Wow things are slow in blog land. Here is what I have been up to in the shop.


I made a simple chair with some walnut scraps the other week. It is the type of chair I wanted to make when I first got into furniture making. It is funny as it has taken me this long how to figure out how to make one! I kid you not. I set myself a challenge to make it 2 days, and did it in 3. It is more complicated than what people expect. If you do not believe me, try making one and let me know how it goes.

I shaped the shoulders of the stretchers instead of housing the joints as I have in the past. This was by far the hardest part of the build. The joints are off 90 degrees and there are three separate angles on the back legs.

It will be upholstered in leather on a plywood seat and back rest. It has joined my list of pieces sitting around my house waiting to be upholstered and photographed when I have an extra $2000 laying around. Think I am at about four now!
Its influence and pedigree are obvious, nothing original. These were shapes I needed to explore. For some reason woodworkers do not like spindles, well very few do. I do not know if it is because they associate it with production furniture or what it is. I do know that flat parts are much easier to work with. It seems to me most wood workers use the same recycled shapes over and over again, not just in their own work but as a group, I myself am included in that group and am guilty of this. I have nothing against these shapes as they look great but personally my eye is attracted to variety. A flat member coming into a cylindrical one can be very interesting. I need to go back and explore more of these forms to expand my design vocabulary.
I am also hard at work on that walnut desk. It turns out the client's gear took up less space than we anticipated so it got slimmed out. I was very happy with this change. The top is being done in Corian, "the material of the future" as my friend Federico calls it. It is pretty amazing stuff.