September 22, 2007

 

Letter from Whidbey Woodworker

Dear Dustheads,

The show has folded. We had more than $10,000 in sales! This is truly spectacular. Some twenty visitors appreciated your work enough to shell out the bucks and make our collective day. Plus there were commissions arranged. The show was a wonderful group effort, with special thanks to Tom Fisher, our fearless curatorial leader and his exemplary cat herding abilities. Thanks also has to be extended to all the fine artists who put the incredible work out there for all to see. The wine flowed, the eats were eaten, the party was jammed. I guess we have become Whidbey's own dust laden party animals. Just wait till next year. Woodpalooza V will the best yet!

The recent months have been interesting. I have spent time reassessing what my business is about. After the Furniture Society conference in Victoria, B.C., I was invited to participate in the Patterns Show at North West Finewoodworking in Seattle. I have never done the gallery thing, except for the Guild's annual show. All my work has been on commission. So I am pondering a change in my business format to include gallery work. I have also been questioning my business name. All to often folks think of a cabinetmaker as on par and in competition with Home Depot and Ikea. The creativity and artistry involved with what I build and the complete mechanization of the commercial products sets them far apart.

I built a revised version of the Victoria Step Chest for the Patterns Show. The posts now pierce the steps with a pyramidal shape capping the post. The steps are notched to accommodate this. This gives the structure a more significant emphasis. I have also built several step stools with exotics. When I look at my shop floor and see purple heart and orange paduk shavings I am reminded of Kim Kelzer's lament for anything but brown. I was loathe to sweep it up.

Both paduk and purple heart are what are called rowed woods. The grain goes both directions simultaneously. This is murder to try to hand plane. Does anyone have a suggestion? Sanding works, as does scrapping but neither produces the desired surface with the requsite control.. Perhaps I need to use a scraper plane or a high angle frog on my smoother. Or an infilled spiers type plane with a massive blade. I will keep trying. There has to be a way.

For now, may your chisels be sharp and your shavings long,
Rob Hetler








<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?