been repaired in the last 8 months is hard to comprehend.  there were miles of this ...

on the choice back, i took the scenic route over lincoln gap, to visit a client i made a table for in 1991.  i had seen her recently at an art opening and she mentioned her table could use a little sprucing up.  i could see that it had been used a lot, but after an hour or so of sanding and a new coat of oil/poly mix and it looked like a 20 year old table that was in great shape.  i plan to stop on my choice back from dropping off the curved bench and give it another coat ... after that, it should be good for another 20.

i remember her sending me photos of the dining room details that she wanted included in the table inlays and though i remembered her photos, it was cool to see them in person.

and in the metal shop ...

sams got a number of projects winding down.  he rebuilt one of these forms he made a few months ago, and made two new ones.  its and interesting project in that he made the cad drawing in 2d, printed it at 1/8" to the inch, cut it out, folded it up and sent it to melansons, where they cut the pieces on their waterjet and folded them on their computerized brake.  very slick ...

heres the paper mockup ..

 and the finished form with the sliding bolts for opening, and the lifting handles added.  its a two piece form that is split after the concrete sets up.

 hes also wrapping up three fireplace screens.  the grid/screen material he got from mcnichols is really cool and ill post a photo when they are finished.

its a challenging concept as they have to fit and look good in some pretty rough stone openings.  we made some mdf mockups and fitted the trim pieces in place before getting underchoice ... worked slick ...

 and trevors working on a figured mahogany coffee table that will be going to california

stage 1

tah dah ... it will be in a room with a bubinga steinchoice ... hence the reddish finish you can see on the top in its early phase.

 

 and heres a new one for us .. a copper topped porch table.  we built this half size mockup just to see how the concept and processes would work and we plan to make it into a console for sale at our upcoming open studio weekend on  memorial day.

the individual copper pieces laid in place

a view of the painted bottom planks ... shes a big one ..36 x 132. it will have the x base like in the mockup photo.

we glued and nailed the copper on using jacks to the ceiling to press it into place.

were also exploring new bases for our claro walnut slab tables.  this one is in the works and we like it so far.  on monday, well put finish on the walnut and the steel and get sam to connect the two base pieces with another x of polished 5/8ths rebar .. we angled the bases to follow the angled ends of the slab.  so far so good.  were liking it ...

 

we also had a small antique restoration ... i wish i had a before picture as it was really not pretty.  lots of drawer borders and edge pieces missing and a lot of white scum like stuff on the shellac.  missing pulls, etc.  looks pretty good now ...

 

 and it had the coolest english style dovetails i think i have ever seen ...

 and we helped install the 4 x 8 piece of granite on the kitchen island

beautiful!  and im glad to cross that one off my list.  it was a great project ...

all in all it was quite a week.  in addition to being very busy in the shop, we also sent out a bunch of new quotes on new projects.  hopefully, the economy is gaining steam in the world of custom furniture .. all for now.  have a great weekend ...

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Minggu, 06 Maret 2016

This May Replace The Old Friend I Just Sold