ALLIGATOR JUNIPER LIVE EDGE WOOD SLAB TABLE

This is the largest Alligator juniper slab Ive seen. These trees grow very slow due to lack of water in the high desert region. I was told that this tree is approximately 1500 years old.  Dimensions are 78" long and tapering from 52" to 38" wide. After fabricating the table base I let it oxidize then partially sanded the oxidation off and applied a clear coat to give it a re-purposed industrial look. This has been my favorite hard wood to work with so you will see many of my projects crafted out of it.

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a live edge claro walnut slab coffee table

 we finished up another claro walnut slab coffee table last week

polished steel 2" tubing base with some squiggles.  were starting to use the squiggles

 more and more.  people like them and in my opinion, they add fun and lightness to the design.

click the photos to enlarge them ...

the coffee table above is in my own house and that was the inspiration piece for 

the base design the clients finally chose.  we did offer it with the base on the ends as shown

in the cad drawing above, but with the thicker slab, it seemed to feel better

 to have the base under the slab rather than at the ends ... 

i had some fun making the scale model .. a photo of the slab, painted mdf and brass wire

and sam welded up the base .. were waiting for the house to be finished soon to deliver it ... 

more live edge coffee and dining tables at this link

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sometimes we forget live and learn

so, i built this table sometime in 2013 ... the base was from the antiques show at brimfield, mass., and it was pretty cool.  the concept was a round table with a silver dollar inlaid in the center.  it was a busy time, and maybe i wasnt thinking 100% clearly, but anyway, i cut a plank of 1.5" reclaimed oak into four sections and glued them up into a circle without thinking about seasonal movement over time.  it made it through one set of changes, but last summer, it absorbed enough moisture that the weakest joint failed and opened up by about 1/4".  below is an email i sent this morning, and when i finished it i thought, ah, instant blog post  ... cautionary tale here with a happy ending.

click the photos to enlarge them ...



hi nina ...

sorry i didnt get the table fixed for t-day weekend, but it was not a small effort.  ill put the silver dollar back in tomorrow and well be good to go. 

c u soon ..
dan

heres what i did

 we cut the top into four sections and cut veneers off the bottom and top so that it will still look the same.  i wasnt thinking things through the first time.  we made the top in the winter, and when the table absorbed ambient moisture from the air in the summer, the planks got enough wider that the outside circumference was too short, which is what caused the weakest joint to open up.  using veneers will prevent that .. 

should have thought of that, but hey, live and learn.

 

 so we had the 8 pieces of veneer and the cores

 

  and then we cut the edges off the cores and joined them to an mdf top

rejoined the veneers

and glued them back on, one at a time ... then after a little sanding and refinishing,

 once i get the silver $ back in there itll be good to go ...

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a live edge coffee table

we delivered another nice claro wlanut slab coffee table this week.  the slab is one of a pair we bought back in january, specifically for this project, and in the meantime, sold the other one to another client who just happened to be looking for a small dining table exactly the size of the other slab.  

sometimes you just get lucky.  clcik the photos to enlarge them.

so here it is, onsite friday morning .. a cloudy day, but still a warm object with a little light.

at one point, i considered straightening the flair, but decided to not even ask .. the

live edge was just too nice ..

the base design is one we have used before in flat, 1/2" steel, but the tubing is a little more refined.

we added our dark bronze patina to the natural, polished steel.

 earlier in the process, i took the base to the clients home nearby with a piece of half inch mdf cut the to same size and shape as the actual slab.  i then took a couple photos ...

 and then, with a little creative photoshopping, added a photo of the the sister slab from the table below, which by that time was already finished and shipped.  this mockup helped the clients visualize the

finished table in their space .. it took a minute,  but was well worth the effort.  compare this photo with the onsite photo at the top and you can get a handle on the power of photoshop.

all for now.  enjoy your sunday ...

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ALLIGATOR JUNIPER L COFFEE TABLE

Most of the work on this table you"ll never see. I used 3/4" all thread to us as clamps during gluing and I left them in for overall support. I then filled in the channels with clear epoxy.

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just a thought about Popeye by Jeff Koons

from todays new york times ... here, let me read the caption for you ...

  this stainless steel "popeye" by jeff koons is expected to draw 

$25 million when sothebys auctions it next month.

 

hmmmm .. after a really busy week at the shop, i found this article hit me kind of the wrong way.  i have an idea for whoever is the runner up bidder at the sothebys auction.  why dont you take the $24,950,000. you didnt spend on this rather questionable piece of art and pick 20 artists whose work you really like (do you really like popeye $25 million worth?) and give em each a million bucks to make you some stuff.  give em a year or two to do it.  then, when all that stuff is all done, you can decide which of those five artists did the best job, and divvy up the other $4,950,000. among the five of them.  i bet youll be a lot happier in the long run.  maybe you wont be able to flip the stuff in 10 years for $50,000,000., but you will have quite an experience; you will have validated some serious artists, and, in the end, will have acquired a small museums worth of stuff with a good story attached to it.  hey.  take a shot.  maybe one of the 20 you pick will be the next hot ticket.  wouldnt that somehow be more interesting?

end of rant ...

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black friday sale !! goods to go right now

i thought this year i would try to keep up with the big guys by instituting 

a black friday sale of the furniture featured in our virtual gallery. the photos

above are just a few of the items available for immediate shipping.

click the link above to see larger photos and pricing information.

it is a sale, and prices are somewhat negotiable ... 

 

email  dan@dorsetcustomfurniture.com

or call us at 802-867-5541

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL !!!

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a live edge claro walnut table

well, here we have a classic before and after ... above is the before, 

obviously, and below, we have the afters.

its a nice slab with wonderful color and figure.  

click the photos to enlarge them

and a hefty 2.75" thickness now that it is smoothed and ready to ship

 

here, trevor is checking out and studying the cracks, which the client has requested that we fill.

and sometimes you just have to work on the table ...

here hes belt sanding the filled areas prior to hand scraping 

and sanding the entire top of the slab,

 

the defects were smallish, but still required some small pieces of added wood to make the fill convincing.

 nicely done trevor

the base pieces, fresh from the waterjet ...

 
here jim finishes the drilling the steel base parts prior to assembling and installing them into the routed recesses in the bottom of the slab

ta dah ... good to go.

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a claro walnut slab headboard bed

we finished this fun project yesterday for a client in northern vermont ... the headboard is 

a +/- 48 x 100" slab of claro walnut.  the design is based on the bed below

 that we made a few years ago for a client in florida.

we started, as usual with a cad drawing and a mockup .. click the photos to enlarge them ..

the client accepted the concept and we were on our way ..

in this photo, weve got the plywood box for the platform and the ventilated ply tops cut. 

in the end, we cover the ply boxes with dark stained walnut and edge the plywood with the same material ... in this photo we are locating the boxes prior to drilling holes in the slab for the carriage bolts that secure the boxes to the slab.

the boxes were cut from continuous pieces of claro so that the mitered grain of the boxes matched as it went around the corners.  they looked really slick ..

we added our custom cast patinated brass diamond pulls to the drawers and we were good to go.

the slab will be hung on the wall at the clients home using the same system of french cleats that we used on the first bed .. heres a link to that blog post where you can see how that works ..

photographing projects like these is always a challenge due to their size, but with a little photoshopping to remove the background clutter, you can get an acceptable record image.  

not quite like the recent photo in the times of a new york city bed.  that one has a new york city price on it too.our version is a bit less in price.  neither of these are original ideas.  i had a client/friend visit the shop yesterday, and his parents had an (according to him) identical bed, only with a glued up rather than one piece headboard.  he remembered them having it in the 60s at least, maybe earlier. 

recylce, reuse ...

for more images of our claro walnut and other furniture please 

see the slide shows in the previous blog post ..

note below from the client enclosed with the final payment ...

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