Named in honor of everyone’s favorite dead record store, the Vinyl Solution holds three of your favorite album covers in style. Dad’s records obscure the beautifully book-matched walnut. Meant for wall hanging, and available in most woods for a mere $400. Shipping extra.
A custom bed in solid poplar for a top secret client. Seriously, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you, which I won’t do, even if you ask nicely.
Just drop it.
Unfortunately, someone has already snagged the name Moderondack. And, in my humble opinion, doesn’t seem to be putting it to good use. Whatever.
Mother’s Day before last (I think), I surprised my lovely bride with my take on the venerable Adirondack chair, so she may sit and yell at the no-good neighborhood kids in style.
Summer is bearing down on us, so order yours today. Extra-wide arms to accommodate a martini glass and/or giggling coquette.
A treehouse I built the summer before last.
Complete with shingled roof, plexi windows in the back, screen windows on the side and a hoisting bucket to get water balloons, sodas or whatever else up top.
Let me know if you want any tips or, perhaps, one for yourself.
After my thumb had mostly healed from its infamous run in with a tablesaw blade, I was assigned my first solo project: a reproduction in wood of a famous art deco cigarette box by Donald Deskey.
Berthold handed me an coffee table book on art deco furniture with a post it marking the appropriate page, and that was the extent of his help (and totally his MO). I measured, I squinted, I drew, I dreaded returning to the tablesaw. They say once it has tasted human blood…no. It is best not to speak of such things, lest my saw hear from the garage.
Anyway, I made three in solid walnut, with the base side design in burl walnut and English sycamore veneers. They were finished just in time to be trucked off to some design show in the Big Apple, never to return. I hadn’t thought to take pictures of them, but someone else had. This is prior to varnish being applied, but they’re still quite nice, if I do say so myself…
A preliminary label design for a secret tequila brand. With one hoof, our hero holds the trimmed head of an agave, with the other an agave trimmer. The leaves surround him.
Yeah, I know it’s unfinished, and may never be. I like the looks of the character and the geometry of the circles. Tell me what you think!
Ah, the Triple Helix. aka zee trrrripel helix, aka the trizzle hizzle.
Jared, without question the most talented and devoted apprentice, had been tasked by Berthold with making two of these beauties. He made the pieces for both: precisely engineered 4” thick cherry that was then to be carefully assembled and sculpted down with an angle grinder fitted with a wood carving disc.
This wasn’t too long before Jared’s graduation, and he had time enough to finish only one, so when he left in a puff of sawdust, there sat another pile of pieces. Berthold pulled me off whatever I had been working on and put me on the case.
Other than the cigarette boxes I had been assigned as my first project (of which there are no pictures), this was my favorite.
My final project before graduation was a this bathroom vanity made from catalpa.
We had a massive press at the Bauhaus, and it didn’t work with any fancy buttons or wires. You’d get your pieces ready, prepare the glue, layout and then do your best to apply constant, even pressure across the entire surface by twisting massive footed bolts with a huge, heavy wrench. To add some fun, the glue had about an hour working time, so there’s no time for a smoke break or to consider the process at a leisurely pace.
In the second photo, you can see the three layers of the plywood I made in the press. The piece is bookmatched horizontally and vertically across the entire face, and I’m proud of how it turned out, but that was one of the most tense hours of my life.
The cover art for my debut album, Live from Holland.
Now that the hard part is done, I just need to write some songs, learn to play the guitar, and have a show.
