Roubo and Studley updates

My two-week-long trip to make on-site exhibit arrangements and a final examination of the Studley Tool Cabinet and Workbench began with a long day’s drive from the Virginia mountains to Cincinnati.  I remain convinced that Google Maps employs aspiring NASCAR drivers to ascertain driving times.

About an hour out of Cincy I drove through a storm cell that almost certainly contained a tornado or two, or so I deduced from the building parts flying past me on the road.  I’ve driven through rain so intense that I could not see the road in front of me, but this was the first time I have ever been in rain so fierce that I could not see the road beside me.  I pulled into a gas station as soon as I could see well enough to navigate, but immediately noticed two things.  First, the gas pumps were scattered around the lot, some on top of cars.  Second was the unmistakable smell of gasoline.  I moved on as soon as I could get turned around.

As I write this I’m in Fort Mitchell visiting Chris Schwarz for the evening, reviewing the recently returned page proofs for the Roubo l’Art du Menuisier Book of Plates and working through some of the details for the soon-to-be-submitted manuscript for VIRTUOSO: The Tool Cabinet and Workbench of Henry O. Studley.  We spent a fair bit of time discussing Chris’ vision for the physical manifestation of the latter.  To tell you the truth I am ambivalent about some of these details; I just want the book to be as compelling as Lost Art Press can make it.  Given their track record, I have nothing to worry about in that regard.

A special treat was to be a fly on the wall as Chris and Megan Fitzpatrick discussed an upcoming PopWood article (November, I believe) about a cabinet with some spectacular Gothic tracery Chris is finishing.

And I cannot deny the little tremor of pleasure I experienced when noting this image.