wood magic.

This past weeks have been so busy for me, I'm glad I can say this. My project is coming together nicely. I'm now at the stage of completing the carcass of my jewlery display cabinet. Things will be more clear once you see the pieces come together. 

I have been spending long hours thinking about each step on the process, it is important to remain focused at all times, and more important, to work with a fresh mind. Some of us are just meant to work on morning hours, some other prefer to do it at night, that's a personal thing. 

Anyway I've been combining concepts and examples seen during the program in order to complete this project. Woodworking at this level requires of hours and more hours of attention to detail, that's why we emphasize our most important work on our hand skills, we use the machines, yes, that's a good starting point, but then it's time to go to your bench and just "make some magic," as a good friend from school may say. 

Sunshine for some early work

This can be done with some nice hand tools, with a razor sharp blade, I'm talking "sharp." Then our tools can make what our mind tells them, which is really important. A dull ( not sharp) tool can make a disaster in seconds, so it's always better to be sharp and smart. 

I enjoy all of the process of furniture making, the design, the mockup, the discussion of different approaches to different situations is amazing. I've said this before, but will reafirm that this type of work is as complex as any engineering process, we have to respect every step on our procedure. 

More important is to have always in mind this, "wood is a living material in constant movement." This is something hard to understand, but true. The grain direction on any piece of wood combined with the seasonal humidity, and other external and internal factors, will make any piece of wood want to move, we cannot avoid that, what we can do is analyze this  possible movements and find different design solutions. 

Rail Shaping with handplane

Our year end show will be on 17 days, there's a lot to be done, but I'll get there. You can see here the advances I've made on my piece, bottom, sides and top frame, that will then receive a partition, and a tray system. 

Top frame will have glass

Cabinet assembled

We can talk about that as there's more advance. 

See you later!

Cheers!

curious? take a look.

As we go, we are running out of time, this first year has gone so fast here at the school, it is incredible to see how out skills have improved from day one. We are now facing some serious work, and we are making it happen. 

Our emphasis on handtools has given us confidence to stand in front of this projects and being able to execute as we go. We are masterizing our hands to drive our "planes" where we need to. 

We use our different planes to make this incredible woods look as they deserve to. 

My project has gone through a process of creation, in which you have to make adjustments along the way. After making some drawings and determining our project dimensions we create a mock-up. 

This consists on taking your dimensions and bring them to life to a full size project in a different material.  I used cardboard and basically wanted to look at my piece's volume, height, etc. 

The mock-up process helps to make corrections and inspires new ideas. 

I then decided to adjust my 3d design and look at the project with its different details in place.  

Front view of the cabinet.

Every component has to have a series of steps analyzed in order to accomplish it. This are included in our procedure lists. 

Tray functionality. 

This jewelry display cabinet has a special purpose, not only displays our jewelry through the glass, but you are able to place this trays on top of our frame. This trays (drawers) can be interchangeable too, that means you can have two different setups on them, and change them every now and then to have some interesting displays every time a customer gets to see this piece. 

Dovetails will bring a spark into this piece, you will be able to see this. 

I also brought this design possibilities into a more real concept, and used different woods in showing this details. This will give me an idea on executing the process on real wood too. 

Frame and glass.

Front view.

The project is taking shape now, this is really exciting. Making a piece of furniture is a process that needs a lot of attention and respect, just as any process in any profession. It has taught me a lot about myself and about this craft. 

Lateral panel Construction

Cabinet coming to life!

Sycamore and Boxwood just look so nice. 

I will continue working, looking forward to our year end's show, you will enjoy this. 

Look at Nicolas, he has grown for sure!

Looking at this chairs quality. 

danish cord.

We had the fortune of having an interesting lecture last week, in the technique of danish cord. This is a brilliant application for chairs, with an outstanding appereance. One of our classmates is making a rocking chair, and it has been interesting watching this process, Dave is doing a great job with his proyect, I will show it later on. 

This technique consists on the wrapping of  our different rails with the danish cord, giving ample support to the seat, and complementing the wood as you will see in this pieces. 

This is Dave's backer of his chair, it will support your back, he chose to implement the technique in here, which gives an interesting look. 

Danish Cord Detail

Cording Progress

Our school's Master Craftsman Robert Van Norman, has included this technique in some of his proyects, you will see the quality of work shown in his pieces, impecable work with craftsmanship all over this beautiful pieces. I feel fortunate of being under the teachings of this great teacher. 

This double-rocker was Robert's proyect when he attended the College of the Redwoods. 

Double Rocker waiting to be seated. Incredible piece. 

This wenge chair shown below, was executed a few years ago, it is a beautiful piece, with incredible stories behind it. 

 Design of Swedish furnituremaker Vidar Malmsten

Pictures taken for Inside Passage School of Fine Woodworking 

It is always a learning experience to go through different proyects that have come out from this great school, I would highly reccomend to visit their website. 

www.insidepassage.ca

I am planning to do a chair proyect for next year. I applied for a second year here at the school, the Resident Craftsman Program, and got accepted, I'm really excited to do this second year. A chair will be a great piece for this year, and the danish cord will be complementing my wood for sure!

let's get some wood!

As we advance in our proyects, we keep on learning different things and practicing some others. It was time for our third chainsaw milling of this year. This time we had a local maple tree available just a few minutes from the school. I think there is no better way of obtaining wood, making it local and totally sustainable process. 

Maple tree ready for process. 

This maple tree needed to come down for some reasons, it was having some problems growing, and they decided to bring it down. The owners offered this wood to the school, and we got the opportunity to do the chainsaw milling.


It is amazing how simple this is, and how much you can get. What we do is basically slice the tree into thick planks of wood, which will become fine pieces of furniture on the future. 

Slicing some planks.

It will take around two years before this wood is ready to work with. It will have to go through a process of air drying, followed by other processes of humidity reduction, until you end up with wood ready to use. Here at the school we have this sweet room, just beside my bench, in which different species are stored and are available for us to use in our proyects. 

Inspiration levels increase as you enter this room. 

This is some of the things we do around here, I hope you enjoyed! 

Project Time

Time for a new project finally came. This process is totally different from what we have been used to. It is time to think and rethink every decision taken, from the design process to the execution of it. I am planning on making a jewlery display cabinet for Monica's jewelry, which will be placed on a store in Mexico. It is an exciting project to make. 

I started making some sketches for the project, waking up that stage in design, which I was not much used in the past, I enjoyed making sketches and at the same time thinking about wood, I guess that's one of the things permanately on my mind. 

When I was first deciding for a project I wanted to make a jewelry desk for Monica, a working station. Then in the process of analyzing it I came up with the decision that it would not be the appropiate project for this time; we are now in the last months of the program, and time will be a factor for now, so I decided to scale down this project and made some modifications and came up with the design for the jewelry display cabinet. 

Jewelry Desk Design. I really like this design, I'm glad I could scale it down for this project. 

This cabinet will be a veneered project, which means that I will slice my wood into a certain thickness (3/32", 3 mm) and then apply it to a substraight. This method gives the opportunity of extending out wood into larger surfaces keeping some pattern in our projects. Here you can see how we had a plank of wood and then sliced the center part of it to meke some veneers. The rest will be used for drawer fronts and frame members. 

The woods for this project will be boxwood for the outside of the box, drawer fronts, frames, etc. Boxwood is a southamerican wood, really closed grain, very dense and is just incredible to work with. You can plane it in both directions and you will not experience any tear out. 

Boxwood veneers extended to certain patterns. 

The inside of the box will be out of English Sycamore, which brings more light to the inside of the box complements the boxwood nicely. 

Sycamore veneers 

The stand will be out of White Oak, a strong wood with character, using some nice joinery was used  up on the 1950's by Danish cabinetmakers. Lord Godfrey, a teacher and exalumni  from Inside Passage brought this sample. 

Some of the inspiration on this project came out from Danish Chairs, they had so many simple and practical solutions for joinery, like this chair for example, by Borge Mogensen back in 1957. Your can see the joinery used for this chair, and what I like the most those "wings" on the armrests used by the Danish back on those days. I think it adds something else to design. 

Borge Mogensen Chair.

(Pictures by Timeless Modern Furniture)

I will be gluing up some panels today, big glueups,  I could then show you the final look of those boxwood and sycamore veneers, they came out really sweet. 

See you later!

box presentation.

The box. 

The box exercise has finally come to an end. Last week I finished this piece and it turned out really well. I presented the box to the class followed by our "elephant," which is our weekly gathering to relax.

Presenting my box, big night.

This box represented a big step in my learning process in the school, it has been carefully executed with every litttle detail getting taken care of. It sounds easier than it really is, but I'm really happy with it. I remained faithful to the original design, which included the tray, that really brings the box to another level.

Tray on box.

Carcass dovetails detail

Making decisions is what woodworking is all about, just as in life, and making them at the right time is very important as well, so with this project I guess I learned from that lesson. It helped me complete this box, but also decide over other issues. 

I decided to apply for the Resident Craftsman Program at the school and this week I received my acceptance letter, that made me very happy, a second year at the school consists on personal work through the year, with some advanced exercises as well. I am honored for having this opportunity, and for having my family to support me, thank you Monica and Nicolas!

So I will stay around for some time in here, and keep on learning on this neverending world of woodworking, I have started to work on my next project, I will present someof the advance on the following days. 

Enjoy! 

Snowday view from my bench

Nicolas enjoying his time at the school. 

   

"the" box

As we are learning our techniques, we are moulding our character as well. We started our first project in december. This project consisted on reproducing a jewlery box Mr. Krenov made back in 1969. We had the opportunity of chosing the wood for this project out of five options: maple, ash, black walnut, white oak and sipo. This box is a gift for my wife Monica, which by the way is a jewelry designer. We decided to make the box out of sipo, which in an African wood, that looks very similar to mahogany. 

This wood has been a challange to work with, it had to be handled with so much care during the dovetailing process, due to its lack of compression and the open grain on it. I guess the most intimidating part of the process were the dovetails, which require  patience, patience, and more patience. 

Wood Selection 

Dovetailing Process

Pieces ready for assembly

glue up time

zoom into dovetails

lid fitting

The process of creating a piece of furniture of this quality requires to be going back and forth, making and remaking, testing each part of the process. Sometimes you might get "greedy" as Mr. Krenov quoted, and might not get the results you want. Wood is a living material that needs to be treated with extreme care. take extra considerations, study the possibilities of success on a process, and very important be very careful at each of this steps, that might take you ahead if done correctly or take you several steps behind if you are not focused. 

I guess I didn't have an idea on how much work a piece of furniture can take, its process could be compared on executing an engineering project, I kind of relate this with engineering processes, so much to be careful with, the importance of following the process in the right order, micro-tolerances, and no room for mistake. 

My family is supporting me in this project, I am a very lucky man to have them with me. 

Monica and Nicolas

Snowshoe Sunday

All of this combined turn out in a lifestyle that I'm just passionate about, that is giving me the "rythm and balance" that I was looking for, this with the support from my lovely family. I will be looking forward to finish this box in the next week, and deliver as promissed. 

See you next time!