sketchbooks the essential tool

ive got a couple projects going on, and one of them is going to go on for a lot longer.  the cleaning the cellar in the shop project i should be able to finish up in another 10 or 12 hours of effort, but the digitizing the sketchbooks project will likely go on for another couple years.  so far i have scanned and saved the highlights to this album from three fairly recent ones. 

 you can scroll through the slideshow at this link.

this is maybe a third of it ...

ive been sketching sporadically since 1980 when i bought betty edwards book drawing on the right side of the brain to learn how to communicate with my clients.  while cleaning the cellar last sunday, i found a fresh box of sketchbooks, likely packed when we moved to dorset from arlington in 1996 containing some drawings from 1988.  the one above is sams, and he would have been 5 and a half in january 88, the date of one of wills first drawings i found below in the same sketchbook.  will would have been 3 and a half then.  fun ...

i wish i could draw like that now .. i have written on this subject before, and i think its an important one.  the hand often is a link to the subconscious.  we sometimes dont know what we will draw until we start, and every sketch is not a winner.  some are though, and it is hard to come up with them if you sit down with the intent to come up with something new.  set that pen or pencil free .. see where it goes ..

click the photos to enlarge them ..

this series of sketches and photos below are just a few highlights from the slideshow

trout desk

duck bed

sometimes new ideas come from existing pieces.  the sideboard and mirror combo are from 1987.  the sketches below from a proposal for a client are from 1988.  

take an object. do something to it.  do something else to it. .... jasper johns

 i leave you with a couple more from sam from 1988 ..

yeah, real fun ...

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a round cherry expanding pedestal table

well, here we go again ... always one of my favorite designs, and were happy to do it again and again.  the one above is from 2003, and it had three 18" leaves.  the one we are making now will be the same, only with just one leaf.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

we started with a cad drawing testing the water for 52 vs 54".  in the end, i sent them a cardboard template via ups and after putting it in the room, they decided on the 54".  ive blogged about a similar table before in this post back in 2013, and a smaller version in mahogany, way back in 2008.  

but here it is again anyway ..

get yourself a nice matched set of curly cherry boards and glue them up ..

and then cut and stack your plywood propeller pieces and veneer the edges and top.  glue up your column pieces with the angles on the top and bottom then too.  

i have a taper jig photo somewhere ... 

and get yourself some equalized table slides from moin hardware

then, if youve got one, cut the half round sections on the cnc, and cut the inlay pockets at the same time .. let me say here that we did not have a cnc in 2003, and we made many, many tables with central inlays without it.  faster now with it though.

start with the borders;  in this case end grain walnut, burl and end grain vertical grain fir, glued up in a log and sliced like baloney ... put some glue on it, drive a headed brad in next to it 

and bend it to press it tightly against the edge of the pocket.

check your fits with some mdf templates

and cut your burl pieces  ... still need to add the edge inlay and do the finishing.  more photos to
follow

home stretch ... in the finishing room now

all in, all done .. couple views below

with the 20" leaf in

 other sizes and variations on the form ... "take an object; do something to it"

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sometimes we copy stuff

occasionally, we are asked to copy existing pieces, often, as in this case, because the original maker is no longer in business, or in the case of antiques, no longer living.  those are basically our two criteria.  we often get inquiries asking "if we can make this" and you can usually google "this" by its title or description and find out if the maker is living and still in business.  no luck on these.  and they looked pretty old.  and they were really comfortable ... the first project was a bench, below, that we made from the original in 2011.

 the original bench came to our shop, and much to our delight, the entire structure was held together with stainless steel threaded rods, clever brass t nuts and elegant hand made brass cyclinder nuts.  so, we had patterns for the legs, with mortises and tenons to copy it.

lots of pieces and some fussy interlocking stuff, but we eventually got it together.  finished nicely with some brush on, soak in, wipe off penofin nantucket mist ... so actually, when the chairs gave up the ghost this year, we still had the original bench disassembled and piled behind the chop saw waiting to be fixed for the employee lounge .. after 4 years we still hadnt gotten around to that.

 

 you can see the original bench patterns in the dark wood in the pile of parts above.

 i thought these would go relatively quickly, but when youve got 88 pieces of wood with intersections and other miscellaneous joinery, and some threaded rods and t nuts to deal with, nothing is ever going to go as quickly as you might think.

but in the end, they are graceful and sturdy, and im sure will be around for a long time. i look forward to seeing them in the clients garden once the snow melts in boston ...

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david smith at the clark

sam and i checked out the new david smith exhibit at the new clark art museum last week.  check out that first link for many images from the remodeled museum .. the clark has been closed for about 2 years and just reopened on  july 4th  .. sam and i went to the guggenheim exhibit back in 2006, which was a tour de force of the smiths incredible output of amazing steel work.  heres a link to images online from that show  he filled the whole main spiral and several side rooms .. an amazing show .. even the catalog was a whopper.  ive got it out again for a review and its a great one ... the catalog is still available, but hang on to your checkbook ..

surprisingly, i was able to find this photo from our visit to the guggenheim in 2006
in my computer.  i think that is australia behind us ... 

it was crazy crowded for a thursday morning at the clark, but we got to see what we went to see and it was all very inspirational

they are big

and they are colorful

and they are well thought out ... in the exhibit, they are set up exactly as 

mr smith had them set up in his meadow at bolton landing.

there were also a few other pieces with a circle theme

and a few of his large, interesting, spray over arranged objectscanvases.

they are all good in their own way ..

and the main collection was intact and only slightly rearranged.  above is the famous alma tadema designed steinway that took a lot of people a long time to create in 2005, 500,000 pianos after steinway made the original in 1887.

but the approach and the reflecting pools are quite striking ..

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a built in cherry desk

well, long time no blog ... 3 weeks at least ... lots going on here at the end of summer, or should i say the beginning of fall.  i turned the heat on in the shop when i left today.  some in the area had a frost on their windshield this morning.  the light is changing, and the foliage is beautiful.  life is good. particularly since we installed this built in cherry desk this afternoon.  chris has been working on it for a few weeks now, and im glad to see it in place in its new home.

click the photos to enlarge them ... 

we started with a drawing and then moved on to the full size mockup below

it is in a bedroom, and the space, while not exactly tight, wanted to not be confining.  hard to tell that on paper so we built the mdf and notched luan mockup, which the clients actually used while we worked on the desk. 

great sun .. great view out the windows ...

the construction was a mix of table joinery and case joinery ...

drawers everywhere .. 10 in total, and chris got a real dovetail workout. 

      

ash boxes with cherry ply bottoms ...

more photos tomorrow when the installation is complete ...

its a short drive, but a beauty of a drive ..

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