You remember what a trapezoid is, right?

 One of the byproducts of this pandemic is all of the do-it-yourself-ers who have learned to build, and started projects around the house. Or just jumped back into hobbies that they used to enjoy, but never had time to pursue them.  

My friend Sharon Gainsburg, who owns and operates a stone carving school here in town often sends her students over to my shop,

 to design pedestals for their sculptures. So with the boom of DIY work, there's also a boom of creativity - whether it involves stone carving, ceramic work, epoxy pours, spoon carving - you name it, I've been seeing it!

Now, I enjoy a good challenge when making a sculpture base - sometimes it's locating an obscure color or wood (or dyeing wood to match something), or installing hardware I'm not used to... there are almost always some interesting challenges. 

But a recent commission was not only a really fun piece to build, it was a bit of a math test for me. And I love math! 

You remember back in Geometry class, when we learned about trapezoids, right? (Thanks, Miss Gibson!) 

I'll make it easy on you...

trap·e·zoid

/ˈtrapəˌzoid/

Learn to pronounce

See definitions in:

What is a trapezoid shape?  A trapezoid is a quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides. No other features matter. (In English-speaking countries outside of North America, the equivalent term is trapezium.) The parallel sides may be vertical , horizontal , or slanting .

So when a sculptor asked me to make an odd shape, and the only thing I had to work with was this torn cardboard pattern - well.... challenge accepted! 

I'd acquired a really nice 1" thick board of walnut - sometimes pieces like that present a problem. They're too small to make a large project out of it, but too big to be considered scrap. Those pieces usually just sit on a shelf, awaiting inspiration. Honestly, this board didn't know that it was destined to become a sculpture base, but I knew it as soon as I saw the cardboard pattern. 

Again - math was the key, and I calculated that each board needed to have about a half inch of taper cut into it. So I taped a 1/2" shim on one end, and cut the excess away of the tablesaw.

I'm not sure what I'll do with these massive walnut shims, but they're pretty cool looking. 

Meanwhile, the pedestal is taking shape, 

which each tapered piece creating a lovely end grain pattern.

Once I had chosen the layout, I numbered them and braced myself for a bit of a clamping nightmare.  

Tapered pieces always slip when clamping them, so I pulled out some extra clamps and cauls, and got to work.  

After it was dry, I little trimming and jointing was all that was needed to come up with this nearly seamless block of gorgeousness! 

The end grain pattern almost hypnotizes you! And this block is nothing to sneeze at - almost 7 pounds of solid walnut.  

I cannot wait to see this piece, when the sculpture is mounted to it! Hopefully, I'll have a photo to share with you.

My 2021 garden is well on its way!

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly a month since I posted, but damn.... it's been crazy busy here. Teaching five days / nights a week makes this blog a little lower priority! One thing is for sure - people are hungry for woodworking classes.

It's also crazy to think that this photo was taken jus a little less than four months ago. Snow! 

We had a bit of snow that even dusted this artichoke plant!

 And with that cold weather, friends were handling out lemons from their yards, perfect for juicing and freezing into ice cubes, so that we could enjoy lemonade all year long.

 When I started my Spring clean-up, I found some odds and ends from last year's bounty; the tomatoes weren't too tasty, but their color was amazing.   

I'm still figuring out this garden stuff, and one thing is plant rotation. Plants shouldn't grow the same same location from year to year, so I experimented with putting parsley and basil in a new location. Here's the new spot, with the plants looking very tiny. 

To be honest, here they are a few months later and I'm not all that impressed. I probably should have kept them in the same beds where they flourish every year. Lesson learned!  

But one thing that DID flourish were the artichokes. Damn! What a crop! 

They start out as these little babies, popping up deep in the leaves of the bush. 

Then...

BAM!

There are more than one could imagine!

 Dozens and dozens, in fact - so many, that I've had trouble giving them away!

 Alas, the aphids had their way with the lower leaves, and I had to give this plant a good haircut. 

I've never figured out how to beat the aphids at this game, but at least we had a huge harvest. And the plant will recover by next year.  Here's the last one, ready to sprout a gorgeous flower. 

It's a pretty amazing plant. Gotta love perennials!

 Seriously, everything is is bloom, even this gorgeous plant in my friend Ann's front yard. What a glorious greeting when you pull into her driveway!

I may have another problem - I probably planted too many spaghetti squash plants in this raised bed. It was sort of an experiment, as I didn't know if the soil in this bed would be fertile - apparently, it is! There are dozens and dozens of small squash sprouting up - this is going to be crazy in a month or so! (I hope I have some friends willing to take these!) 

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And finally - my other friend Lupe gave me some seeds earlier this year, and they've sprouted up mightily. This lettuce is hearty and wow/delicious! 

The beets started out as teeny sprouts - can you even see the little red sprouts here in the dirt? 

Now they're huge, and I sauté the tops every other day or so. IMHO, that's the best part of the beet plant! 

I've never had luck with carrots - but they're growing like weeds! 

By the way, veggies aren't the only things growing around the yard! 

I'll get back to posting about woodworking soon, but these garden pictures were too good to postpone any longer!

Happy planting to all of the desert gardeners out there!

Getting ready to build a kitchen? You MUST read this book...

 It’s been a long time since I wrote a book report - you remember those, back in grade school, right?

I’m reading an incredibly smart book on kitchen design right now, and I thought I’d write about it, for anyone in need of kitchen help. 

But first, let’s talk about kitchen design books in the last 35 years or so. (Yes, I’m that old. )

When I built my first kitchen in 1985 or so, this book was my guide. 

Back then, cabinets were mostly traditional face-frame cabinets, and this book -

Building Your Own Kitchen Cabinets  by Jere Cary

 was instrumental in helping me along.  I did a few remodeling jobs here and there,  working on a lot of older homes, but in '88, I built a home and jumped on the frameless cabinet bandwagon. 

Paul Levine’s book - Making Kitchen Cabinets - was the perfect blueprint for me. 

In fact, it was so helpful, I bought the video that accompanied his book. It was the perfect one-two punch for making contemporary cabinets. His plan was detailed, right down to suggesting the exact cup hinge to use, or drawer slides he recommended. I build my own handsome kitchen using Paul’s book, and never looked back. 

As I started getting busier, kitchens didn’t interest me as much. They require a lot of time, with some very heavy lifting and the need for a helper. I prefer to work mostly alone, so I started working on bathroom cabinetry - smaller versions of kitchens, in my mind. They still demand some stellar design skills, and again - Paul Levine’s book was brilliantly helpful.

These days - I prefer building free standing furniture. My days of going to client’s homes and measuring walls and floors are over. A few nightmare encounters convinced me to give up making visits to anyone’s home, and... well... furniture is my first love, anyway. 

But lately, I’ve been considering building a home, and luckily - Nancy Hiller’s book recently arrived in my mailbox.  

It’s one of the smartest kitchen design books I’ve ever read. 

Kitchen Think by Nancy Hiller is... simply terrific, especially if you're a maker of built-in cabinetry.

First off - I love woodworking books with great photography. (I feel the same way about cook books, too, BTW.) This book is loaded with page after page of kitchens that Nancy has built - giving the reader SO much inspiration. These details are instrumental in showing her thought process, and...well, what a wonderful process that is!

Even better - Nancy details her design, cutting and assembly process for building cabinet boxes, and let me say - there was one detail about her cabinet building that knocked my socks off. For anyone who doesn't build kitchens, this detail wouldn't amount to much, but to me - the way she constructs her cabinet boxes is brilliant. 

And the way in which she describes scale and proportions of stiles and rails is so common-sensical, that I've never quite heard it described so well. 

Can you tell I'm a fan?

It's been a long time since I've dreaded getting to the end of a book, and though I'm almost done with Nancy's - I'll be thinking about it for a long time. She's been fighting some health battles lately, and I certainly wish her the best... I want more from this gifted writer / builder.

The VP's desk is almost cooler than the Resolute desk!

A few months ago, I wrote about the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. This beast of a desk was build from timbers that came from the Resolute, a ship that was sent to the Arctic Ocean to search for missing explorer Sir John Franklin.  

(You can read that post here.)

Imagine my surprise when I saw this recent headline: 

Navy Seabees Build VP Kamala Harris a Desk Out of Wood from USS Constitution

Check out this video!

Another hardware challenge solved....

There are so many new pieces of hardware on the market, it's always a challenge to build a piece using something I've never tried before.  I'm not sure if the real enjoyment is finding the perfect solution....

or if the real reward is installing it and making something cool. 

Either way, a few weeks ago, someone called me about building a low tea table. He'd asked about a small table that could be used to display photos or cards, with legs that fold up under it, so that the table could be hung on the wall as a piece of art, when not in use.

Also - he wanted to experiment with pouring epoxy resin, so he requested that the top be made of MDF, with a lip around it, so that he could pour resin on the top. 

Challenge accepted!

These folding leg brackets did the trick!  

They allow the legs to fold down flat, but also lock into place when the table is in use. 

Another plus? They're handsome, matching the walnut that I used for this build.  

Those brackets allow the legs to tuck below the surface. I can envision this piece being hung on one of the corners, so that it is diamond shaped, rather than square.  It'll be interesting to see what he decides. 

I can't wait to see what the top looks like after he  pours it - stay tuned.... I made him promise to send some pictures of it!

The importance of proper measurements

That rifle rack that I'd built was finally completed with a few coats of oil and a hand rubbed wax top coat. 

After applying some felt to the slots, so the rifle barrels would be protected, I shot a few photos.

 I can't tell you how many pieces get picked up before shooting pictures... and then I've lost all track of putting photos in my portfolio.

 So at least I got a few shots of this one heading out the door. 

That rack finally made its way to the owner's home, but mounting it on the wall proved to be a bit of a challenge for him.  

Usually, it's a just a matter of locating the studs, but in this case, the rack had two french cleats on it, so it was double the drilling. 

And double the chance for error.... OOPS! 

Luckily, when he mis-located a few holes, he had some walnut plugs to cover up the mistakes.