so i started vacuum pressing on two coffee tables to form some bendy forms and veneered them with some beautiful wood. walnut burls and figured sweet redgum. very hopeful these are going to be some nice simple pieces. i am down to 2 weeks left and feeling very ready to come home and get caught up on some clay work and finish my last semester at school.

we have our new instructor, Adrian Ferrazutti. dude is so amazingly good and fast. hes an old school skateboarder like me. really enjoy working with him and Brian. The class is picking up some serious steam these last few weeks. everyone is trying new stuff form steambending and bent laminations to free form vacuum bag bending (me). its been a veyr good time.


in my little bit of free time, i decided to make some wooden hand planes based off of some that Adrian had done before. these things are amazing. they fly through the wood like butter. im so in love wth them right now. they came out pretty well too.



i feel like i should be writing more, but im spending so much time making that i get home exhausted. my work should show the amount of time im putting in i think. lol.

the one thing that i always forget to mention about this program is that every monday night we do faculty slide show presentations. these are great ways to learn about influences and see work from some great instructors. We have also done studio visits to a few different woodworkers places. this program has really done a good job of having something for everyone and allowing you to get as much out of the program as you want.

im very ready to come home, but i will so miss it up here. hopefully the coffee tables will be finished by next week.

2nd project...almost over

its hard to believe 5 weeks have already gone by on this piece. loving it for the most part, except for some weird technical issues that have cropped up and been learning opportunities. this has been a pretty amazing experience so far. I saw Rebekah Bogard at Watershed last week and got to meet a ton of other amazing ceramic artists. so many nice sweet people. loved the facility. hear the living quarters left a bit to be desired from some peeps. lol

Had some finishing issues due to trying some ebonizing on my cabinets legs. the type of leather dye i used for it was alcohol based so i ended up having to spray polyurethane on it. not my best finish ever, but ....

my doors came out very nice. knife hinges were a blast to do. having to actually think about hinging is kinda interesting. i still have two interior drawers to do for it, but its coming along nicely.

another week down. so happy here

So it has been busy busy busy. My cabinet is moving along at a quick pace. I feel like i am making very good progression and learning a very good amount. We are doing some machine joinery that i have never tried before that makes me very happy. great joints and beautiful to boot. its a good thing.

This week started poorly though with my back going out. ugh. so lame. and by lame i mean i couldnt walk. serious hitch in my gittup. I visited a massage therapist and had some serious deep tissue work done which fixed me right up. should be good to go again.

I had a few mistakes happen that will turn into as my teachers say a great design opportunity. My teacher Brian turned me on to a new older sculpture artist that i am not sure how i have ever missed. H.C. Westermann. so amazing. love this mans work. he could be my new idol. so irreverent. so wood based. so amazing. so where i need to figure out how to take my work there. I love learning new artists. it really is what makes my world go round.



I am going to see rebekah bogard this week up at watershed which will be nice. she is such an amazing and talented lady. i amde her a clay tool as a little gift. hopefully she enjoys it.

Bench Done/ Cabinet Started

So the finish is all on the bench now. it is baby smooth and beautiful cherry. I used through dovetails to join the main carcass together. The stretcher is done with through wedged tenons. All very strong joints that are also very decorative. This was a great project to get some skills back , learn other new skills, and to learn their method of start to finish design and build.

Heidi came and visited and we hiked up a mountain which made this Florida boy who is used to very flat hikes totally worn out. That being said, the view form up top was amazing. I highly recommend this hike.

The week started with drawings and sketches. Every time we had what we wanted, the instructors sent us back to draw draw draw even more. it was a great exercise in working out the design and concept of a piece. I know, you say furniture has no concept other than to be sat in. You are wrong. After I had the type of piece I wanted to build, I made a full size maquette out of cardboard to work out proportions. i did research on the style of cabinet I wanted to build and made it. When I showed it to my instructors, David told me to flip it and look at the proportions that way just as a playful exercise. What a difference. it made the cabinet seem lighter and more refined.

Next i made a small wooden maquette to 1/5 size to think about joinery, looks, and true proportions. After toying with it a few ways to think about what i was seeing, i went to a technical drawing and cutlist. i drew out the whole cabinet and worked out all o fthe different styles of joinery that i was going to use in this piece. Basically, there is roughly 40 hours just in the design of this piece (there could easily be more, but time restraints take hold at some point. Think about that when buying custom furniture people, and then pay us lots of money, lol.

One of the features that i want to use in the build of my piece are my drawings and carving. I am going to be decorating the interior of my piece with them in either a storyboard style or refined pattern. Not sure how yet, until i build and see the interior. One of my instructors, Brian recommended looking at an artist named Jenna Goldberg because she decorates, draws, and screenprints all over her pieces. So amazing. Love her work. It goes well with the parquetry style that Brian teaches. These are going to be 2 very good influences on me in thinking about pattern, design, and decoration of a piece.

Finally, I had to present my piece to the class and work out any issues that I may have overlooked in the build. What a great exercise this is. David, my teacher, caught a design flaw that i may not have noticed until i was almost done with the cabinet.

Week One or holy crap am i ever gonna get any sleep

So, time for the weekly post a few days late. My internet went out on Sunday when i was planning to post. Thats life in Maine. Its still beautiful weather up here. The locals are complaining about it being warm. Mid-70s is warm to them. I have worked everyday since last Monday when i got here.

Met my class on Monday. Should be a good summer as everyone seems to be very positive type people. My two teachers are Brian Reid and David Upton Brown. They are amazing woodworkers. I hit the jackpot in terms of teachers. Great furniture builders and very good teachers. Both seem to be extremely knowledgable and very attentive to the students. The school is amazing. We are in a separate building with 3 rooms. a benchroom where we each get our own bench and cabinet, the machine room, and the drawing room.

Last week started with hand tool working. Lots and lots of sharpening and maintenance of tools. We then started work on hand cutting joints. Lots of practice joints and ways to work. Fun stuff, but time consuming. i feel like im learning woodworking all over again, with a stronger emphasis on hand tools and less on machines. its a great meditative way to work for sure.

The first week ended with drawing up our plans for a bench ( a very simple project using all hand cut joints as a skill building project). I kept it simple since we only had a week to build it in and there were going to be plenty of lectures during the week taking up work time.



This week started out with a bang. Finish milling up the lumber we rough milled on the weekend, and start building our benches.

The Trip

the tenth anniversary trip en route to Maine is now officially over. Class starts tomorrow and i gotta say i am very ready for it to begin. I want to start building building building.

Our trip started in D.C. after a very long drive. We went out for our anniversary dinner at a restaurant called Citronelle. Holy crap was it amazingly good. It easily goes down as one of the best meals of my life. 10 courses. wine pairings. split pea soup with lump crab cake. soft shell crab. top 5 meal ever for sure.



The next day was basically tourist hell. we tooled all around D.C., seeing everything we could in a one day trip. it was a little bit of an ass kicker, but worth it. great art and historical sights everywhere. We went to the Renwick gallery for their fine art crafts. its amazing the talent that exists in this world.

Monuments, reflection ponds, white house, capital building, congressional library, and supreme court were next with the Hirschorn Gallery and Smithsonian National Art Gallery thrown in the mix.

great dinner with our friend Chris that night, and an early drive over to Baltimore the next morning to see the aquarium and eat crabcakes.

From Baltimore, we drove to Philly immediately hitting Old Town. We did the Philly museum to give out a little Rocky love, followed by the Rodin museum.

Then off to Boston, where i had the best lobster roll ever at Neptune's. I also had the worst meal of my life. Erbaluce was an absolutely terrible restaurant. Just plain bad. don't go. ever.

Countdown Begins...dread and excitement

So,I am 13 days away from starting this trip.

nervousness and excitement creep up in me at the weirdest moments. not looking forward to being away from everyone i know and care about. definitely not looking forward to being away from my wife and animals. I have never lived on my own before, not in 37 years. i have never lived without having an animal to take care of. alone is a weird thing to me. i don't function very well alone, i like having people around me. can we say hello to skype, ichat, and yahooIM thank you very much.

i am so excited though about school. this should be a great way to reenergize my skills as well as learn a ton of new ones. the people i have talked to that have went there have all come away saying amazing things about it. i am so feeling great about woodworking right now.

And Maine in summer. cool days. lobster. beautiful scenery.