three weeks in the life of dorset custom furniture

there was a book i read in college that i sort of remember, called one Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.  it was by alexander solzhenytsin, and i remember it being a long one, kind of like this post is going to be.  the hero was a common carpenter unjustly imprisoned in a soviet labor camp ... we, on the other hand, are just common funriture makers, getting through the last three very busy weeks. 

 somebody turned loose the shoppers.  in addition to the 4 or 5 jobs we typically have in the works at a time, we had a flood of small jobs going on and many requests for new designs and price quotes.  some of those turned into new work, some not, but they sure kept me busy.  so, rather than detail all these projects individually, im going go through them all in one post right here, right now.  click the photos to enlarge them .. here goes.

this ones been in the works for a couple weeks ... the clients house is local, but they dont live here full time, so we had to wait for them to come up for the weekend to try the mockup in their living room.

after photographing the mockup, i photoshopped a photo of the top of this table 
on to the mockup top as it was made from a slab from the same log.

the real thing is now almost ready for finish.

and we had a cutoff from another big slab that we made into a bench/side table above.  

this one is for sale and ready to go at the drop of a hat ... +/- 18 x 26 x 18 high.
call me at 802-867-5541 for detaIls

and we also did a little filling and sanding on this slab. +/- 36 x 80 ), its also available and would 

make a nice desk, large coffee table, or small dining table .. no reasonable offers or ideas refused .

first coat of finish only .. its the log mate to this headboard ..

 around the first of the month we installed some large steel turnbuckles that sam made for our kitchen clients from last summer.  they were an afterthought to fill up some of the high open space and it was quite a project to install them in the finished room.  here are some others that he made previously.  view the pictures there to get a sense of their scale

they did look great as an architectural detail when they were up  ..

and while we were there, we got to see the finished vanity from last summer.  

it now has all its hardware, marble and lights now, and is looking pretty sharp ..

and sam completed one new beltbuckle design for a friend, and quickly sold four others without even trying. the four would have made a great picture, but came and went so fast i missed them.
the original in the photo above was not quite finished at photo time.

 will shipped out another vermont banjo, banjo number 26 for him  ...

all vermont wood and inlay details

chris completed one of the more challenging chair projects to come through the shop lately.  

it involved copying a family chair for a friends sister ...

certainly a challenge, and chris did a great job with it ..

its at the upholsterers now, and it should be ready next week sometime.  gold star for this one.

and now he is involved in retro fitting a big shaker cabinet we made in 2006.
were adding a  case with four drawers that has to be removable to access the valves
for the radiant heat that are in the wall behind the cabinet.

the original piece is 10 feet wide and 8.5 feet high

 on a personal note, im still working on my pottery .. im gonna fire the kiln tomorrow.

and we had time for some cards with old friends (long time friends, not really old friends, though we are all getting up there).  the gentleman on the left hired me for my first bartending job in vermont in 1971 and weve all been friends ever since.  his wife, mary rita, across the table from kit, 

is my favorite mixed doubles paddle tennis partner.

and while im on the subject of paddle tennis, in the opening round of the mixed doubles championship last weekend, my friend linda and i were defeated by the father/daughter team on the left. they later made it to the finals where they were barely beaten by my friend mary rita, above and her partner paul, who is one of the top mens players. mary rita is on the winner board for either/both womens and mixed doubles championships for the last 10 years or so

 linda and i lost in the finals of the consolation round, but in my mind we we won the informal award for highest combined team age. we lost to susan and jonathan, who is wills age.  we had about 50 years on them, so the fact that we made it through the day still standing was a victory for me.  its a fast sport.

and it is still definitely still winter here, though its headed for 50 degrees today

depressing thursday morning...

hopeful, thursday afternoon

 were also working on a few more projects for the hill farm

we made an old butter churn into a cocktail table with a steel top for the pool room .. 

had to add some sand for weight and levelers for feet .. cool object.

and were making a fourteen foot mirror for the dining room there

and a cabinet for the dart board.  i hope to finish that this week.

and some barn board picture frames


and were restoring a cool empire bureau and talking about bar stools

and yesterday a new claro walnut slab arrived ..

its gonna, in the end, be about 48 x 96 after its trimmed

wrestled it into the shop with six people and the forearm forklifts

and this week, we completed the rebuild of the spindle on the cnc router.  8 years since it was new,
and its good as new again now ..

will cut this 1/2" high nameplate with it.  he has finished #26, but this is plate for #23,
which he skipped and is working on now
see more banjos here now

 and sam has several railing projects in the works.  these should go in next week sometime.

and im starting today with a clean slate for monday .. all or now. long one ...

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more on the dart cabinet

pretty fun project here ...

my designer client, nina, had an idea for a cabinet to go in the room with 

the pool table we installed earlier this year. 

we started with a chalk sketch on two of the best ( a relative term) of six red

barnboards that had been salvaged from the clients property, and designated them

to be the doors for the cabinet.  click the photos to enlarge them.

we then added some structural poplar pieces that we later covered with barnboards, but these pieces actually hold the cabinet sides together and provide the structure to secure the cabinet to the wall.

working with the barn boards as they are is always a challenge when you are totally accustomed to

lumber that is straight and flat and has integrity.  

one must go with the flow, and cast all aspirations to perfection aside.

we added some chalkboards and dart holders

the red box below the shelf is held in place with rare earth magnets, and is removable to access a space that will hold the cable box for a nearby, wall mounted tv.  the red leather tab was chriss brainstorm.

and later this week, christina young, the decorative painter on site will add the lettering i 

photoshopped on in the photo above to the top of the cabinet.

last thing we did was add a coat of linseed oil, which made the red pop, 

and gave the cabinet a fantastic warmth.

we hung it up friday, but forgot to take pictures !  

well be back there later this week and well take some then ..

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a moveable wall

we made a rolling wall recently.  never made one before, 

and it turned out to be a really cool object. 

 

 a local gallery, helmholz fine art, in manchester center, vt. had an opening recently in their new location, a wonderful, open space with dramatic high ceilings and lots of light.  similar to my own house, open spaces have, by definition, few walls, so one can run out of places to hang art pretty quickly.

enter the rolling wall.  inspired by a conversation the owner, lisa, had with ramsay gourd, a local architect, she described to me a T shape with wheels that could be moved as shows and artwork change. 

seemed simple at first.  all we had to do was build it in the shop and move it into the gallery 10 miles away.  we started with the short end above, two pieces of ultralight mdf with two pieces of ultra light 1/2" sheetrock .. at 4 x 7, it turned out to be anything but ultralight, and we realized a wall 8 x 7 

would be pretty hard to move out of the shop and into the gallery.

 

so, most of the ultralight was cut away on the cnc before the sheetrock was applied, which 

helped a bit, but it still wasnt all that ultralight when we were finished.

add some trim, some joint compound and paint, and it turned out to be still a pretty substantial object.  we buried some solid wood in one end of the big wall and used four 6" timberlocks to connect the two pieces which allowed them to be disassembled for moving.  trevor made some little pine plugs to cover the connectors on the cnc and we were all set.  the move went pretty smoothly once we figured out that we couldnt attach the wheels til we got the thing together.  below are the cad drawings ...

happy ending.  about 150 square feet of additional, flexible and moveable wall space and

room for many additional paintings on display ...  stop in if youre in manchester.  its next to ben and jerrys, brooks brothers and vineyard vines on route 30.  its a great space filled with great art, and a little of our fine furniture is on display there too ... fine art and ben and jerrys; you cant go wrong there.

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