Patrick's & Amy's dining table

Oh, man, I've been waiting for a project like this to come my way for a long time. Can you guess why?

A. I get to use some beautiful, rare and locally significant wood that I've been hoarding for a long time.
B. The design tells a story about the people it is for.
C. Both A & B

If you guessed A & B, you are correct.

A few weeks ago I received an email from my clients Patrick and Amy, who were referred to me by their friend... Patrick, a former client and fellow record collector.

Patrick and Amy were looking for a simple dining table, so we met and drank some fancy beer, talked about vinyl records, maple trees, the Redwood Forest, conservation and lots of other stuff that helped me learn a little more about what was important for their space. A few days later, I came up with a design that combines maple with reclaimed redwood originally used in the casks of the now defunct Falstaff Brewery (check out this passionately put together, yet terrible geocities-like fansite for more info. about Falstaff). Even though I've never had Falstaff beer, I do like beer; that's just a fact. I also like Omaha-related history, so I guess I'm 2-for-2 with this one.

There isn't much of this redwood floating around the area anymore, so it's going to be a special opportunity to make a piece that will hopefully be a significant part of Patrick's and Amy's home life for a very long time. I'll be balancing time on this project with another project utilizing reclaimed wood, while finishing up a trio of cherry bar stools for my aunt and uncle. I guess all in all, life it pretty good.

An altar

I'm back from a brief vacation with friends on coastal North Carolina. Tomorrow I'll get started on two brand new commissions.

The first is a small altar for my client and former classmate, Andrea. An altar is not exactly a common piece of furniture. I doubt you'll find anything like it at NFM or Ikea. So it's the type of one-of-a-kind object I love to have a chance to make. I'm also honored to have been asked to make a piece that will fill such a central role in someone's life. I've designed a few chairs for specific individuals. Doing so is like creating a tiny building for that person - something that is sort of an extension of their body. It seems that an altar might play a similar role for a person, though more metaphysically. 

The project will also use all reclaimed wood and natural pigment, water-based milk paint. The color in the picture below is a little off; it'll actually be a little greener and a little brighter, or so that's the plan anyway.

Speaking of color, if you've been at any of the several events at CAMP lately (or just dropped in to hang out or do some work) you might have seen this massive tabletop I made for them. Like Andrea's altar will be, it's also colored with milk paint. The metal base was apparently leftover from the old Mastercraft Furniture company, so it was compelling that we got to repurpose something that had a connection to the old space. And in case you were wondering, that dude in the photo is Stevie "RDQLUS" Gordon, who I'd followed with some interest on Twitter for several months, but had never had a chance to meet until I stopped by to take this picture. Be sure to check out his RDQLUS portfolio of design work at RDQLUS Creative.

Habitat in a Birdhouse

Usually when I finish a project, regardless of what it is, the flaws - real or perceived - are what I most notice. Maybe it's because I've been looking at the same piece for so long; or maybe I'm too hard on myself. But when I delivered a table to my client Jessica at her new Birdhouse Collectible space in the Mastercraft building (1111 N. 13th St.), I had a different feeling: I felt confident and inspired.

Jessica's table started with a few ideas. She wanted a piece that had a modern, feminine quality. She also talked about how much she liked zebrawood, which besides being prohibitively expensive, is also kind of on my environmentally unfriendly list. I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it's grown in a rain forest or similarly deforested, tropical area. Ultimately, I came up with a curvy cornered, spalted hackberry top with planks joined at irregular angles. The walnut legs curved at each outside corner and slightly tapered and angled out as they approached the floor. As you can see when comparing the original drawing to the the finished photos, I stayed pretty true to the design... with one major exception. What's that red stuff, you ask? No, I didn't hit an artery on the table saw; and the table was not a prop in "Resovoir Dogs". The red splatters and rivulets red marks are resin cast into the surface of the wood. They were also a solution to an unexpected problem with the material.

I bought the hackberry for Jessica's table at a sawmill in Silver City, IA. Most of it was rough cut, meaning the boards hadn't yet been run through a thickness planer to make their surfaces smooth and uniform. To my chagrin, there were wormholes winding across and straight through every board, the remnants of a society of bugs that apparently had once inhabited a stack of boards. I had run across this problem in the past, and had thought of using resin to fill the flawed faces of the boards. This time, it created an opportunity to pull the design together and make the piece more strongly connected to Jessica's business and space. I don't use esoteric titles very often, but in this case, I called the table "Habitat". I'm making more objects - furniture pieces and sculptural forms - that use resin casting while simultaneously casting a spotlight on the complex life of raw materials.

Did I mention that Birdhouse Collectible is a sort of showroom and gallery? It just so happens that I have a few other pieces for sale in the space. If you're interested in seeing those pieces, checking out the Habitat table and more, the Birdhouse Collectible Open House is a perfect opportunity. Come by next Saturday, August 21 from 6 - . I hope to see you there.

Summer CAMP

The other day I got a phone call from Eric Downs of Downs Design, asking if I could make a simple, affordable conference table top for the new CAMP grounds in the Mastercraft building. Eric, and Megan of Princess Lasertron fame just started CAMP. They have some seriously talented neighbors, including Birdhouse Interior Design, Secret Penguin, What Cheer and minor white studio. I'm privileged to contribute a little something to another of these energized spaces. Here's a simple version of what I came up with:

Eric procured a metal frame, so I decided to add a series of boards milled at different widths and joined together as a surface would add some texture and depth to the piece. I'll use milk paint - a forgotten product made widely available commercially again fairly recently - to add a modern color palette. Milk paint is an environmentally safe paint made from natural, dry pigments. You just add some water and brush on a soft, rich surface.

The whole table will be finished and sealed to combat the inevitable coffee cup rings that will accompany the hoards of Macbook users who gather around to create the next generation of websites, apps and programs.