yes we do repairs

ive always felt that a craftsman should fix stuff.  particularly stuff that is important to people who really like the stuff that is broken.  it might be a family piece, like this one, and have sentimental value, or it could be just a nice piece of furniture with a problem here or there, looking for the good life.  also, as a 

craftsperson, where else are you going to get to work on pieces like this one if you automatically just say

"i dont do repairs"  .. i mean, check this out .. fantastic unrestrained inlay work .. probably 18th century?  definitely english, as its owner is.  anyway, this was an onsite job, particularly enjoyable because we have been discussing fixing it off and on for, literally, years. click the photo to enlarge it.

all done today ... check that one out.  ready for the next hundred years.

weve had a run of repairs lately .. heres a shaker like cabinet that had no pulls, a funky fastener on the latch, a big water streak down the front of it and some shelves inside which we removed and replaced with a rod for hanging clothes.  its got some charm now.

and how often do you see a paper mache tilt top table?  never knew there was such a  thing.
love the scrap abalone oval, what would you call it?,  an applique?

this one had a painting fall on it .. that broke the paper base where the column screwed in. we also added a new catch where before the hinged block was screwed together so it couldnt flip up

technically, this wasnt a repair.  we just made a new base for the top.  the center of the table is a square of reclaimed french parquet floor.  the real thing!  hand hewn from solid wood, with a clever, rustic, mechanism that changes it from a 44 " square to a 62" round

here you can see the mechanism and the hand hewn nature of the original floor

tah dah!  the top is darker, and the base is lighter, in real life ... overhead florescent lights ..

another nostalgic funky family piece .. had a big crack in the side and back, and the two front feet and one of the back feet were loose and had to be removed and reset.

havent seen it yet with all the drawers.  only one drawer needed work

and this piece ... holy moly !  braziliab rosewood danish modern, damaged in shipping.  another onsite repair

cool piece ..

loved the interior bar detail and and way they cut the doors with the angles on them..
only the left one is open enough to see that.

better now, not perfect, but better

and we recently did six of these .. removing worn out brass casters on the front legs,

and turning new balled feet for the front legs

this is the connector from the trestle table below

as you can see in the photo below, the wedge grounded out on the edge of the hole before the table tightened up.  we squared up the inside edge and made new wedges.  its solid as a rock now.

we also added a foot to each end to make it a 12 table

and were working slowly on the doors below ... engineering a frame to hang them .. interesting challenge. they are too short, and too wide for the hole.  i have a plan ...

and weve got a very cool 12 foot walnut table going too .. more on that later

almost forgot this one ... it had a very clever sliding dovetail joint between the back leg and the 1/2" thick top rail.  had to trim off one side and reglue .. should be fine .. its part of a daily use kitchen set ..

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what kind of custom dining tables do you make

someone, i forget who, asked me over the holidays, so what type of furniture do you make most often?  my answer was dining tables.  a lot of our projects take longer and require a lot more concentration, organization and problem solving, but im fairly confidant if you asked my guys what their favorite type of project was, youd get the same answer.  dining tables.  one of the reasons may be is the flow of them.  you start. not that long later, you finish.  they leave. you know people will have good times around them ...next project ...

  how many different tables have we made over the last 34 years?  more than a hundred for sure.  i put this slide show together as much for my own convenience, so i can find a picture of a table that is not on my website when i want it, and also so folks can see the different styles we work in.  this is certainly not all of the tables we have made, but it does cover some stylistic ground, from high traditional, to contemporary slabs.  click any photo at the link above to start the show, and enjoy your tour.  a few of the highlights are directly below.

some have carved details

 

some are very traditional

some are made from one slab of wood, in this case bubinga

and some have inlays and specific stylistic details ..

anyway, there are many different tables in the slide show, and were always on the lookout for new opportunities to stretch our design legs .. send us your ideas and well have at it ..

ps ... im working on getting links from the photos to the blog posts, but it will probably be a while before i finish that part of the show .. enjoy!

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More cool things to do with your hood

The hood is a common piece of clothing for the mid and late medieval period. It is also very comfortable to wear, especially when it gets chilly outside, like at the moment in the Netherlands...

The hood has a standard way of wearing, but in the late medieval period people started experimenting wearing the hood differently, resulting in foppish styles. These styles are nicely illustrated in one of the blogposts of Tacuinum medievale. Personally, I like (and sometimes wear)  style 6.

But there are more things you can do with a hood than wearing it. Some examples are shown in  the margins of manuscript Bodleian MS 264 (Oxford University, Oxford, UK).

1. Playing blind-man.

The hood is put on backwards, so it covers the eyes and creates a blindfold. The liripipe is hanging like an elephants trunk in front.

In Blind Mans Buff, the blinded man has to try to tag one of the other players, while the other players try to avoid him. The other players have to make sounds to indicate the direction the blindfolded player in which has to move in order to tag another player. The player who is tagged becomes the next blind man.

Another variant is where the blinded player is guided along a difficult track by the other players.

 

Bodleian MS 264 folio 70 verso. A blinded elephant man on the left. 

2. Throwing games.

A knot is made in the hood, approximately at the point where the liripipe is attached to the hood. This creates a heavier point, making the hood easier to throw. The liripipe is used to swing the hood for the throw. This game is played by both males and females.

Bodleian MS 264 folio 130 recto. Males playing the throwing game.

The illustrations suggest that the hoods should be thrown towards another, or at a blinded person. We have tried several versions of this game: throwing and catching (catching scores points); throwing and hitting each other (hitting another scores points) and just throwing (the one farthest throwing scores points). Throwing and hitting each other resulted in chaos, while throwing and catching was a bit more playful. Just throwing and throwing and hitting were boring, but the latter became better when one person was coaching the blind man when to duck to avoid being hit by a hood.

Bodleian MS 264 folio 130 verso. Females playing the throwing game. 

A variant of this game was developed by us (i.e. we can not relate it directly to an illumination), in which the players wore a felt hat, which needed to be thrown of the head with the hood. Each successful hit to the hat was rewarded with one point, while the game was played for a certain amount of points. We thought this was a better variant, as each player has equal opportunities to hit and being hit, and the game allowed a lot of interplay. 

 

 

 

3. Catching Butterflies.

We have not tried this yet, as the butterfly season is over at the moment. The hood is held closed at one end, and open at the other end to trap the butterflies. Although some woman look like trying to hit rather than catch the butterflies. This seems to be a more feminine type of game.

Bodleian MS 264 folio 135 recto (more examples a shown in the margins of MS 264)

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bob and the aarp

i was surprised to see one of my favorite musicians on the cover of my recent aarp magazine .. good for you bob .. it was a good read and i wish i had read it before i tried to carry a 14 white oak 2 x 10 down the garage stairs by myself a few weeks ago ... about half way down, i got kind of stuck and twisted and i definitely tweaked something in the muscle that picks up your leg to go up the stairs.  but, it was friday and i had a paddle tennis game, and that one was so good, we played again saturday, and then i have(had) a regular sunday morning game.  by monday i was almost a total cripple .. could hardly get in or out of the car .. it will be a month this friday since my stair incident, and im just starting to be able to put my pants and socks on standing up, and sit at my computer without tears coming to my eyes.  im learning bob, but slowly i admit ... thanks for the tip ...

get help or leave that stuff to the young guys ..

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new van !!

i drove my faithful 2006 town and country 15 miles up the road today to zappones chrysler dodge dealers in granville, new york for its last ride.  with me, anyway.  its certainly still got some good miles in it, but im going to let someone else enjoy them .. i bought it in october of 2006.  it needs a little work now, but it still has its original shocks and muffler after 97,000 miles.  its been a faithful, low cost, reliable and comfortable companion, and i actually felt a little sad going up the valley this afternoon.  this is my fourth, no 5th, soccer mom mobile, (87,94,2002,2006,2014), and you just cant beat them for hauling stuff around under cover ... plus its a smooth and quiet car like ride.  good luck old friend.

 

 i think ill get over it pretty quickly .. the new one has that new car smell, the CLEAN windows and seats, the spiffy new sound system controls on the the steering wheel, and some other stuff i dont know
how to work yet, like the connectivity whatever that is ... on we go ..

take a picture now.  itll never look better ...

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stuff you can do with a cnc router

in conjunction with my exploration of the possibilities/virtues of machine work vs handwork that i wrote about in a blog post last month, i have put together a slide show entitled stuff you can do with a cnc router  ... heres a link to that slideshow...  within those photos there are links to my website or blog where further information is available .. there are also many post in the category trevors cnc projects.  that link would be for the diehard curious, as there are over 40 blog posts there.  weve had access to this technology since 1997, and have had our own full size, 50" x 100" multicam since 2005.  prospective clients almost always stop to ask when they see it on the way to my office, what do you do with that?  ive decided that it is easier to show than to tell them .. 230 example photos .. most with blog links in the caption .. 

it might take 15 minutes or less to scroll through them all ..

our standard technology quote is:
"technology ... it almost works" . 

we often use that quote when things dont go perfectly, but, in general, with the right operators and proper attention to drawing details and machine maintenance, this technology is incredibly efficient and reliable.

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slow learner the definitive design fee policy post

Back on Sunday, May 31st 2009, I wrote a post about a client I had just finished working with on the design for a custom coffee table with dragonflies and reeds inlayed in the top of it. Here is a link to that blog post. Lets just say it didnt go well for Dan.  In case you dont want to read my whining, heres a brief excerpt from what I wrote after that experience, summarizing my then and current thoughts on design fees:

"Here’s what I’ll do for free :

Have a meeting or two of reasonable length, say an hour or so, at my shop or at their house close by …. No Charge …. More than ½ hour travel time from my shop, meetings MAY involve travel time reimbursement. The client will be informed in advance and the charge will be assessed at my discretion, probably depending on how the meeting seems to go.

Provide concept sketches and one CAD scale drawing … No Charge

If design is ‘close’ but not finalized, I’ll provide a non binding ESTIMATE of the project’s cost including shipping and installation. No Charge

If we move on from there without, at that time, a formal agreement, I will request a non-refundable design fee that seems appropriate to the project at hand. (Our current design rate on 2/14/15 is $75.00/ hour)  If that fee is used up, we probably have a problem, and we’ll have to take it from there with a new, written and accepted, design fee agreement ….

I hope this is clear and that it will help both me and my customers to understand that design is not something that just happens but is a sometimes complicated and time consuming process. And, time is really all we’ve REALLY got.. "

I dont think I would change much about that summary today.  And, until this past December, I have not had to request any design fees since 2009.  I will say though, that every time in the future that I do request a design fee, which is really, really only when I think it necessary, I will make sure that if someone gives me a design fee, that they understand my stated position on this. 

The prompt for this current posting was from a potential client who asked me to consider building for them a Greene and Greene style kitchen with all the bells and whistles. Their budget, at first, seemed sort of reasonable, but since we had no drawings to bid from, and the drawings their kitchen designer provided were not what they wanted, if I wanted to consider doing the job, I would have to make drawings to bid from.  They offered a $1000. design deposit, which I thought was reasonable, and which the husband, obviously, took to mean I was totally committed to their project, would love their site and their contractor, and could do whatever design they wanted, whenever they wanted it, within their budget.  Well, after quite a bit of drawing time and back and forth by email, and a site visit to Boston to meet their contractor and actually see the space they were going to remodel, for a variety of reasons I will not go into here, (Ill invoke Will Rogers who once said "Never miss a good chance to shut up"),  I decided to withdraw.   Since I had spent quite a lot of time just understanding the space, which was very tight, and producing drawings and a quick model for the design meeting, and to estimate a total cost, I offered to settle for just the deposit, which was about 1/2 of the time I had spent on the project, not counting the overnight trip to Boston.  We had already discussed at our initial meeting that I do kitchen work only on a cost plus basis.

The wife was fine with that, but the husband, not so much .. I spoke with the wife, and followed up with some post meeting suggestions to smooth the project execution, and didnt hear anything until almost a month later, last Wednesday night, when i received the email below:

Hi Dan,

     Sorry to take a couple of weeks to get back on this -- busy digging out.  Were not as good at dealing with so much snow as Vermonters!

     Lets focus on where we agree, i.e., that this wont be settled over email.  Glad for any thoughts you have on a resolution mechanism.  Is there a local trade group or business association up there that offers mediation or arbitration?  The default is filing a claim in Bennington County small claims court, which itself may be a good option all around -- inexpensive, informal, local for you.

Yours,

Johnathan

inexpensive, informal, local for you   ... Love it!  So breezy and informal !! and the snow!  

After fuming for a bit and talking to my closest advisors, I decided to return the clients entire $1000. deposit and get on with it.  Anything else seemed like a lose/lose from a business standpoint.  Taking a design deposit in the future?  I will list all the contingencies I can think of, have a reading of my policy above, and feel better about my chances of getting paid for at least some of my efforts, regardless of whether the project proceeds or not.

What I had to bid from, plus some not what we want sketch up pictures.

The cad drawings I prepared for the meeting in Boston .. The model is at the start of this post.

Before picture ....

Live and Learn ...

Comments??

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