Madroña

After a minor catastrophe (the last screw broke off while I was attaching the cabinet hangars and I had to bore it out), my jewelry cabinet is done. My completed work didn't give me an immediate sense of joy or relief, rather I felt empty. I've worked on this project singularly for the past three months, and finishing it left a void. After a few days I hung it on the wall, and then my sense of accomplishment kicked in. Seeing my cabinet on the wall gave me a whole new perspective on the piece. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I hope you are too!  

Tomorrow is the Day

The show is just one week away, and pressure is mounting in the shop to finish projects and prepare for the exhibition and reception. Barring any major catastrophes, I should finish my cabinet tomorrow morning. All I have left to do is install the brass hangers that will attach the cabinet to the wall and mount the door. 

The last few steps in the furniture making process often prove to be the most difficult. I struggled the last couple weeks with the small details, like drawer pulls and the necklace hanger, that can enhance or detract from a piece. The last hurdle that I overcame was the necklace hanger. I knew I wanted to mount it to the back panel to hang five or so necklaces, but I had a really hard time finding a pretty shape that didn't look too rustic or like a towel bar. I also disliked the pegs and hooks I shaped. It was challenging to balance utility with beauty. With my instructors' help, I finally settled on an elegant solution. (More on that tomorrow!)

Making the brass cabinet hangers was a fun diversion from woodworking because working metal is very different than working wood. Wood is organic and unpredictable, whereas brass is completely malleable. Metal does what you ask it to.

Below are pictures of the cabinet hangers and the drawers with their hand-carved pulls and pigskin lining. Check back tomorrow for photos of the necklace hanger and finished cabinet!

You Could Win This Cherry Bench!

Trystan, one of my classmates, has put this beautiful cherry trestle bench into the raffle that will happen at the 22nd Annual Mid-Winter Fine Furniture Exhibition. Tickets are $10. The raffle proceeds offset the cost of the show. This is your opportunity to do something good for the school and possibly win an incredible piece of furniture. Join us at the reception to purchase a ticket!

CR's Approach to Woodworking

It's hard to believe, but I'm now more than halfway through College of the Redwoods Fine Woodworking Program. What's almost harder to believe is that I'm not yet done with my first project (although I'm very close!). Over the holidays, family and friends asked me what I've made. The short answer was, "Um, nothing yet." The longer answer involves a more nuanced look at what happens at CR. 

The instructors emphasize absolute attention to detail, which requires crawling at an ant's pace (slowly but diligently). For a while, I wished that we moved through a number of projects quickly to get a feeling for the process and the mechanics of the joinery. With hindsight as I near the completion of my project, I'm very grateful for the way we work. I might not have breadth of experience, but the instructors have taught me how to see. They've helped me to develop my hand and my eye as well as a woodworking philosophy and sensitivity toward wood as a material. I believe it's much more difficult to teach and to learn these finer concepts, and the more concrete mechanics can come later on my own time. 

Here are a few photos of student projects that emphasize CR's approach to fine furniture.  And in keeping with tradition, I also posted photos of the meals that followed each presentation--bacon and eggs with breakfast potatoes and delicious Mexican. Yum!

Angel's jewelry box, curly maple and teak

Dechen's wine cabinet, white oak and padauk

Tom's harmonica case, acacia

Mid-Winter Exhibition

Our first show is less than three weeks away! If you're in the area, stop by Town Hall to see some amazing furniture and learn more about College of the Redwoods Fine Furniture Program. And if you're not in the area, consider making a trip up for the reception on February 4. Check back tomorrow for a sneak preview of four additional pieces that students have completed. 

Tea and Coffee

On Sundays, the Mendocino Tea Company hosts afternoon tea in a small teahouse in Albion. In addition to free tea, there are homemade cookies with inventive flavors like candy cap mushroom chocolate chip. The teahouse sells pottery, felted hats, redwood burl furniture, fresh eggs and locally made beauty products. The woman in the picture with curly hair is the potter, and a fixture at afternoon tea. She hasn't worn shoes in more than five years. The vibe is quirky. If tea isn't your cup, Thanksgiving Coffee Company roasts locally.  

On my way to the teahouse I stopped with a friend to look for whales at MacKerricher State Park. It was too windy and late in the day to see the gray whale spouts, but we did see a windsurfer braving the cold. 

The End is in Sight

I'm getting very close to being done with my cabinet, but I'm feeling somewhat overwhelmed by all the small finishing details. Pretty much all that's left is figuring out the necklace hanger, carving drawer pulls, making dividers and cloth-covered inserts for the drawers, and doing the final finishing work. I hope to have this all pulled together by next Friday. Wish me luck!

Here's a picture of the dovetailed drawers I just completed. They've turned out to be one of my favorite aspects of the cabinet. I love the gradation of color from light to dark and the dark beauty marks in the wood. I also like the change in spacing of the dovetails from the littlest to the biggest drawer. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the drawers are very small. The smallest drawer is about 4" wide by 4" deep by 1" tall. They're miniature!

Happy (Belated) Holidays

The holidays brought with them a bustle of activity and changes for the new year. Just before school let out the shop elves (aka the students) spent a few hours cleaning the place from floor to ceiling to get it ready for the holiday party. We baked a feast and then spent the evening around good food, good drink, good company and a few good hands of poker. We also exchanged secret santa gifts. The limit for the gifts was either $5 or 40 hours of work. I'm not sure I like what that says about the value of our time.... Most people opted to make something, and I was utterly impressed with the creativity, thoughtfulness and workmanship of the gifts. I also like that most everything was made by hand. It somehow made the gift more special and meaningful. 

Our Christmas tree was a redwood sapling that sprouts from the same trunk every year. It lives on one of our instructor's property, and he recuts the sapling each year. 

The end of the year brought good-byes to our fellow classmate and friend, Niklas, who is going back to Sweden, and one of our instructors, Greg, who only teaches in the fall semester. We'll miss them both, but in their places we welcome two additions to the next half of the year--our classmate Lymond and instructor Ejler.

Now it's on to the hard work of finishing our projects and preparing for the mid-winter show, which is less than a month away!

Photo by David Welter

Photo by Dechen

Photo by Dechen

Photo by Dechen

Acacia Tree

David Welter, shop manager at CR, has been tending to an acacia tree that fell just behind the bus barn next to the school. One of the previous students was able to chop it into two manageable size logs and then the bus barn guy pulled it out of the forest. It's been drying in the shade for about eight months now, and David decided that yesterday was the day it would be cut into slabs. David primed the chainsaws and set-up the track for the mill. Below you'll see Bonner, a student, manning the chainsaw, admiring his handy work and the beautiful acacia wood, and the upturned stump where the tree came from. Once the wood is cut into slabs, David will stack and sticker the wood so that it dries properly, without twisting or checking. 

Two Cabinets

Two of my classmates--Dan and Alex--finished and presented their cabinets this week. Dan made his cabinet out of english maple and Alex made his out of walnut and narra. What I like about Dan's cabinet is the transition between the concave and convex curves in the doors. Alex's cabinet reminds me of a Mondrian painting, and the two woods complement one another beautifully. Unfortunately, neither one of the photos do the cabinets any justice. What you do get a good sense of is Alex's excitement to be done with his project as he cooks up a mountain of shish kebabs in the third photo. 

Braiding

Michael Burns, director of the CR fine woodworking program, demonstrates stiletre style braiding. Angel (just to Michael's left) is building a jewelry box out of a beautiful, curly maple and will use the braid to secure the lid to the box so that it doesn't flop open. 

It's an exciting time in the shop. Break is less than a week away, and many students are close to finishing their first projects. What were once pieces of wood and a little vision are now cabinets, chairs, tables and boxes. Check back soon for pictures of two more wall cabinets that students have just finished.

Ejler's Shop

Ejler Hjorth-Westh is an instructor at CR. He was a biology teacher in Denmark before coming to the states to build boats, houses and eventually furniture. A few students and I recently ventured out to his shop in Elk to send off a bed he was just completing. He noted that finishing a project can be anti-climatic because you spend months of your life pouring yourself into a piece, and then it's done and shipped to the client's home without ado. I think he was happy to celebrate the completion of the piece with us, and it was great for us to see Ejler's shop and talk about the bed. 

The bed is made out of madrone and redwood burl, the same woods I'm using in my cabinet. It has a really cool joint that connects the side rails to the headboard and footboard. The rail has a modified, angled tenon that slides into an angled mortise. A wedge drives the two pieces into a locking fit. You can see the unfinished joint on the bed (it has yet to be shaped and finished) and the dismantled test joint (lying on its side) in the photos below.

In addition to talking about the bed, Ejler showed us his boat and talked about the boat-building class he's offering this spring. The class will build a boat similar to the dory in the picture, only slightly longer to accommodate a three-person crew. How cool would it be to build your own boat?

In Search of Matsutakes

Sunday afternoon I spent hiking with friends in Jackson Forest in search of mushrooms. We scrambled up and down muddy embankments and dug through the duff to uncover an endless variety of mushrooms, many of them edible. We found pig's ears, shrimp russula, chanterelle and the hard to find black trumpet. At first the mushrooms are hard to spot, but once you know what you're looking for, you can't look down without seeing the colorful and varied caps. We didn't find any matsutakes, but we did find a Kawasaki, as you'll see in the last photo. 

Dinner

Thanks to Ronnie and the Jackson Forest for tonight's delicious dinner. From left to right: oyster, white chanterelle, golden chanterelle, matsutake, and hedgehog. 

Brett's Chairs

My classmate Brett just finished his first project of the year--a set of beautiful chairs made out of elm. I love the curve of the legs and the way the grain follows the curves. The front legs bow slightly, giving you the feeling that the chair wants to hug you. Sticking with tradition, Brett brought breakfast for the class. He made a mean spanakopita along with tabbouleh and apple turnovers. Yum!

Holiday Lights Parade

Last night was the Fort Bragg annual Christmas parade. It featured floats with fat Santas,  kids on mini four-wheelers decked out in lights, and PG&E handing out sapling evergreens to the kids. The highlight of the parade, however, was the pooping pigeon. Yes, this pigeon walked the parade route, stopping every few feet to "poop" what appeared to be shaving cream.

Another Glue-Up

My jewelry cabinet features two carcasses that are glued one inside of the other. The smaller carcasse is the drawer box for three small drawers and a cubby hole. It took 16 clamps and 12 cauls to glue the mini-cabinet into the larger cabinet. It was a bit of a gamble because the two cabinets weren't square to one another, but with a little strategic planing and the pressure of the clamps, the surfaces came right home. It looks like the mini-cabinet grew right out of the larger cabinet.

Elmer's white glue is the glue of choice at CR for most operations. It has a decent open time (how long you can futz around before the glue sets up), it's easy to apply, it dries clear and it's non-toxic. I use products that are good for me and good for the environment as much as I can.

Turkey Day

Once again I apologize for the delay in posting. Until recently, my internet had been out after a power outage that blew my router. I'm learning that power outages are common during the winter and each outage means my internet goes down. The outages happen frequently because Fort Bragg's main source of power comes from Ukiah, about 60 miles away, through one cable, locally dubbed the umbilical cord. In any case, I'm back up and have lots to post about, so check back soon. 

I spent Thanksgiving away from family and old friends this year. Instead, I stuck around Fort Bragg and had a lovely time with new friends. Dinner was delicious. I made roasted brussels sprouts and a pumpkin bourbon cheesecake. The cheesecake turned out to be an adventure. It's a fussy cake to make, and after making the crust and batter, I realized that I didn't have a pan for the water bath (the cake bakes in a water bath for about an hour, then cools in the bath for an additional hour). I tried everything. I asked the neighbors for a pan. I thought about running into town to buy one, but the 45-minute roundtrip would have destroyed the cake. So I improvised. I baked the cake in a garbage can lid--upside down, holes plugged with tinfoil, lined with tinfoil, and shimmed on two bread pans in the oven to keep the whole assembly upright. It worked out just fine, and the cake was a huge hit. Next time I'll listen to mom and start the cake the night before. 

Todd, an instructor at CR, and his fiance Heidi hosted Thanksgiving dinner. With help from friends, they chose the perfect sawhorses and doors to create one long table that accommodated all 25 guests. The table was decorated with fresh persimmons and the bottles of wine and bubbly were flowing. After dinner there was a persimmon tower building contest (my classmate Mollie holds the record at 7-layers of persimmons) and many hands of poker. It was a wonderful way to spend the holiday. Thanks Heidi and Todd!