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First Light: Installation
Those who have been visiting this blog for several years, or who have taken the time to plow through older posts, may recall a series from 2009 entitled First Light (← link) Following construction of...
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First Light: Installation (II)
Got my ducks in row today and corralled together the necessary parts and tools to move the foundation work for the garden lantern along a piece.First off i checked the orientation of the lantern head...
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First Light (Installation) III
I've found that custom rod with rolled threads is a bit expensive and takes a while to get it fabricated , so I ordered some high strength 4140 steel all-thread online. That rod is in the mail and...
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Gateway
The Museum of Fine Art in Boston is one of the premiere museums in the United States, if not the world. I've visited there many times for various reasons - there's so much to see! They have a superb...
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First Light (Installation) IV
Ever go out and take some photos and come home, download them onto you computer and then find that the camera setting you had was the wrong one and the pictures didn't come out well at all? If not,...
View ArticleOn the topic of the Japanese Craftsman
I've been wanting to mention for some time the film Jiro dreams of Sushi. I saw it last year when it had its run at the local art cinema, and found it a very truthful and clear depiction of the mindset...
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Black, Black Heart
I came across an advertisement recently which kind of shocked me. Up for sale were some Gabon ebony (diospyros dendo, diospyros crassiflora) logs, and the seller, African Figured Woods, is looking for...
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First Light (Installation) V
Expecting rain the next day, I decided to push ahead with getting the lantern head installed. I still had not found the box of assorted wedges and pins that I had made, so I went to the shop and...
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Three Months On: Garden Trellises and Beds
Earlier in the Spring I wrote a short blog series about constructing three garden beds and two trellises for our plot in a community garden. I fabricated all of these pieces of garden 'furniture' using...
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Way down south to Mexico way! Alright!
Today's post title is referencing, however obliquely, Jimi Hendrix and one of his bigger hits. Might be before your time, might not. The lyric from "Hey Joe" comes to mind, you see, as I just took a...
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Mizuya (12): Total Makeover?
In the last post in this series discussing the design process for a kitchen sideboard, or hutch - what the Japanese call a mizuya - post 10 (post 11 relating to acquiring some wrought iron for...
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Sidling up to Sideboards
Since the last post in the Mizuya thread, I have put many hours back into the design process, going right back to square one with considerations of stuff like the primary massing and dividing up of...
View ArticleGrand Designs: Timber Framed Barn
A British television series I have enjoyed for years is called Grand Designs. I thought this episode from season 11 would be of interest to readers here:
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Gateway (II)
Since my last post in this thread, where I mentioned an upcoming project with a well-known and long-established Museum on the east coast, things have been moving along gradually. I'm patient with the...
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BCM Door Repair
The past few weeks have been hectic, and I seem to have a few things on the go - whew!I've been out to Oregon to look at material for the MFA project, and will be updating that thread soon enough. I've...
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Gateway (III)
Much has happened since the last post in this series, from some three weeks back I guess. I went to Oregon and looked at a bunch of Port Orford Cedar logs. I have met the gardeners involved in the...
View ArticleHammer and Nail
At some point in a building process a bit of of nailing, kugi-uchi (釘打ち) in Japanese, comes up. Great technique with the hammer here: His rhythm is perfect, like a drummer. No wasted moves. Takes...
View ArticleTaking the East Fork
A few weeks back I took a fact-finding trip out to S. Oregon to visit a sawmill that is the primary mill in the US sawing first growth Port Orford Cedar: East Fork Lumber, based in Myrtle Point.Here's...
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The Shape of Things to Come.
Several months back I found myself in the fortunate and unexpected position of being able to purchase what some might consider to be the holy grail of jointers: a Martin T54. I've been exceedingly...
View ArticleCan't See the Forest for the Trees
There is a Japanese proverb used in temple carpentry, "木を買わず山を買え", ki wo kawazu yama wo kae, which translates as "don't buy the tree, buy the mountain". This proverb is known to have been uttered by...
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