Part of me knows what it feels like to be a doctor at a dinner party. In my case, instead of being asked about aches and pains I am dragged off to an obscure corner of a house to admire and provide some consultation for a family treasure. More times than not “the treasure” is a fake or otherwise unimportant except for sentimental importance to the owner(s).
But every so often there is that truly special encounter.
Recently while in Mordor to visit the grandsons (oh, and their parents) my daughter mentioned that their next-door-neighbor had an antique she would like to show me. Being the victim of good upbringing I readily agreed.
And what I encountered was an historical treasure, symbolically embodying the emergence of the Modern Age.
The item in question was an intact very early telephone in pristine condition, complete with the original magneto, wiring and schematic note card that would have come with the unit originally!
It was a genuine delight to examine and comment on this artifact, given its near perfect completeness and condition. This belongs in the lineage of a family that knows and respects history and the artifacts that embody it. I gave them a copy of SAVING STUFF to enhance their own diligent efforts in continuing to preserve family heritage.
Thanks Ms. J for letting me indulge my own passions for the fabric of the Past.
The folks at Lost Art Press have confirmed the Roubo On Marquetry,the volume that got it all started, is now at the printer for a second production run. The expected availability is around Christmas, after having been sold out for the past year. Just in time, if you get my drift.
The book is the result of the answer to a simple question I asked of Michele Pagan: “Could you translate a little of this?” It contains the wisdom related to my great interests, marquetry and finishing.
The “stack” we will be sawing into elegant patterns: plywood or mat-board outer sheets, pewter and brass sheet, waxed paper, and “tordonshell.”
I am very pleased to confirm that Joshua Farnsworth over at Wood and Shop has scheduled my Boullework Marquetry class for this upcoming year. I’ve been working on persuading him for some time, this one is pretty far outside the comfort zone for the school, so I urge you to support us in this listing.
We’ll be making some of my own invention, “tordonshell.” I’ll have pre-made shell for everyone to use in the class; this is for the students to take home.
I look forward to seeing you in Earlysville VA, September 20-22, 2027.
Every Spring, Winterthur Museum hosts a Furniture Symposium, and I have been invited (again). I will present a demonstration on the making of Gragg’s Elastic Chairs during this year’s event, April 23&24, 2027. (I say “again” because I was invited to present five years ago but was then disinvited when I declined to comply with their Fauci Flu protocols.)
I think my presentation/demonstration will be about 75-90(?) minutes, which should be quite the adventure. You can follow the event developments at winterthur.org. Just go to the “Calendar” page.
I hope to see you there.
Once I get my teaching and presentation schedule finalized for 2027 I will post it here.
One component of my activities organizing and streamlining barn/shop space and function this year has been taking a page from the American political handbook, wherein electoral district has been reconfigured to render a permanent advantage. This process is known as Gerrymandering in honor of it first practitioner, early 19th Century Boston politician Eldrige Gerry. Ostensibly this practice has been attributed to partisan advantage, but in practice it has mostly been used to protect incumbents. (Actually, only one Party has this strategy figured out and the other is just spinning on its thumb.)
In my case the spatial reorganization has been centered on the question, “How often did I use this particular tool or supply?” If the answer was, “Not in several years,” the item(s) got moved from a place of relatively easy access into deep(er) storage.
Given the termination of workshop activities here, thus no longer needing classroom or dormitory space, I have plenty of available space to use for storage and archiving. Lots of stuff has been relocated to reflect more current usage.
One instance of that was removing the leather, mother-of-pearl, and veneer inventories in the giant map case in my main shop workspace. I had already reconfigured the top of the cabinet quite a while ago to serve as the location for processing beeswax and shellac wax, and the occasional batch of Mel’s Wax. The leather inventory consumed four drawers, the MOP four drawers, and the special veneers three drawers.
The mother -of-pearl went into two large storage bins now located on the shelves now ringing the former classroom. The specialty veneers went underneath a rolling worktable that is moved to wherever it is needed (I have a giant stash of walnut and cherry veneers up in the former dorm space), and the leather went into two giant storage bins and a large plastic trash can now relocated on top of that veneer stash.
Seriously, what in the work was I doing with a complete buffalo hide and a zebra skin rug? And a big pile of elephant hide?
Who knows.
The map case was about 90% empty, available for a large inventory of different tools that had previously occupied a nearby cabinet.
My most recent conversation with long-time friend, broadcaster Brian Wilson, is now posted on his Substack, Brian Wilson Writes. If pungent conversation about the state of the culture it might not be for you.
It was not thePictures From An Exhibition but rather pictures from an exhibition of traditional wood finishing as last month I taught another iteration of my class at Joshua Farnsworth’s Wood and Shop classroom. Oddly, three days is barely enough time to scratch the surface of the topic while still changing the students’ mindsets pretty profoundly.
So I present, Pictures From An Exhibition of Historic Wood Finishing, featuring performers (students) from all over North America.
For many years I’ve been a fan of Herrick Kimball and his Planet Whizbang site. He is one of the most inventive guys on the interwebz.
I’ve posted occasionally about my fixation with the utility of clothespins in the shop, employing them for a whole host of uses. I’m always on the lookout for good clothespins and currently have a shoebox full of them on the clamp rack. Since even better ones are cheap, I use and dispose them frequently.
Even Mrs. Barn appreciates a good clothespin as most of our laundry is hung on the line. A while ago I bought her some of Herrick’s clothespins from his Classic American Clothespin website.
Holy cow! They are so different in quality that they are different in kind. I mean, who makes clothespins from kiln-dried ash, and oversized to boot (compare it to a pretty good quality clothespin from Ace hardware.)
Maybe my search for the perfect clothespin is over.
I actually watch a lot of Japanese woodworking videos and welcome this new tutorial approach. As much as I like the videos in Japanese shops, they are usually in Japanese and mostly without translation. Since I neither read nor speak Japanese this English chyron approach is most welcome. Not that I do much better with English…
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