three weeks in the life of dorset custom furniture

there was a book i read in college that i sort of remember, called 'one Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'.  it was by alexander solzhenytsin, and i remember it being a long one, kind of like this post is going to be.  the hero was 'a common carpenter' unjustly imprisoned in a soviet labor camp ... we, on the other hand, are just 'common funriture makers', getting through the last three very busy weeks. 

 somebody turned loose the shoppers.  in addition to the 4 or 5 jobs we typically have in the works at a time, we had a flood of small jobs going on and many requests for new designs and price quotes.  some of those turned into new work, some not, but they sure kept me busy.  so, rather than detail all these projects individually, i'm going go through them all in one post right here, right now.  click the photos to enlarge them .. here goes.

this one's been in the works for a couple weeks ... the clients' house is local, but they don't live here full time, so we had to wait for them to come up for the weekend to try the mockup in their living room.

after photographing the mockup, i photoshopped a photo of the top of this table 
on to the mockup top as it was made from a slab from the same log.

the real thing is now almost ready for finish.

and we had a cutoff from another big slab that we made into a bench/side table above.  

this one is for sale and ready to go at the drop of a hat ... +/- 18 x 26 x 18 high.
call me at 802-867-5541 for detaIls

and we also did a little filling and sanding on this slab. +/- 36 x 80 ), it's also available and would 

make a nice desk, large coffee table, or small dining table .. no reasonable offers or ideas refused .

first coat of finish only .. it's the log mate to this headboard ..

 around the first of the month we installed some large steel turnbuckles that sam made for our kitchen clients from last summer.  they were an afterthought to fill up some of the high open space and it was quite a project to install them in the finished room.  here are some others that he made previously.  view the pictures there to get a sense of their scale

they did look great as an architectural detail when they were up  ..

and while we were there, we got to see the finished vanity from last summer.  

it now has all its hardware, marble and lights now, and is looking pretty sharp ..

and sam completed one new beltbuckle design for a friend, and quickly sold four others without even trying. the four would have made a great picture, but came and went so fast i missed them.
the original in the photo above was not quite finished at photo time.

 will shipped out another vermont banjo, banjo number 26 for him  ...

all vermont wood and inlay details

chris completed one of the more challenging chair projects to come through the shop lately.  

it involved copying a family chair for a friend's sister ...

certainly a challenge, and chris did a great job with it ..

it's at the upholsterer's now, and it should be ready next week sometime.  gold star for this one.

and now he is involved in retro fitting a big shaker cabinet we made in 2006.
we're adding a  case with four drawers that has to be removable to access the valves
for the radiant heat that are in the wall behind the cabinet.

the original piece is 10 feet wide and 8.5 feet high

 on a personal note, i'm still working on my pottery .. i'm gonna fire the kiln tomorrow.

and we had time for some cards with old friends (long time friends, not really old friends, though we are all getting up there).  the gentleman on the left hired me for my first bartending job in vermont in 1971 and we've all been friends ever since.  his wife, mary rita, across the table from kit, 

is my favorite mixed doubles paddle tennis partner.

and while i'm on the subject of paddle tennis, in the opening round of the mixed doubles championship last weekend, my friend linda and i were defeated by the father/daughter team on the left. they later made it to the finals where they were barely beaten by my friend mary rita, above and her partner paul, who is one of the top mens players. mary rita is on the winner board for either/both womens and mixed doubles championships for the last 10 years or so

 linda and i lost in the finals of the consolation round, but in my mind we we won the informal award for 'highest combined team age'. we lost to susan and jonathan, who is will's age.  we had about 50 years on them, so the fact that we made it through the day still standing was a victory for me.  it's a fast sport.

and it is still definitely still winter here, though it's headed for 50 degrees today

depressing thursday morning...

hopeful, thursday afternoon

 we're also working on a few more projects for the hill farm

we made an old butter churn into a cocktail table with a steel top for the pool room .. 

had to add some sand for weight and levelers for feet .. cool object.

and we're making a fourteen foot mirror for the dining room there

and a cabinet for the dart board.  i hope to finish that this week.

and some barn board picture frames


and we're restoring a cool empire bureau and talking about bar stools

and yesterday a new claro walnut slab arrived ..

it's gonna, in the end, be about 48 x 96 after it's trimmed

wrestled it into the shop with six people and the forearm forklifts

and this week, we completed the rebuild of the spindle on the cnc router.  8 years since it was new,
and it's good as new again now ..

will cut this 1/2" high nameplate with it.  he has finished #26, but this is plate for #23,
which he skipped and is working on now
see more banjos here now

 and sam has several railing projects in the works.  these should go in next week sometime.

and i'm starting today with a clean slate for monday .. all or now. long one ...

summer 2013

well, ok,  this is gonna take a minute ... loyal readers might think that since i haven't posted many new projects lately, that not much has been happening.  they would be wrong.  it's summer, and there is more going on at dorset custom furniture now than there has been for, literally, years.   lots of projects in the works, on the board and committed, and in the design stage.  i'm thinking that maybe this time it's for real, that the economy is finally rebounding, though i have been fooled several times in the last few years.  cautious optimism creeps in ... click the photos to enlarge them ... 

 the kitchen we started back in may is slowly getting finished ... we're on the home stretch, and the painters have taken over now .. here are a few progress shots, the last being from wednesday, the third.

 

we've got a little cornice work, and some pantry pullouts to construct and then we put it all back together when the paint is done and the appliances arrive ... 

 it's starting to look like the model ..

 next up on that project is a nice 8' x 8' master bath vanity, again painted.  this is an early elevation that has since been revised.

this is the inspiration photo, with notes  ...

we made the round corners and the main drawer box on tuesday and we'll be assembling the rest of the boxes later next week.

saw it, plane it, sand it ...

 lots of parts to this project .. two other interesting vanities ...

 this one in reclaimed barnboards, with their original, exterior texture intact ...

and some unusual corner shelves involving a hand hewn beam salvaged from the restoration process and some 3" thick torsion box shelves to fill the notches in the beam that were formerly occupied by the floor joists ..

 plan view

 above is the cardboard mockup, with some assorted door frames ... it's a busy site

and for the same builder, on a different project, we're going to get to do a slightly smaller, 8' version of this 10' cherry shaker style wall piece we did back in 2006, in the same house .. it'll be old home days .. 

 and sam's busy in the metal shop .. working on some new railings for the dorset church ..

  there will be a nice handrail and some forged scrolly things .. more on that later ..

 he is finishing up a couple more steel lounge chairs for a landgrove client, and we've got 3 or 4 more steel and wood furniture pieces on the board ... coffee tables, two dining tables ... i just noticed a couple sections of recently completed railings in the background of this photo ..  and so it goes ...

and will's off to west virginia for next week to take an instrument repair course with bob smakula ... in the near future, he's intending to really focus on his banjo business and see where that goes.  banjo, i think, #17, above.  cocobolo and brass, fretless .. cherry and walnut neck and pot ... more info on will's banjos at seedersinstruments.com

 and, weather permitting, which lately we certainly can't guarantee around here, we'll be having some walls for the new metal shop.  drawings are finalized, windows are ordered, used slate has been purchased ... it's all good.  but did i mention the tropical  monsoons we have been having here in vermont?  like clockwork, most afternoons we're getting an inch or so of fresh rain daily and it's supposed to be 90+ degrees again today.  sam's backyard trout stream is running at 10 times its typical cubic feet per minute for this time of year.  ten times its typical july flow, i said.  blown out, is, i believe, the term.

walls monday ...