" Five Furniture Joints in Two Days"

In December I taught a workshop with the above title at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking. The class was full with ten students who learned how to cut dovetails, box/finger joints, mitres, dados and rabbets. The students then made a small spice cabinet using one or more of the joints they learned in the workshop. I had a lot of fun and I think the students did as well, nearly all of them went home with a completed cabinet.

This summer I'm teaching a similar workshop at Peters Valley Craft Center called " A Table saw and a Router, You're in Business" This is a three day workshop running from May 23-25 where students will learn different types of wood joints that can be made using the table saw and a router. I have always said that you could start a woodworking business with just a table saw and a router. These are the two most versatile tools in the shop and can be used to create all types of woodworking joints. Students in this class will make a small spice cabinet using one or more methods learned in the workshop. Visit http://www.petersvalley.org/ to learn more about the class or to register for a workshop.

Herman Miller, Heywood-Wakefield and Brown-Saltman

I am very drawn to the styles and aesthetics of the Modern and Post-Modern era. I love Danish Modern and the modern furniture that came out of the major design and manufacturing houses of the time. I love clean lines and interconnecting parts. I like to use metal in my work, predominantely aluminum, mostly as an accent around a drawer or as a table leg. I love how the warmth of natural wood combined with the contrast of metal come together, creating a pleasing unified whole.

My designs start as quick thumbnails in my sketch book, then developed into larger, more refined renderings. Once I settle on a design I then move onto making small models/maquettes. Sometimes I'll make a full scale model in order to hammer out construction and design details.

The above table " Sherwood" appears in Lark Books " 500 Tables" due out in May /09

Peters Valley Craft Center

I am the Department Head of the Wood Studio at Peters Valley Craft Center in Layton, NJ. Peters Valley Craft Center is a multi media craft education center located in the NW corner of New Jersey, situated in the scenic Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. Peters Valley offers workshops in various craft disciplines from mid May to mid September. Guest instructors use the facilities to teach two, three, and five day workshops. The Wood Studio at Peters Valley is where I maintain my own studio practice.

Workshops: I'll be teaching two woodworking workshops this summer at Peters Valley.

May 23-25 I'll be teaching a three day class titled " A table saw, a router, You're in business'

July 10-14 I'l lbe teaching a five class titled " Intro to Cabinetmaking".

Please visit the Peters Valley web site for more information at http://www.petersvalley.org/

Peters Valley is also home to the Water Gap Woodturners. The Water Gap Woodturners is a local chapter of the American Association of Woodturners I chartered who meets monthly at the wood studio at Peters Valley. For more information about the group, meeting times and dates, etc please visit http//:www.watergapwoodturners.blogspot.com

Please read my article in the Spring edition of American Woodturner magazine to learn more about the woodturning program at Peters Valley Craft Center.

"Whadya Hav Hun"

This Table/Cabinet was inspired by a piece I saw at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. It was a drop front secretary made entirely out of ivory. This is my interpretation using a white " Lincoln Beauty Box" bread box and four porcelain covered cast iron stove legs.

'Reclamation'

Objects from the past

New Life/New Purpose

For the past year I've been making these quirky tables out of old 'Lincoln Beauty Box' bread boxes, giving them a new life and a new purpose. The legs are from old ottomans from the sixties. The height of the tables are perfect beside a bed, hence why I call them " Bread Side Tables". The chrome bread side tables will be on display at the Target Gallery at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia from April 1st -April 26th in an exhibition titled " Reclaimed"

My work as a whole is influenced by the modern movement in furniture. I love the clean lines and the use of materials from that era. Lately I find myself giving new life to old materials, a resurrection of sorts, creating a duality in use of materials. Giving new life to an old object, or transforming the object. I like to change the intended use of an object then create a piece of furniture with it.

I recently designed and fabricated a trestle table that measures 94"L x 41"w x 29" H. This table base is made out of African mahogany. I used two antique wooden woodworking clamps as the trestles. You literally clamp the table together'. Like traditional trestle tables of the past, the table can come apart easily and when assembled is rock solid sturdy.

The trestle table dates back to medieval times, when communal dining in a castle's great hall required that the table be taken apart at the end of the meal and stored efficiently so that the hall could be used for other purposes. It consisted of a single plank top resting on two supports that were braced by a single stretcher secured at either end by removable pegs. Probably made out of local timber by the estate's carpenter, trestle tables were left unembellished because cloths covered them at mealtime.

The tables were long and narrow because family and guests ( or, in monasteries, monks ) sat on one side while being served from the other. Though few early tables survive ( examples can be seen in book of illuminations), the form has persisted through the centuries, experiencing a vigorous revival in Europe during the 18th Century.

The interest in the table is in the wood. The tops of trestle tables are usually made from old growth timber cut into long, thick planks or one single plank with beautiful figuring in the grain, polished again and again and darkened along the edges where hands have touched them for several hundred years.

The design of this table is influenced by the medieval tables of the past. The gables ( sides ) are designed to look like church stained glass windows. The connecting stretchers are two large wooden antique woodworking clamps, resurrected from an old barn. The clamps, initially designed for another purpose, serve as the trestle and literally clamp the table together.

The table top is made from Sapele, a beautiful ribbon striped wood from Africa, a close cousin to mahogany.

The table has been finished with wax and oil.