Remodeling

Because I'm never really satisfied, I decided once again to remodel my main web site . I made a few minor tweaks and I now have something that I believe to be a bit more contemporary and more in line with my work. Now that I've finished remodeling that site,  I have to remodel this blog as well. Well, I suppose that I don't really 'have to', but... The theme that I'm using here now is a temporary one, while I search for something better.

Admittedly though, this is a bit of a side project. The Paradise City Arts Festival in Marlborough is two weeks away and that's followed closely by the CraftNEWYORK show. As usual, I'll be working right up the deadline, hoping to exhibit at least one new piece.

As always, thanks for reading and while I remodel, please pardon my appearance :-)

-Michael

Tarantella

The Completed Tarantella Coffee Table
Dyed Ash & Black Limba
46" Long x 26" wide x 18" Tall

As Always, thanks for reading.

-Michael

Black Limba

The spring craft shows are rapidly approaching and I've begun working on a few new pieces in preparation. The first piece is a coffee table that I'm calling the Tarantella. I'd settled on the physical design for this piece well over a month ago, but I wasn't quite sure what woods to use. I decided that the legs would be black, which for me usually means using ash, and I wanted a top that would contrast well and really make the piece pop. So, earlier this week I headed up to Highland Hardwoods thinking that either Bubinga or Bloodwood would work nicely. I prefer to visit Highland on weekday mornings when it's not particularly crowded and I can take my time to explore their retail warehouse. As I've mentioned in this blog many times in the past, I always find something unexpected and often it follows me home.

As I climbed the stairs on my way towards the 'exotics' on the second floor, I passed a rack of three and four foot long shorts. Zebrawood, Tigerwood and a species that I've never worked with: Black Limba. I pulled a few of the shorts down from the rack and discovered this wood to be  light weight and a pale yellow in color, with wide streaks of dark brown and black in a pattern that makes it appear spalted. On the rack were about a dozen four foot long shorts, a perfect for the coffee table I had in mind, and I spent the next half hour, pulling all of the boards down, lining them up against the wall, and arranging them. It's easy to select planks for a wide top or panel when the wood has long nondescript grain, and the color is fairly consistant. But with a figured wood, it becomes a bit more of a puzzle. The goal after all is to arrange the planks in a sequence that creates a visual harmony. At least that's my goal. It's time consuming, and often frustrating, but selecting the material is at least as important as what you do with it. I finally settled on three planks that I believed would be perfect for the top... but, of course I bought some Bubinga anyway.

Once home, I went through the usual exercise of flattening and smoothing the faces, jointing the edges and glue up. Not much interesting to report there. I will say though that the wood has a similar workability to Poplar. It's light weight, with friendly grain that planes easily. There were a few small worm holes in every plank that I came across, and at first I had planned to fill them, but now that the panel is glued up, I think they'll remain. I like the character that they add. For this piece, each of the four edges of the top are slightly bowed, so after sanding the glued panel smooth, I set about creating these curves. Once I was satisfied that the last of the sanding scratches had been removed, I applied the first coat of finish...

As always, thanks for reading.

Michael

A Larger Odessa

Earlier this fall, I had several requests for a larger version of the Odessa lamp in black as well as cherry. I left the Paradise City show with a few orders for each, and finished a small production run just before leaving for the American Craft Show in NYC. The new larger version stands 72" tall, about 6" taller than the original, and the difference is dramatic. I finally found a break from all of the madness this afternoon and had a chance to photograph the two sizes together.

An Old Drafting table Reimagined

The New Drafting Table - Ash, Acrylic, Aluminum & Upcycled Hardware

It is trendy these days to 'upcycle', and many online storefronts are full of of reimagined-refinished-refurbished pieces that appeal to a vintage-loving, shabby-chic crowd. If you've been following my blog for any amount of time, or even if this is your first time browsing my collection, you probably realize that I'm not into that sort of thing. You will not find a chest made from rough re-cycled barn board in my collection -- I have nothing against it, but it's not my style. I will admit however that for several years, I've been collecting pieces of old furniture that have some element in which I see potential. It could be a nice leather top on an otherwise decrepit table, an oversized brass tray that may someday be the top for a modern sideboard, or  as in this case, a battered old drafting table that has some unique hardware.

The Original Drafting Table

For many years my aunt, an art teacher in NYC, had an old drafting table that she used as a desk in her studio. I remember that studio very well, but it wasn't until the space was being cleared out that I noticed the table. All I had ever seem was the top of it nestled in a corner and surrounded by easels, canvasses, stacks of paper and printing supplies. To be honest, once it was finally revealed, there was nothing spectacular about it. If anything it was a bit of a let down, like the opening of Al Capone's vault. It was oak, and it was ugly.  The only reason that I ended up taking it was that I needed a drafting table, didn't have the time to make one and didn't want to buy one. This is probably the same reason that she had it. So, it consumed space in the corner of my shop for a while, unused, because, as it turned out, I didn't need a drafting table. Well, at least I hadn't bought one.  As it sat there, though, I began to notice the hardware - the cast iron hand wheels, threaded rod and a some interesting cast parts holding it all together. These were used to raise, lower and tilt the top in a crude but effective manner.


While I had no use for a drafting table for the purposes of drafting, I decided that I did need some kind of desk that I could break down and bring with me to shows. And, if I was going to be exhibiting Rocket Age Lighting, I needed something with a mid-century feel. With the Paradise City show literally five days away, the pressure was on to design and make something - and do it quickly. With the deadline looming, I broke down the old drafting table, discarded everything but the hardware and spent about an hour bead-blasting the parts in my sandblasting cabinet. The hand wheels were less than stellar, as the casting were really rough, but after a bit of sanding and buffing they looked great. Well, not necessarily great, but they had that worn, but cared for look that I wanted. Ultimately, I sprayed all of the cast parts flat black, including the hubs of the wheels, but I left the rims a natural satin.

As I was working on refinishing the hardware, the rest of the table began to take shape in my mind. This turned into a 'design-as-you-go' project, but the original piece offered a lot of guidance, and I decided to use the hardware exactly as it had been used in the original desk. I knew from the start the piece would be black, and I had a load of ash, so that was settled. All that really remained was to decide what to do about a top.  I had just finished a production run of Cyclone lamps, which use acrylic cylinders as a substrate for the shoji paper, so acrylic naturally came to mind... I finished this table at 5:30 PM on Thursday afternoon and by mid-afternoon on Friday, it was in my booth at Paradise City.

As always, thanks for reading.

-Michael

Rosewood Console Table - The FInale

The laminated parts were finished with several coats of black tinted WB polyurethane. Once the finish had cured, all that remained was to assemble the piece. The final dimensions of this table are 36" tall x 52" wide x 14" deep.

As always, thanks for reading.

-Michael

Rosewood Console Table - Part 4

Finishing up the curved parts.

One of the finished parts after final sanding 

The two curved parts are joined with a rosewood spline. Here the spline is being test fit.

As always, thanks for reading.

-Michael