The Refined Edge

The maquette...

2009-11-30T22:20:00.008-05:00

As part of the design process I believe in creating a scale model or maquette of the full scale piece or work I am creating.

"A maquette (French word for scale model is a small scale model or rough draft of an unfinished architectural work or a sculpture. It is used to visualize and test shapes and ideas without incurring the cost and effort of producing a full scale product."

I often use maquettes to visualize my design in three dimensions. The maquette also serves to determine if both the proportions and the aesthetic of the piece are correct, which is to say visually appealing. There can be a fair amount of time spent on actually creating the maquette but typically it is of no cost and the benefit is tremendous. I make my maquette from scrap wood and the process becomes one of experimentation. Often the maquette will help identify any issues which can arise in the creation of the larger, full scale piece. Another benefit is to help determine the stability of the full scale piece. The maquette is essentially a scaled down version of the larger work so the inherent characteristics are there but on a smaller level.

The maquette in the photo above began as the base of a hall table I recently designed and created. The orientation of the maquette has the arches of the base in a V-shape. This maquette is based on the final drawings for the hall table. After creating the maquette I realized that I much preferred an inverted orientation. It made more sense to me as the points of the arches could serve as the legs without creating a base as illustrated in the maquette. I also realized that I could easily minimize the number of arches to simply two, one in the front and one in the rear. This updated design also greatly minimized the technical details of creating the hall table.

The original design of the hall table base as illustrated in this maquette is something I would like to pursue at a later date as it is quite intriguing. In conclusion, the process of initially creating a scale model or maquette greatly alleviates any doubts about a design. I can now feel confident pursuing the full scale version that I am on the correct path. In my next post I will show the completed hall table with the modified base...

Design (2)...

2009-11-25T19:07:00.001-05:00

In my previous post I discuss the concept of hatching a design and transferring it to paper. Now I have a sketch on a pad and need to evolve this sketch into an object. At this stage I begin to refine the design, after all it is but a sketch at this point. The sketch now evolves into a drawing with more defined, straight and equidistant lines. This process involves a few iterations and I build from my previous drawing with each of the iterations. This process results in a drawing which closely resembles the wood object I wish to create. Although the shape of the object has been essentially defined, an important component of the design is yet to come. Many of my designs have the type of wood and the grain graphics of the wood as the focal point. I usually begin with the design and then select wood which has interesting graphics. Graphics is another word for grain pattern and the mix of heartwood and sapwood on a board, which can be either pronounced or subdued. I then spend time determining how to incorporate this interesting wood into the predefined design.

On occasion, I instead create a design around a particularly interesting board or set of boards which have exciting, interesting graphics. Basing a design around a particular board or set of boards can be quite challenging, and I like to rise to challenges. I find challenging myself expands my skills and provides me a different outlook on the design process. Instead of a methodical approach, it is instead "material based" for lack of a better set of words.

These are my two approaches to design. The first one involves drawing and refining a design and then acquiring an interesting wood selection for the piece. The second approach involves having wood with interesting graphics and basing a design around this wood. This approach is more of an artistic approach to my craft, whereas the first approach I would say is the craftsman method. They both have their place and serve a purpose. I typically use the artistic approach for speculative work and use the more structured craftsman method for commissions where a design needs to be defined. Once the design is fairly complete and drawings ready, the technical details are determined. These details involve the dimensions of the individual pieces of wood, the joinery involved, is there any alternative media in the piece?

I must say I get excited about finding a board or boards with interesting graphics and colour and creating an object with this wood. This must be the artist in me...

Design...

2009-11-18T21:14:00.005-05:00

When creating either a piece of furniture or a wood object, if not following a pre-determined plan, a design will need to be established. I hardly ever work from plans. The design process typically begins with an idea hatched in my mind and is then transferred to a sketch pad. The idea might have originated from a shape I have seen, the need for a particular object or a furniture piece with certain design criteria, or simply an idea hatched on a whim. The basis of the design process is coming up with a good design. What is it about a design that make it a success? Is it the aesthetics of the piece, the pleasing proportions, the balance of form and function... or all these characteristics combined?

Taking a step back, the aesthetics and pleasing proportions are definitely at the forefront. I'm usually drawn to a piece of furniture or object that stands out with respect to the "look" of the piece. This one characteristic causes me to stop and further examine the piece by trying to understand what has drawn me to this particular design. This analysis aids my design process as I better understand what characteristics of an object or piece of furniture I am drawn to. We all have different styles of furniture that we are drawn to, but the common theme is good design. My favourite style of furniture is modern and contemporary. Typically even an admirer of period styles of furniture will stop at a well-designed modern piece of furniture to further analyze it.

We've all heard the saying that everything has already been discovered or invented. I have even heard of this saying applied to furniture design. After all, we're re-shaping the same objects over and over... adding curves, changing proportions, adding ornamentation, removing the ornamentation, using darker or lighter woods, utilizing curves, replacing curves with straight lines, utilizing thicker or thinner components, etc. It is easy to come to this conclusion, however, I regularly see new pieces of furniture or decorative wood objects that make me sit back and say "wow, that is an interesting, unique design".. or "that is a cool design, I wonder if it's been done before". In light of this, the boundaries of design are limitless, one just needs to think outside the box. Also, I feel that often using pre-existing styles as templates for a new design sometimes handicaps the designer , the designer subconsciously has the existing style in mind and cannot get past it. Sometimes it is better to begin with a clean slate, in my case, hatch an idea then transfer it to pad and pencil and begin to sketch it without being influenced by pre-existing designs.

Mixed media...

2009-11-13T21:05:00.001-05:00

The medium which forms a large percentage of my work has for the longest time been wood, both of the domestic and exotic type. Over the past few months I have begun to explore alternative media such as metal and glass. You can see a few pieces in my portfolio which incorporate metal or both glass and metal. What do I attribute this radical shift to? For the most part, I have entered an exploratory stage in my art. The challenge of working with new media and the associated techniques I need to develop and acquire to be able to use these alternative media excite me. I also like to develop and create a new aesthetic which will be predominately wood but include metal and glass elements to enhance the design. The beauty and curiosity attached to mixed media work is another factor.

I've faced some new challenges with this new mixed media aesthetic and for the most part overcome them, although I continue to learn and develop. Technical considerations such as how to attach metal to wood and how to attach glass to metal have come up, the issue of expansion and contraction is somewhat different with extremely stable material such as metal and glass. Metal and glass don't noticeably expand or contract with environmental changes such as wood does. Another interesting technical issue that has arisen is the lack of compression characteristic of metal. The slots or holes which I use to insert metal components need to be created very precisely for precision fitting. Working with metal also involves slightly different tools and processes, I don't even prepare the metal components in the space I work with wood to not contaminate wood with metal filings.

Once these issues have been overcome, the design possibilities open to me are unlimited. The choice of media I previously created my designs with was somewhat limited to different types of wood; domestic, exotic and figured. Today I can incorporate metal, glass and possibly stone in my work, along with my predominant medium of wood. Throughout history, much art and craft has been designed using mixed media so I am by no means a trend setter here. Artists and artisans of earlier eras had probably also sought to challenge themselves with the addition of different medium to their main material and to appreciate the beauty of mixing wood, metal, glass, stone in a piece of art.

Bauhaus...

2009-11-09T21:31:00.012-05:00

Another influential style from the early part of the 20th century has its origins in Germany. The "Bauhaus style" was developed during the era of the Weimar Republic in Germany. The arts and design community was actively supported in the years following WW I up until 1933 in Germany. It was during this period that the Bauhaus design movement flourished in parallel to the Art Deco movement. It was very avante-garde for it time and incorporated shapes and forms which are fairly modern looking even to this day. As an example, I walked into a local furniture showroom recently and there was a reissue of a Marcel Breuer tubular metal and leather chair on display. This particular chair is iconic in the furniture design world as it set the trend for tubular metal furniture and encouraged the use of tubular steel in many furniture designs.

A fairly well known abstract painter, Wassily Kandinsky, was an art instructor at the school. Walter Gropius founded the school and Mies van der Rhone and Marcel Breuer taught architecture. The Bauhaus developed from the Expressionism of the early Weimar years, 1918- 1919 and transitioned to Constructivism and finally to a architectural emphasis in its later years towards 1933. The school itself evolved during the few years it was in existence in both direction and location. It began as an edgy art and design school but became more mainstream in its latter years and was ultimately dissolved.

Although Bauhaus is today associated with a style of design it was in fact a leading art, craft and design school in its era. In the period from 1919 - 1933 this school was the leading design institute in Germany. The school was comprised of different departments ranging from arts. crafts, metalwork, furniture, design, printing and architecture. These departments combined to form a fairly independent art and design institute which heavily influenced much of the design emanating from Germany throughout this period. Much of the Bauhaus style continues on to this day, influencing a considerable body of design. The Bauhaus derived style of architecture has been very influential in mid-century buildings.

Many of the instructors at the Bauhaus design school emigrated to the US and became architects and professors of architecture in the leading universities of the 1930's through the 1950's. A fascinating period of design and architecture in my opinion...

Furniture design... some background

2009-11-05T21:38:00.007-05:00

One of my favourite topics is furniture design and its evolution. In earlier centuries, furniture was not very common, typically only the aristocracy could indulge in furniture such as chairs,tables and cabinets. The aristocracy of the era would regularly task furniture makers to create ornate chairs, tables and cabinets. The furniture of these early periods was assembled without much consideration for wood expansion and contraction, also known as wood movement. This methodology did not present much of a problem as the buildings of these early years were not heated very much, and inside, outside temperatures and humidity levels were often similar. In later centuries, heated interiors introduced wood movement as a criteria in the furniture making process.

Frame and panel construction was invented in the middle centuries precisely to address this wood movement issue. This technique allowed a solid wood panel to literally float within a wood frame composed of rails and stiles. The solid wood panel could expand and contract on a seasonal basis and not cause any structural failure within the furniture. Using this process of building furniture created many more possibilities for furniture design and its widespread appeal began in earnest. In more recent centuries, furniture also began to become more affordable as more furniture makers flourished and along with this standardized, robust joinery techniques began to appear.

Numerous periods exist over the past centuries and each of these periods had a style or styles associated with them. Additionally, each country had a style of its own within these periods. Similar furniture design principles were adopted by many countries over the different periods. Popular furniture styles which are widely recognized have familiar names such as English Chippendale, German Biedermeier, American Federal and Arts & Crafts, French Art Nouveau, Italian Rococo, etc. To be continued...

Art deco...

2009-11-02T21:00:00.022-05:00

I briefly touch on my interest and fascination with the art deco period in my artist statement. The art deco period of style was probably the most exciting period of design of the 20th century. As with most periods, Art Deco is partly derived from the previous, organic Art Nouveau period and partly to distinguish France as a leading nation for design. The Art Deco name is derived from the "Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs", an event in 1925 Paris showcasing many European designers. There was competition in this era between countries to determine the leading centers of design, and this exposition brought to light some of the leading design movements of the time. Consequently, the art deco style resulted from the predominant style of the exposition. The exhibition reflected contemporary style of the time and popularized the coherent theme which is today regarded as Art Deco.

The Art Deco aesthetic is comprised of many elements and characteristics. Not all elements need to be part of a design, but as few as one or two elements would define a object as Art Deco influenced. Sun rays, geometric forms, curvilinear forms, chevrons, stepped forms, inlay are a few of the elements which define Art Deco style. Art deco became an international design movement quickly moving from country to country. Europe was at the forefront of embracing this movement and the US was on board two or three years later. One of the reasons I find this period fascinating is how Art Deco evolved from the 1920's through to the late 1930's. What began as the earlier Art Deco style later embraced the "streamline" characteristics of the 1930's, Art Deco of this later part of the period had somewhat different design elements than the earlier part of the period. In its later years, Art Deco had become very commercialized and as with other periods of design, a revulsion to the style slowly began and the creation of a new design aesthetic resulted.

I embrace design elements of Art Deco and try to be subtle with minimal ornamentation, simply focusing on the elements which appeal to me from this period of style. There seems to be an ongoing revival of the Art Deco style occurring with more or less popularity in certain decades since the 1960's. I like to work with this style based on its merits, enjoying the fascinating and beautiful aesthetic of this period. When inspired to create Art Deco styled wood art, I incorporate certain Art Deco elements in the piece, deriving my own style in the process.

Inspiration...

2009-10-29T19:01:00.015-04:00

Not to be taken lightly, inspiration is one of the motivating forces behind each artist. As a wood artist, I can completely relate to this notion. You've heard of the term writer's block, well I have often experienced artist's block. Design ideas are not forthcoming, a creative void occurs and sometimes this can last for days. Often I remain focused on a particular design because I've been working with it for a number of days or even weeks. It becomes time to break away, to expose myself to new sources of influence or inspiration. At the very least, not being in the studio often clears the thought process, preparing the mind of new ideas for art forms.

in·spi·ra·tion - an inspiring influence; any stimulus to creative thought or action

What I do in this situation is to seek out inspiration, sometimes from unusual sources. I can either stumble upon inspiration or seek it out. For example since nature can be an excellent inspirational source and it is everywhere around us, I often take a weekend trip to the mountains or simply go hiking. This serves to both clear the mind and also to open my eyes to new shapes and forms. A subtle curve along the surface of a rock ledge, unique shapes of trees, meandering streams, fallen leaves, waterfalls, unusual yet harmonious shapes in nature, curved shapes of polished rocks, all attract my eye. These organic shapes influence my ideas for my designs. Every season brings us new forms and shapes from which to derive art . Often I bring a small pocket-sized sketchpad along with me to draw the outline of an interesting shape or formation I have seen. I have this sketchpad with me more often than not, never sure when I might stumble on to an interesting shape. Another excellent source of design inspiration can be found in the architecture around us. Unusual buildings, bridges, pavilions, monuments and photographs can also serve to provide design ideas in my work. Inspiration can also be derived from every-day items, the shape of a tray, household objects, etc.

From the sketches I then begin to use my imagination as to how a particular shape can evolve into wood art I create. The shape from the sketch can either influence the complete design of the wood art or simply to influence one or two elements of the design. A collage of different elements I have seen can also be instrumental in the creation of a new design or art form. The conclusion to this is that we are surrounded by so much inspiration for design, it is well worth the time and effort to get out and seek new ideas for art forms. The process of taking ourselves away from our studios to seek out inspiration also clears the mind. I feel like I'm recharged after a day or two away from my studio, ready to tackle a new design and create an art form from a shape or image which has inspired me.

Cabinet complete...

2009-04-01T11:30:00.015-04:00

I guess I disappeared for a while, but in reality I've been busy with a multitude of things. I did finally get around to completing the beech cabinet I began a few months ago. There wasn't really much left to do except to design and create the drawer and door pulls. I use a two-tone cocobolo for this and carefully selected each pull from a blank to maximize the heartwood and sapwood graphic. The drawers needed a little more fitting, but the rest was primarily the task of judiciously scraping the exterior and interior of the the cabinet and applying finish. I also installed a brass door catch in the upper portion of the right hand door. The doors can be individually opened and each door reveals a partitioned section of the cabinet. The left side is composed of one drawer while the right side is composed of two drawers. Above each of the drawers is a shelf which is ideal to place art objects. There is also a small space below the left drawer for a smaller art object. The middle partition is purposely only half-height both to provide a separation and to admit light to either side of the cabinet interior.

The inside of the cabinet is kind of sparse, but in my opinion this adds to the beauty, it is after all a display cabinet designed to showcase art objects. The graphics on the front doors immediately bring to mind plumes of fire or smoke to me. The orientation of this cabinet is a departure for me. I typically design cabinets with their height or vertical dimension longer than the width, but this cabinet has it the other way around. I like the proportions of this. An alternate photo of the interior can be seen here:

http://www.refinededge.com/Portfolio-TwinPlumes.htm

The finish is primarily many coats of thinned shellac with a final application of wax. I finally liberated a small part of my shop by completing this. Why is it that the final 10% of a project takes the longest :)

On to my next project(s).

Tapering...

2009-01-30T19:49:00.011-05:00

I am currently shaping some legs for a table. The legs are double-tapered and will be shaped to form a curved outside edge overlapping three facets of the leg. I spent some time measuring and re-measuring the width and depth of the top and bottom of the leg since everything in between leads to these two points. I quite like the shape of tapered legs which provide a larger surface for strength at the joining area towards the top and then taper down to a thinner point at the bottom where strength isn't as much an issue.

In this case I have combined cherry and maple feet to form these particular tapered legs. I work with certain sizes and slope of legs which I have been successful with in the past. The slope is not too dramatic, but more gradual which presents an elegantly shaped leg once I have completed the shaping. I rough out the blanks on the tablesaw and bandsaw , but the handplane is my tool of choice for shaping the legs. I use an variety of handplanes ranging from a block plane to the jointer plane, the jointer plane to maintain the correct and straight taper on each of the leg sides.

I can't begin to explain how joyful it is working these rough blanks to fine, elegantly tapered legs which are smoothed to perfection. It's almost like forming a chunk of rough stone into a fine diamond. As the bandsaw marks disappear and the leg sides become straight, true and square to each other along their taper, it becomes difficult to stop planing :) This is where the regular measuring and comparing enters, since even with pencil lines, these are soon enough planed away and any reference disappears. What I do is use one leg as a template and compare the others against this one.

Next entry I will show the completed, shaped leg.

Pre-processing...

2009-01-18T10:36:00.024-05:00

I like to devote much of the time I spend on a project to the design, wood selection stage and the latter stages , referring to board preparation, joinery and detail work. The intervening part about cutting boards to length and ripping these boards I leave to my machinery. This methodology also allows me to perform a better job of selecting parts of planks with which to incorporate in my project, since the laborious part about slicing and dicing the planks is done with safety and ease. I recently completed a sliding miter saw station to assist me in cross-cutting long, wide planks into more manageable pieces.

In the past, I would, through use of either a handsaw or smaller circular saw, try to accomplish this with varied degree of success. I had a miter saw station in mind for a while, and decided recently to go ahead and build one with certain criteria in mind. The station needed to have some portability since permanently attaching to a wall is out of the question for the time being for numerous reasons. The length ( 7 ft.) should allow me to safely and easily manage planks up to eight or nine feet in length and the height is sufficient for me not to need to crouch or bend down. With this in mind, the station also needed to be rugged to handle the heavier hardwood planks. I also needed to be able to work either on the left or right side of the sliding blade with appropriate adjustable flip stops and solid stops.

The sliding miter saw itself has all the features I need.. dual bevel, 10-12 inch wide capacity and 3-4 inch deep cut capacity. The station is composed mostly of baltic birch plywood with hardwood fences. The portability is there through use of two workmate type stands which can be folded and the whole unit with the saw removed can then be moved around. These stands easily handle the weight of the station and saw and any planks I need to cut and are rock solid. The station itself is attached to two large, wide planks spanning the workmate type stands. Having used the station for a week or two so far, I'm very satisfied with it as it meets all my criteria.

Small components...

2009-01-14T18:22:00.009-05:00

I've been working on small components lately. The components are partially shaped and a great deal of handwork is involved to ensure all the components are uniform in profile, contour and overall dimensions. The components are part of larger pieces which are destined for a client. I kind of enjoy working on smaller components, it's a welcome break from the larger frame members typically used in furniture. As you can see in the photo, much handplaning is involved to develop the contours of the components. I make use of a spokeshave to round the edges out afterwards.

One of the problems working with small components is handling them while shaping them. Since the parts are small and low profile I use my planing board and raise the bed with a narrow sheet of masonite. This provides just enough of a stop for the small part as well as allowing me to handplane it, I place the part at the outermost edge of the planing board to add clearance for the shaping process. I do need to hand hold the components for some of the shaping or profiling though as the tapered shapes just aren't conducive to setting up firmly in a vise..

Interesting how second nature working with hand tools becomes once you've spent some time at it. A long while ago, I would seek out solutions to shaping issues through the use of machines. In the past few years I find it simpler and more efficient to pick up a handplane or a spokeshave and shape the component. No dust and instant results.

Recent exhibition...

2008-12-02T10:29:00.017-05:00

A while ago I mentioned I was working on two pieces for both an local exhibition and a gallery. The exhibition piece is at the left and I had it displayed this past weekend. A little about it... Solid quartersawn cherry cabinet and dovetailed cherry drawer fronts. I have a subtle hint of lighter sapwood which meanders through where the cabinet doors meet. The pulls are carved cocobolo with contrasting colors, designed with the lighter maple stand in mind. The back panel is solid maple set in a cherry frame also selected to merge the stand with the cherry cabinet. I had something small in mind, and decided on the proportions of this cabinet to fulfill this requirement.

It was a truly enjoyable experience to design and create this and to slowly watch it evolving into a cabinet. The quartersawn cherry was somewhat of a challenge to handplane and I used a scraper extensively in the final stages of preparation of the components. There is a lot to be said for smaller work with smaller proportions, the focus can be more on selection of woods and detail. This cabinet is the smallest I have created so far. Having completed it I moved on to the stand. I wanted a contrasting wood in the stand with a somewhat interesting design yet maintaining structural integrity. In designing the stand I needed to take a criteria into consideration, namely the short depth of the cabinet above.

This short dimension introduced the issue of stability of the stand and cabinet. To compensate for this I have the stand slightly deeper than the cabinet above, but not by much. This is accomplished with the legs slightly proud of the cabinet at the front and back. To work this in, I decided on somewhat of a floating cabinet attachment to the stand, they appear to be separate from each other. To further increase the stability from front to back, I designed bird's feet into the stand to extend the depth of the stand just enough to make it fairly stable without an overwhelming appearance.

The diamond inlay in the front rail of the stand was an added touch to meld the color of the cabinet to the maple stand below in the most understated sense.

I thought I would share this design...

If interested, you can either select the image above for a larger view... a view of the interior of this cabinet and dimensions can be seen at http://www.refinededge.com/

Drawer pulls...

2008-11-26T22:51:00.003-05:00

I resumed work on the beech cabinet this week. I thought I would begin with something small, as in drawer pulls. Actually the pulls are for the drawers and for the cabinet doors. I haven't decided on the final pull color or style and instead am going to make a sample of two pulls in different woods. These pulls will be similarly sized with a protruding four-shoulder tenon at the back and they will fit into a appropriately sized rectangular mortise. It's easy enough for me to accomplish this, to create two similar drawer pulls and this will allow me to consider the aesthetics of each pull sample on the cabinet.

I needed to do this because it was a toss-up between a blackwood pull and a cocobolo pull. Both might work equally well but I'm concerned of the amount of contrast between the pulls and the beech, should I have very contrasting colors or more of a subtle contrast. Having said this, I'm leaning towards the blackwood at the moment. A light tan background with a black pull works aesthetically in my opinion.

In the photo I have prepared a rectangular pull and am shaping the back square. This particular pull is rectangular, but I have the other option of a more sculpted, rounded pull. I'm not sure at this point, so I'll begin with this. I could have mocked up a small block of wood and darkened it black to be able to do this testing, but not too much more work is actually involved in making the blackwood pull, so I decided to do this instead. You can see the large block of blackwood in the background from which I have resawn and cut the small blank.

Off duty...

2008-11-06T21:49:00.013-05:00

What does a furniture maker do in his spare time except spending even more time in the shop? Sometimes it's good to get away from the woodworking environment altogether and just do something completely different. In my case I like to get back to nature and do some hiking or kayaking in summer, skiing in winter, or anything outdoors for that matter. This past week my wife and I were away in the mountains for a few days of just this, getting away from everything, clearing our minds, and regaining focus. I have to admit, it's very hard for me to pull myself away from my studio and from my love of making furniture, but in the end I'm always glad I got away. Shifting focus is a good thing and often puts things into perspective.

We often head to an area two hours or so away, in the mountains, which prides itself on a very outdoor way of life. The surrounding towns and villages offer great craft and art type shops which open up the mind to new design possibilities. Something both my wife and I love to see is other crafts people's work, regardless of the media. We both have a soft spot for crafts and craftspeople in general and their typically modest, rewarding and fulfilling lifestyles.

While visiting some small shops, I found this beautiful small irregular shaped bowl, handmade in Central America. An ideal small piece to complement one of my small cabinets. The workmanship that went into this decorative bowl is amazing and I had to have it. I already have it placed in one of my cabinets.

I also had the opportunity to read parts of a good book, it is furniture related, but nonetheless I had the free time to be able to sit down and focus on this book, which I've sort of read before, but never really in depth. I find I need to set aside an hour or so every day to be able to catch up on my reading, usually much later in the evening at home. This doesn't always work out, and I begin to accumulate partially read books, etc. I'm a book hound and have shelves full of interesting books that I've read, but also a few small piles of books in the process of being read.. I still hope to address this dilemna somehow, maybe I'll just pack a pile of books into a bag and get away for a few days to do just this.

Drawers installed...

2008-11-03T08:05:00.014-05:00

I now have the three drawers fitted and installed into their respective compartments, masking tape serving as temporary pulls :) The partial vertical divider I referred to earlier is also installed with the correct grain orientation which follows every other part of the drawer compartments. I like the idea of the divider as it separates the two halves of the interior. I have designed the drawer compartments to be accessible with one door open, so this makes more sense now. The transfer of light between the left and right areas is also a consideration, at least to me. I don't want to compartmentalize the individual areas above the drawers. Next, I need to decide on drawer pulls, I'll probably go with dual pulls per drawer to avoid any racking issues since the drawers are fairly wide.

And of course, what to do with the opening below the left hand drawer. I have a few options, okay maybe three options. Either it will be a hidden compartment, or a larger, deeper drawer for larger objects. The third option would be to simply leave it open and accessible. In any case, I'm excited about this since it opens up design possibilities to me. I might even apply some inlay to the facade if it is a hidden compartment. I will mull over this for a while while I move to another project I need to work on. and come back to this in a few days. My wife and I are also on a great three day hiking and outdoor vacation as we speak, up in the mountains. Time to clear the mind and get the thought processes recharged, something I like to do periodically.

Drawer completion...

2008-11-01T19:26:00.009-04:00

The three drawers are fairly complete now. There is some back and forth between my bench and the cabinet to test fit each of the drawers and tune them to their respective openings, almost like a ballet. Everything went smoothly with relatively minor tuning and fitting. I don't have the drawers too tight in their opening to allow for seasonal changes in movement of the wood. I had the drawer fronts just a tad proud of the opening and dialed them in just so.

I normally don't attach the back of the cabinet until the later stages of completion, but it's been such a long time with this particular cabinet, I guess I did permanently attach the back panel months ago. The small problem this introduces is that I cannot fit the drawers in completely for there is no way to get them out again without a pull on the drawer fronts. Fortunately, the fit was so good that a strip of masking tape is all I needed to pull the drawers out from their fully closed positions.

There is considerable hand tool work involved in fitting the drawers, but relatively no dust is generated, just fine shavings. I also prepared the bottoms for the drawers by rabbeting a solid wood panel on three sides. The rabbeted portion fits into the groove on the drawer front and sides. The drawer bottoms are easily removed for any reason which might come up. I also loosely attach the drawer bottom to the back of the drawer to allow for some wood movement between seasons. In the photo, the lipped drawer in the foreground has the bottom partially installed with rabbets and grooves visible. Next I make the final test fitting of the drawers and install the cabinet interior divider I prepared in the meantime.

Drawer fitting...

2008-10-31T19:57:00.009-04:00

The work of assembling and fitting the individual drawers into the drawer openings has begun. I work on one drawer at a time, assembling and fitting the back and bottom of the drawer. I also purposely leave the back a bit proud in order to tune the length of the drawer so that the drawer front is flush with the opening. The sides of each of the drawers are slightly proud also, just enough to be able to smooth the sides down uniformly with the drawer front. I find it important to orient the grain direction of the sides so that the grain is inwards from the front, this helps the handplaning part greatly. Also, these ever so slightly oversized measurements greatly reduce the chance for error in fitting and it all works out in the end.

I have also installed the rabbeted backs and pinned them to the sides, greatly enhancing the strength of the joint. The bottoms are custom fit to each drawer although most of the drawer bottom measurements are almost identical. I have oriented the grain of the drawer bottoms from front to back, this will allow for expansion and contraction of the bottom, or wood movement.

In the photo, the drawer at the front is the lipped drawer. I have left this one for last as fitting it involves an extra step of tuning the drawer front for a perfect fit with the lower drawer of the right hand drawer compartment. Most of my handplaning is done over at my bench at the other end of the shop and all of my dovetail work on this bench, I think it has mostly to do with the height of the benches, this lower one is more conducive to dovetailing, at least for me..

Drawer joinery...

2008-10-29T19:22:00.013-04:00

Over the past day, I have been creating the joinery for the cabinet drawers. The joinery at the front is half-blind or lapped dovetails, whereas the back of the drawers is assembled with pinned rabbets. In the photo I have created grooves for the bottom in one drawer. The location of the groove is situated over a tail so as not to cut into the corresponding pin of the drawer front. A little trial and error measurement is necessary here, but it all works out in the end. The drawer sides have been purposely left a bit longer than necessary to be trimmed later and fitted with the drawer back. I will continue to work on the other drawer components and leave the lipped drawer last, as the measurements and offsets on this particular drawer are differently located. I like to plan ahead when creating dovetail joinery and mark all the components extensively, including the board orientation and reference faces and edges. It is very easy to get confused otherwise, not that it's ever happened to me :)

After completing the drawer shells tomorrow, I will make the drawer bottoms consisting of edge glued hardwood planed down to a fraction of an inch, to easily fit the drawer grooves. I should have everything including drawer bottoms, assembled and glued later tomorrow. There is some tuning and fitting involved for each drawer both at the sides and front to back. The drawer pulls come next and I'm currently giving this thought.

The combination of beech cabinet and sapele drawers actually work out very well, there is contrast but not overwhelmingly so, more on the subtle side. My other choice was to use cherry for the drawer fronts, but I have been using this extensively lately and wanted something different.

Drawer fronts...

2008-10-28T18:50:00.010-04:00

I've been busy gathering the right wood for the drawer fronts, sides and bottoms. Drawer fronts will be Sapele, a fine-grained wood in the mahogany family. As part of the drawer front fitting, I cut the fronts oversize in thickness, width and length and then proceed to shoot the ends so they fit the drawer opening just right. I follow the same process with the width of the drawer front, handplaning and tuning it down to size. Prior to this, I had planed the thickness of the drawer fronts to fit the opening. The drawer front of the upper right hand set will overhang the divider providing a seamless look, I designed the divider to be shorter than the drawer opening by the thickness of a drawer front. Next, I begin dovetailing the drawer sides into the fronts and then create the grooves for the drawer bottom, in this order. Important to position the groove correctly over a tail so the groove doesn't exit through a pin in the drawer front. This would preclude using a stopped rabbet instead of a through rabbet.

I'm glad to have completed the stand as the cabinet has been occupying a cool rolling cart I built a few months ago. I now have access to my rolling cart once again, which by the way I'm kicking myself for not having made earlier. These things are great in the shop, allowing me to wheel components around to different benches and assembly tables, etc. Also, I haven't decided on the drawer pulls just yet, preferring to wait a few more days and examine some options in the meantime.

I'm also going to install a short divider between the sets of drawers creating more of a delineation between the left and right sides of the cabinet interior. The area above each of the drawer compartments is to be used to display an art object , the divider perhaps will separate the styles of art objects? It just feels right.

I'm still not sure how to work the area below the left hand drawer compartment into the mix. The design of this has been up in the air for a while, and I'm thinking once the drawers are in along with the divider it will make more sense and a a spark of imagination will occur, an "aha" moment. I'm leaning towards a hidden compartment at the moment. Or I might leave it open, in the spirit of "dynamic design", a philosophy I coined a few months ago.

Cabinet stand...

2008-10-24T06:21:00.005-04:00

I assembled the stand and am test fitting it in the photo a few hours after glue up. It fits well and is in very good alignment with the cabinet. This is a concern otherwise the stand looks more like an afterthought than designed with the cabinet if it doesn't fit right. The twin stretchers at the bottom work out well and introduce a small focal point into the design. It is quite a small feat getting the rails and stretchers in position for the glue up and a good point to stop and plan this out well. I assembled the sides initially, then put everything together with the front and rear rails and stretchers. The upper and lower rails are mortised into the legs with single tenons, whereas the twin stretchers are dowelled into the bottom side rails.

I am quite pleased at the aesthetics of the piece and the harmony between the cabinet and stand. I needed to spend some time at the edge treatment phase of all the stand components. The edges of each component are slightly chamfered with a small hand plane, then the edge transition is touched with a very fine sanding block to knock out any sharp edges. Since this is all done by hand, I find myself counting the exact number of strokes with the hand plane, in this case two. It is recommended that all the components be completed in one pass to avoid confusion. In other cases, where multiple passes are necessary, counting the handplane strokes is a good technique.

The stand is also beech and all the front and side facing components have non-descript grain pattern, straight grain for the most part, to not introduce any crazy graphics which take away from the main focal point, the cabinet.

I'm kind of anxious at this point to complete the interior of the cabinet, create the drawers and a small partition, then the pulls, so I can begin to apply finish. I'm curious to see how the figure of the door panels comes out. Of course, I can always wet the surfaces with naptha to temporarily see the figure pop, but I can wait a few more days.

I had a little deliberation deciding on the final height of the cabinet and settled for a 55 inch height , along with a second opinion from my better half. Having the piece too low and it begins to look like a credenza , too high and the stand begins to look spindly. I also wanted to provide an opportunity to see the cabinet as a whole, including a partial view of the top. Accessibility and visibility of the cabinet interior is also important as this is somewhat of a showcase cabinet, and my wife and I did take this into consideration.

Cabinet stand...cont'd

2008-10-21T19:11:00.006-04:00

I have resumed work on the beech cabinet in the past few days. I've rethought the design of the cabinet stand and made some changes. The original design called for four upper rails mortised into the legs. I would need to have wider front, rear and side apron rails to maintain the strength and integrity of the stand. Rather than this, I have decided on narrower top apron rails and move some support to the bottom of the stand in the form of stretchers instead. The aesthetics of this are more pleasing to me, very much like dividing the load at the top and bottom of the cabinet stand.

The leg dimensions remain the same, instead I divide the original upper rails into two components per rail and use the narrower component at the bottom of the stand. The strength and integrity of the cabinet stand should be maintained with this design along with more pleasing aesthetics, and more subtle, smaller components. I should have the stand assembled within the next day or two. In the meantime, I need to replace one of the components in the stand, a front top rail. In the handplaning effort I was a bit overzealous with this particular rail and the dimensions are no longer right, a little too thin. Rather than handplane the other rails to this dimension, I would rather replace this rail instead.

With significant hand planing, it becomes more important to maintain keen edges on the plane irons. The dullness of the irons sneaks up on you, and before you know it the handplane is struggling to produce fine shavings. I stop occasionally to sharpen the plane irons, otherwise the temptation is to increase the depth of cut with dull irons and all of a sudden they grab and tearout follows.

It's amazing how much the weather has changed in the span of two to three weeks in these parts. It was early fall weather a few days ago, now I hear some wet snow is arriving overnight. It should be nothing significant and late fall will resume, I hope.

Off on a tangent...

2008-10-16T16:24:00.008-04:00

I had some spare time recently while waiting for finish to dry and thought I would experiment with some inlay techniques. I have always found a piece of inlay with a surrounding border to be fascinating to be able to make. I need to confess, I've done this before although quite a while ago and need the practice. What I had in mind is a fair sized yellowheart diamond with a black border, I used blackwood. I have the inlay set in a lighter wood, nothing special, just a small offcut. The process of creating and inserting the inlay is a very good test of patience and fine hand tool skills , for almost everything here is accomplished with hand tools.

The border itself is bandsawn from a larger piece of blackwood and the yellowheart also bandsawn from a solid block. The yellowheart inlay is first drawn out and cut with careful attention to the shape of the diamond, each of the sides and facets needs to be a mirror image of the other side. I then mark the inlay onto the lighter background wood with an allowance or margin for the surrounding border. Once marked with a fine knife, I then remove or carve out the recess for both the diamond and border. Next step is to fit both the yellowheart inlay and blackwood border into the recess with glue , make sure it is well seated and wait for everything to set. Afterwards, I judiciously handplane the inlay and the result is in the photo at top. I find it great therapy to go off and do some other type of woodworking during or after some intensive furniture making, it clears the mind and the instant results can be very gratifying, the practice also keeps the skill retention up...

Back panels...

2008-09-27T23:02:00.011-04:00

Much of my cabinet design and build process involves the creation of a cabinet back. Conventional wisdom says the back of a cabinet is not nearly as important as the front or sides, so it merely needs a panel which is rabbeted into the sides, top and bottom. The problem with this thinking is that it assumes the back of the cabinet will be placed against a surface or wall and never seen. This doesn't apply to all cabinets as many cabinets are designed as showcases which are away from walls, sometimes placed in the center of a room or even a foot or two away from a wall. Something also feels wrong about diminishing the importance of the back of a cabinet when so much emphasis is placed on the design and structure of the front and sides of the cabinet. With this in mind, the need for a more aesthetically nice cabinet back becomes important, along with the function that it introduces to the cabinet. An example of function is if the cabinet is a wall-mounted cabinet and needs a structurally strong back.

The resulting back panel which best meets the criteria of both aesthetics and function is the frame and panel back; a panel inset into a surrounding frame composed of rails and stiles. The frame and panel back is inset into the cabinet back much like a panel would be and in the process the frame and panel also provide some rigidity to the cabinet. In those situations where a single panel is too wide, a middle stile is installed to divide the frame into two halves, otherwise for smaller cabinets a single panel is sufficient. The panel itself can either complement or contrast the cabinet, providing an interesting focal point once the doors of the cabinet are opened, as well as drawing the eye to the pleasing back of the cabinet.

Dowelling technique...

2008-09-21T19:43:00.001-04:00

In many of my cabinet assemblies I use dowels to attach the sides to the top and bottom. The use of dowels gives flexibility to the design of the corner joint. For example, I can offset the side panels away from the edge of the top or bottom and in the process work the protruding edge of the top and bottom into a shaped contour, chamfer, rabbet, etc. The alternative would be to use specific corner joints which need to have the side panel and top or bottom panel intersect right at the very edge. An example of this would be a dovetailed joint, a box joint, or a rabbet and lip edge. If you've ever read up on James Krenov and his work, you will find that he embraces the dowelled corner joint for these very same reasons. This is where I received the inspiration for this type of joint and its virtues.

Creating the doweled joint involves some measurement , but most importantly it involves the little jig you can see in the photo, the dowelling guide. This is a piece of wood with the exact dimensions of the panel I am dowelling, the length and thickness. The dowel holes are marked with arbitrary spacing and the dowel guide holes are bored out on the drill press. I use this dowelling guide to create the dowel holes on both of the mating surfaces , in this case the side panel and the top or bottom panel. There is some skill involved in aligning the dowelling guide to both surfaces since the holes for the dowels need to be perfectly aligned. Marking and orienting the dowelling guide to the correct edges becomes very important and I make many pencil marks in the process. The old adage, "measure twice , cut once" becomes "measure and mark three times, drill once". in this process.