WOODWORKING

Every project has a point of departure.

It’s a friend or customer who needs a particular piece of furniture. Often, they only have a function in mind, not any design, so you get to make your journey knowing only that you need to end up with a table or cabinet that fits a certain space or performs the needed task. These are the best commissions, and I always greatly value the implied trust in them. Or the need might be mine, or the want – something for the house, or just the desire to build a design or a design feature that intrigues me. And then sometimes the wood just presents itself in your life – the opportunity to build something, a set of material constraints, and maybe even something special. All wood is beautiful, but there are pieces that come your way that are striking, and they speak. Listening to a particular board or set of boards is some of the best fun you can have in woodworking.

The pieces here represent all those categories and a mixture of a few. I’m afraid I have been very undisciplined over the years when it comes to taking pictures. A lot of things got made in the years before easy digital photography, and before the advent of social media. There is here, I hope, a cross-section of work that represents the things that aren’t pictured here.

There is some exotic wood here, but not a great deal. I went through a period when I was fascinated by woods from around the world. It is just too hard to understand the chain of events between some distant forest and the shop, however, to feel good about using these woods. I use them now only for accent or inlay. My preference is for woods native to New England, and all the better when I know where the tree stood and who cut it down.

My aesthetic preference is for clean and simple lines – Shaker design and Japanese aesthetics. That’s in my own work. I love looking at other woodworkers’ complex designs or modern aesthetics, and I can be inspired by almost anything well-crafted. It’s an interesting process to learn what you are interested in building, however, in comparison to what you admire.

ABBY’S BUREAU, SIDE TABLES, & BED

These were commissioned by a friend over the course of several years. I believe the bed was first, then the bureau, and then the tables. That is why, though they relate to one another, they are only a loose set from a design perspective. There was going to be a blanket chest as well, though it never happened. The wood is red birch, which is one of my favorite hardwoods. I love the shine and luster it gets when finished properly. The inlay in the bureau and bed are walnut and maple. In the table the inlay is purpleheart and maple.

ALISON’S BOX

This was a Christmas present inspired by a spice box I saw in a magazine. I don’t name pieces often, but I have always referred to this one as “Kokopelli in a Maple Knot.” The wood is Birdseye maple, and the original design had the door as simply a matching solid piece with the sides. I remember looking at the board at Downs and Reader, as it was the right size and had the graining I wanted. The knot was a potential problem, and I almost moved on to another board. The shape intrigued me though, and I made a design change there in the yard. The knot, which I didn’t fill with epoxy functions as the pull to open the door. The inlay is walnut, basswood, and purpleheart.

ANNA’S BOX

This box is Brazilian Rosewood which I initially made for myself but then ended up giving away to a Cree friend of mine in Ouje Bougoumou, in Eeyou Istchee. I think she keeps her bible in it these days, though I made it as a jewelry box. Boxes are a theme I circle around on frequently, especially jewelry boxes. I can’t say what I find so pleasing about the form, but I do. The acorn knob here is from a company called Modern Objects, which has sadly gone out of business. You will notice many natural-themed pulls on my work, and they are all from Modern Objects.

ANN’S BED

This was a commission from a friend for her daughter. If I remember correctly, it needed to be a single bed with drawers underneath, and they both really wanted something with a bead board. It was to be painted, so I did the whole thing out of poplar. I managed to spray a nice gloss, orange-peel surface, thanks to some professional coaching from a friend.

ANNE’S BOX

Another jewelry box, this one out of black walnut taken from a local tree that fell no far from where my shop was at the time. The finish, as with almost all my work is numerous coats of tung oil. Oil is the only finish that for me doesn’t get in the way of the wood growing into the color it wants to be. That can take years, especially with some woods, but it’s always better than rushing for a color or tone with stains or lacquers.

BOOKSTORE CABINET

I started this project because I had access to some very wide pine boards. Only the back is a glue-up, and so far, the doors have stayed stable for years. The wood had been air-dried for five or six years, and the tree they came from was over a hundred years old, so I had some confidence. I originally thought of the piece as a kitchen secretary, though it now resides behind the counter of Compass Rose Book in Castine, Maine. The drawer fronts are Birdseye maple, and the inlay is walnut and purpleheart.

FLOWER TABLE

This was commissioned for Compass Rose Books as a flower wrapping table. It was built at counter height rather than table height for that reason. The wood is soft maple, and the inlay is a variety of exotics. The inlay designs were borrowed from a book of Stickley decoration I have, and I suppose the table is Stickley adjacent in some respects, though not as muscular.

KAT’S BOX

This was inspired by the wood, which came to me through the friend who cut the tree. Much of it was rotten, but there were these pockets of extraordinary tiger striping. If you tried to take more than a 32nd of an inch, even with the shelix planer head, it would chatter and strip out. I think it took almost as long to prepare the wood as to build the box. The use of the knot was the idea of the friend who cut the tree. The box was a gift and resides now in upper Manhattan.

KAT’S BENCHES

These were a commission to go with a trestle table in a Manhattan apartment that was big enough for the table, but not for the chairs that went with it. The benches mimic the existing table and are made of red birch with purpleheart accents.

SHERRILL &CHARLES CABINETS

Built of red birch for friends for their remodeled kitchen, these cabinets have a beadwork design that I have used on most of my cabinetry. I designed them to have a country feel to them, and the owners wanted them oiled and urethaned to highlight the wood.

KITCHEN TABLE

This I built for us, when we moved to a house that had room for a big table. I have done very little with turned legs in my work, but this space called for them. I think of this as a pretty classic design. The wood is simple soft maple, the accents are red-heart, the drawer pulls by Modern Objects. Someday I may make a top out of something a little fancier, like curly maple, but for now it is a good workhorse that serves for eating, crafting, gaming, ironing, and much more.

MARGARET’S TABLE

This was commissioned by a cartographer who was in love with another cartographer, who had just published a very large map of canoe routes in the upper Great Lakes. The tabletop hinges up and there is space for map storage underneath. The top is meant to be an abstracted map with a border and compass rose. The bent-wood accents between the legs are meant to be the cross-section of a wooden canoe. The wood is red birch, the inlay is walnut and basswood.

CUTTING BOARD

It’s hard to just abandon this kind of edging, once you’ve spent the time to make it for another project, so the temptation is to make mundane objects needlessly ornate. That is the only explanation I have for this maple cutting board.

SOAPSTONE TABLE

This table started with the walnut legs. They were made by another woodworking friend who gave them to me because we both thought they were cool. It’s hard to see here, but they taper in two directions and are very striking though subtle. I believe the soapstone top came next, when Compass Rose Books needed a small display table. With those two elements, it seemed natural to add some metal, and the ring is simply mild steel which has been brushed and sealed.

SPOONS

I had a brief love affair with spoon-making in 2010-2011 and made a great many as gifts. These two were a matched pair made of mahogany.

THIAGO’S BED

The posts and rails on this bed are western red cedar, reinforced with white ash. The bent features are also white ash. Just before this, I had made a bed frame as a commission that was very heavy and I thought clunky, though the customer was very happy with my execution of her design. This project I originally made for myself as an attempt at lightness and airiness, and it got handed down to my son a few years ago. This is a design I intend to go back to someday.

THIAGO’S CHESS TABLE

My son is an avid chess player and I built this for him. The table is curly maple and a fairly traditional design. The inlay is a copy of a woodcarving my father did in the early 1970s. That carving was sold, and I don’t know where it is now, but I copied the image from a picture. The idea was that it would look like something draped over the table, though that caused some complications in the execution.

FLY-TYING TABLE

This table was commissioned by a neighbor and was the second piece of furniture I ever built. It is red birch with an oil finish.

BLANKET CHEST

Cherry and birdseye maple are the materials for this blanket chest which I made for the house. It’s a simple raised-panel design. I saw a similar bent leg on a desk and modified the idea for this piece.