First job of the year was a 2.7 metre long desk. The client mandated that beech veneered ply should be used for the desk top surface and cabinet carcasses, with solid beech to be used for lippings, drawer fronts and the footers. To allow easier transportation and because of the limitations in available sizes of beech veneered sheets, it was necessary to make the desk in two parts. The first part was the desk plus drawer cabinet, and the second part was the rightmost drawer cabinet. They were designed so that they could be screwed together giving a flush join on the top surface and between the cabinets.
I made the vertical fluting using spaced and lipped ply walls, and I made the decorative footers from solid beech using two separately moulded parts – a mixture of roundover and rebate bits were used. The final finish that was applied was a very dark grey/brown (almost black) spray lacquer but unfortunately I don’t have any photos of that – but it looked great. Here are a few photos pre-spraying and before the drawer handles were added.
I met a couple of artists at the Glenkinchie Christmas Fayre and that lead to a wee job to make some simple picture frames in sapele – and also a commission to make another of my “Eider” sofa tables.
I also had an interesting job to make two small bedside tables. The interest in these was the concave frontage – and the requirement to make a concave drawer front. I made the drawer front by shaping staves of oak using a template, stacking them, and then veneering the resultant concave face. I kept the rear face flat so that it could attach easily to the drawer box. Here are the two tables – finished in a dark grey Rubio oil.
I also tutor the weekend wood-turning courses that are run at the Chippendale International School of Furniture in Gifford. After running the course multiple times, I finally remember to take a photo of the results at the end of the one of the weekends in February. Here are four happy turners with the 3-legged stools that they turned, made from maple. If you are interested in participating in one of the weekend courses, be sure to have a look at the school’s website.
