Sunday, December 18, 2016

New Windsor Bench and Rocking Chair at TimothyClark.com

The last few years have been very busy in my shop.  I am starting to realize that I need some help. In the meantime, I have been plugging along and doing some of my best work. Here are two new designs that are adaptations of previous designs.





The New Waltham Side Chair Rocker which I also call the Musician's Rocker,  replaces my previous side chair rocker. The New Waltham seat is larger and more comfortable and the look works for me. You can see it here on my website. http://www.timothyclark.com/r_newwalrock.html























Next up is my latest 3' Waltham Bench which this time has the thin crest rail which has been very popular over the last few years.  I originally thought that this design was impractical since it was so small but this one was for a mudroom and is a great place to get in and out of shoes as you place your bags or other stuff on the bench next to you.






Ziggy continues to entertain me in the shop.


Have a great holiday season.
Tim


Saturday, November 26, 2016

The 28 Leg Windsor Bench Odyssey


I delivered this bench to the NYC restaurant Rouge Tomate in Chelsea this last summer and much of the previous six months were taken up with its creation.  It was a very challenging project on many levels. The main challenges were physical because of its sheer size, and technical for figuring out the corners and to make the four sections function as separate pieces as well as working as one.  My back took weeks to get to normal after straining it day after day of moving the sections around my small shop.  

I started referring to it as the "28 leg windsor bench" as it was a bit difficult to otherwise describe. It is 25' 10" long and at both ends it takes a right angle turn to extend 54" from the back (of the long section)  to the end of the arm rail.

This shows one of the corner sections with the bench unassembled.


Below are a bunch of shots taken during the building process.  The order in which the parts are made is critical in a project like this since all of the parts need to end up working like a huge whole unit. There are no guides for how to do a project like this.  As far as I know, this has not been done before, so I was making it up as I went along. The challenge of making it work as a single unit is that I was never able to assemble the whole bench until I installed it in the client's restaurant.

parts for the corner sections
corner getting lined up for making the permanent corner joint

shaping the joined corner with hand
and power tools
lining up the two straight center sections



this is 1/2 of the total base.
one corner and one straight section

never a good way to work on the corner sections and notice the other two sections down the right. they are always in the way.




my daily game of large format Tetris.
they just didn't mesh together nicely
rails were created in sections.
this one of the four 90 degree corners being glued up




rail sections after glue up
crest rail corner reader to be
mated to straight sections
scarf joint of corner to straight section










Sunday, February 21, 2016

What's New? Lots!

In my digital world, Instagram has been a huge new thing.  Please take a look at my page at https://www.instagram.com/timothyclarkfurniture/     It is a good place to see what is happening in my shop in an off the cuff way.  Lots of shots of things happening as they are happening.  Pretty much whatever catches my eye.  The drawback of Instagram is that I have been neglecting my blog posts.
So, here are a few things-

I got a nice picture from an NY customer, showing my their round ended trestle table that I made for them last year.  It is nice to see it all ready for guests.  The round ends allow is to seat 8 people very nicely.  A previous post about the building of this table is here- http://windsorchairsvermont.blogspot.com/2015/04/back-in-shop.html   and finished pictures are on my website here- http://www.timothyclark.com/t_trestleroundend.html


I made Waltham Arm chair #102 a couple of weeks ago. I am now working on #105 and 106 and will start soon on #'107 - #114.
You will notice in the picture below, I marked the chair as #101.  I just looked through my book and saw that I had already numbered a New Waltham Arm chair with an office base with the number 101. Oh well. Case of the double 101.


Below is a Cod Rib Arm Chair that I made back around 1990. I just delivered a dining table to them and they were customers from way back when I was getting started.  I made some of my first sets of chairs for them. This one had a seat glue joint that needed some attention and while I had it, I decided to replace the braces on the legs.
I do not know what number this chair is but it could be under number 20.


Currently, I am making Cod Rib Arm Chair # 118.  The drill but not shaped seat is sitting on a seat for a 5' Waltham Bench in the same condition. I have another cherry version of that same bench roughed out to the same point.  Whenever I can, I like to make more than one at the same time as there is a lot of set up for each step of the way. These benches will be #13 and #14.


Below are some of the many spindles that will go into those two benches.  32 for each bench. Lots of hand planing on the shaving horse.
Winter did not really make it here this year. It has been a strange one. So, here is a parting shot to fit the strange weather.My daughter Claire and a "her size" Darth Vader.May the Force be with you,Tim