today was another treacherous rainy day. it has been raining on and off since monday.

despite the rain, i did get the second milling on the table top done, milled all the wood for the aprons and legs, and got the top glued up.

on to more tomorrow/friday........

dining-table beginnings

-started milling the table top planks today-

-the boards were so long-

-i had to step outside my door to retrieve them-
-thankfully the rain held off for a while-

road-side table re-vamped

33 series fun

a couple months back my friend Katey Schultz purchased the first stool in the 33 series when she visited me during her residency at Lynchburg College. she immediately fell in love with them when she walked into my studio and HAD to have one. who could say no - or would want to?
(i don't think i have talked much about these stools - as i keep forgetting to take pictures - but promise i will soon do just that.) 
this week i received this email and video from her and her family, at who's house stool 1/33 resides:

We, the Schultz family, are speechless here in our little house on the hill. Who knew that your stool had such magical powers! Check out the attached photo and video. We have track lighting and a fan. And just look what it's doing...WOW!

so here is the little video they sent and hope you will enjoy it as much as i did when receiving it.

C.P. Johnson

yesterday morning tom and i went to a new-to-us hardwood lumber yard in culpeper, VA i found out about via craigslist just a few weeks back. C.P.Johnson Lumber was an amazing place. Huge selection and truly beautiful wood. Chris is so very knowledgeable and it was awesome talking to him and perusing the place.

one of my favorite parts was the bargain bin - there he has shorts and odds and ends of all kinds of woods - from poplar to oak, cherry, and curly or tiger maple - for just a few bucks a board, because they are warped or have some kind of other flaw in them prohibiting him from selling it for full price.
i spend quite a bit of time there, finding some very cool pieces.

-my loot-

after about 1.5 hours there, we loaded up the truck. tom got beautiful un-steamed walnut, regular cherry and some curly cherry he will be using as a detail in a credenza he is building for his daughter. i got the oak i need for the dining room table commission i just got: beautiful quarter-sawn 5/4 oak for the top regular 4/4 and 8/4 oak for apron and legs. then i also got this beautiful wide 4/4 to 5/4 quarter-sawn wormy oak and a bunch of odds and ends from the bargain bin - which is more like a whole wall.

you can already tell how pretty this oak is - even before milling it -
and i usually don't get too excited about oak

keep making a lot of work:

some words to remember when getting discouraged:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” 
― Ira Glass

thank you, ira glass - you have such a way with words. hard to believe you were at this stage once....

quick and dirty

a few months ago this chair became the reason why my laptop battery was fried - you can read all about it here and here if you like. since then its just been laying on the floor in our great room - a tripping hazard. i finally took it to the shop this week and did a quick and dirty fix today while waiting for the paint on the table to dry.

i dug out all the old, broken pieces, re-drilled the holes in both legs and also got the leg that had broken off to fit back into. then i took a left over deck spindle that Robert always brings me back from jobs - who know when one would be able to use them - cut the ends off, and took a spoke shave to the ends to make them fit into the re-drilled holes. 

 - and then to highlight the boo-boo, i painted it red. if you have to be different from the rest - might as well make it stand out and not try to blend in - as you can never quite do that anyway. plus, it will add a splash of color to the room.