Shop Talk
Pictures below show an outside view and three inside views of the shop. It is fully equipped with woodworking and metalworking machinery, and I can make almost anything of wood or metal. The shop is centrally heated and cooled, so furniture built there suffers no sudden environmental changes when moved from the shop to a client's home.
Glossary
- Craftsman Furniture
The Craftsman furniture and architectural style emphasizes use of natural materials, exposed joinery such as through tenons, rustic hand-hammered hardware, and straightforward rectilinear design. Quartersawn oak was the wood of choice for many furniture makers who designed and built in this style. The Craftsman style is an American offshoot of the British Arts and Crafts Movement and was pioneered by Gustav Stickley in the early 1900’s. Other offshoots of the Arts and Crafts Movement are the Mission style that became popular in the American southwest and the Prairie style favored by Frank Lloyd Wright. Stickley promoted and popularized the Craftsman style through his magazine “The Craftsman,” which had a profound, nationwide influence on furniture designers and architects in that day and continues to do so today.
For further reading, see:
Rodel, Kevin P., and Binzen, Jonathan. Arts & Crafts Furniture. Taunton Press, Newtown, CT. 2003
Crochet, Treena. Bungalow Style. Taunton Press, Newtown, CT. 2005
- Shaker Furniture
Shaker communities thrived in New England in the early part of the twentieth century. Shaker woodworkers designed and built furniture with function as the primary consideration. Such furniture and its contemporary adaptations are characterized by simple lines, elegant proportions, and a lack of unnecessary ornamentation, such as ornate carvings. A Shaker piece is unobtrusive yet beautiful in almost any décor, and there is an enduring demand for Shaker-style furniture. Shaker furniture makers used whatever suitable wood was available, including pine. Today, American black cherry is a popular wood for Shaker-style furniture.
For further reading, see:
Sprigg, June, and Larkin, David. Shaker – Life, Work, and Art. Abradale, NY, NY. 1987
Andrews, Edward Deming and Andrews, Faith. Religion in Wood. Midland (Indiana University Press). 1982
Jean M. Burks, Timothy D. Rieman. The Encyclopedia of Shaker Furniture. Schiffer Publishing, 2009
- Wood Movement
Wood is a hygroscopic material that absorbs and releases moisture with changes in humidity. Such absorption and release causes wood to expand and contract by several percent across the grain, but only by a fraction of a percent along the grain. The expansion and contraction (movement) cannot be entirely prevented by any acceptable finish. A piece of furniture that does not allow for such movement might be beautiful when delivered, but will inevitably fail through warping, splitting, and release of glue joints. Frame-and-panel construction is an attractive method for allowing movement of large panels such as the sides and backs of large bookcases, desks, cabinets, sideboards, and the like.
For further reading, see:
USDA Forest Products Laboratory. Wood Handbook – Wood as an Engineering Material. Algrove Publishing, 1999
Hoadley, R. Bruce. Understanding Wood – a Craftsman’s Guide to Wood Technology. Taunton Press, Newtown, CT. 2000
If it can be made, it can be CustomMade, a nationwide directory of woodworking artisans.