Hand Plane

Each October the Blacksmith Department at Peters Valley Host a Pig Roast and Iron Fest.
There is an Auction of tools, etc where all the proceeds go the Blacksmith studio. This year I made a wooden hand plane and donated to the blacksmith studio for this event. The plane body is made out od hard maple.

Home sweet home

Sometimes during the winter it can be impossible to get up to the wood studio at Peters Valley due to the ice on Thunder Mountain road. This year I'm a little better prepared, I finally set up the garage and turned it into a small wood studio. Dick, the blacksmith Department Head at Peters Valley made me a small wood stove. It works very well and is a good way to get rid of small scraps.

Auction Tables

Each year in November Peters Valley host its annual Auction and dinner. Department Heads like myself usually submit some work. This benefits Peters Valley and ourselves as we get a percentage of the price. This year I am submitting some small teal lights I make as well as two shaker style end tables.
The tables are made out of walnut, have tapered legs and a curly maple drawer front. I tapered the legs on the jointer. I hope to finish the tables later this week.

Peters Vallley Craft Fair

Steve Antunucci of the Watergap Woodturners demonstrates some of his turning techniques for the crowd at the annual Peters Valley Craft Fair at the State fair grounds. This annual event is hosted by Peters Valley Craft Center and is one of their most important fundraisers. More than a hundred vendors participate in the two day event.
This years event went well, it only rained one day.
Steve is teaching a two day workshop in woodturning at Peters Valley in the summer of 2010. Full details will be available on line in December at www.petersvalley.org. Thanks for
the great demo Steve

End of the season.

Well- The summer workshop season came to a close on September 15th. All in all it wasn't a bad season. We were affected by the bad economy but it wasn't too bad. It is always good to see old friends and make new. Here is the wood studio cleaned up and ready for the next season. I always enjoy the view looking out from the wood studio.
Now the wood studio is available for me to make my work during the off season. My first project is to make a couple of traditional shaker style end tables for our annual benefit auction. Most of the proceed go to Peters Valley. We get a percentage of the sale so it is a good way to kick start the off season and make ends meat.
The tables are made out of walnut with curly maple drawer fronts. The table have tapered legs that I tapered on the jointer.

Opening

The opening of the exhibition was a great success. A lot of people came through the gallery that evening, unfortunately nothing sold but I did get a lot of press. Thanks again to Jennie at Traillworks for all of her help and effort in making the event possible.

Here are a few images from the evening. My son Quinn enjoyed all of the people. Here we are with my friend Bruce Dehnert. Bruce heads up the ceramics department at Peters Valley. The top image is of myself and gallery owner Jennie Traill Schaeffer who did a painting of the bread boxes.

Traillworks Gallery Exhibition

September 1st was the start of my collaborative exhibition with Jennie Traill Schaeffer at her gallery in Newton, NJ. The exhibition coicides with the 2nd Saturday Tour of Art on Spring Street. On display are eleven of my tables I call " Bread Side Tables" along with Jennies vibrant paintings. Jennie set up the exhibition and it looks great'. The official opening is on Saturday the 12th at 5PM.

Woodturning for BeginnersI

This past week Lee Alexander taught a beginners woodturning class at Pters Valley. Seven students signed up for this five day class. The class was a great success, students learned to turn spindles, goblets, bowls and more.

The exhibition at Traillworks opened on the first of September. The official opening is on the 12th. I'll have more imgaes then. These images are of the bread side tables in production. Here are the tables getting their bases and legs attached. A row of finished tables waiting to be delivered to the gallery,

Last month rustic chairmaker Wayne Hall taught a five day workshop in Rustic Furniture Making. This was Waynes first visit to Peters Valley. Waynes' class was a huge success, selling out quickly. The eleven students made incredible chairs, all unique in style and design. Wayne who originally hails from North Carolina now calls Maine home. As well as being a full time rustic furniture maker Wayne teaches part time at the University of Maine.

The image above is of a room full of red maple sticks. Gary McNabb shows off his almost completed chair. I'm envious of all of the students, they went home with a great chair sure to be passed down from generatio to generation.

My Favorite'

Often when I'm teaching a class I am asked "what is my favorite thing I love to build"? I love making tables. Tables can be traditional, sculptural, whatever. They don't have to fit exact measuremants like a kitchen cabinet does. I find them very freeing as a designer and maker.

My favorite piece of furniture I have ever made has to be my two old Adirondack chairs. I was given a bunch of old pine floor boards that came out of an 1800's house on Cap Cod. The boards were thin and were various thicknesses and widths, varnished on one side and were stained from where the square nails once were. The boards were beautiful. I had them sitting around for a long time and finally made myself a couple of Adirondack chairs. I love the chairs, not so much for the look of them, though they do look beautiful, varnish flaking and stained, but more for what they represent. They are meant to relax in. Forget your troubles for a moment and just sit and take it easy. I also think about the gentleman who gave me the boards. His name escapes me but he was moving his family from Cap Cod to Austin Texas. I have the chairs sitting at the side of the house, facing west, so Liesl and I can watch the sun set.

Getting ready for Traillworks

Getting ready for the "Tour of Art" exhibition at the Traillworks Gallery.

Here are some of the bread boxes I have collected over the years, washed and ready to be assembled. I buy most of them at garage sales, thrift stores and on ebay. I also collect vintage ottomans from the same time period. I remove the legs and hardware and use them as the legs for the bread box tables.

The legs from the ottomans are a good height. The tables aren't to high. I like to use materials from the same time period, I could turn them myself but then I would have to buy the hardware separately. It is actually cheaper to buy the ottoman with the legs and the hardware. I now have a collection of vintage vinyl ottomans that I'll make something with. Some of the legs will stay as they are and some will get painted, depending on which bread box I use.

Tour of Art Exhibition at Trailworks Gallery

This September I have the privelage of being the guest Artist for the month at the Traillworks Gallery in Newton New Jersey. Artist and gallery owner Jennie Schaeffer has kindly invited me to show my line of work " Bread Side Tables". I will be showing my work along side Jennies' wonderful paintings. I feel our work will compliment eachother nicely. This exhibition will co-incide with Newtons Spring Street " Tour of Art", Second Saturday on Spring Street.

To learn more about the Traillworks Gallery and to learn more about Jennies' work visit her website and blog at www.traillworks.com and www.traillworks.blogspot.com.

Keep watch- I'll be assembling ten Bread Side Tables for the exhibition.

Thanks Jennie'

Alice, Angie and the chickens.

Alice, The wood studio cat finds a comfortable bed in the shavings from Beth Irelands class.

Angie, our dog at home shares a bowl of water with our chickens. We bought the chicks in April and they are now ready to lay eggs.

Introduction To Woodturning

On July 24th my friend Beth Ireland came to Peters Valley to teach a five day woodturning workshop titled " Introduction to Woodturning". Beth is an incredible woodturner and furniture maker. Check out beths work and her instructional DVD's at her website. Beth had five students and over the course of five days they turned spindles, made tools such as an awl and a small spindle gouge and turned lidded boxes and bowls.

Introduction to Cabinetmaking

On July 10th I started teaching a five day workshop titled " Introduction to Cabinetmaking"

I had two students for the five days which was great because we were able to spend more time on things like sharpening and making hand cut dovetails.

My studio assistant for the first part of the summer was Peter Hedstrom. Peter did a great job'

Bill and Ron worked hard and both completed the project , which was a wall hung tool box.

Art Allstate 2009

For the last five years I've been invited to the Worcester Art Museum to participate in an event called " Art Allstate". The Worcester Art Museum has been putting this event on for 25 years. The State of Massachusetts's best High School art students are juried in to this event. They are selected by a committee and for two days the convene at the Worcester Art Museum to create Art.

About a hundred and fifty students are broken down into groups of about 18 and are partnered with two artist/mentors. I was one of this years mentors. My partner this year was Meghan Burch, a multi media artist.

The idea is that the students are given a studio and limited supplies and materials. They use these limited materials to create an installation piece. It's awesome. The job of the artist/mentors is to act as facilitators, helping the students think about what they are going to create and how they are going to create it using the materials at hand. It is always a challenge to get them to work collaboratively, some take to it better than others. It is also a challenge to get them to work out of their comfort zones and to try something new. For example: Get the painters to sculpt, etc.

I love doing Art Allstate. I mostly work alone so it is great to see how energized the students are, it's very refreshing and at the end of a long two days of work I always come back jazzed. The pace is fast and furious, the music is playing and at the end of two days all eight studios have some pretty amazing works of art to show. This years Allstate took place on May 29 and 30 Th. It was great'

Our groups materials to use was cardboard, plastic bags and orange plastic construction tape. Out of this material developed a giant hand representing rebirth and taking control. The student were awesome and did a great job.