and then it was friday

quite a lot went on this week ... i wasn't sure i was going to make it through all of it, but, in the end, i did ... click the photos to enlarge them ...

will is finishing up a new version of this sideboard we made back around 2004 or 5.  it will be stained and have walnut hand turned pulls.  he's got the top moldings installed now and will be starting the turning and finishing process on monday.

and sam had a busy week, working on some BIG turnbuckles for a local  remodel project

 

and the stratton rails are finished except for some touch up paint on the welds .. complex project.  angles, level changes, drainspouts ... all done now. 

and he welded up a whole new railing job ... straight rail sections plus the stairs ... paint 'em black next week.

and jim's working on some curved benches from some curved planks we have had air drying outside the finish room for at least a couple of years.  (actually they are in that link from 2010 ... finally made a decision.

first we curved the front and back edges of the tapered ash supports, then we burned them with the big torch, and then we swabbed on some red and black oil based paint ... these bookmatched benches will be good for indoors or out .. they are homeless for the moment and looking for a place to live ... price on request.

and trevor finished up the curly maple trestle table with some stain and varnish.  that one will be around until the room where it is going is finished in a couple weeks ... nice color!

and he started a new 11'6" long version of the table above, also from the mid 2000s.

 

roughing out the top made us think of bar shuffleboard .. all we needed was some wax.

the scale was different so we made mdf mockup aprons and a new, 4" square leg sample.

approved by the client ...

and the top is glued up .. nice cherry from our friends at irion lumber.

  and i'm working on my pottery chops, with a new technique of my own devising.

 

i have never had the time to put in to learn to throw shapes like these, so i devised some lathe turned mdf forms. first i roll out a .2" thick slab, then after it is on the form and rough trimmed, i put it on the wheel, add a 'snake' for a foot and throw the foot onto the bottom of the bowl form ... it has allowed me to make shapes that my pottery throwing skills will most likely never be up to, and, i love the 'target' shapes.  i can pretend i'm jasper johns or josef albers for a minute or two ... more on this technique later.

and we're fooling with some new zinc table top concepts, like maybe a 'hammered over' edge on a round top ... it could work .. 

and jim picked up a few items from a temporarily closed gallery in massachusetts ... ready to go and attractively priced for sure.

including this very fine claro slab table ... +/- 44 x 90 ... it has a polished rebar base, but we are open to other options .. call for prices and details on all these former gallery items .. 802-867 5541

   and the last of the ice went out of the pond today with the sunny skies and 50 degree temperatures.  i thin it is finally gonna be spring now ...

custom sideboards and buffets

we have made quite a few different sideboard and buffets in the last 25 years and since we are working with some clients on new sideboard designs, i felt compelled to organize some photos of them here.  the curly maple one above is one of my favorites.  actually, i like the challenge of the sideboard/buffet form, and there's not one shown here that we didn't enjoy designing and building.  the sideboard directly below is from my own home and we have made several variations on that one using our 'studio style' cherry and black design theme.  click the photos to enlarge them.

 

 60" wide x 20 " deep by 34" high.  natural cherry and black milk paint.  1987

there is a blog post on this sideboard/dining room at this link

 a variation on our sideboard circa 1988.  72" long x 20" deep by 34" high
                                  

this one and the one below are similar in design with figured cherry panels and quartersawn cherry edge details.  one with an edge inlay, one without.  one with black details; one all cherry and one with curly maple details and crotch mahogany veneers.  same drawing, different results .. 'take and object; do something to it; do something else to it'.

 ditto here with black painted legs and 'burl and bar' edge inlay.

mahogany and curly maple; crotch mahogany veneer panels ...

a fancy and complex variation on the theme above in cherry and maple burl with subtly curved doors and drawer faces ...

the black walnut bar/sideboard above was a fun project.  mirrors, lights, glass, repeating details ... all fun. there is a pretty long blog post on that one here.

 

and here's a stylish one that accompanied a table with similar design ... we worked the details over carefully with the client and while we we stuck for a label, included it in the realm of 'art deco' though it is strictly 'diane and dan deco'.  an extremely fun project from the early 90's.

here's the table that it went with.  lots and lots of details on that one.  often, the table and sideboard are designed to complement one another and make the room seem to be totally custom.

 

this custom bubinga sideboard was made from the 6 feet we cut off the end of a 20' bubinga plank that we used to make a 14' x 48" wide table that went to princeton, new jersey, next door to the governor's mansion

  i've got a better photo somewhere .. +/- 2002.  dawn of the digital photo age

 

this figured cherry sideboard had a table with it

as did this cherry and maple burl sideboard from +/- 2003.  this sideboard was made from virtually the same drawing as the first, curly maple sideboard in this post.  'take a design, do something to it'

this country style sideboard was one of the first sideboards i made back in the very early 80's...

 and this one, from the early 90's, was an engineering challenge with it's suspended box and turned supporting columns with brass feet, and curly maple veneered doors.  the inside was almost completely drawers on runners that pulled out to store not only silverware and dining room stuff, but also music cds, at the time a semi precious commodity.  times change ... another 'diane and dan deco' project ...

this is not really a sideboard, but it's a cool piece.  it was designed to go against a curved wall, (the 'front' in this photos), but we made the drawers go both ways and they had pulls on the other side too, so it can also be placed at some time in the future, against a straight wall.  multitaking ... and on and on ...

this one is from last spring.  it's 9' long and had to go through the window when it got to new jersey .. oops!  but it made it ... it now has a stone top and you can see the details of its construction in this blog post.

i'll add a few more as time permits and update our progress on the upcoming sideboard below once we get it under way in early december ... all for now ..

    12/2 ... a few more sideboards

 studio style again with cherry and black and ebony and burl details.  the pulls are blackened brass, custom cast for us by horton brasses in pensylvania.

and this piece, while technically not a sideboard per se, has certain sideboard buffet qualities to it.  storage, interest, detail.  'fun with walnut'  ...  blog post here

 a little mahogany 'arts and crafts' thing here ... hardware from stickley.  design by dan and mary

 something tall with a little paint ... this one we designed with the client who wanted a top set of shelves, but also wanted it to be 'light' and wanted it to store a lot of stuff too.  in the foreground are some of our windsor chairs from the mid 80's when we used to make a lot of them ...

 my first sideboard.  1973.   before i even had a house to put it in.  i made it from a book entitled 'fine furniture you can make yourself' and i believe it was by someone named christoforo, but i can't seem to find it at the moment.  it's around here somewhere ... anyway, you can see what happens to a linseed oil finish on pine over the course of almost 40 years.  it gets pretty dark.

 close up