Breakthrough

I was finally able to wrap-up the exercises that were preventing me from moving on to my first project. Yesterday I completed my coopered door, half-blind dovetails and through-wedged mortise and tenon. Here's a photo of the three trouble makers.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the tall board of wood is slightly curved, or coopered (like a wine barrel, which is where the term comes from). It started as a solid piece of wood. I cut it into four pieces, took some material off of each edge, glued them back together into an arc, and then used the coopering plane I built to scoop out the insides into a smooth curve. 

Now that I'm done with my exercises, I've moved on to my first project. I'm still very much in the idea phase, but look for more to come soon!