Studio Update

I've been working on a few things that I've already posted. Things such as tea lights, the diner kitchen cart and Fiona's guitar stand. I was working yesterday with the doors open. It was a beautiful day out, the light was pouring in, I had my jazz music playing on the stereo. I felt good working in this environment. I haven't shown the studio lately. So here's my environment.

Diner Continued

Today I continued working on the kitchen cart.  I completed the bead board and love how it looks.  The cart will have a vinyl  teal blue seat cushion on it to give it that vintage diner feel. There will be a drawer at the bottom of the cart.  Liesl and I are putting together an exhibition for the spring.  This piece will be part of

that exhibition.

 



Playground

On Sunday Liesl and I took our son Quinn to the playground at the local elementary school. Amongst all of the slides and swings were these fantastic trees.  The juniper tress are awesome and the burls on the beech tree are fantastic.

Diner - For Two

A couple of years ago my friend and colleague from Peters Valley Dick Sargent gave my an old commercial kitchen cart.  The cart was sitting outside at the back of the Blacksmith Shop.  Dick thought I could make something out of it.  The stainless steel cart has a pitch to it.  It was used to collect dishes and trays.  The pitch is so that the dishes don't fall out when the cart is being wheeled around.

I sat in the cart and it was surprisingly comfortable.  The slope was perfect.  I decide I turn the cart into a diner booth.  The back and sides will be covered with tongue and groove pine boards.  The seat will be a teal blue vinyl upholstered seat.  The bottom will have a drawer  in it.    

Vessels

Here are are some samples of Harveys' work.  These vessels are beautiful.  Harvey incorporates the router with his lathe to create these extraordinary pieces.

Harvey Fein

This past weekend Harvey Fein came to town to do a woodturning demonstration for The Blackstone Valley School of Crafts. www.theblackstonevalleyschoolofcrafts.blogspot.com Harveys work is pretty amazing and he has developed many jigs and devices to incorporate the router with traditional turning techniques.

Canopy

This past weekend my friend Harvey Fein came to town to do a demonstration for the Blackstone Valley School of Crafts.  Across the street from the Bed and Breakfast where Harvey was staying was this beautiful old Beech tree.  The tree sat between two houses. Both neighbours have let the tree grow to its potential.  The old tree had a beautiful, full canopy.

The Blackstone Valley School of Crafts

Please allow us to introduce ourselves.  Steve Butler, Richard Chiros and jeff Hollis are three professional woodworkers, artist and educators.  We believe that preserving craft is preserving something that is inherent to us all.  We all love to make things.  We love what craft has done for our lives and we want to share our passion with you.  We want too make sure that craft remains part of our community.  So we invite you to the beginning of our next creation, "The Blackstone Valley School of Crafts." The Blackstone Valley School of Crafts is in its very early stage but we feel it's very important to be part of the community.  We will put the emphasis in woodworking and wood turning  workshops, offering general interest evening night and day classes and weekend workshop intensives, as well as offering classes in other mediums such as stained glass, jewelry making and ceramics and others.  We are located in an historic theatre in South Grafton, Massachusetts off of Rte 122, easily accessible from Providence, RI, Worcester, MA and Boston, MA.  Please come and see what we have to offer, visit us at www.theblackstonevalleyschoolofcrafts.blogspot.com .