Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers Awarded Working Lands Grant

The Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers was awarded a $10,000 grant today from the Vermont Working Lands Enterprise Initiative.  The Guild was 1 of only 20 grant recipients announced in the first round of funding which had 191 applicants. The grant will be used to help implement a more comprehensive marketing plan for the Guild, an organization of 26 juried master furniture makers with shops located throughout the state of Vermont.

Guild members Chris Ericson (president), Richard Bissell (vice president) and Dave Boynton (steering committee member) traveled to the Vermont State House today to accept the grant on behalf of the Guild.  

The Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers is an association of master level furniture makers dedicated to the promotion of quality craftsmanship, excellence in design, and the pursuit of artistic vision.  Its goal is to increase public awareness and appreciation of this time honored art, thereby expanding the market for handcrafted furniture and promoting the common interests of furniture makers in Vermont. For more information about the Guild visit VermontFurnitureMakers.com.

Spring Update, Kitchen Work Stools and Office Chairs

I just finished up two extra large kitchen work stools. They are based on my regular High Kitchen Work Stool but they are 2 inches wider and deeper than the original.  The three images below show some of the steps in shaping the seats.

the finished stools

stool leg wedged tenon detail

stool seat detail

bags of sawdust take a ride on the mercedes to the bottom of the driveway.

 For the last few years, I have been bagging my sawdust and putting it at the bottom of my driveway.  It always disappears within a day.  I think it gets used for chicken house bedding.  If I ever get some chickens, I will start keeping it for myself.

fruits of labor

a blank for a rocking chair seat all mapped out for drilling

Below are two of my Waltham Arm Chairs in cherry and ash to be mounted on office chair , swivel tilt hardware.

looking up at my shop roof peak while lying on the driveway on a sunny spring day.

Figaro, teaching me how to enjoy a sunny driveway.

The grass is beginning to green up, the black birds are in the marsh nearby and the geese are nesting after spending a week or so sitting on the ice.

Happy Spring,

Tim  

TimothyClark.com

Source: Hyper-Local Stand Up Desk

The piece I'm showing in the Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers current show Source is a stand up desk made from wood harvest off my land in Putney, VT and built in my newly-solar-powered shop.

Cherry stand up desk
42" x 20" x 41"h
Photo credit - Tim Clark

Rather than using the "best" (highest grade) lumber that was harvest I chose to use lumber that would usually be relegated to the kindling box - essentially scrap lumber. The cherry boards are narrow and have visible sap wood, knots and other defects.  The wood for the legs, although it looks quite nice, was salvage out of boards cut from the center of the logs so there were many knots, checks and pith that had to be worked around to end up with usable lumber.  I chose a cherry board with a nice mixture of sap wood (white) and heart wood (red) for the drawer fronts.  The drawer sides and backs are from soft maple which is my usual practice.  I find its light color contrasts nicely with cherry drawer fronts.

A May 2010 wind storm took down about an acre of trees on our Putney, VT property.

Usable cherry, hard maple, soft maple, pine and aspen saw logs were salvaged from the windfall

The logs were sawed into lumber at a Putney, VT sawmill and kiln dried  across the Connecticut river in Westmoreland, NH

Cherry boards with lots of sapwood are often either used where they won't be seen, stained
or not used at all.

I made the drawer bottoms from  aspen (often referred to as poplar or popple).  This is a very low value wood that isn't of much use for anything.  It's very soft and doesn't work well (the grain often rips out rather than planing nicely).  It's not even of much use for firewood.  The old timers say "You can make ice over a poplar fire".  Back when people cooked with wood cook stoves poplar was used as summer wood - wood used to make fires in the summer because it doesn't leave hot coals.  It just burns quickly and the fire dies out just as quickly - no lingering hot coals on a hot summer day.  I've also heard aspen is good for horse stall floors - soft without knots so easy on their hooves.  In any case it make very nice clear, white, lightweight drawer bottoms.  I have a wide belt sander so I was able to smooth it easily after the planer ripped out the grain.

Grain tear out on aspen drawer bottoms

In December of 2012 we installed a 10 kw solar power system that now supplies 100% of the power for my workshop.  The system is grid tied which means that excess power that is not immediately used by the workshop is feed into the grid and credited to the shop's account.  On days when the shop uses more power than the solar panels produce (rainy days, for example) the additional power needed is drawn from the grid. The panel are mounted on AllSun Trackers built by AllEarth Renewables of Winooski, VT.

A 10 kw solar power system provides power to the workshop
(seen in the background between the panels)

Source runs through April 14, 2013 at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, VT.

Richard Bissell builds Shaker inspired furniture from responsibly harvest solid hardwoods in his solar powered workshop in Putney, VT.

Opening of "Source: Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers" show at Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, Vermont

"Source: Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers" 

 The opening for the show was this evening.  It was a chilly evening in the low teens but there was no precipitation so the roads were clear for the drive.   There were a good many people who came out for the opening.  I took these shots later as things quieted down. Below are images of the pieces that can be seen at the show.  I listed names of the maker of each piece but I did not comment as I did not want to make incorrect statements.  I was very impressed with all of the work.  These images do not do it justice. Perhaps another member took better shots and will post them.

If you can't make the show, please look up these names on our website and browse through all of the other great work on our website.  These images only represent 15 of the 30 or so furniture makers represented on our website.   Click Helen Day Art Center to find out more about the show. To visit the Guild site click here.  Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers.

Table and chairs by Dan Mosheim

Table by Dave Hurwitz

Table by Bob Gasperetti

 piece by Steve Holman

Chairs by Tim Clark(left), Mario Messina(back), and Kit Clark(rocker) 

Chest by Dave Hurwitz,  End Table by Erin Hanley

Chairs from left to right, George Ainley, Tim Clark, George Ainley

Richard Bissell

Tansu Cabinet by Pete Novick

Table and Chairs by Jim Becker

Table by Bill Laberge

Cabinet by Dave Boynton

Cabinet by Josh Metcalf,  Table by Walt Stanley

Chair by Mario Messina (in foreground)

Table by Dave Boynton

Vanity Table by Johns Congdon

Small Sideboard by Doug "Sideboard" Clarner

Coffee Table by Walt Stanley

Below is the card for the show.

"Source: Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers" show at Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, Vermont

The Guild is exhibiting work by 15 of our members in an exhibit called "Source: Guild of Vermont Furniture Makers", at the Helen Day Art Center in Stowe, Vermont.  The show runs from January 18 - April 14, 2013.  The opening reception is Friday the 18th at 6pm.

Here is the show poster.  (click image to enlarge):

I will have a new Console Table in the show that is based on the table in the poster.  The new table has two similar carved forms that mirror each other, attached to a wider base.  The top is curly Vermont maple.  I'm just finishing it up, so I haven't photographed it yet, but I will post photos of it soon.

I will also have a Chest of Drawers in carved walnut with ash drawers in the show. Here are a few photos of it. For optimal viewing, please turn up the brightness on your screen (click image to enlarge):

Book matched frame and panel back

For information and details about this piece and how it was made, please visit my website.

This piece will be featured in the March-April issue of Fine Woodworking magazine.  It also won a first place award in the 2012 Vermont Fine Furniture and Wood Products Design Competition.

Hope to see you at the show opening on Friday.

Cheers,

David Hurwitz

www.DavidHurwitzOriginals.com

Unique, Handcrafted Woodwork and Design

some case pieces from the past

i'm on a mission to economically digitize my predigital images and it's quite a process.  my photographer was partial to 4x5 transparencies and satin prints, neither of which have i had much luck scanning to get high quality. larger images. so, after a little experimentation, i've got a pretty good set up now for sunny days where i just set my digital camera on a tripod, place the transparency on a little frosted glass easel that i made and take a quick photo before the transparency curls from the sun ... it's the best way yet that i've found to copy them.  i've also got a set up for 35mm that works too, but i need to get a new viewer ...
for more photos of both sideboards and case pieces visit our dorset custom furniture blog.  click the photos to enlarge them ...

sideboards here

case pieces here

 1989  natural cherry

 

 my 'transparency copier'

 1986 .. mahogany and black milk paint ... origin piece of our 'studio style'

 1993

 +/- 1993 .. can't remember

 early 90's sometime

 ditto ... 

goes with the piece above and has a mirror too ..

 'studio style'

for comparison, a purely digital image

 1990

 1996.  copy of an existing antique

 yee hah !! 1994.  where are these customers these days ???

 remarkably, 1983

 disassembled and reconfigured in a new location in 2010

 90's

90's

the wife ... 1971 ..  

for your 35 mm slides, find your old slide viewer and take it from there.