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Chair Restoration

A chair came into the shop in much need of some tender loving care. It had clearly been a favorite chair that had gone through many repairs and reupholstering over the years.  There were so many staples and nails put into the back of the chair (to hold in the various upholsteries) that there wasn't much wood left.  I glued 562 pegs into the back of the chair in order to replace enough wood to allow the customer to have it once more upholstered.  That's right, 562 pegs!!!!  All of the light wood shown was rebuilt by me and some of the curves of the right arm had to be replaced and color matched.

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Fine motor skills

Somehow all of this is going to become a Heart Shaped Music Box.
My wheels and gears are still turning on how exactly to make this happen.

An important Refurbish job!

We've changed our look again!  Be sure to check out the new look of our Website!

A Video/ Slideshow of some samples on YouTube

Be sure you view and rate folks!

The Real Last Step in Woodworking

So you've toiled away on this project for weeks.  You've gone through design, buying the materials, building and finishing it.  But you aren't really done yet.

If a project is built and no one has seen it, does it really exist?

You want to share your work of course.  So you snap a quick picture of it like these.

And it's just doesn't look like you see it. 

Here's the truth of it.  The camera can do a lot. . but it's just not as good as the human eye.  It needs some work for that lens to pick up exactly what you see.  So help it out.  Give it some more light to start with.  Both of the pictures above were taken with a flash and you'll notice all it did was give a spotlight effect centered on the piece.  With more light on the whole thing, the flash won't be needed and lighting will be even.Each of this pictures also had a second problem.  The one on the left was too close.  You can't really make out the whole piece because the edges are lost.  Try to include the whole piece.  Now sometimes, like in the case of that piece, there isn't anywhere to back up enough to get it, but do you best.

The picture on the right should be cropped on the sides - something that will have to happen afterward as the whole piece is so tall.  But I'd also recommend that it be taken on an angle.  Because it was taken head on like this, it's hard to tell the real size and shape of the piece.  We only see a flat front.  While an angle is much more appealing and will show the sides/ depth of the piece.  

Here's the improvement for this one: 

It didn't take much of an angle to show the piece better.  And better lighting helped - though we still have a slight hot-spot from the flash. You'll also note that showing the piece in use helps the look of it a lot.  We get a better sense of the size and shape of it with the trophies inside.

These beginning tips will help, but I recommend that you take the time to learn a little bit about photography to make your photos even better. 

For more help check out this blog:
http://www.photo101tips.blogspot.com/

The Heart-Shaped Music Box continues

Remember the heart-shaped music box I've been working on?  We'll I've made some great progress and felt I'd share some updates and  photos.

Last time you saw the pieces they were just 4 glued up blocks.  4 because it's best to makes extras when you know there will be delicate steps along the way.

The next step was to cut down the corners of the blocks.  There are two important reasons for this.  For one, the next step was putting these pieces on the lathe to make them round cylinders, and square on a lathe is unstable. Getting it closer to round means less uneven cutting with the lathe tools.

The second reason, look how much material I can salvage from this...

I'm not sure what I'll use it for but, as I mentioned in a previous post, I try to use as much as possible.  

From there the four blocks finally make it to the lathe for the first time.  The goal at first is just to make them actual cylinders.  Just rounded enough to make the process of carving hearts out of them a little easier.