Wow! Welcome in my house any day. I love the contrast and at the same time appreciate how the doors tie the top and bottom together. Excellent cowbell!
Wow! Welcome in my house any day. I love the contrast and at the same time appreciate how the doors tie the top and bottom together. Excellent cowbell!
Thank you Prashun - and no issues with the nit pick or visual cacophony of the cow bells - funny thing is that the drama of the grain was not all that expected - at least in the shorter cabinet - until the dye and Waterlox did their magic. Still without the live edge - which was the primary intended effect from the beginning - these pieces would be NICE but very quiet.
As for the top joints, I started with a series of cardboard templates with different cut patterns to see how to optimize cutting the slabs for the best effect. If I were to do it again (unlikely) I would try to create a more fair line. I got myself in trouble with my complex "interlocking" cuts. It was my intent all along to use dominos to align the tops (as they would not otherwise be fastened together) and to maintain the 3/32" or so clearance between the pieces. I expected to use 3 or 4 dominos at each joint but as it was I just managed to get 2 and these with elongated slots and tapered dominos so that I could bring the pieces together overcoming my elaborate and opposing cuts.
The cutting of the lines was accomplished with a Bosch T234X jig saw blade and then lots of creeping up to the line with my rasps, and drill run drum sanders of various diameters and a series of various shaped sticks with self adhesive sandpaper attached. I asked about how one might do this in a thread here probably a year ago thinking I might use a router or a better jig saw but in the end the do it by hand method prevailed. I had mixed success. Sometimes the wood didn't cooperate (just fell away - I actually needed to glue pieces back on) and sometimes my hand work wasn't all that good. The overall effect is successful but were you to scrutinize …
At the risk of raising the veil - here is one that was too ambitious - I would have liked a closer match. Still I think the effect is much more appropriate than any straight line or hokey curve joint would have been.
Muir-Top-Detail-2.jpg
If I can get some good photos of the pieces in their home I will post them. That will be the real telling of the appropriateness of these "demented" pieces.
Just to add to the story - here are my concept sketches that sold the client on the design. Good that they gave me plenty of latitude. The evolution of the building process served them well.
Screen Shot 2014-07-02 at 12.51.20 PM.jpg Muir Top2014-07-02 at 12.52.13 PM.jpg
Ding A Ling
"... for when we become in heart completely poor, we at once are the treasurers & disbursers of enormous riches."
WQJudge
Wow...the work required for fitting those tops together! Very unique and interesting! Bravo!
--
The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
Nice work on that table !! Not my style, but I can appreciate the skill and the design and the beauty of the project.
This is wonderful work Sam. I love how you just "went for it". Why go by the rules if we can break new ground with design?
George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Art Carpenter and Wendell Castle were all new and radical when I first saw their work. Now they're accepted as true icons.
I love to study the history of furniture design. Over the years from
Chippendale to Nakashima and Sam Maloof I've seen one thing. It helps to have a gimmick!
How did the very first ball and claw foot detail get sold? I bet the first one was considered EDGY!
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
- Henry Ford
Thank you Andrew -and Joseph and Jim too. I appreciate your kind words, enthusiasm and open minds.
Cheers, Sam (someday, not very soon, to be accepted as an edge working icon - or simply demented - either way is OK by me )
Last edited by Sam Murdoch; 02-09-2015 at 6:14 PM.
"... for when we become in heart completely poor, we at once are the treasurers & disbursers of enormous riches."
WQJudge
Hello Sam,
I think the jigsaw connections in the top are original and work well and the doors tie it all together very well. You also composed the pieces very well into a balanced design. Congrats!
"You can observe a lot just by watching."
--Yogi Berra