a railing for a tansu stair cabinet

chris and i installed the railings today. all in, all done, as they say.  

i am happy to cross that one off the to do list.  we made some other stuff

 in the room there, like the mantle with burl and abalone detials, and the coffee table.  you can even see some of jims (aka mr. lucky) carved glass work from the 80s on the coffee table.  nice room.

back in 1989, when we had been at our craft full time for 9 years, we built this sweet tansu stair cabinet, based on a postcard my clients had picked up in a hotel in japan or china, i forget which.  anyway, id already made them a bunch of stuff, and in this spot, they had one of those slightly treacherous 60s era welded steel spiral stairways, and a desire for a place to hide the stereo.  the stereo went behind the double doors, and originally, i think, the speakers went behind the single doors.  that was fine for, oh, 24 years, until grandchildren came on the scene .. time for a railing ... click the photos to enlarge them.

we did a little photoshop work, talked about different combinations of wood and metal ..

and finally made a plan.

chris and i made some poplar temporary posts and took some cardboard to the house and made some rough templates and notes on fitting the posts to the treads and figured out how to attach them.  luckily, there were all those drawers we could remove and we just screwed into the half lapped posts from inside the casework .. a true no brainer.

we were able to translate that information into cad drawings from which we made the real cherry posts and rough templates on the cnc.  we took those back to the site and installed the cherry posts, took some more notes, and turned those notes into cad drawings and the templates below that sam could weld the actual railings together on.

we hand shaped the top caps to mimic the original handraill and fitted them to the railings in the shop.  today, it all fit and we bolted them in place to make a surprisingly rigid assembly up to code and ready for kids.

it all fit like a glove, and in the background you can see the end volute of the original hand carved handrail.  this was a satisfying project, and a nice visit with an old friend.  good job sam and chris !!!

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its that time again open studio weekend

ok, we have been doing open studio pretty much since the beginning, and this is the 22nd year that this event has taken place.  this year there are over 230 vermont artists and craftsfolks who will be cleaning their workspaces friday and emailing their neighbors to stop by this weekend.  as usual, well be open saturday and sunday from 10 to 5.  it looks like we could get some rain, which could be good, could be bad.  you never know.  if you havent seen sams new metal shop, this weekend would be a good time.  hell be fishing on the rapid river in maine for the weekend, but kit or will or i will be happy to show you around.  kit will have her jewelery on display, and will will we be there at least in the afternoons to talk banjos.  come by if you can.  

below are some links and photos from my earlier blog posts.

open studio 2013

open studio 2012

open studio 2011

open studio 2010

open studio 2009

open studio 2008

 look for the yellow signs !!

 ill have a few small pieces for sale

 and the shop will be pretty clean 

unlike the 2010 open studio, mr. lucky will not be in attendance this year

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so it finaly feels like spring

the employee lounge opened yesterday, overlooking the pond below ... no banjo music, but the wood frogs were pretty good .. below is my first blogger video i wont know how it works until i post this so well see if adding videos is something we can work on in the future.

wood frogs croaking video link here

wood frogs are pretty interesting little creatures. they live only in vernal, or fishless ponds,

and can tolerate being frozen solid in the winter ... me too, but just barely anymore.

and the pheobes are back,  flitting around their usual nesting spots

very entertaining little birds

raked up in front of the shop yesterday .. still a little snow from the plow, 

but it should be gone after this weekend

kit is working on the wood pile.  fortunately for me, she calls it her workout, 

and i have participated only sporadically so far. 

and the laundry is on the line.  i even thought briefly about an outdoor shower ..

and after a long cold winter, well be heading out for the mail with the top down shortly.
its gonna be 70 here today.

fish are out in the pond

the raised beds and the asparagus patch are bare ...

and the fog was lovely this morning, and
it was the first day there was no snow visible from the upstairs windows

what a difference a week makes

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spring !

bout time .. sheesh!  .. its been a long winter, and while the tide is definitely turning, i think i was the only one on the golf course today in shorts.  the temperature made it into the 50s, but there was a pretty good wind and that kept the sweaters (and some light parkas) on.  

but, the ducks are back.  they showed up yesterday, and i think its their latest first appearance

in the 18 years we have lived here.  some years they show up in march.

other good stuff is happening too.  the goldfish are all happy and the pump and filter has cleaned the sludge out of their winter water.  crystal clear now .. click the photos to enlarge them.

mr. bear came by thursday night and made a new sculpture out of the bird feeder.  mr. squirrel thinks he can get up the pole now that its on a slope and his persistence in trying was both impressive and hysterical.  an excellent example of the fail.

and on the other side of the house, three baby squirrels were out an practicing going up and down the tree.  they never actually left the tree, but they got down to about 2 feet off the ground, then turned and went back up to momma, who was cracking acorns for them back up top.  i tried to get them all together,  but ran out of patience.  the little guy in the photo above was about half size of his mom.

the wild leeks are up in the ravine above the pond,

and the red trilliums have buds but not flowers quite yet.

the million different kinds of mosses we have (could have a blog post just on them sometime) are greening up

and the snow is pretty much gone except on the mountains and at the ski areas, like stratton mountain in the distance.

new plates in the kiln today

and a friend brought me some sap spout maple for helping him with a project in the shop .. nice!

and we start a new slab headboard king size bed tomorrow ... more photos on that as we progress.

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spring 2014

well here we are again.  happens every year. sometimes early like last year, (4/24), sometimes 

really, really late like this year.  glad its here.  there was a LOT of whining at the end.

and, actually, its only 38 degrees this morning .. it is, however, sunny for now.
click the photos to enlarge them.

,

after 14 years and an empty nest, 20 healthy plants is waaaay too much asparagus.  

fortunately, they are easier to get rid of then zucchini

the wood frogs did their thing in the vernal pond below the shop for a couple days  ..

theres a very short video with good sound at this link.  if youve never

heard them, they are pretty cool sounding.

 theyre hard to get close to, but if you spook them, and then sit still for about
5 or ten minutes, one by one, theyll come back out and start calling.

and this week it was finally time for the annual glowing woods at sunset photo.

from the front porch.  that was tuesday .. all leaves now.

and the crabapple is out

with the leaves open in the background

weve had 3 male ducks loafing on the pond for about 3 weeks now

and were hoping that means well get some baby ducks soon.

the employee lounge is open for lunch

blue sky.  full woodshed. outdoor shower on maybe this week.

orioles in the yard .. kit is watching the male build a nest over the driveway.

hopefully well get some photos once he gets a little further along.  kits backyard bird list last week was pretty impressive ... scarlet tanagers, catbirds, indigo buntings, hermit thrushes,3 kinds of woodpeckers, flickers .. on and on.

and the pheobes, as usual, are nesting on the shop porch.

morning mist on kits pond in the yard

grandmas primroses

crazy rhododendrons

  robins by the air con again .. 3 eggs so far.

piranha trout!  crazy fish that sam caught.  about 18".  never saw teeth like that!

 another nice one!

and yesterday, a first!  a snake in the bushes.  he was about 3 off the ground, 

taking in some spring sunshine .. the neighbors kids thought it was great!

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