Shaker not stirred

Yesterday I starting making a batch of legs for some shaker style end tables made out of pine.  The legs are tapered on two sides.  I used a shop made jig to taper the legs.  The legs have a 1/4" W x 31/" L mortise in them.  I used a straight bit on the router table to cut the mortises.  The aprons will be made out of pine and the tops will be made out of various re- used pieces such as some old T and G pine floor boards.

I made 30 legs.

Home

I made this sculptural chair with two other artist around eight years ago.  The chair is made out of cherry wood and has a shovel handle at the top.  I've been very influenced by shaker furniture with it's clean lines and wonderful joinery.  This poor old chair has been moved around looking for a place to sit.  Due to lack of storage space where we live I had to move it to the garage.  The chair is in great shape and when I came home today I saw it hanging on a hook in the garage.  I felt badly that I didn't have a more honorable place to store the chair but then I realized that this was the prefect place.  The title of the chair is " Tired".  It looks like a hay fork or a shovel so I imagine it taking a rest after a hard days work in the fields.  The Shakers coined the phrase " cleanliness is next to godliness"  and hung their chairs on the walls so they were out of the way and they could sweep the room properly.   The chair is in it's perfect place, hung on the wall of the garage where you would hang a hay fork or a shovel and out of the way, much like shaker chairs of the past.
Perfect'

Perfect'

Bits and pieces

Today was an odd day.  I spent most of the day doing bits and pieces of projects.  I finished making the hand plane I was working on and I started making some coasters for my friend Terry Eason in New Jersey.  Terry and I share a love of post modern furniture, especially contemporary plywood furniture.  I have a collection of old interiors magazines from the 50's and 60's.  I colored photocopied two full page adds for Herman Miller furniture out of the magazines and laminated them to a piece of plywood.  I'll cut the images and plywood to coaster sizes and then chamfer the edges turning them into great retro looking coasters.

Chickens, Eggs and Tomatoes

Koopman Lumber Company was giving away free tomato plants today so Quinn, Liesl and I went and got some.  We took some old tires and filled them with soil to make planters.  We put the planters outside of the studio.  We have a real urban farm going on.  We have the chickens and now tomatoes, ten more weeks we'll have eggs.

The Studio

I love how the studio looks o a nice day.  The front of the studio is saturated with sun light most of the day.

It's awesome

Bread Box, Hand planes and tables.

Today was a day of variety.  I started another bread box.  This one is going to Austin Texas.  I Got stock ready to make some shaker style tables and I started building a hand plane. 

I gave the cutting board in the bread box a coat of lacquer. I got all of the parts ready for the tables.  I have to cut the aprons and taper the legs.  I glued a bottom onto a block of ash that I'm using for the plane body.  I cut the cheeks of the plane on the band saw and then used the mitre saw to cut the inner blocks at an angle.

Art Allstate Exhibition

Here is an image of my spot in the Art Allstate artist/mentor exhibition.  I submitted a tea box, two tea lights and two cigar box guitars.  The guitars were a big hit with the kids and I sold one to another artist/mentor.

Thanks Angela'

Thanks Angela'

Art Allstate Continue

The finished project
AWESOME''

Art Allstate 2011

I spent this weekend at the Worcester Art museum.  Each year the museum hosts Art Allstate.  A state wide art collaboration featuring the states best Junior, high school art students.  All regions are represented.  I have had the privilege of being an Artist/Mentor to a group of 18 students for the past six years now.  Artist/Mentors are paired together.  This year I was paired with Cat Manolis, a great artist from North Carolina.  We had 18 awesome students.  Our chosen materials were plastic garbage bags and electrical wire.  Our given materials were yellow kraft paper and old baseball cards.  I always get jazzed at this event.  The outcome is awesome.  The first few images are of the students brain storming ideas and getting a feel for the materials they are going to use for their projects.  The later ones are of the project coming together.

Lie Nielson Tool Event

The Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking played host this weekend to the Lie Nielson Hand Tool Event.  Liesl dad and I headed off to Manchester, Ct for the event.  It was a good turn out.  The school was  full of like mined people suffering from tool drool.

Lie Nielson and The Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking

Today Liesl's Dad and I traveled to Manchester, CT for a hand tool event put on by Lie Nielson tools and held at The Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking.  What a fun day.  I've taught at the school, it was good to catch up with director Bob Van Dyke and other old friends such as Wil Neptune.  What a great display of hand tools.  I wish I could afford to buy them all.  You can spend a lot of many on awesome tools here, the school shares the building with a Woodcraft store.  Bob and Will were doing demos as well as Mike Pekovich from Fine Woodworking Magazine and Mickey Callaghan, past president of the Society of American Furniture Makers was there showing a beautiful piece he made, a eighteenth century New York corner chair made out of Mahogany.  It's awesome.

All tuned up'

Here are the cigar box guitars tuned and ready to be played.  They are tuned in open 'A' and open 'G' and sound surprisingly full and good.  I have a smaller cigar box that I'm going to turn into a ukulele.  Too much fun'

The Finale'

Today Jeff and I finished shooting an episode of "The Garage".  The project we made was a cigar box guitar.  These things are so cool and fun to make- and they work.  Visit www.cigarboxnation.com to learn more about the history of these instruments,how to make one and to see some really awesome examples.  

Here is the one I completed for the show.

Repeat Performance

Today was spent designing and working on some drawings for a potential customer but I did have a little time this morning to build another cigar box guitar.

Cigar Box Blues

Today Jeff and I shot an epidode for the show " The Garage".  The project for this episode is a cigar box guitar.  These things are really "COOL' and are the perfect re-use/recycle project.  You can get cigar boxes for free or next to nothing at your local liquor store.  The fret board/neck piece can be a store bought 1"x2".  The only thing purchased are the tuning pegs which cost $12 for six, which is ewnought for two guitars.  In a few hours and with simple tools you cab have a great instrument.  These things are serious and play well.  I had a great time.  Watch for this on episode 5 of the show.  Check the side bar too see where the show is available.

George Nelson is in the house

This stack of cushions taken off of some vintage ottomans will turn into a bench and two chairs in the near future.  I'm a huge fan of George Nelson and his designs he created for Herman Miller Furniture. Keep following the blog too see how they develop.

I can't help Myself

I just can't help myself.  Yesterday I found this awesome yellow and chrome bread box at an Antique outlet.  It was so cheap I couldn't resist buying it and turning it into a bread-side table.  I shipped a bread-side table this morning and then replaced it with this one.  You can find it available on my etsy store.

Inspiration

There are many things that inspire me in life to do what I do, Liesl, Quinn, my friends and music to name a few but as a contemporary furniture maker  and designer nothing inspires me more than the architects and chair makers who's designs were advant-gard and who experimented with new materials.  When I was the Department Head of the wood studio at the Worcester Center for Crafts in Worcester, Mass I taught a few furniture making classes.  A component of one of the classes included furniture history.  A project I had my students do was to look at the chairs at the Vitra Design Museum, pick a chair,study it's designer and write an essay on that designer as well as build a scale model of the chair.
The three chairs above are part of what inspires me.  The one on the left is an Eames type chair I bought at a contemporary gallery.  The others are works that my former students made.  The one on the left is a scale model made out of copper of a Sori Yanagi chair and the other is a model made out of wire of a Frank Gehry chair.  These chairs inspire me and also remind me of those students.  A nicer memory.  

I never get tired of these

I sold another bread side table so I brought the table to the studio for a sprucing up before I ship it.
I touched up the legs with some paint, waxed the cutting board and clean the hardware and box. I never get tired of these quirky pieces. I'll keep making them as long as people keep buying them. Believe it or not I'm actually running out of them. I'll have to start looking for more boxes and more ottomans.

Ottomans/Stools repurposed

I have a bunch of different ottomans I've collected.  I used the legs too make my bread side tables.  I decided I would make some stools with them.  The bases will be made out of plywood, similar in style to my table I made recently for the show
Today I worked on the template for the stool and a routing jig to cut the 1/2 inch lap joint

The Ladies finally come outside

The ladies finally ventured outside''

Coop

I finally finished the run for the coop.  The chickens can go outside, once they get the nerve.

Plywood Coffe Table

Today Jeff and I continued to shoot for the show.  The plywood coffee table was a good project for the show.  This table will also be included in my book as it is made from a single sheet of plywood making it economical to build.  It was a fun project.  The plywood could be covered in a plastic laminate to add color.
The shelves are attached to the base using 3/4 inch aliminum channel.  The shelves are band sawn and then trimed om the router table using a flush trim bit against a template.  The two base halves are joined using a lap joint which was cut using a stright bit with a router.

The Garage

Jeff and I have had a decent run of it lately.  The show has been picked up by its 29th station.  These are all community access TV stations but you never know what might come of it.  I'm not taking anything away from community TV but not a lot of people watch it, but the more we are out there the better.  One day the right person might be watching and like what he/she sees.
Doing the show gives us a reason to make work that doesn't always pay the bills.  The episode we shot today and will continue to shoot tomorrow is about making a plywood knockdown table of my own design.

The whole idea of the show is to inspire people to be creative and to make things and not to get intimidated because they don't have the best of equipment or all of the bells and whistles.  Just make' Have fun and find your outlet.  On the side bar is a list of towns that are airing our show.  If you live in one of the areas and are interested check out the local community access TV stations website for dates and times and have a look.'

Coffe Table Lap Joints

The table is connected with a simple lap joint.  I use a straight edge and a 3/4 inch straight bit and cut a notch five inches long.

 

Jigs and Templates

Today I spent the day prepping for our shoot tomorrow.  I'm making a table out of plywood .  I've made this table before.  it is an original design of a knock down coffee table I make using a single sheet of plywood and some aluminum channel.  The only joinery, lap joints, are cut using the table saw and router.

Today I made a flush trimming jig for the shelves and legs.