Art Allstate 2010

Here are more images of the project developing. The students draw ideas out and them construct the project with the materials supplied. Veronica and I chose white garbage bags and electrical wire as our materials of choice and the museum gave us grey paper and binders as surprize materials too use.

Art Allstate 2010

This past Friday and Saturday was Art Allstate 2010 held at the Worcester Art Museum. This was my 5th year as an artist/mentor and again it was another great experience. Art Allstate is an art collaboration hosted by the Museum. It is a juried event where junior high school students submit their portfolios and if selected spend two days at the museum creating an installation piece in one of the museums studios. Approximately 140 students participate, they are broken into groups of 16 or 18 and work with two artist/mentor who help steer them in the right direction.

For most students this is their first time working on a project collaboratively. The days are long, from 8:30 in the morning to 10:30 at night. It's a great experience for them as well as myself. I always get motivated after this event.

My partner this year was artist Veronica Hebard. Veronica and I worked well together and had a great time with the students. Here are some of the students drawing ideas and doing some brainstorming. At times it can be difficult to get alarge group to agree on a common theme or project but this group did very well .

Tea box continue

The tea box has been put on hold briefly. It's a speculative piece so there is no deadline. All that is left to do is sand and glue the box and make the nest that it sits on. I'll continue working on it this week end.

Shop drawings

The last couple of days have been spent doing some orking drawings for a comission. The tea box is on hold for a couple of days while I finish the drawings. You don't need a drafting table, a piece of plywood on a flat surface works fine. I tape some medium paper to a pice of plywood. With a few drafting materials you can create accurate shgop drawings.

Jigs and things

The last few days have been productive ones in the studio. There are always things too make for the studio such as a table saw sled. You can always make elaborate and fancy jigs but this sled is made with a piece of plywood, some 2 x4's, oak runners on the bottom and a piece of plexi. It's not fancy but it works, it cuts square and that's the main thing.

Next- I'll make one for cutting dados.

More Tea Box

Here are some images of the tea box in progress. I finished the dovetails, cut all of the parts to size and final fit the pieces. Today I did some plunge cutting on the router table to cut the 1/8 inch groovve for the lid. All went well and I'm ready to sand and glue up.

Tea Box

Yesterday I started building a Tea box I designed and made years ago. The box is made out of Mahogany. The box is joined with dovetails and sits on a nest to elevate it in both stature and design. It has four compartments, one to hold a tea pot, two for the cups and a storage area for loose tea.

Here is a picture of the original box and the new in the process. I spent most of yesterday milling stock and cutting dovetails. It is always a humbling experience to chop out dovetails by hand.

more studio pics

Well- I added a new clamp rack and some well needed shelves to the walls of the studio. I feel much more comfortable and ready to create work. I have a few drawings to do for some potential clients and if I get the green light the next images will be of projects.

I have been approached by the local access cable channel to do a woodworking/furniture making show. The show will air in June. It will be a half hour show airing once a month. The show is titled " The Art of furniture making". The projects will include traditional work as well as some speculative contemporary work.

Completion

Well- the studio is finally ready. There is always things to do, building shop cabinets, fixtures, etc but for the most part it is ready. I have a few projects in the works and a lot of spec pieces to start.

My family came down from Toronto for a visit this past weekend. It was great to see them. We went to the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Mass. The museum has four floors of armory, weapons and furniture from the medieval times to the present. Here is a early credencza, highly carved and beautiful.

Moving Day

On Wednesday Liesl, Quinn and I drove down to New Jersey to empty out my storage locker of my woodworking equipment and tools. We stayed the night and came back on Thursday, parked the truck for the night and unloaded it on Friday. Here are some before and after pictures of the storage locker, the truck and the new space. I can't wait to get everything set up and to get back to work, I have a few projects in the work.

On Saturday I was at the Worcester Art Museum. I was there attending an orientation session for the 2010 Art Allstate which happens in May. Scroll down " older post" on my blog to learn more about Art Allstate, it's an incredible event.

Walking through the museum I came upon this great 18Th century table. The table is a great example of pegged joinery, sturdy and still together today. It's beautiful.

These are the booths of Mark, Peter and Bonnie. Mark does great work with incised carving in the form of hieroglyphs, Peter works mostly with anodized aluminum and Bonnie does some amazing work with polymer clay.

Today Liesl, Quinn and I went into Boston to attend "Craft Boston" held at the Seaport Convention Center. This is a great event with many vendors selling their wares in all mediums. Liesl's old boss Judy Neugebaur had a booth there, It was great to see her again.
These events are always good to go to to catch up with some old friends and acquaintances.

Also in attendance at the show were furniture makers Mark Delguidice, Bonnie Bishoff and Peter Handler, all are Furniture Society members. I first met Peter and Bonnie 10 years ago in Tennessee at a furniture society conference, I briefly worked for Mark when I first moved to the States. Marks studio is located in Norwood, Massachusetts. It was great to be back in Boston again.

Keeseh Studio

Today I went to Pawtucket, RI and visited a furniture studio called Keeseh Studio. Keeseh is a co-op studio that teaches workshops in the evening on various woodworking topics. The studio is at 999 Main St. The studio is in a great, huge old mill building that has been completely converted into artist lofts and studios with a great restaurant next to the studio that has Jazz in the afternoons. The studio has great natural light, it's a very busy productive, creative place, as you can see, it needs a little tidying up before classes start.

The co-op is ran by Asher Dunn, a RISD ID grad. It's a great studio. The studio is only two years old and already they're looking to expand. I'll be teaching two classes there this summer,running through June, July and August. I'll be teaching a Table making class titled Table Manners" and a class called " We build what we eat" Check out Keeseh at http://www.keeseh.com/

Yesterday I walked into the living room

and saw my son Quinn with his toy hammer in his hand hammering his chair that he had turned over.

What more do I need to say? I'm a proud Papa.

Whitinsville Library

Today Quinn, Liesl and Myself went to our local library, the Whititnsville Social Library. The library is beautiful. It is covered wall - to- wall in raised wood panels with incredible ornate carvings everywhere. The panels are all mahogany, I tried to take more pictures but I didn't want to wig out any parents that were there.

New Space

The new space is ready, all I have to do now is go to New Jersey and move all of my eqipment and tools out of storage and into the new space. Once organized I'll be taking on commissions and making speculative work as well as teaching workshops out of the space. Please get in touch if interested in taking a class, I can personalize a class to suit your needs.