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.

Vinyl Lives! Jason's LP cabinet finished

I started a fancy two-tiered combination record cabinet and turntable holder for my client, Jason, a few weeks ago. I was thrilled to deliver it completed, along with a little bonus LP, earlier this week. Since I'm an avid record collector, I had a blast making this cabinet and hope I get a chance to make some others similar to this one. Maybe I'll even have time one day to make one for myself.

From my original design, I couldn't resist making a couple changes and embellishments. First, I traded out the proposed paper strap door pulls and handles for a set I hand-turned from canarywood. They're likely to last a little longer, especially since they'll be in arms reach of an adventurous 2-year-old. I also inlayed a single star pattern in the top of the lid that's similar to the tables and other pieces I've been making recently.

The project also created several challenges for me; namely the compound angles I had to cut and join to create the top. I also learned that next time I make something like this, I should try to make the top a little lighter (it's kind of a beast).

Each tier of the cabinet holds around 75 - 100 12-inch LPs, which should be plenty of space for Jason to expand his collection.

Fleeting Thoughts like Falling Leaves

One of the reasons I usually enjoy living in Omaha is that I'm basically a small-town guy at heart. And let's face it, Omaha is kind of a small town. I want to think I'm a big city kind of guy; that I'm drawn to the largeness of movement and noise and action, but it's really not true. I travel for work several times a year, usually to larger cities, and after a few days, I usually can't wait to get back HOmaha. Even so, growing up in the midwest - first in Kansas, and for the last 10 years in Nebraska - I think I've had a tendency to take for granted the richness of the midwestern landscape. Who isn't at least a little drawn in by a soft breeze flowing over wheat fields before the harvest? Or the simple pattern of rows of corn, soybeans, and whatever else farmers grow around here?

The leaves started turning and falling in my Benson neighborhood several weeks ago. Initially they fell fast and hard, pulled down by the weight of a premature snow. Soon a wet, yellow blanket was covering the ground.

Over the course of the last few weeks bursts of rusty reds and oranges have joined the yellow blooms in a dying explosion of color. I don't remember the colors being this vibrant before. Or being so drawn to the contrasting tones. I'm nearly overtaken every time I turn a corner on my drive home from my studio. It gives me chills to see the yellow leaves flutter from the tops of the trees after small gusts of wind pull the stems from their branches. I don't remember being this influenced by nature either - maybe marriage is making me soft.

As beautiful as the view is now, we all know the landscape will soon give way to a neutral wash of white and brown. But as with the rest of the natural landscape, the lines and contrasts of brown against the impending snow will display a subtler beauty that is harder to see.

These same past few weeks have been busy ones for me. I've been stealing as many hours in my shop as I can trying to turn these star fabrications into tables. They are also a simple gesture at both capturing and honoring the beauty of the Fall and coming Winter landscapes, respectively. The uniform shape of each piece - both in the star form and each contributing diamond shape - echoes the symmetry and simplicity of the fallen leaves. And like a leaf, the simplicity of their form sometimes masks a design that is more complicated the closer you look; it was not easy cutting and fabricating between 200 and 300 individual, uniform pieces of wood together. As I mentioned in my previous post, these pieces are my attempt to - dare I say - turn over a new leaf, in attempt to make work that is more environmentally sustainable than I've attempted in the past. I like to think that with each successive piece of furniture or art or whatever you'd like to call them, that I'm honoring the materials as much as I can.

These tables are also part of my contribution to the ORGANISM project in the Empty Room. If you'd like to see how they turn out, please stop by ORGANISM throughout November and help us grow the space. Don't forget to bring your hammer.

Fake IKEA, Round 2

My original homage to IKEA, made for Niz a few months back, has gravitated to my side of the bed. Apparently, it was too short. So, I took another go of it - same basic design of exposed edge plywood, but this time veneered in maple. The pictures look pretty good, but I messed up the top of the veneer, so I'll have to redo that (bubble). This one is about 18" tall and 14" in diameter. I wouldn't mind going back to IKEA sometime - for the Swedish meatballs and lingonberries.

Oh, btw, if you're in the market for a solid walnut table that's, oh, I don't know, something like 4' wide x 14' long, I may be able to help you...

Celebrating Others' Work: Kevin Jones, Doug Kiser & Mark Lane

I've had the good fortune to meet a lot of other artists, designers and craftsmen (and women) over the past couple years. I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a few of those folks' - friends and acquaintances new and old - with this post. Hopefully, none of them mind me putting them in the limelight for a bit:

Kevin Jones does all kinds of photography, but I think his passion seems to lie in capturing the spontaneity and energy revealed in screams, sweat and spit during the live acts of touring and local punk rock and indie bands. I've also been lucky enough to have Kevin take photos of several of my pieces of furniture (i.e. the coffee table at the top of this page, among others). He also does portraiture and other event-related work. Check out some of his work on KevinAndrewJones.com. Rumor has it Kevin's also not a bad framer and drummer, and he's catching up with me in the woodworking department too.

Over the past year Niz and I have had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Doug Kiser and his wife Geej. Quite honestly, Doug's a more experienced and talented woodworker than I am, and he brings a background in cabinetry and interior design. I feel fortunate that Doug's been willing to share feedback, skills, resources - and even his workspace once or twice - while not making me feel like an amateur or total ass. Doug's a full-timer who does it all - furniture design and construction, cabinetry, kitchens and bathrooms and more. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of Doug's paintings soon. You can see Doug's work all over town, including Secret Penguin headquarters, Film Streams and Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance. And if you're lucky, your own house. Doug's website is dkiser.com. 

Very recently Niz introduced me to Mark Lane, who has been designing and building furniture for quite some time, but just recently launched a full-fledged business, Mark Lane Custom Furniture. Mark draws inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement, but puts a modern spin on it. I'm looking forward to checking out Mark's shop one of these days, and possibly helping him find a way to get his new thickness planer down the stairs. 

I know all three of these guys are going to keep pushing themselves forward in their respective businesses, and as they do so, hopefully their creativity, feedback and success will push me forward as well.

- Peter -

Turning you on: An (over) simplified process for using a lathe

Last week I posted a couple pictures of an in-process project that involved making some display cases with spindles. Now that I've finished that project and caught up with (most) of my July work, I thought it would be both informative and cool to show some of the simple process for producing a spindle on a lathe. In doing so, I've omitted several pictures to get to the fun stuff (isn't that what we all want?). Check it:

Step 1) Cut a length of wood that is straight and square on the ends. If it isn't square when you start the lathe, you'll cause yourself irritation and potential eye injury trying to get it centered. If you've ever done ceramics, this process is very similar to centering the mound of clay on the wheel, except that if you don't do it right, you can't just remound the material - you'll waste an expensive piece of wood a tree died to give you. You might not think it, but the harder the wood, the easier it is too turn; soft wood chips and tears more easily, perhaps because the grain/wood fibers are not as tightly bound to one another. Generally, harder woods (maple, walnut, cherry) are much more expensive than softer woods (pine). Actually, come to think of it, perhaps leafy tree wood is softer than coniferous wood - something to think about at a later date... back to getting lathed:

When you have a length of wood that is square on both ends, mark an "X" through the center of both ends. You'll use these to center the piece on the lathe. If your "X" is off-center, you'll end up wasting a lot of material trying to make a cylinder, and probably split the wood or take off giant chunks as described above.

Step 2) Once you have the wood centered and attached to the lathe (again, there are steps here, but I'm trying to keep this relatively brief/simple), you attach your tool rest (a metal bar you place your chisel/knife against, which acts like a fulcrum) about 1/4" from the edge of the wood.

(Step 3) For my project, I was cutting spindles, but wanted to keep the ends of each square, so I cut a very shallow groove around the perimeter of the wood, about 1 1/2" from each end (see photo). If I hadn't done this, I likely would have splintered off a chunk on each end; cutting the groove helps keep the ends square. If you're going to turn the entire length of wood, this wouldn't be necessary.

Step 4) Next is the fun part - turning. Turn on the lathe (obviously). Place the tool firmly agains the tool rest and gradually move it toward the stock of wood, taking off bits/shavings of material very slowly. Proceed down the length of the material, cutting a little more with each pass, until you've turned a cylinder. Pretty easy, huh? It really is.

After that you can use all sorts of other chisels and knives with different ends to create different grooves and cuts in the spindle. For this project, I was given some general direction from the client, but they wanted each one to be different. This, combined with the "rustic" or "handmade" look they wanted, made the job incredibly easy. Typically I would sharpen my knives/chisels frequently, as well as sanding the piece with sandpaper from 60 or 80 grit all the way up to 600 grit or higher. I'd also wear a respirator, safety goggles and ear muffs (safety 1st!).

I should mention I've been doing this for a while now, but am nowhere near a pro. There are people who do this - and only this - type of woodworking as a passion, and produce some amazing things. With the exception of Christmas ornaments and baby rattles, turning is something I usually incorporate into a larger piece, rather than make as stand alone objects. If you want to see cool pictures of way better turnings, or learn more about the process, check out the Loess Hills Woodturners Club, a local club based out of Iowa. Of for more photos, check out the American Association of Woodturners.

Niz's side table

My girlfriend fiancee, Niz, has a slightly different aesthetic than mine when it comes to furniture and interiors. For the most part, I like very solid, dark flooring, molding and furniture. She's sort of the opposite; I think she'd like to live in the Ikea showroom. I think she almost fainted when she saw the custom walk-in closet and cabinets my friend Doug K. made for he and his wife's house.

So, in my continued quest to make her happy, I decided I'd try to move outside my craft comfort zone and make something Ikea-worthy. It's not exactly an Ikea knock-off - that would go against my principal about copying, etc. - but I think I've channeled the simplicity in its use of plywood and veneer and relatively simple design. All in all, I'm pretty happy with this one. The top is made of 5/8" plywood that is about 12" in diameter. The legs are about 16" tall - also made of 5/8" plywood. The top surface is veneered in cherry, and the legs are veneered in walnut. It took all my willpower to keep the edges exposed, as I generally look at plywood with disdain. However, finally taking the time to make something sort of nice out of it might have converted me somewhat. It probably cost about 1/2 to 1/4 the price in materials to make this piece in plywood/veneer rather than solid hardwood, and plywood is a "greener" materials, sort of.