well, 2012 is certainly off to an interesting start ... we finished a stool this week for a client/friend who recently finished this needlepoint project after working on it off an on for a really long time (she claims 15 years, off and on). so, she is really excited to cross it off her to do list after all this time and will be picking it up next week. click the photos to enlarge them ...
next up, next week well be transforming this 8 foot claro slab into a dining table that will then be shipped to england .. imagine that .. its not my first international shipment, but they dont come along everyday .. well crate it up, get it to an agent in boston, and off it will go, i presume, by boat. the house will be finished in april so it should get there in plenty of time.
the leg structure is a new design and were anxious to see it all come together. its 1.5" thick steel and it will be blackened like others we have built in the past ... theres a model of the completed table around somewhere ..
and after that one, we have a show coming up in february at the southern vermont art center (why put things off til the last minute?) and were starting to work on our pieces for that effort. i havent done a show for a while and its alchoices a good exercise. the slab above is going to be probably a dining table or maybe a coffee table. im working on the room layout below. the flat art on the wall will be by marta johansen, and old friend, and were trying to make things that will complement and not interfere with her work. 
its not a huge room, but it looks like well have room for a couple of mirrors in the corners, a bureau, a bench and low console, and the claro slab above in one form or another... well have to see how we do ...
the bureau is nearly complete ... all the cherry for it came from the same log and it has nice figure.
four drawers and steel legs, like half the bureau we made as part of our bethlehem steel series below.
and, im working on a tapered corner mirror belwo that will mount on a wall in the end, but for the show it will have to have a freestanding base.
again, some nicely figured irion cherry...
it will be kind of like this one, only with natural cherry and some steel details.
my other mirror piece, which i have so far only mocked up, will have a fish eye type convex (security) mirror which will (hopefully) reflect all the drawings and furniture in the room in one peek. the base and rod support will need a little more thought and a little more heft, maybe employing some polished firewood ...
i turned and painted this on the lathe from mdf as a prototype. and will added a little gold leaf yesterday morning to set off the mirror from the dark background .. gold leafed mdf ... ha ha ha ! told you you can do a lot with mdf ... 
and wills side business, seeders instruments, has banjo #8 in the works .. picolo style; cherry and walnut ...
he also got a repair/restore job from one of his clients. its about a hundred years old and needs some work ... seeders instruments to the rescue ... more on this stuff as it progresses ...
and sams stretching a bit to create this half oval balcony. bending flat stock in a horizontal plane requires a great deal of patience, adjusting and care.
he made the oval frame where you stand and the bottom and top of the ailing using the same jig.
bending rectangular flat stock in a horizontal plane requires a series of saw cuts and a bunch of grinding. plus the stock has a mind of its own as it is welded and if youre not careful your piece gets longer as you go ... fun ...
then theres the challenge of keeping things square as you fit and weld and the fine challenge of bending thick stock to fit around thinner stock ... home stretch now ... i saw it had primer on it yesterday ...
also, weve got a couple built in bench projects in the works. one is straight and straightforward, and was primed yesterday, while the curved one is more complex and still in the estimating/approval, finish details stage.
cardboard and 1/4" mdf; micro pins and hot glue ...
a little resawn foam for cushions ...
for the straight bench, the designer added the back after he completed the drawings so it was left to us to decide on the angle ... our mockup was a little too vertical ( in the end we ended up with about a 1/2" seat pitch, front to back, and a 15 degree slope off of that. it seemed to look good with the mahogany side tables trevor was working on
the tables below have a hidden drawer
and were working on a new postcard/handout design .. getting close to ordering them. im about out of my old 30 year anniversary ones from two years ago.
ill be teaching a short workshop course on digital design and fabrication at green mountain college in poultney this spring. lucas brown, the head of the furniture program there has designed a one sheet desk and stool. after a couple of prototypes and subtle programming adjustments, trevor is nearly finished with his classroom run of 22 tables ( +/- 288 total pieces) .. they are pretty cool, slip together, and require no fasteners to assemble. the concept is similar to others weve done for vew-do balance boards and wagathas dog biscuits.
and lastly, i passed this slab of claro walnut on the stairs on the choice out the door yesterday ... i have to make a quick poplar mockup, cut it down a little, add some butterflies, finish the wood and steel, and send it off to greenwich village ...
whew, how do i keep track of all this? you might legitimately ask ... well, i dont sometimes. its a constant juggle and shuffle and as time goes by, i rely more and more on my guys to figure it out, help each other, and work as a team to keep ALL of us on track ... im lucky to have em ...have a good weekend ... guild of vermont furniture makers meeting at my shop today.
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.
Yesterday, Sam and I went to the Salem Art Works to see an event that Sams friend, Pat Quinn was involved in. It took place at The Salem Art Works, an up and coming local arts place. It was my first trip there and it seems like the place has a lot of energy with a focus on glass, metal, wood fired pottery, and general fun and funkiness. On the choice to SAW, Sam and I stopped to see Sue and Bill Clarys shop, Maccartees Barn , a shop with a mix of fine antiques and really fine, fine art. Their roster includes local artists Penny Viscusi, Brian Sweetland, and many others ... Worth a stop if youre in the area. Click the photos to enlarge them ...
The event was billed as an iron pour with, I think, 3 or 4 four colleges represented by at least 30 art students who had prepared sand castings that would be poured. Here Sam checks in with Pat
In conjunction with the pour, for $15.00 SAW offered a blank for you to carve that they would then include in the pour ... Above, one of the directors carries one Sam and I whipped up out to the staging area. Interesting process. You have to visualize the reverse of what you are carving, a fact that stumped me for a minute. The tools available, a couple big nails and some mangled clay trimmers, showed that it could be as crude or as detailed as you wanted. The sand was surprisingly hard to carve and held fine details surprisingly well. They poured it, but it was still hot when we left.
While we were waiting for things to heat up, we toured around and checked it all out ...
There was a funky, summer only large and well lit gallery space ...
and a great glassblowing hot shop where Leif Johnson , a local blacksmith and glass artist was leading a workshop ...
Leif does incredible combination of forged steel and hot glass.
Back at the furnace, the pour was about to begin ... 
fantastic to see the liquid metal rushing out of the spout.
pouring some of the student molds
Thats our sand, but we had to run ... Pat was going to pick it up for us at the end of the day ....
My kind of post ... I just went back to 10/22/07 and did a little cutting and pasting. Same deal this year. The party is on the 13th, 6-8 .. if its like the last one, it should be good ... This year my bookends above are called Identical Twins ... 2" solid steel on 3/8ths by 2.5" steel.
Good luck ...
