Unique to this project, the customer has requested to participate in its making. In this film he is concentrating and keen to show me that he has listened to my instructions but has been fairly giddy all day.
He has so far been invaluable, sizing components, painstakingly marking out the dowel positions and even helped with the jointing machine. I may even persuade him to paint it!
The first project of the year is a reproduction of the Gerrit Reitveld Red Blue cahir from the 1920s. Reitveld first designed the chair in the early 1920s and it was left in its natiral colour or painted black. The familiar chair with the red blue and yellow was made in 1927.
The picture above shows Reitveld outside his workshop in Utrecht in the early 1920s, sitting in an early version of the chair. Reitveld was a hands on maker, prefering to design as he made, and was every bit the artisan that his cabinet maker father was.
The Brockley Table is delivered to its new home in Brockley, South East London. The clients brief was to create a modern piece using a timber of great character (English character Oak) and using traditional techniques. Some customers love the feel and the warmth of timber furniture, this customer went further and was also interested in the knarly, knotty, shaking characteristics of the timber - its so called imperfections. The final look and feel softens the modern form to great earthy effect.
The new walnut dining table commission includes a maple strip running the length of the table, following the grain of the walnut. To achieve this I use a small router to hand route a line running along the grain of the walnut which is then jigsawed out and finished with a large router. Next I create a template to route a piece of maple to fit snugly. To do this I used a router bush 3 x larger than the router cutter. Looking good!
The drawer bottoms for new Arts & Crafts inspired desk are oiled, waxed and ready for wrapping for delivery. A butterfly joint logo is added to the bottom of a drawer.
Arts & Crafts desk oiled, waxed and ready for delivery
Fitting drawers takes a lot of patience and a surprising amount of concentration for such a slow process. It can be tiresome but when the drawer finally fits it is very satisfying.
The arts and crafts inspired desk uses buttress like supports to hold up the desktop, they are attached to the legs on the sides and the back and are defining detail of the furniture of the period.
The assembled and glued up drawers are being planed and fitted this week for the Arts and Crafts inspired desk in English Pippyoak. A week of hand tool skills.
The desktop is finished and oiled in Osmo clear matt. I always apply the oil ans leave to seep into the grain for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the temperature/humidity. New arts and crafts inpsired executive desk in English quartersawn oak and pippy oak.
The desk carcass is glued up in three stages so I keep control of the situation. With 30 plus joints its all about glue open times. Even with the suspended drawer boxes its as strong as an ox.
