First up is a project which I had briefly mentioned in the last entry. Our client wanted a kitchen table with a filled carving on the top and a doubly curved base (which is the part I’d mentioned in the last blog). For the top, rather than do a traditional “river” table with an epoxy fill we thought that carving something with some shape into the table top would be more interesting. I found a grayscale map of the Grand Canyon online and modified it to create the design you can see below. This had to be carved in two setups due to the length of the table. Once carved and sanded we were ready to pour the epoxy. Using a light blue tint this gave us a nice blue/green colour in the wood. Curing took 48 hours, then the top had a lot of sanding to get it glassy smooth. This was then attached to the base which you can see in the second to last picture and oiled for finish. The customer was very happy with the finished table which is shown in the last image.
Also for this customer we were asked to make a lattice to go into the base of a deep shower. The staves for this were pre-cut to the right cross section then slabbed up on the CNC as if they were one board, clamping them together and then machining the joints into them with simple pocket toolpaths. In the first two photos below you can see the short and long staves being machined. Then in the third photo you can see them being assembled, with the finished lattice shown in the fourth image. This was made from Iroko as its naturally oily and so will last better in a moist environment.
The kitchen we have been working on for many months is now complete, I don’t have finished photos but was able to get over there and take some pictures while the guys were installing some of the final pieces. Below you can see the ceiling beam, entry door and some of the cabinet doors we made. Together it looks really striking and I hope to get some photos of the completed kitchen soon.
For the door the customer wanted a large handle to match some of the other features in the house. He decided to go for a red leather clad brass pipe with bold octagonal walnut tops and bottoms. I created the model and then carved the two pairs of walnut parts with a two-sided setup. You can see them being machined in the first image below, then the finished parts and in finally situated with the pipe section.
Switching gears now, as previously mentioned on this blog we have a customer who is very partial to cherubs. We’ve started some new work for him and so I’m back into carving different interpretations of some of the designs we’ve used previously in his house. These are all based on original carved cherubs that he already has as decoration. The first photo shows an arched door for a medicine cabinet, here I’ve adapted one of the cherub designs to fit the corner. The second photo shows heads on square blocks that will be applied to the top of posts dividing panelled doors in a large room. The third and fourth photos show a design which is going into the panels on these doors. There are at least 16 of these.
The frames for the doors have been made by hand but required me to make some pointed arch components for the top. These had to match the rebate for the glass and a profile on the front of the pieces that had already been built. I made a couple of prototypes to get to one that matched perfectly, then started making the 20+ sets we needed for the doors. In the first photo you can see multiples being cut. The second photo shows the back of the part that was cut two-sided. The last two photos show two of the doors with the pieces expertly assembled by Al in the workshop downstairs. These look really nice so my hats off to Tom who has designed the whole room and all the work Al did to bring the drawings to life. Its nice to be able to contribute a small part with the arches and carved panels. Good team effort.
As well as the client commissioned work I’ve also been pottering with my own stuff. One of these was an exercise to do what I am calling “extreme museum sketching”. Often you see people in museums making sketches from the exhibits and I’ve been know to do this myself. I thought it would be fun though to take it a stage further and attempt to model something I’d seen in a museum and carve my own version of it. The first picture below shows a clay sculpture of a horse that is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. I took the photo into Vectric’s Aspire software and spent a few hours modelling my own virtual version based on this which you can see in the second image. I then carved two copies, one mirrored which can been see progressing in the third photo. Once done I glued these together and gave them a good sand as you can see in the fourth photo. I was quite pleased with how this looked and plan to try accenting the shape by staining and sanding the high spots to create dark areas within the creases of the model. More on that in the next blog entry (if I remember…)
Finally a section of a few random things that I’ve cut and finished in the last couple of months. In the first image is the wedding present box I’d made the front for. This has since been used successfully and now the front is a wall decoration for the happy couple. The second image shows some push-sticks I made for the guys in the workshop out some scraps of oak flooring. A good use for material that would otherwise be burned. The third image are the frames that were made from all the egg and dart lengths that I cut a few months ago. They’ll now have glass added and go into the fireplaces in the clients house to act as draught covers. The fourth image is a sign for a company who have moved into the Farm where our workshop is located. I made this for them as a sign for the business and to show off a bit what we can do as they may have some work for us in future… Always good to keep in with your neighbours.
The fifth image is a small army of Chimps I made. These are based on a graphic from “The Chimp Paradox” book which is great. I wanted to make one for myself and thought I’d make a batch while I was doing it. The sixth image are two prototype paperweights I made from Black Walnut filled with lead-shot. These are very tactile and rather pleasingly can also be used as a makeshift maraca… The seventh image is a half-hull Typhoon Class submarine model that I’ve machined for an art piece I have in the works. Finally the last photo are some prototype magnetic beer openers using the RAF roundel (Mod emblem) as a motif. These are still to be sanded and oiled. Once sanded the stain may need refreshing a little to complete them. That’s most of what’s been happening since the last update. More again toward the end of the year.
