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.

New people, places & directions

This afternoon I spent a couple hours squaring the edges of several planks of hackberry that I brought back from my most recent visit to Silver Creek Sawmill in Iowa. These boards, along with legs cut from the thickest plank of walnut I've ever seen, will eventually come together as a conference table for my new friend Jessica, owner of Birdhouse Interior Design. I had the pleasure of meeting Jessica a couple months ago, having followed her and the development of her business on Twitter for a while. Our ideas about design and affordability seem to mesh pretty well and I'm excited to work with her as she takes her business to the next level.

Jessica's new digs - and the conference table's new home - will be a beautifully lit parcel in the space formerly occupied by the Mastercraft Furniture Company, and which also houses the new CAMP Coworking Space. Am I jealous? Um, yes. It's exciting to see so many creative people working around each other, moving their ideas and passions forward.

Here's a simple drawing of the basic table design, sans an element that will add some additional color, contrast and life to the piece to tie it all together.

This table is particularly exciting for me because it is a shift in direction and technique. The planks that make up the top will join to one another a various angles. The legs will be tapered and rounded by hand on one corner to match the contour of the top.  I'm also trying a new technique that will include using cast resin. More on that later.