Of all crafts, to be an honest man is the master craft.
the walnut and maple cradle
About the cradle: this is technical,
This project started as five 9 foot rough sawn planks that were then cut into 56 pieces.These pieces were then joined with 80 joints, including 2-20 inch x 2 inch dovetail joints. There are 2 feet of 1/8 inch brass rod and 16- #10/24 brass screws pinning mortise and tenon joints in the cradle.The cradle box is hung on removable pivots that are 1/2 inch tool steel set in brass bushings in both the cradle box and the frame. The process took well over 300 hours and all curves were carved by eye.
A couple of things...
Most all woodworkers and many other people have a reverence for wood. It is a material that was at one time alive. All trees live in an environment with traumatic events. These traumatic events affect the tree and are reflected in the grain of the wood that we work with. A high wind, a wet summer, a dry sunny year, a lightning strike near or on the tree, another tree nearby dying and falling, or not, and hundreds of other events during the course of a tree's life are noted in the tree's autobiography. I always feel honored to be using slices of this book in the pieces that I make.
It is said that it takes an eye, a hand, and a heart to create furniture that has soul. It is the eye to see the proportions and curves. it is the hand to have the skill to make a joint that is sound, and the heart to have the courage to see and change a piece with the instinct that it will be an improvement.
the myth of the thief step
I've heard about the "thief step" again from someone fairly official. This bullshit has to stop!! I've built, rebuilt and fixed countless stairways in my career as a carpenter and I've seen most all the ways you can screw up a set of stairs. When i moved to boston 35 yrs ago I first heard about the thief step and thought then, what an novel excuse to not have to fix a screwed up set of stairs. Carpenters are notorious for not wanting to fix their own screw ups, and this explanation, if it's accepted, lets them off the hook. Fixing a set of stringers that have been laid out wrong requires a lot of labor and they never come out right. Cut a new set and you run the risk of making the mistake again if you don't understand what went wrong in the first place. I bailed a guy out once (he shall remain anonymous) after he had cut 3 sets of stringers that ended up in the dumpster.
Nobody in the family remembers where the wrong riser is in a set of stairs. They may remember that the stairs are "trippers" and raise their feet up higher for EVERY step but if you're carrying a load of laundry and you forget.... building code states that all risers can only be +/- 1/8 of an inch. So, Peter Hotton of the Boston Globe, in particular, hold carpenters to a higher standard. You won't need to be as scared of THAT one bad thing happening when your grandmother comes to visit.
Lexinton Open Studios
i applied to lexington open studios for admission to their show on may 2nd & 3rd. they accepted me and to my horror they asked me and 3 real artists to speak for 15 min. or so on how and why we do what we do. this could have been a mistake on their part but i figure even if i stand up there tongue-tied, it's exposure. then i had the idea ( well, to be honest, it was my son gavin's idea) to make tactile visual aids, model joints that i use in my furniture all the time. that way i can stand in the front, point at the models, and grunt. problem solved. the open studios are may 2nd and 3rd, they will be displaying some of my work at the cary library the entire month of april and i will talk about my work (at the library) on april 13 at 7pm. so here's them joints...
disassembled