New Bench Project

With the Marin Art Festival coming up fast, I wanted to create a new piece to show at the festival. Ive had a couple of matched walnut slabs from an orchard near San Juan Bautista for a few years, and have thought from time to time that they would make a great bench. So, this seemed like the time to get off the stick and make that happen. Im going to keep the slabs in as raw a form as possible, in other words, not hiding the worm holes and checks. To counterpoint that roughness, and give the piece a little sophistication, Im going to use wenge for the sculpted leg structures. Although I wouldnt be so bold as to suggest that my work is at their level, I think of this as a sort of a Kagan meets Nakashima design. Hopefully, I can get it done in time!

Heres a picture of the slabs and the leg blanks. You can see the final leg form from the plywood template. The slabs will be attached to the flat seat and back surfaces. Notice the great colors in the slabs that have been preserved by letting them air dry, rather than kiln drying. The only down side to air drying is that the moisture content of these pieces is only down to about 9%, which is a little high for furniture. So, Im going to have to design joinery that will allow for extra movement.

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New Work by Boykin Pearce

Kimono Buffet 

For more of Dave Boykins work, please visit his gallery
http://www.finewoodartists.com/gallery/boykin/dave_boykin.htm

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New Work by Craig Thibodeau

Two new pieces by Fine Wood Artist member Craig Thibodeau a cabinet and a table, both feature marquetry but in two different styles.

More on of Craigs work can be found in his gallery.

Oak  Leaves and Acorns Cabinet

Size: 33" high by 14" deep by 31" wide
Materials: Claro Walnut, Curly Maple, Birds Eye Maple, Abalone, and various marquetry woods.

Another cabinet in my fall colors marquetry theme, this one featuring White Oak leaves and acorns on a Curly Maple background. The marquetry once again focuses primarily on natural wood tones for the contrasting leaf colors but I did add a bit of dyed green Poplar for the acorns and a few leaves. The acorns also have a small amount of sand shading to help enhance the depth of the acorn and cap pieces. The interior of this cabinet is veneered in very heavily figured Birds Eye Maple and has a small area of Abalone inlay for accent. The handles are once again integrated into the doors and the cabinet is finished with satin Lacquer.

Tulip Table

Size: 84" long by 44" wide by 30" high
Materials: Curly Anigre, Ash Burl, Anigre, Ebony, and various marquetry woods

A large elliptical dining table veneered with Curly Anigre, it has marquetry imagery of two red Tulips on a background of Ash burl bordered by dark green and white squares highlighted with thin Ebony inlay. The base is composed of several bent laminations finished with satin black Conversion Varnish. The table was designed for a client with strong interest in the Ottoman Empire so the Tulip marquetry drawings were based roughly on artwork of Tulips we found from that era.

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New Work Dale Larson

Some new pieces by Fine Wood Artists member Dale Larson.

For more, visit his gallery
http://www.finewoodartists.com/gallery/larson/dale_larson.htm

Spheres.

Turned Bowls.

photos by Dan Kvitka.

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New Project A Leggy Console Table

My newest commission is an entry console table that features swoopy, sculptured legs and two curvy drawers for small items like keys and such.

Complex legs like these start with a paper pattern printed full-scale from the computer model. The patterns are placed on the plywood template material such that the mating edges of the parts line up with the straight-and-square milled plywood edges.

Once theyre rough milled on the bandsaw, theyre smoothed and faired by hand with rasps and sandpaper.

The parts are then laid out on the rough lumber to take best advantage of grain.

Once theyre rough milled, again on the bandsaw, the mating edges are trimmed straight using a straight-edge saw guide.

After the mating faces are established, dadoes are cut across them to form bridle joints.

The next step is to trim them to exactly match the templates using the router table. In a design like this, with highly curved parts that meet at variable angles its important to leave flat ears to act as clamping aids.

The next step is to mill and attach the contrasting feet. To create a pleasing look, its important to maintain a continuous grain flow from leg to foot. With legs that are square in cross-section, structural integrity can be maintained by creating the foot by just veneering the bottom of the leg. But with curved legs that are rounded in cross-section its much easier to simply attach a solid foot to the leg that can be shaped and smoothed with impunity. Because the joint between feet and legs in this situation is, by necessity, an end-grain to end-grain joint, it has very little structural integrity. Therefore I always support this type of joint with a mechanical fastener, aka, a screw. Once the pre-drilled foot is glued in place, a pilot hole is drilled into the leg and the screw inserted.

Once the foot is attached, the leg can be tapered and rounded. Because the tapered legs change in thickness along their length, the radius of the edges has to change, as well. To make this easier, I use several round-over router bits of increasing radius as I move up the leg. This makes creating a consistently changing edge profile a snap.

Here are the four back leg pieces dry fit together. You can see the floating bridle tenon that connects all four pieces, as well as the positions of the clamping ears at critical points.

Then its just a matter of gluing it all up.

After the back leg sub-assembly has dried, the clamping ears are removed and the final fairing completed.

Et voilá, the assembled base.

Stay tuned for more as the piece progresses.

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