a day at Inside Passage.

It has been more than a month since we started this year at Inside Passage, things have settled right now, everybody knows what they're doing and work couldn't be better. This learnig experience doesn't seem to have an end, so happy to know that. 

The Craftsman students are doing a great job on their exercises, they are now working on the "Wabi Sabi" cabinet exercise, in which they will learn about proportions, design, joinery and how important a procedure list is on the execution of every piece. 

Lecture.

We Resident Craftsman are still working on the joinery, which has evolutionized from day one. This chair seemed to be designed for educational purposes, it has taken us from the most simple joinery, a 90 degree live tenon, to a compound angle floating tenon, so far, which will then convert into a more complex subject. It is challenging, it has brought back all those familiar engineering subjects into my mind. It's nice being able to build a piece of furniture which totally demands safety, design and aesthetics.  

Getting busy at my workbench. 

I feel fortunate being around this group of Resident Craftsman, we are learning as a group and share experiences and problems as well. I guess we are all "going for it" into this craft as a profession, as many of the Craftsman Program. It is nice to discuss and learn as we go. 

Melissa squaring things up. 

Robert always sharing his knowledge.

One of our Resident Craftsman brought some great news last week. Melissa got her first piece commisioned. It is a big deal for us, she is a very important member of our group, just the kind of person that will have the best attitude for any situation, I'm happy for her, this will be the starting point for her carreer, congratulations Melissa!

Last week we celebrated Nicolas' 2nd birthay as well, it is amazing seeing him grow and learn every day. Monica brought a delicious carrot cake here to the school. Nicolas has celebrated both of his birthays at Inside Passage. He's just "chilin'" as a good friend may say. 

Nicolas' borthay. 

Anyway, we'll keep up with the work over here. This chairs are now looking much like one, and we've been having beautiful weather over here. We'll be able to enjoy more sun on the following days. 

They're starting to look like chairs!

Cheers everybody!

We roast our own coffee now at Inside Passage. 

the magic began.

It is time to talk about this new year at Inside Passage. For you new readers, Inside Passage School of Fine Cabinetmaking is located in British Columbia, on the Sunshine Coast. Great place, nothing but focus in our craft. 

Vidar's Chair Drawing execution. 

I  started the Resident Craftsman Program, my second year here at the school. This year is a full new experience for me and the family. It is now time to download all that knowledge learned on the last year, and apply it as we go. Five of us students are on our second year, and twelve new students are on the Craftsman Program. A young class, full of energy, which is nice to experience with. All the new learning that will happen on here, and we still have no idea on the teachings of every day, so hard to explain.


We started right away to work on our new project, Vidar's Chair. This chair was designed and made back in 1970 by Vidar Malmsten, son of Carl Malmsten, a Swedish legend in our craft. 


James Krenov, to who we owe the chance of having this teachings that Robert Van Norman teaches us generously here at the school, studied with him back in the day. 


This chair has a special meaning here at the school. Vidar Malmsten finished this chair on James Krenov shop. Mr. Krenov wrote about this experience at some point. It is inspirational being able to be close to all this history of such legends. 

“He came on his bicycle, with the chair nearly finished, he had not yet decided on the back piece. He turned my shop into a disaster area. He would keep sawing blanks for the back piece. And he would put one in and he would draw on his pipe. He had a low voice and a calm way, he’d look back at that back piece and say “Ya, well, maybe, what would happen if we turn it upside down?” and we’d turn it upside down and now that wouldn’t work. And then he’d saw another one and the clock was going around and around.

It was one o’clock and two o’clock and finally he put a piece in there. He looked at it and then he went over to the bandsaw and he took a little bit here and a little bit there and he put it in there and he backed off and he said “Ya, well maybe it’s better that way.” and that was the back piece for the chair, the way it is now and forever. And it is not to my credit but the only thing that I cherish is the memory because he did not live after that. People like it it is a very comfortable chair, I am sitting in one of them right now talking to you. The prototype was finished in Jim Krenov’s shop and that he and Vidar were very close friends. That’s nice for people to remember. It was around 1970.”

– James Krenov

With this said, and Robert guiding us through this amazing process, our minds are now working to get this chair done. So much to learn each day, the curves, the joinery, the graphics, what wan I say, it's just amazing to be learning this skills. Robert himself made this chair, and has the experience to guide us with his experience. 


Here are some photos of Vidar's Chair, made by Robert Van Norman some years ago. The wood is wenge, just amazing. 

We keep on talking every day about everything we learn, and every day Robert has a new teaching that just blows your mind. Cheers for that, I feel so fortunate to be on this school learning every day and doing what I do. 


I am enjoying every step on this process, it makes me remind of so many things as I go along. Getting drawings done, then getting into the wood and find those pieces that will make what you tell them to do. 

Some understand this, some others not, what I can assure you is that in any craft, is a matter of patience and enthusiasm what gives that final result you desire. Being focused and relaxed is very important, and  at the end of each day its just positive results. 


Cheers everybody, enjoy!


Raul 

time to enjoy.

Last week I received a magic envelope. This envelope contained the files from my 2nd piece at the Inside Passage School of Fine Woodworking. After some months of work, we had our year end show, followed by a Professional Photo Shooting. Ingeborg Suzzane was in charge of taking this sharp and balanced photographs. www.isphoptography.com




She has been working with the school for some years now, she can see what we want you to see, because a piece of furniture has to be appreciated in different angles and it takes time to explore all this details that make each piece unique. 

I must say I was impressed to see this photographs. After so much work, you believe you know every angle of your piece. I feel fortunate to see it through another eyes and talent. 


Take your time to enjoy the work, go through it, all of this is the result of an effort to take care on each and every one of the details. 


This piece was made for my wife Monica, she's a jewelry maker, and we wanted to show her talent too, so we thought of this, a jewelry display cabinet. You will see through the photographs that the drawers, are interchangeable trays that can be removed and placed on top. This will show the interested any piece they're interested on, at a comfortable position. 


This piece will be attached to a stand, proyect I will be doing on this following months. I've had time to think about it, and it will match the cabinet really nice. The design will keep the same rythm shown. 


Looking at my work made me feel inspired to take the next step on this life experience. I am sure of what my hands are capable of, and know even more that the learning experience will never end. 


Cheers everybody!


Raul  

mexican summer. just WoW.

Well, it has been almost a month since my last post, I'm kind of anxious on writing this one, so here we go. Last time I posted on a box I was making for a present for a good friend. I finished the box and you know, I had to deliver it. So I went on, with the family and delivered this box. The place was the Caribbean Sea, on a town called Tulum, let me tell you just paradise. 

Sliding lid. 

Finished Product. Delivered. 

A good friend owns a Bed & Breakfast over there, which he recently opened, and we had to go and check it out, catch some sun, and enjoy. His place is called "Jardin de Frida" (Frida's Garden).  An amazing spot to visit, full of positive energy, great food and interesting people. If you are on the area sometime, you have to check it out. Here's some useful info. 

http://www.fridastulum.com/

Top View of the Garden. Jungle, Jungle, Jungle.  

Creativity on every corner of this place, some Mexican Funky Style. 

watercolor@Tulum

Enjoying the paradise was an amazing experience, I started meeting people in here and looking up at some trees and some wood. You wouldn't believe the wood I found over here, just amazing-incredible stuff. The colors, densities, grain patterns made my blood just boil, and wanted just to start working on something over there, but I had no time for that, eventhough I had the time to meet some local woodworkers, and ended up on a workshop on the jungle. 

I met a family of woodworkers,  the father, leader of the family "El Tigre" (The Tiger), and 3 of his sons ran a workshop in which they made any sort of work. Creativity on any process is so important, do what you can with what you have, so this guys made their machines and made their "magic".

Wooden-shop made tablesaw-mortiser.

Frame members for doors on "Chechen", this wood has some stories behind that go up to the Mayan Civilization. 

Milling of some "Sapote" this wood is so dense and close grained, that I thought mmmm wooden planes, I bought a plank and brought it back. 

Wood for planes. Let it dry and I'll tell you later what I could do. 

Other samples I brought back home which include some "Ziricote",  "Palo Rosa" and other species. 

This place has so many species of wood, and so many stories behind. It was a great experience talking to this woodworkers who still have their Mayan lifestyle. They don't loose their way of looking at things and on this case on wood. They have a lot of respect for nature and for trees. 

There are some species of trees which they only cut on full moon, other species which are highly poisonous, they find cure for this on other trees, just a connection with the Earth that I have never seen. 

A lot of energy is felt through this area, people's lifestyle is an example for our modern civilization. 

Coba, a ceremonial piramid on the heart of the jungle. Very energetic place I must say. 

Returning from the top. 

Diving on Cenotes, underground caves.

I had the opportunity on traveling to an island on the Mexican Caribbean, Holbox, and check out some interesting construction systems as well, whoever is into this you'll enjoy this. All made from Sapote, the wood that I was talking about. I found some decks made from this, which have been underwater for at least 10 years, and the wood is perfect, not rotten, it was an incredible response to water. 

check this out.

It came time to come back after 3 weeks of a truly amazing experience for me and my family, we learned  a lot, and enjoyed a different lifestyle, checked out some wood and chilled out. 

Cheers everybody, we'll enjoy the end of our summer, and come back to Canada for the Resident Craftsman Program. Can't wait for that to happen, go back to my bench and travel through the process of creation on the Inside Passage. 

See you later!

the family just chilin'

See you later!

new episode: Mexico is magic.

Well, it came time to come back to my country and enjoy the summer. After some intensive months at Inside Passage School of Fine Woodworking, an amazing school on British Columbia, for those who wonder where this is: I am now living the transition stage, which consists on working no matter what. 

As our master's thoughts may say, do what you can with what you have. So I am now doing some work. It has been an evolutionary process, as everything in life. I will show you some of the projects I have been creating over the last month, all of them different and more important, have given me some thought about the work that I enjoy the most. 

Well, I came back and surprise, somebody has been working here on the shop, losing no time in here, everything has an improvement in here, attribute this to my father, he's a doctor, but has always had the spirit of a woodworker and enjoys making his projects here on the shop. 

He is working on this wood constructive system to innovate people's way of living. It is really interesting, and I'm glad to be helping with what I can on it. We can talk about this project later on through the summer. 

Anyway, he made this shop look amazing over the last months, so here you can see the idea  that he has, a doctor with some engineering and woodworking skills, I could attribute the creative side of my mind to him. 

Main entrance of the shop. 

On the following days, I continued to settle up on the shop, unpacked my tools, and started to work immediatly. I got involved into a project that consisted on the creation of a storage unit. Nothing fancy, just a nice project to refresh my mind, and come back to do some work. 

This is it. 

I wanted to do something fast, that could be assembled on site on a short period of time, and I got it. It came out pretty good. I must say it was strange working with this scale of work after my first year at the school, I must reccomend to everyone to keep tthe scale of work to the best you can handle. 

Shelving detail. 

On place now. 

Then I continued on my next project. This is a staircase prototype that I want to do on an appartment. For some reason, I have been working on  the design for this staircase since last summer, this has had an evolution on this project, I have gathered more experience for resolving this project. 

Anyway, I made the mockup for this staircase, something really simple and found a way of assembling it on the shop to make the installation really simple. 

My engineer's brain always has always tried to find the way to simplify on-site work. I know the importance of working on your optimal conditions, that means on the shop, the more you can accomplish in here, the less work outside. 

You can look at the mockup here.

I was really anxious to work with my hands on a different type of project, so I decided to start this box, something similar to the type of work we do at the Inside Passage. 

This box was a very good exercise for me, it got me back on the sharpening station, it brought my hands back to my planes, on my chisels, and renovated my spirit. 

It is a box with a sliding lid. This is the first time I do this type of lid, and it came out pretty nice. I used some local Pine I have had with me for some time. It is nice wood to work with. 

Design stage. the mockup. 

Selecting the material. 

Started to do the "magic"

Chisels back to work!

Joinery Complete

Dovetail Pattern

Lid Procedure 

Then it was time to find a solution for the lid, It had to be something attractive, and I really didn't want to capture the contents of the box, which I don't know what they will be, so I came up with this idea. My benchmate, a good English friend made an amazing pipe cabinet, which had a ventilated door, the appereance  was really clean, I liked the negative space created by the space between the pieces, so this was the starting point for my lid. 

Top View. 

Slide, Slide

Sliding door concept? future project. 

Let me say that sliding wood on wood is one of the more pleasant things to do, for those who enjoy furniture, you may know what I'm talking about, the sound, the touch, the feeling, just an incredible thing to do. 

I will finish this on the next couple of days, still have to do the finishing and some pull mockups, so you'll see this finished on the next one. 

I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoy writing. 

Have a nice day everybody. 

"Talent is cheaper than tablesalt. What separates the talented individual from the succesful one, is a lot of hard work."

- Stephen King 

Cheers!