Welcome to my Shop
In October I took some time off to build on a new studio space for painting. I've had some time to paint and have really enjoyed the new space. Its a very relaxing space for me to work in. I am surrounded by "all my junk" in one room again !
On one end is my paintng area, (shown above) and the other end (below) is more of a sitting area. I can sit at 25 feet away from the easel and review my work from a distance, which really helps me on perspective and tone.
The sitting room above is furnished with rustic furniture of course !
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A while back I received an email from the BPS website from a young lady expressing an interest in learning how to make rustic furniture. Below, is Jessica. She wanted to know if i would consider working with an apprentice. After some thought and a few emails i decided that we could meet and discuss any opportunities in person. She lives in the St. Louis area, about 2 hours away, and we picked an afternoon and got together to talk rustic. I gave her a tour of the shop and we sat in all the chairs on my porch, etc. Well, I dont think I want to call it an apprenticeship -- more of a mentoring process. She came down this past weekend and i gave her the choice of heading to the woods to gather or build a project in the shop. She choose the "making stuff" part of the offer. She had put some thought into her first project and brought some walnut slabs of her own. We then, hit my stick stockpile and started choosing wood peices. We talked about the process -the reasoning's - and let it evolve on its own. Below is a picture of her first chair. It has an assortment of different woods, including: walnut, cedar, maple and hickory. All the joints are dowel & tenon and it looks better than my first attempt !
This was a fun project. I enjoyed it and i know Jessica did too. It showed in her work and her attitude. Enthuasium in young people is a great thing and I hope that I have been a small part of encouraging her to follow that spirit . Down to earth low tech "ENTHUASIUM" seems hard to find now-o-days in young people.
Jessica, sitting in HER chair !
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I Usually have a few new projects going at the same time. This one is a little different. It has deer hooves carved into the front legs of the chair and a teepee shaped back. I used some of the sasafrass boards for the seat support, and going to use round sticks for seat. As you probably noticed, there are losts of sticks to choose from around the work area. In normal course, I try many different shapes to find the one that works.
In the photo above, center, is a shaving horse. I made this one and it works good on pieces up to about 3". There are some wedges under the clamp area that regulate the angle. It has a foot pedal that you apply pressure on to clamp the wood in place, It can then be worked with a draw knife. I enjoy drawknife work. Its the primitive way to shape wood with minimal tools. This shaving horse is quite portable and can be taken to the woods.
Above and Below are the Hickory Chairs with Sasafrass seats and backs, that I mentioned earlier. They are breathing on the porch at present. I noticed that they are just beginning to show the effect of our wet enviroment of late. I may bring them in soon and give them a coating of boiled linseed oil & mineral spirits. This was my first at trying to make a somewhat matched pair. The one on the right is a HIS, and the one left is HERS, with a matching side table between. These are sturdy pieces and should last a very long time if kept under cover.
