The Sunny Side of the Street

The cedar stool - which can still be viewed in the cabinetshop photo gallery - found its rightful home in July, in west-central Connecticut, of all places.  From the time we started planning the trip, I just couldn’t get the stool out of my mind.  It was as if the cedar’s spirit was speaking to me!  Okay, that’s a bit dramatic, I suppose, but truly there was no doubt that it should accompany us on our trip.  A throne to one, but loved by all…who may “use it by permission.”

The Signature Table in antique fir and A Cedar Stool are both available for viewing and purchasing consideration:

Items for Sale Gallery

Descriptions for these items can be found there.

Both of the tables are completed, and one of them is on display at Dr. Ug’s in Virginia, IL. The other, I decided to keep right here in the shop…protected, of course. Photos will be forthcoming once a camera kink or two get worked out. Stay tuned…

Between Christmas and New Year’s  I took a wall out of the back of one of our closets, joining it with another closet previously accessed from another room that I had abandoned over the summer in order to run a return air duct from our upstairs to the furnace in the basement.  Whew!  There’s a run-on sentence for ya.  The result of the tear out was recovering some old boards that I believe were once the original sheathing to an exterior wall.  At least I think it was an exterior wall at one time.  As it stands now, the house must have been even smaller than it is now, as the portion I removed is basically right in the middle of our happy abode.  All archaeological wisdom aside, I am convinced these boards are original to the house and when we bought the place in 1994, the listing stated 70+ years on age.  So, what, we’re at around 85 years or more now?  Pretty neat.

The shop is now rich with scents of the “ancient” pine pitch, and two signature tables are in the works using the old boards.  The pine has taken on a nice color only attained by time, and of course there is wonderful character built-in in the way of nail holes with associated discoloration, a few knots, and so on.  In 10-1/2 years, this is only my second project using reclaimed material.  If you check out the furniture section of the Cabinetshop Gallery, you’ll find a stepback cabinet that I constructed, in part, using 100+ year-old white oak.  Working with the “old stuff” is certainly a bit different than new material.  More prep time is involved and it can be difficult to find enough suitable material compared to new stock.  It’s not quite as predictable.  But I think I got lucky with the pine boards of the closet.  When I decided on making a signature table,

finding I had plenty of material, I thought why not make two?  And I am leaving them naturally colored.  That is, no paint or stain.  Just a nice clear finish so we can enjoy the perfect simplicity and honor the wood itself.

So, very soon these two tables will be on display at Dr. Ug’s Drugstore Cafe in Virgina, Illinois. And they’ll be for sale, too! “Ug’s” is a great little coffee shop (and more), and they feature different artists all the time. Stop in if you’re nearby for some refreshment, and take a look at my tables, if someone hasn’t snatched them up by that time. But maybe there will be something else by then.

Is “going green” important to you?

In our ever-increasing ecologically-minded world, I bet your answer is yes, but maybe you don’t exactly know what it means.  I suppose I say that for myself, as much as anyone else.  I would say that the uncertainty could be due, in part, to one’s understanding of what Green is.  My green might be your Red, you know?

What would be Extreme Green?  Maybe it would be to live an entirely self-sustaining life, growing your food (and hunting it for those of us who like meat), building your home out of materials already fallen due to nature taking its course, using natural light alone to illuminate your way (well, that, and whatever spiritual guidance to which you subscribe), using tools hand-crafted from eroded rock and building things (again) with the materials already down by “their own doing”…

The list goes on, and it reads much like the life of a cave man or perhaps an early pioneer, although the latter no doubt was cutting down standing trees, and to this I have no objection.  I love trees.  I love big, old-growth trees, the likes of which hold the very material on which I base my livelihood.  This of course leads to the question, then, of sustainability.  To the best of my knowledge, the forestry industry is, and has been, a modern leader of the green movement.  While I do personally know of some more unscrupulous circumstances regarding loggers, all I have read or seen in recent years is responsible harvesting practices.

I hope that all companies are being mindful of the Green trend.  I have no doubt that it is here to stay.  However, it’s not practical to operate as a caveman.  Many a fine, modern-day woodworker does work by natural light alone, using only hand-tools.  They are turning out some beautiful and lasting work, with time-honored finishes like beeswax to moderately protect their finished pieces.  Their environmental impact is negligible where their profession is concerned.  A large, production-oriented company can also operate using environmentally-friendly practices, but being in perpetual motion means their impact is compounded.  I don’t mean that negatively towards them.  Comparatively-speaking, the methods being implemented are no doubt accountable for their decrease in environmental impact.  They have been able to reduce their “carbon footprint,” as it were.

Let’s now look at the one-man shop…mine, specifically.  The nature of the sole guy (soul man? :-) ) dictates that not every operation is going at the same time.  I believe that one man in a modern, moderately-equipped shop is an environmentally-responsible way to go.  Of course I am using that as a selling point, but I believe it true.  In my case, I am not production-minded.  Get it done and get it out the door is not my philosophy.  Surely I look at the dollar aspect of it.  I must if I intend to do business and contribute to my family’s well-being.  But not pushing things out like a mad man means that electricity is not always being delivered at dizzying rates.  It means that finish fumes are not being pumped into the atmosphere on an ongoing basis, and it means that lumber is not being used by the truckload.  What it also means is that the most important thing in the shop is you.  The time I spend on your piece of furniture, or your new kitchen is worth more than you can possibly imagine.  It’s extremely important, and very personal to me.  I’ve tried to emotionally remove myself from projects before:  I have a customer who wants to buy a product from me; here’s the order and down payment, give them the product, get the final check and say good bye forever.  How cold is that?  I just can’t do it.

How is my operation Green, then?  I am low-volume, and high quality-minded.  What better way to think and act Green than to invest in something once?  Something that is lasting.  Something that should never lose value.  Hmm…that sounds like marriage, too, yes?  I really want to stress this, though.  One really good way to think and act Green is to re-use or re-purpose things you already have or that someone else is getting rid of.  When something new is required, however, it makes “green” sense to buy the best that you can.  Hopefully this will not be something that will require replacing in a few years.  With many things, you get what you pay for, and I am certain you can relate to any number of circumstances where this rang true in your life.  I also understand budget-mindedness.  Certainly I do, but value, I believe, is more important than sticker price.  With my products, you get so much more than that for which you pay.

I buy materials from small to moderately-sized vendors.  My plywood is formaldehyde-free, and its finish is UV-cured (just one benefit of a UV-cured finish is its 100% recoverability of overspray).  My shop-applied finishes are low VOC.  I use efficient 240 voltage machinery.  My shop is heated radiantly – the most efficient method – using natural gas to fuel the burner.  I walk to work, so my truck isn’t being run anymore than absolutely necessary.  Many days, it doesn’t leave the driveway.

If Green is important to you, then choosing me for your custom woodworking needs will be in line with your standards, or at least approach it.  Certainly we can work together on solutions and specifications you may require, if I don’t already offer it in one form or another.  I’ll be honest to tell you I can or I can’t.

Breathing the same air as you, keep walking on the sunnyside…

…is the title of a Spongebob episode.  Why do I know this?  Why wouldn’t I?  We were watching Spongebob in this house before it was fashionable.  Isn’t that little yellow guy great?

It’s true, though.  One man’s trash is another’s treasure.  How this relates to shop goings-on is remote, but as slow as it is right now - indeed, across the industry and everywhere else - it is related.  I have, over the past week, had opportunity to visit a local junkyard.  An acquaintance, who is a “junker”, had need to get to the junkyard, but had no means at present to do so.  As the shop is quiet, I offered my time and truck to get his collection to the scrapyard to sell.  While his collection didn’t offer much in the way of being truly interesting, I’d be lying to tell you the scrapyard was simply full of junk.  Quite the contrary.  I saw in an instant how artists could bend and form and weld to come up with something…well…something.  Yeah, I could see art.  More so, however, I could see just a lot of cool stuff.  I’d like to think on the one hand that it was truly junk.  By my own definition right now, something that is no good and of no use to anyone.  But that’s a small hand.  On the other hand - the dominate hand, in this case - I saw so much more than junk.  I didn’t at all question why anyone got rid of such things, or apply some greater social commentary to the whole thing (unless that’s what this is…woops), I just saw some really neat stuff.  Entire bulldozers and school buses.  This huge blower with what looked like at least a 10 horse motor on it - probably something once used to alter the weather patterns around here.  There was this massive pile of millings that must have weighed…God only knows.  Thousands of tons.  As a viewer of Mythbusters, I came to understand very quickly how Adam and Jaime (how do you spell that in the masculine form) get all crazy with delight when it comes to digging through a junk yard.  What could I build with this?  Where could I use that?

I felt creative, and it was good.

It’s a neat place.  Should you ever happen to be presented with the opportunity to safely visit a scrapyard or junkyard, then I recommend it.  I suppose this is the “Sunny Side” of the snale’s pace in the shop right now.  Having the time to be exposed to somewhere I probably would never have otherwise found myself.  Speaking of the time…

It’s sunny for you, too!  Custom work usually comes with a fairly long wait time, but right now is a perfect time to order your perfect piece, as lead times have significantly shortened.  It still takes time to prepare good food, so to speak, but you can be first to the table!

Whether you’re visiting a scrapyard, or ordering custom woodwork (wow, that reads like polar opposites), may you continue walking on your own sunny side of the street.  And happy new year.

Thanks to those of you who have expressed a kind word or two regarding the website.  It’s been great fun and full of excitement as we’ve worked to get it going.  It was harder than anticipated in some respects, and easier in others.  We’re pretty happy with the result, and look forward to keeping it up to date for you with new pictures, and of course a post here every now and then.

The photo gallery is very close to completion.  A few more photos, that I have actually yet to take, will be added, and those will definitely be worth checking out.  A kitchen in quartersawn white oak, one in cherry, a cherry stool, and one or two other items.  Of course more will be added all the time as jobs are completed.

By way of this blog, the captions in the photo gallery, and a page I have yet to create called, “Philosophy & Specifications” (you may have found that it links to nowhere at one point, but it works now), I hope you as the reader, friend, family…former, current or potential client will be able to get a pretty good idea of who I am and how much of me is in the work I do.  Perhaps it goes without saying that a one-man shop, just by nature, is an extremely personal undertaking.  I may design and build a piece for you and only you, but it is always…sort of…mine, too.  I liken it to a child who grows up and gets married.  Just because she is gone doesn’t mean she isn’t your daughter anymore.  You love her and care for her just as much as when she lived at home; while she was still in the shop, you might say, being shaped for a future existence.

The shop is less than noisy this week.  I assume the heat has been on, its whirring blower the only sound out there.  These few days I’ve been working up this new website.