Another collaboration!

This town offers SO MANY opportunities for people who want to tap into their creative side - we have stone carvers, pottery shops, wood turners and knife makers, just to name a few of the skills one can learn here. I've had the knife-making group on my radar for a few years. In fact, I went to a knife and gun show and was blown away with the array of weapons on display. I blogged about it here, and even organized a woodworking meeting at the shop where many of them forge with fire and create magic.

One of their members reached out to me about making a box to hold a sword he'd made. This piece was outstanding - almost 30" long, with a Damascus faceted blade, and a custom carved (and inlaid!) handle.

 On top of that, he'd fashioned a hand-sewn sheath for the blade with intricate tooling. 

This masterpiece needs to be seen to be fully appreciated!

My task was to fashion both a display stand for this, as well as a box for storing the sword.  This sword was sold to someone in the Middle East, and will be shipped soon. (Have I mentioned that I love having my work across the globe?)

I took a few measurements of the piece, but the asymmetrical blade was a challenge - so my first thought was to make a stand that was adjustable. Sliding dovetails are a perfect solution for this, and after making a cardboard model of the sword, I sketched a few designs on paper, to work out the angles that would hold the sword and sheath. This adjustable stand can be narrowed to hold shorter knives, or slid to its maximum width with to display the longer sword. 

The box was more routine to build, but one thing I've learned is to treat the Maple that I use with a shellac wash, to eliminate any finishing blemishes. Maple and Cherry can turn splotchy when oiled, and I wanted to avoid that. So I thinned some shellac and applied a few coats to seal the grain. 

The lid is held in place with a chain, to hold it at a proper angle and keep it from flipping backwards. And the two small supports that hold the blade have rare-earth magnets inlaid in them. The supports are covered with felt to hide the magnets and protect the blade. 

I absolutely love collaborating with other artists, and I hope to make quite a few boxes for the knife-makers - their community is vibrant and diverse. Right up my alley!

 

Designing - from concept to reality

Ever wonder how a design progresses from a vague concept into reality? 

Sometimes it's a quick process – as I imagine most artists have designs rattling around their brain, and can rapidly turn their designs into reality.

Other times, it's painstakingly slow, with changes and reiterations happening almost daily.

I've worked with a very creatively-minded couple for the past 10 years, having built many pieces of furniture for them, as well as smaller accessories for their home. They travel the world collecting artifacts – and their eye for unique items never fails to impress me. 

Years ago – they came to me with a door knocker collection, asking me for a creative way to display them. They said they'd be happy with mounting the door knockers on just a simple board, to display them.

But I took that as a challenge - and I made quarter sized doors to mount each door knocker on -  here are the first two I made. They are actual working doors with a shadowbox inside of them.

Buy that final door knocker that I had to work with gave me fits!

First of all, it's heavy – and very big. This isn't the exact one I was working with, but it's very close. About 8" long, and roughly 2.5 pounds of solid copper.

I mounted this door knocker on a sample piece of wood, but its weight caused the board to topple over. So I knew making a door/shadowbox as I had before wouldn't work. The weight of this door knocker would cause the whole piece to topple. 

Back to square one... 

In the beginning, I worked with the idea of making a round door, because I felt that fish imagery lent itself toward curves. 

As with all designers, I flooded my brain with images to stir up more inspiration. Because the door knocker is a giant fish, the design I wanted had to include some inspiration with water. So I played around with aquatic themes. I'll admit – I was struggling with this, because of the parameters I had to work with, size wise. (More about that later.)

Meanwhile, I was at another client's home a couple of weeks ago; she's creative and inspiring. I brought up this design, and that I was struggling with it. It was a classic “analysis paralysis” that I was experiencing, where too many designs decision decisions muddy the waters, making it difficult to choose just one. My friend gave me a bit of a pep-talk, as well as made me promise that I would go home and settle on one design.

Easier said than done!

Back in my studio - I had more than a few designs rattling around in my brain. But I was determined to finish this project. It's only been four years since I started this! 

This pendant started me thinking about water themes. 

And away I went.... down the design rabbit hole... 

I searched for some door inspiration,  

  hoping to fit the knocker with the door.

And I'm embarrassed to say that the clients emailed me a few times, asking about the progress of this final piece. As they added more pieces to their collection in the gallery/room in their house over the years, the space that they had saved for this last door knocker shrunk. 

So aside from struggling with the design, I was also limited in size. To be honest, I was ready to call them and give the knocker back. 

But I kept thinking about the words from my friend, who basically said - get to work!

And that's just what I did - pulled out the sketchbook, came up with a scaled model in cardboard, then finally pulled out the block of Sapele that I'd been saving for a "special" project.  A little carving, milk-paint and some lacquer and it was finished in a flash.

 (Thanks for the pep talk, Heidi!) 

It's the best feeling in the world to call a client and tell them their project is complete. 

PS.... they received the piece today and were beyond thrilled.  I'm so relieved to have this off my mind!