The sound of spring is in the air

No crocuses yet, but just look at these two.

Unexpected guest

This little cutie stopped by the shop today. This morning she took a piece of bread from my hand and started eating. Here she is having lunch by my feet while I draw. Her whole body would fit inside of a ping-pong ball.

Morrigan took this shot. She concluded that it's a girl and named her Ginkgo. Let's hope that Ginkgo enjoys our hospitality enough to stay around.

next project, please

This is my version of chop-and-drop. The rolling office chair is slightly lower than my horses. It catches the weight of the offcut so my free hand can easily brace to give a clean finish to the cut.

The bottom length is 32" long, all from 12/4 ash.

After resawing, the first pile became this pile, plus the 3 laminates, glued-up in the form. It's satisfying to be able to re-use a form. This one was first used to shape the aprons for a 40" diameter, circular table.

The laminates will become the curved backrest for a rocker. This one is in white oak.The next version is in ash. I'll have it done in time to be shown in my booth at the CRAFTBOSTON show, March 27th - 29th. More at www.craftboston.org.

home stretch

Dry fit to see how the struts fit in. Ash legs, shagbark hickory horizontals, ebony pins. This view gives you more information than when its Danish cord seat is added. It makes me want to redesign a bit and try it as a coffee table with a glass top. 

This angle gives you a better view of the shape of the struts. That's our friend Riley in the back.

Riley in his winter coat. He's looking right at you, it's just hard to tell.

Here it is, glued-up with a coat of tung oil, 50/50 mix with citrus thinner. Just a sealer coat, prior to having the seat done. I love this piece but I especially like the low sunlight and the driveway with it's missing thick coating of ice. Living near the coast, we're often blessed with those snow storms that later turn to rain and then ice. 

It's all been done before

It all started here while wondering how many people have used the back-side of their bench hook as a cutting board?

I have mattboard around because I use it for my portfolio at shows. I got the idea for this set-up from Gregg Lipton. You can barely see that the cherry sticks are held in their dados by a small, counter-sunk steel screw.

I use leftovers as cauls. They are so light that they often stay in place using just one piece of drafting tape to hold. I don't use it with heavy bar clamps but these k-bodies have never dented and give me plenty of pressure.

This 5 foot long bench will be juried next week as my submission for the 2009 Furniture Masters' auction. This is the first dry fit for the rungs on both ends. I can now take an inside measurement to get the interior length of my cross-struts. Off I go.

van bouquet

Here's the full image of the photo in the header. I keep a cut-off, plastic water bottle in my van and gather wild flowers as I travel. This one is from a trip that my daughter, Morrigan, and I took last summer to Bar Harbor.