New Outdoor Chair Design: The 917 Series

July 29, 2010
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And now for something completely different! I ran across a picture of the Gerrit Rietveld Red-Blue chair last year, and I was mesmerized. I love this chair. Rietveld was a Dutch architect/furniture designer in the early 20th century. (A photo of the chair, below, shows the distinctive paint scheme Rietveld used on his chair.) So [...]

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A Cypress Table Top

July 27, 2010
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Cypress often displays beautiful patterns of grain and different shades of brown, reds and even sometimes purple; here’s a recent example. The board that yielded these slats was air-dried and had a few small knots in it, which adds a bit of character to the piece. I like it. (See this post for a pic [...]

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No. 3 Pagoda Bonsai Plant Stand

July 27, 2010
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Using the same design elements as the No. 1 Bonsai Stand, this multi-tiered outdoor bonsai stand provides more surface area for the display of your favorite plants (or anything else). The decks are made of cypress slats to handle wood movement in wet conditions. The stand is made of cypress, stainless steel screws and water-proof [...]

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New Outdoor Furniture Design: The No. 1 Bonsai Stand

July 22, 2010
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The No. 1 Bonsai Stand is the simplest of a new series of designs that showcase bonsai and other beautiful plants. (Other bonsai stands in this series will be appearing before the end of the month.) The No. 1 stand is made of select cypress (no knots) with special attention paid to the choice of [...]

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Rough Cut Woodworking Now Has a Promo

July 21, 2010
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I mentioned in an earlier post that the new face of American woodworking is Tommy MacDonald. WGBH just posted a promotional video on its website of his new show, airing in October: Your Correspondent: Great to see things ramping up!

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Bringing the Outdoors Indoors

July 21, 2010
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In the right setting, this makes perfect sense. While our chairs, tables, bonsai plant stands, etc. are built for outdoor use, they’re very happy inside. Don’t overlook the design possibilities, especially the creative use of paints and stains, on outdoor products brought inside. Your Correspondent: Reminding you that inside is as close as an enclosed [...]

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Seven Hours Away

July 20, 2010
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Yesterday, unlike other Mondays, we dropped off our son at camp and headed straight for the Parkway. Our family are inveterate fair weather hikers and even though the forecast was for rain, we (my wife and I) decided that discretion had nothing to say to valor. If we must be wet, we must be wet; [...]

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Layout and Rough Cut

July 17, 2010
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A hot, muggy, stormy Saturday. I’m starting a new order, building some bonsai stands and a bench. Getting drenched in the shop from the humidity but at this stage of the process, that’s okay. I layout the pieces using plywood or MDF templates on a 12′ boards of 4/4 select cypress. Once I’ve got the [...]

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A Chair and Some Change

July 16, 2010
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A brand new Adirondack Chair sat on the assembly table last week, waiting for a final sanding. All the joints were tight, no gaps. The chair went together smoothly. Really pleased with the result. As I build a new chair or table or bonsai stand (or whatevuh), I’m always looking for a little more efficiency [...]

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New Outdoor Furniture Design: The No. 516 Side Table

July 15, 2010

My Mom & Dad were married May 16th and this side table, actually designed this past May, is made in honor of their anniversary. The top of the table has rounded edges and an angle undercutting the roundover. I usually do the tops of the benches and side tables this way. It creates a thinner [...]

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Rough Cut — Woodworking with Tommy Mac

July 14, 2010
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I design and build outdoor furniture. Tommy MacDonald builds bombe secretaries with complex federal pediments, shell carvings and pigeon hole assemblies. There’s a big difference between his skills and mine. The cool thing about Tommy is he doesn’t think there’s such a big difference because he’s convinced that anyone can acquire the skills to build [...]

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In Praise of Titebond III

July 13, 2010
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I really love Titebond III wood glue.  It’s waterproof, it cleans up with water and it creates new possibilities for designing outdoor furniture because you can glue joints and laminate wood without worrying that the glue joint will fail over time. Waterproof is a big deal because when you build wooden furniture and stick it [...]

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