Pecha Kucha Night, 7/18/10 - Portland, Maine

A couple weeks ago, I presented at Pecha Kucha Night, here in Portland at the Rines Auditorium in the newly redesigned Public Library. Volunteer's from Pecha Kucha Portland gave me a video that offers my talk along with the slide show. CustomMade.com picked it up for their blog. This was my 3rd time presenting and this one worked pretty well. The story seems to hold the pictures together.

New Location

I'll deliver this chest tomorrow. It's going to Pretty Marsh, here in Maine. A long drive but it is beautiful.

The commission for this cherry blanket chest grew out of my article in Fine Woodworking, issue #203. I changed the shape of the battens and the ends of the lid. I'll continue posting here. Please join to watch the daily developments in my shop.

Beauty shots

Here's a shot of the finished piece on a nice grey background.

I chose this shot for my next batch of postcards, due to arrive within the week.

boxseat

I chose to do 3 coats of Tavern Green milk paint, topped by 2 coats of Minwax wipe on poly. The milk paint is pretty forgiving. 3 coats, with sanding between each, still lets a little bit of the poplar show through.

Using 3mm braided hemp cord for a woven seat is a bit of an experiment. I found examples of it being used in 2 German chairs. This is a standard Danish cord pattern with L-shaped nails to catch the loop.

box + seat = boxseat

Here's one from the backside. I'm almost out of postcards and would like to use one of these last 2 angles for the next batch. I haven't decided which one is the winner.

Getting close

The frame and panel top is glued-up and I profiled its edge and the edge of the frame. The blue tape protects the legs as I hand sand the frame edge.

The rounded edges help the frame and top in relating to the legs. I like how this is coming together.

End of the Day

The legs and rungs are glued together and into the frame. The small off-cut from the through tenon is on the floor. I used a white oak wedge with the white oak legs. The endgrain is enjoyable.

The sizes of the components seem to relate well to one another. The frame is 60" long, to fit at the end of a queen sized bed. This was the last photo of the day.

Progress

This is where I was 2 days ago. I had just finished making the parts for the frame and panel top and had to see how it all worked together. Just the box is glued-up at this point.

The rungs fit into stepped mortises. They enter the leg cleanly and bear against a small internal shoulder. Very tidy.

This is a test to figure out the hole size for the threaded brass inserts that go into the bottom of the box. The poplar box will be held to the frame by bolts that fasten to these inserts. This system allows the box to be easily reversed so that the seat can be to the left or the right of the box. This choice might become pertinent once the piece is where it will live. It is definitely worth buying the dedicated driver that fits these inserts.

It still amazes me when holes in one piece line up with their receiving hardware. With the box successfully attached, I can move on to connecting the legs to the frame. It is getting closer to being a piece of furniture. Once it can function, it's there.

Latest Piece

Here are a couple clam stools; 16" high, white oak seats with green milk paint legs, the approximate color scheme for my next piece.

For the past few weeks, I've been making poplar props as illustrations for Blanket Chests, the book that Scott Gibson and I are working on for the Taunton Press. Some of the props will be part of my next piece.

I plan on a woven hemp seat that will pass through these grooves. I am curious about the best round over radii to protect the cord and offer maximum seat comfort.

Here's a sketch with my sample corner. I'll use through wedged tenons to join the legs to the frame. The asymmetrical, simplicity of this piece appeals to me. This one is built to fit the foot of a queen-sized bed. It will have 2 interior, sliding, dovetailed, 4" deep poplar trays.