Showing posts with label of. Show all posts
Showing posts with label of. Show all posts
Monday, February 24, 2014
Vintage Chest of Drawers
This chest/secretary thing is so unique! It's been sitting in the garage forever!
I was almost so fed up with it, I almost put it to the curb! (Do you ever have so many irons
in the fire that you just can't be bothered???!)
Well, glad I didn't. I just decided to get to it and slapped on some white chalk paint.
Then I thought I would try some artwork on top by using that cool staining technique
I used on the french provencial dresser awhile back. Here
OK. Obviously the before. This is a solid mahogany which the manufacturer covered in this
horrid orangey lacquer finish. Look what was on top!!!
This beautiful mahogany wood top!! So I chalked out a hibiscus flower, got out my stains, and went
to town!! I just used a combo of stains. Some I left on for a few minutes, and others I wiped away quickly. This is just a fly-by-the-seat-ofyour-pants type of thing. You really can't follow exact
directions. It's like painting. You just do it. Make sense??? Yeah, well, that's all I got!
All finished. And a few coat of semi-gloss poly
The final version. Mahogany is so pretty when it's finished correctly!
More pics.......
Read more »
Thursday, February 13, 2014
730 Days of Blogging
12/6/09 ..... Whoa ... Another year goes by. This was the 30th year for Dorset Custom Furniture and my second year of writing about it ... Stephen King, in On Writing, says Writing is refined thinking. I agree with him on that. For me, photographing and writing about what we do makes me think differently about work and life in general, the interactions with clients and friends, nature and family, and everything else that goes by in our sometimes rushed charge to get through the workday. It was a challenging year but we still had some very interesting projects ... a stairway we built in Vermont and sent to California, a desk interpreting the style of a famous British architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, a banjo project, a room of walnut paneling, some slab top tables, some very cool metal chairs ... and many others. Thanks for reading and if we made something for you this past year, thanks for that too ....
Sunrise 12 4 08
Well, a year ago I told myself I would write a blog for 6 months and see how it went .... Writing ... its interesting. It makes a record .... I can see the broad scope of the last year by scrolling back through the posts .... While its not all here, its more than I have for the previous 28 years of doing what I do. Those other years are mostly a bunch of little pictures in big portfolios. Nice to look at, but essentially, theyre just pictures in books. Ditto the website .... Theres not much life there. Pictures of furniture I can see pretty much anywhere, but this year, we have projects, processes, people I work with every day making things, asides like a walk in the woods, golf, repairs and making a casket, more like, really, the actual stuff of life and work. Definitely not just the pictures. So, on we go .... making stuff. Sharing our methods, keeping our clients in the loop .... Year 30 coming up .... Looks to be a challenging one, but on we go, not knowing what lies ahead except that it will be interesting. Thank you all for reading and responding; Ive met some great folks on line here and hope I helped some of them with their projects and inspired others to reach higher with their craft. While Im rambling, Kit and I send you our best wishes for the Holiday Season .... Peace ....
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
3rd coat of poly and sanding mishaps
I lightly sanded the hall tree with 220 last night and applied a 3rd coat of poly. Even with being careful I managed to sand through the poly and some of the stain in a few spots. I have been trying to be careful to not make the coats of poly too thick and I think I have been making them a little too thin. I am leaving the light parts there for now as I think it gives it a little character. I was planning on putting a 4th coat on just the top shelf and seat but I think I am going to put an extra coat on the whole thing.
I am going to oversand some of my test pieces down to bare wood and see if I can put some brown stain on it and make it look weathered. If that turns out well I may redo some of the hall tree at a later date.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Working wood lots of it!
Half way there...
Well its been an incredibly busy few months since the summer came and went. A few custom pieces of furniture designed and commissioned. The bulk of my time though has been spent on my book. Writing, designing, constructing its been an incredible journey thus far. I should apologise to my frequent readers for not keeping things up to date here. Im usually good for a new blog every few days but lately it seems there arent enough hours in the day. That said, Im finally into the project chapters and am very excited with the turn-out thus far. My hands, legs and shoulders are getting quite a work out, dimensioning a few hundred board feet of lumber all by hand! Good for the soul. The first project chapter is a small side table out of Ash which was a real pleasure to work with hand tools; the second is a bookcase with glass doors in Birch-Flame Birch. Now I dont know if anyone out there has ever had the opportunity to work with a highly figured wood like this Birch but what I can say is this: if these trees dont grow out of the Devils garden then I dont know where they come from! Reversing grain every few inches, tear out occurring with my sharpest Smoothing planes....well, isnt that just lovely.? Hey, gotta remember, its good for the soul;now if Robert Johnston can get things done how should I?
Stay tuned...
Read More..
Well its been an incredibly busy few months since the summer came and went. A few custom pieces of furniture designed and commissioned. The bulk of my time though has been spent on my book. Writing, designing, constructing its been an incredible journey thus far. I should apologise to my frequent readers for not keeping things up to date here. Im usually good for a new blog every few days but lately it seems there arent enough hours in the day. That said, Im finally into the project chapters and am very excited with the turn-out thus far. My hands, legs and shoulders are getting quite a work out, dimensioning a few hundred board feet of lumber all by hand! Good for the soul. The first project chapter is a small side table out of Ash which was a real pleasure to work with hand tools; the second is a bookcase with glass doors in Birch-Flame Birch. Now I dont know if anyone out there has ever had the opportunity to work with a highly figured wood like this Birch but what I can say is this: if these trees dont grow out of the Devils garden then I dont know where they come from! Reversing grain every few inches, tear out occurring with my sharpest Smoothing planes....well, isnt that just lovely.? Hey, gotta remember, its good for the soul;now if Robert Johnston can get things done how should I?Stay tuned...
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