Descending Ashtray

I’m not so good at reading German, but this sculpture by Yvonne Fehling and Jennie Peiz is pretty amazing.

It sometimes feels like my shop is nothing but a collection of tools and unfinished projects – I tend to get very excited about starting things, and not so much about finishing them. But today, I completed a sculpture I started over a year ago, my Totem Study, shown here in front of a wedding chest I made for my sister. I just put a coat of oil on both of them, which is why they look a little wet; they are.

I also started work today on another carving, which I’ll post tomorrow. I made very good progress, but I want to do a few more things on it tomorrow before showing it in progress.

I have been working on a couple of cabinets to help organize my art supplies a little better.

The painting cart was made entirely out of scrap plywood and particle board. With the casters it is very functional. It is also a good place to hide paints and thinners from children.

This cabinet is still in the early stages of construction. When it is done, it will have five or six drawers to store paper, matboard and anything else large and flat. The drawer is 35″ X 45”. The reason I want to show it at this stage is because it has some interesting drawers slides.

I dadoed out side rails just big enough to fit a 3/8″ steel ball. There is also a groove on the bottom of each side of the drawer that corresponds with the balls and the slides. That way the drawer stays in line when you pull it in and out. There are six balls on each side.

But when the drawer is pulled out past the midpoint, a stopper keeps the balls in back from rolling any farther. Then it is only supported by the balls in front. Even though it is not a perfectly friction free system, the drawer moves in and out with surprising ease!

After a refreshing weekend at the coast, I got back this afternoon and went out to the shop with a mission: get my sister’s wedding present done. It’s only been since March 2006, so what’s the hurry, right?

There wasn’t much left to do – finish mortising for the lid’s brass hinges, a final sanding, and the first coat of oil. My sister and her husband Jeff live in Boston, right around the corner from the North Bennett Street Woodworking School, and in the general vicinity of one of the great woodworking traditions of America: Shaker furniture. I decided to do something more Shaker-inspired for the two of them, something that felt a little more Boston, and a little less west coast contemporary. Here it is.

It’s a little smaller than the traditional Shaker chest, but not much, a nod to the small-ness of their current apartment. In case you were wondering, apartments in Boston are really, really expensive.

The chest is all made of cherry, although the bottom trim seems to be quite a bit lighter in color than the rest of the chest. I think it will even out in time, as cherry gets darker with exposure to sunlight, but I may try some artificial means of evening it up and/or adding some age (stain) to some of the recesses for contrast. Post a comment if you have any ideas; the base coat is General Finishes Seal-A-Cell Clear.

I’m also thinking about lining the sides with aromatic cedar inside after I get the oil finish complete.

Finally I can post again! I have been having technical difficulties with WordPress and my computer but luckily we solved the problem last night. Thanks Dave!

The following pictures are the progression of the stone patio that I worked on over the summer.

Our back yard last winter.

This was a trench that I dug by hand for the draining tile. There are also three footings from the old fence that I buried under the trench. That was a lot of work!

Then the puzzle began. We found all of the stones in a big pile behind the garage. With a little power washing they cleaned up pretty good. I layed the stones over a bed of sand to help stablize and level as I placed the stones. Ethan was there to help problem solve!

Here it is all done with furniture. It was like adding on an outdoor room to our house.

Brandy did this nice border with rocks.

Gabe and Brandy were here in Oregon last night, stopping over on their West coast road trip. Gabe’s sister lives near San Francisco, and they drove up with baby Ethan yesterday. They’ll be back in Portland Thursday through Saturday (stay tuned), but I thought this trip would be a fine time to present them with their belated (they were married in March!) wedding gift — this chest.

The chest uses four different woods: Alder for the sides, Walnut for the feet and lid frame, aromatic Cedar inside the lid, and a piece of figured Red Gum book-matched on the top.

Except for the aromatic Cedar inside the lid, the wood came from a particularly awesome Craigslist find, which also included 25 or more board feet of cherry for the amazing price of $150. It was a trick getting everything into my Jeep, but well worth it; I am still looking at half the pile, having completed this and several other projects with the treasure trove.

There are quite a few things I would do differently, were I to approach the project again. I learned a lot, though, and for me that is a large part of how I define a successful project. If I was already a master, where would the fun be?

In particular, this was the first time I attempted a box joint, using my dovetail router jig (which doubles as a box-joint jig) with pretty good success. Alder, used on the sides of the box, is a somewhat splintery wood, and next time, I think I will use a backer board to lessen the tear-out. Still, it made pretty nice joints very quickly, and I think perfection, or as near to it as I will get, is within reach.

Finally, the top represents my first attempt at veneer work. The Red Gum I used on the exterior seemed too awesome to use as solid lumber, so I took a small section, re-sawed it on the bandsaw, and planed it to 1/4 inch thickness, essentially doubling its utility. I then book-matched and glued this veneer to a plywood substrate, which received another layer of aromatic cedar as the other piece of the sandwich. Then I clamped like the dickens. I really wished I had David Marks’ vaccuum press, but I think it turned out well.

The whole thing matched my original sketch pretty well, as it turns out. Who needs plans when you have colored pencils?