Wednesday, February 14, 2024

lots going on ...

 lots going on so far this year .. 
we've got four projects wrapping up now.
one of them left for California yesterday and the 
live edge table left yesterday morning.
one of our classic mid century modern tables ... more of them here
the cad drawing

before the finish ... finished photo coming soon ...
 
next up, a claro slab table with one of our classic steel bases
the bases are 1.5" thick steel, cut on a waterjet ...
  
the bottom needed some work and some steel reinforcement.

and the base pieces were ground, polished and patinated 
with a birchwood casey gun blue/black
the top had some cracks and we added some butterflies and epoxy fill ..

the slab on the goodhope website
and today we delivered three more chairs to our long time friends
we made four for them in our two different styles
back in november  ...
hats off to kristian here !
they are 'thinking about' a new table in the future  
 
and below we are working on a reclaimed chestnut desk
for a long time local client ..

there is nothing easy about this one ..

 

we are using a 'stain, red paint, black paint finish that we 
often use on our painted windsor chairs
the two board sapele top will be a sanded version of that formula

next up ... a  bed with a live edge headboard ... 
off to visit with the clients tomorrow ... more after that ..  
a photoshopped mockup here
site visit today, drawings tomorrow ...

Monday, January 1, 2024

anniversaries !

so, 2024 is here! 
time to reflect  a little.
 
except for a few health issues like a burst appendix for Sam,
who was out for 9 weeks, and a broken collar bone for Luke,
it was a pretty good year !
 
my carpentry job ended december 31st 1979,
and as of today, i am starting my 45th year of custom furniture making.
 i delivered my second piece of commissioned custom 
furniture,  a 'shaker style' desk in november of 1979 ...
native white pine with yellow milk paint
with a leather insert on the fall flap, and two small drawers
and, in november we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary
1973 above and 1971 below ...
we have been living together for 52 years, but 
 
and that was 50 years ago
we first built only the 4 window part on the left in 1974, 
the addition on the right came along in the 80s
 
as a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house, designed in a way that it would
be our shop when we sold our Arlington house.
the move to dorset, gave the boys a choice of two excellent schools.
sam graduated form long trail in 2000, and will chose the target
program at BBA, where he was recently inducted into
the BBA hall of fame for the arts ... so, it was a good move ...
this year will be our 24h year in the 'new' shop
wood shop in the middle, office on the right, and
the building on the left is sam's metal shop which 

and, november marked 16 years of writing this blog ... 
i wrote the first post in october of 2007
 955 posts and as of today 2,174,895 page views ...

i leave you with one further thought
 all the best for 2024 to my clients and readers ...
y'all have a good one ...
dan

Friday, November 24, 2023

black friday sale!

 i hope you all had a good turkey day!
 it is now black friday so i have a few things to post here,
some pristine, some 'lightly used' and with negotiable price tags ...
this one just in the door on monday this week ...
this is a claro walnut slab desk i made for a show a few years back ...
it didn't sell and went to the local arts center where they used it as a reception desk,
with a price tag .. no luck there, and next it went to a local art gallery, also with a price tag,
but no luck there either .. the 40 or 50% commission for the galleries 
i think just made it too tough a sale.  so, i am currently offering it at a
'negotiable, commission free price'
 which due to its light use and my current reluctance to 
totally refinish the slab top i feel is quite reasonable ..
please call me at 802-379-1478 to discuss this piece.
here are a few more shots ..
it has a nice 24" pencil drawer and a secret compartment ...
a generous +/- 42" x 66" with a steel base by Sam.
available for viewing by appointment at the shop most any time now.
 click the photos to enlarge them

+/- 42 x 42 x 16 high

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

a rclaimed chestnut table with self storing leaves

this is another edition of our tables with self storing leaves 
we have made a few different styles using this concept.
above it is upside down with the runner guides shown 
and with the leaves stored under the top    
  
all in, ready to go ...right side up with the leaves in
it is now in stowe, vt with the walnut desk in the previous post
the cad drawing
in the shop with the leaves opened
there is another way to store the leaves that you can see
it is a simpler mechanism, but it depends on the top 'floating'
which is best accomplished on smaller tables
we have used both methods, but the one above,
while more complicated is better suited to larger tables ...

Friday, November 10, 2023

a live edge walnut desk

  
we started with this slab from good hope hardwoods that
the designer selected from their website.
here's the cad drawing
we went back and forth on the finish for a bit, but settled on 
a couple of coats of waterlox, which gave a nice matte finish.
the finished desk below

all in, all done .. i think it was installed by the designer yesterday

Friday, October 13, 2023

some live edge coffee tables from last august

 sam came back from a jobsite yesterday with some pictures 
of  two coffee tables we made last year, but never photographed 
on site because the house wasn't finished when we delivered them,
two big ones!
this one is claro walnut, about 4 and a half feet wide and 6' long ...
in the background there is a set of stairs that sam made the
steel parts for .. there is a two story piece of glass behind them ...
this one is about the same size with a tricky 'waterfall' end that 
kristian executed flawlessly  .. as i remember, 
the miter cut was over 60" wide ... some other photos of
the tables as we worked on them below ..
after it was cut and glued, the miter was reinforced 
with a piece of 2.5" angle iron
 
before the finish
the other end was supported by a sam made steel trapezoid base.
the claro walnut slab had some nice figure!
always nice to see things in their final homes

Thursday, September 28, 2023

a studio style dining table

  
 we got a request recently from a client that i made a cabinet for
'a million years ago' 
actually, it was sometime in the 90s ... 
natural cherry,milk paint and ebony details ...
the client has moved to a new, smaller space and wanted 
a smaller version of the table in the top photo,
which is actually our personal dining table ...
we made this table for a show in 1987, it didn't sell, and 
we moved it into our dining room, replacing a pine table that
i had actually built in the 70s, 
one of my first pieces of furniture back
when i was still a carpenter ...
+/- 36 x 62, black milk paint details, no top inlay
leaving for new jersey shortly