Humble Home

I'm back from a great trip to the Port Townsend School of Woodworking and I'm finally settling in to my new shop space here in Boston. This is going to be my first shop in 12 years that hasn't had to do double duty as a teaching shop and tool factory. Speaking of teaching, there are only two slots still open for my August 17th chair class at North Bennet Street School, so if you're interested please check it out soon.
Here are some shot of the space, lots of air and light.

 It's the same size as my other shop, but with a storeroom in the back and higher ceilings.

Working by the front door gives a great natural raking light.

Being a lefty, the lathe is strategically placed to gather the shavings into the corner to contain the mess.

 The sharpening station  has lots of real estate and light.

 Here is the view from the storeroom and workbench area.

 I've been really enjoying making spindles in this space, as you can see.

 Here is a shot of the majestic Rhodesian Ridgeback Kobe, who I am teaching to be a shop dog, but he seems to think it's a bit beneath him.

He needs to take lessons from Lil, she's a pro.

A little sample

The Lost Art Press blog featured a sample of the book yesterday. If you didn't see it already, check it out!

We are almost ready for filming Rough Cut tomorrow. Perhaps the best thing to come of it is that we had a great excuse to clean out the shop! I haven't seen it this clear in years.

I am finishing the prototype for the set of chairs that I'm reproducing. It came out darn close to what I wanted, but I've made changes for the final design after seeing it in person. It's usually the case that a drawing of a chair looks different than the actual results, so the prototype is usually a necessary step before making the chairs for the client.

The Original

If you ever visit, you'll see that I always end up with the prototypes. This chair is a simple form, but as I've made my way through all the aesthetic choices, I've found it to be a finely tuned design. I'll show more about this soon. I'll have plenty of chances while finishing 6 more of them.

Magic?

I've been recovering from my trip to WIA this week.  I felt incredibly proud to be there with Claire Minihan, Tim Manney and Caleb James. The next time you hear someone grumbling about todays youth...just send them my way and I will blow them out of the water with the talent and incredible work ethic of these three. I could go on and on about the show, it was a highlight of my year.

Here is a stool that I brought along. I really shouldn't have heaped building this onto my plate while preparing to leave, but I had this itch to build something new and fun and it certainly fit the bill.

The "magic" part of this is twofold. First of all, in the first photo, it looks like a 3 legged stool in the photo even though it has 4. With curved legs like this, that can only mean one thing. The sightlines run directly from the front leg to the rear on the opposite side of the seat. I've never done this before and am very pleased with the results.

The rear legs are closer together in the seat and are reamed at a slightly greater angle.

The other "magic" is the finish, which only took a few hours start to finish and came out great. I was hoping for a worn black lacquer look to go with the Asian style and am very pleased. I'll share the process in another post soon.

Autumn Rocker

A few years ago, I was inspired by the colors and new growth of Spring when building a curved settee and I named it the "Spring Settee". It's still the front page of my website.



Now it's a different season and I suppose that it's no surprise that  I've been  drawn toward the earthy browns and oranges. Here is my latest rocking chair.

 I've been playing with the milk paint and shellac combinations to build a burnt orange with some depth.

 The process used the Real Milk paint company colors Goldenrod and Butternut and the shellac was tinted with stains Early American Maple and Engish Oak from Lockwood Stains. I built the color by layering the paint and shellac and then topping it off with Waterlox and finally raw tung oil.

 

 I tried to keep the warmth and grain of the wood showing through while using the paint to tame the differences in the species. I am pleased with the results and hope to refine them more. I will happily share my recipes and process once I've got a better handle on it. There are just too many variables that I am still grappling with.

It's been a learning experience that began with a chair that I built this spring. I was commissioned to build a replica of a chair owned by Ezra Stiles, an early President of Yale University. It was a gift to the retiring President who loved the chair that sat in his office.

 They asked me to make the chair look as much like the original as I could and I was concerned that using stains alone wouldn't do it. I have lots of old wood in the house and one thing that I noticed was the way that the patina masks the grain. I thought a translucent layering of milkpaint could create this effect. Here is the chair "in the white".

 Here is the finished chair. I had the seat done in natural rush by an expert weaver.

Finishing is always an opportunity to make or break a piece of furniture. I have painted lots of chairs and while the standard results that I've gotten are pleasing, I think there are too many options and possibilities that might add to the chairs to stop trying new things.

Distressing, the Easy Way

Last thanksgiving I gave a chair to one of my favorite people. She was 4 1/2 at the time. She is the child of one of my oldest friends and I thought that she might like to sit at the same height as the everyone else at the table.

Keep in mind that this was less than a year ago. When I went to their house for dinner last night, I was thrilled to see that she has obviously sat in the chair A LOT. When I saw it, I filled with joy.

I've got chairs that have been in service for a decade and don't show this much use!

We did some forensic research and it became clear rather quickly that a squirmy 5 year old rubs their head on the bow just right to wear the paint right off. I wonder how many wriggling 5 year olds it would take to make the Grand Canyon? From this impressive effort, not as many as you might think.

Rubbing through the paint in a few spots is normal when burnishing and oiling a chair and I think that we all consider how "natural" the wear should look. Look no further, find yourself a willing 5 year old and you'll get the real thing.

Lie-Nielsen Event

I recently attended a Lie-Nielsen at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. It was great to see some old friends like Tico Vogt and Will Neptune. It also gave me the chance to finally meet Peter Follansbee in the flesh. We have so many mutual friends and have emailed over the years, plus, I am a huge fan of his work, so it was a pleasure to finally hang out and see him in action.
Here is Will Neptune displaying some of his prodigious skill.

photo by Jeff Burks

 
You can see photos of the event at http://www.carpentryarchive.org/images/cvsw/cvsw_ln_12.html or at http://www.closegrain.com/2012/10/lie-nielsen-hand-tool-event-at-cvsw.html.
Thanks to Steve Branam and Jeff Burks for sharing their images and to Bob van Dyke and Lie-Nielsen for hosting us.

Here is another photo that I just couldn't pass up. It was taken by furniture maker Duncan Gowdy of his new son Carter.

Congratulations Duncan and Elizabeth!

I miss Dana

 

When considering moving, we measured the possibilities of new opportunities against the known assets that we enjoyed where we were. It was tough. One of the roughest assets to lose, was my photographer friend Dana Duke. 

 

Dana is a commercial photographer and artist and basically stays "on call" for all the artists and craftsfolk in the southern Catskills. He was always there to help shoot a chair on the way to a client etc...it was great!

 Now, what we get is a few hurried shots in my driveway on the way to loading them up. Not my best, but I have a nasty sinus infection and these chairs are late on delivery!

They turned out great and I am planning to make one for myself. It's a different idea than I've built before, in that, the client wanted "lounge" chairs, which most folks order as rockers, but he didn't want that. I very much liked the look of the long legs and elimination of the rockers. Rockers are a hard design element to work with as they are large and the shortening of the legs can look awkward if not addressed well.

I'm getting used to the different qualities of the walnut and can't wait to dig in again. First, I have to get healthy and buy those boots that I promised Sue for driving me all the way to Connecticut to deliver these chairs!

Back in the Saddle

As usual, summertime has been a tough time to sit down and keep up with all that's happening in the shop. But what's unusual is all the peripheral activity that has taken up my time. House selling and buying is one long stomach ache inducing activity! But enough of that, I'm taking refuge in building a settee.





I've never bothered to build a long steambox, so I simply bend the long arm one half at a time. I let the first side sit for about a week before bending the other. I am very pleased with the quality of this red oak.

Recently, I finished these two Birdcage armchairs. I'll take some detail shots next.
 

For a simple break after these two complex chairs, I built this walnut stool. I am hoping to start producing more of these.

They have just the right balance of fun to make, quick, and a satisfying conclusion.

It seems that Lily is having a tougher summer than usual, she broke a blood vessel in her ear and is stuck in the "space dog" mode. I've never seen her so bummed.

But Sue is thriving here in Massachusetts, we've been enjoying all the trails and scenic beauty of our new region, not to mention the raspberry patch!

The New Digs

No, you don't want to do it. There just ain't much fun in moving a workshop. While I kept reminding myself that I have very few tools compared to a "power" woodworker, it was still difficult to see all of my tools go into travel mode. But as Helen Keller said "Life is either a daring adventure, or it's nothing at all".

This is what it looked like when they all landed in my new shop. The space is actually larger than my shop in NY, with a full second story for storage. I had to take a deep breath and shut the door to go help Sue to get the house in order first, but on day 2, I was able to sneak out and bring some order to the chaos.

This move has been a wonderful reminder of what is truly important to me. I have my family, my animals, my shop and all the experience (read mistakes) that I've had as a woodworker. As the dust from the move settles, I am chomping at the bit to get in there an make some shavings.

Here is the lathe room. I am very excited to have a separate space for this notorious mess maker. It's an old horse stall complete with the horses names on the door.

This shows the proximity to the benchroom. And right off the back of the shop is the chicken coop and goat loafing shed. I'm not one for omens, but finding a place in a single morning that we could rent that had all these amenities sure seemed like we were being called here. The place even came with 5 more chickens. Here is the rooster up high checking me out. I went in yesterday to pull out a dozen brown and green eggs!

Thanks to everyone who has written and called to show support and offer help. This transition has been challenging to say the least, but now that we've made it, I'm just plain excited for the potential here. Next week I'll be preparing to go to Kelly Mehler's in Kentucky. Kelly runs a top notch program and frankly, two weeks of chairmaking sounds pretty good to me.

Smart Moves

Here is Dan Monsees a couple of weeks ago splitting out some stock. This is Dan's third go round with me and I was impressed by his choice to make a simpler, rather than more complex piece. Perhaps you remember his triple back sack back from last fall. His choice really opened up our time together to cover some of the finer points as well as some extra topics. I really enjoyed it, it was a smart move on Dan's part, his other smart move being to use the snow to hold his split stock!

Sorry for the delay in announcing the winner of the last spoon drawing. It was John McAlevey. In a moment you'll understand the delay better.

Anyone who has read the blog for a while, knows that Sue and I have hewn a little paradise out of the wilderness here, so it might be a surprise to hear that we are moving. Sue got a new job at a fantastic library in central Massachusetts and we will be living there as of next week. We've rented an 1832 farmhouse with a barn for my shop and yes, room for our goats, dogs and chickens. Finding the right rental house for our strange needs seemed like it would be impossible, but we did it in a morning! Plus it's right down the road from Sue's new library. I like to think that it's a good omen.

Here are some photos of the new Library. It's the Gale Free Library in Holden MA.

It's a beautiful historic building and she will be it's new director. She deserves this.
Check out the front doors!

Besides being the Chair notes covergirl, Sue is exemplary at her job. She interviewed at a number of libraries in many states and was offered every job. We felt that this one was the right job in the right area.

I'll post more about the new digs soon.

Here are some photos of the finished rocker in Walnut. One day I hope to own one myself.

So, life moves on. It's been an interesting and emotional ride uprooting from our home in New York. But it's brought back into focus for Sue and I that embracing change can be invigorating, as well as daunting. We are sad to leave our good friends here, but past moves have taught us that good friendships travel well.

Thanks to all of my students who have been so understanding and changed their travel destinations, the new shop is actually larger, plus it has a goat room in it, and what could be better than that!