Both prototypes finished
I call this trunk Sophisticated Lady. This is it almost done.
My favorite
You are now entering Jig City.
These are the jigs I have needed so far for the trunks I am making. I am pretty sure there will be more before I am done.
This is how the cabinet looks after staining. I dig the tone more than I thought I would.
This is a very nice review (the only review thus far) of the show I am involved with at Vine Arts Center in Minneapolis.
This is the cabinet I am making for my aunt- and uncle-in-law. It is made of ash and this picture was taken before I stained it. It is made of for their stereo equipment and has a shelf that slides out so they can easily change records on their turntable. The bottom area is to hold LPs, the drawer is to hold CDs. The top area will hold their 8-track tapes. I am kidding. I think.
This is the crown I ended up going with. I am not a big fan of crown molding. I mean, it is very useful in built-in situations where you need to hide things, but on furniture it seems a little pointless. Things look bizarre without them, but I wonder if that is only a bit of visual cultural programming. On a totally different topic, it is strange to be commenting or adding to thoughts I posted earlier when you, the reader see the newest thoughts first and don’t have any idea why I am posting boring pictures of crown molding until you read my earlier posts. And then you still wonder why I am posting boring pictures of crown molding…
This is the bad crown. It was supposed to be a visual continuation of the feet, but the fact that it is wider than the corner piece on the front and narrower on the side makes it way too awkward to live. Next time I will make the corner upright pieces square so I can experiment with this made-up molding style.
I had to tell myself no today. I had to face up to the fact that the crown molding (moulding? or is that only in Britain?) I created for my latest piece looked dumb. I had some misgivings, but I have had misgivings of this sort before and plowed through and trusted that my idea would bear out once it was realized. Not this time. This time it was just dumb. So I have made a second set of moulding, much more traditional and much more attractive. But not as interesting. If I had another week to spend on the piece, I might have been able to make my idea make sense, but I would be rushing and I think this is an idea that will need a little time under water. I will put up pics of the two moldings tomorrow.
Feet for the the cabinet I am working on. I think if I had to place them in the furniture design period/style continuum I would have to say they are cartoon.
Well, thank you Target.
I have a trunk/coffee table we bought in a little futon shop on Broadway and carried home on the subway, as it was before we realized a cab to our apartment was only about fifteen dollars. That makes it at least six years ago. It is a rude, squat, flat-topped trunk with iron hinges and latches and straps and handles that could have been forged 600 years ago. It is made almost exactly opposite of the pieces I make, lots of nails and badly cut miters and deep marks from the sawmill. I love it. I stare at it all the time. I wish I could make something that is so obviously slapped together and is still perfect. The wood is beautiful, rich and beastly. No one who has ever been to my home has been able to identify it (not that a lot of my visitors are wood gurus) and I have never seen anything like it. Until today.
Walking through Target I caught a glimpse of a stool out of the corner of my eye and immediately changed direction. The tag on the shelf said Natural Sheesham Stool. How often does Target call a piece of furniture by its species of wood? Has there ever been a better name for a kind of wood? It is the wood of all my hopes and dreams and its name is like that out of a children’s story. “Tobias climbed the Sheesham tree and could see all the orange and blue smoke issuing from all the chimneys in all the houses in all the land. His plan had worked! Now all he had to do was get his stepmother to climb the Sheesham tree and see for herself. Thinking of her enormous rump and her dainty hands in their spotless gloves, Tobias realized that might be the hardest feat of all.”
It is also called Indian Rosewood, but it is truly Sheesham. I want some. Even though it can be harvested sustainably (if you believe everything you read in these internets), I do not think I can justify the transit around the globe. The shipping by sea I think is okay, as it is such an efficient way to move great quantities, but the transit to the ship from whatever forest in India it is harvested in and the trucking from whatever far-flung port it lands at is not okay. Maybe they ship it into Duluth? Anyone going to be in San Francisco soon and just happen to have a half-empty truck they will be driving back anyway and some time to hang out at the port? Anyone have a huge stack of damaged Sheesham furniture you are just about to throw away?
Anyone?
Man I want me some Sheesham.
