Year: 2022

Beds and Nightstands

Last winter my Dad asked me if I would build him a bedroom set to replace his cheap store-bought one. I agreed, but told him that there were two conditions - it would have to wait until the fall, and I was going to build one for myself at the same time. For 20 years now, Lori and I have been using the same store-bought bedroom set we bought shortly after getting married. I've always wanted to build one myself to replace it, and my Dad's request finally lit a fire under me to do it. I built a queen size bed for him, and a king size for Lori and I, along with some nightstands for each. Everything is cherry, and the drawer interiors are ambrosia maple - and everything has received a finish of three coats of tung oil. Now we're just waiting the 3-4 weeks for the tung oil to cure before everybody can start using their new furniture. I've got more cherry coming to build Lori and I a bookcase and dresser to complete the bedroom set - should look great once the whole set is setup!

Workbench Drawer Inserts

I recently tried using the lasercutter to cut some drawer inserts for the toolbox I build to go under my workbench. These help keep everything organized and easy to find, and they were pretty fun to do. Basically I just took a photo of the drawer with everything laid out where I wanted it, then traced around the tools in a drawing program to get the cutouts.

First Stained Glass Projects

I've started playing around with some stained glass, and here are my first two 'practice' projects before I tackle something bigger and more complicated. So far it's been really fun to do! I've got the pieces for the next project rough cut, but they still need grinding to final shape before I can start assembling them. Maybe I'll get a chance to work on that over the holiday break coming up.

New Glaze Combos

Trying out some new glaze combos on some mugs - I've switched over to Mayco glazes this year and have been pretty happy with the results I've been getting. I also made some big serving bowls using some of these same glaze combos, but forgot to take a photo of them before they went to their final home.

Carter’s Drawings, Paintings and Sculptures

This is just a random collection of recent artwork Carter has made. I love that she experiments with lots of different mediums - this set of photos includes a pencil drawing, a colored pencil piece, a watercolor stained-glass style painting, a set of three acrylic paintings, and some clay sculptures.

Stained Glass Cabinet

I recently purchased a starter kit for learning to do stained glass, and built this cabinet to hold all of the supplies. I painted the front of the cabinet in a design Carter used to use for her paintings, and I thought it looked a little like stained glass and would make for an interesting set of cabinet drawer fronts.

Laser Cutter Marquetry

I saw a video on YouTube where someone was using a laser cutter to cut veneer for marquetry, and made this as a proof of concept. It uses six different species of veneer, and I built the box out of cherry. I used a photo I took of Mt. Eisenhower and Mt. Washington from the summit of Mt. Pierce. It worked pretty well, and I think I'm going to try more projects like this in the future.

Framed Linocuts

I recently built a frame-making jig for my table saw, and have been using it to make a bunch of frames for the linocuts I made last year. They're all now hanging in my workshop - which really helps make it feel more like a creative space than just a dusty old woodshop.

Poseable Lamp Guy

Carter once showed me a picture online of a lamp made to look like a poseable figure. It's been on my list of things to try for a while now, and I finally got around to making a couple. I really like how expressive it can be, even with only a few poseable joints.

Glaze Test Tiles

I've switched to a new type of clay recently, and have also switched to a different brand of glaze. So I figured it was time to do a whole bunch of new test tiles. For this experiment I tried every glaze on top of every other glaze - essentially every possible combination. And where I've got 12 different glazes, that amounted to 144 test tiles! There are some pretty interesting combos that have come out of this test, so I'm pretty excited to try them out on some real pieces.