Merry Christmas from Vermont

Snow is finally here and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...  We have a great place down the road where we have been going to cut our Christmas tree each year.  The spot is beautiful with horses, hot chocolate, and very nice people.  We always seem to run into friends there which adds to the fun. Melinda, the owner of the place, was nice enough to let our son Ben take a ride on the old black horse and Claire enjoyed being close to but not too close to Ted, the huge draft horse.

I did manage to get some work done also. I am finishing up a 5' Waltham Bench for the Park Hyatt in Washington, D.C..  It will be placed at the entrance to their spa area.   I am buffing out the milk paint before it gets a coat of danish oil.  There is a lot of buffing involved in the milk paint finish.

Happy Holidays,
Tim

Swivel/Tilt Windsor Desk Chair

I recently finished up another desk chair using my Waltham Arm Chair. These are really great desk chairs. I have always liked using a Windsor chair as a desk chair because I have never liked the institutional look of most swivel desk chairs. I do like their functionality though. This really is a great solution. They are very comfortable and they do look great. The Waltham chair has just a bit more back support as it has one more spindle and they are spaced just a bit closer together. The second photo is a retake of the Cod Rib Arm desk chair that I made a short while ago. Find both of these chairs here on my website.

Thanks,

Tim

Finished Kitchen/Work Stool

Here are a couple images of the finished high work stool. The extra round off of the top sides makes this a comfortable stool to straddle with a foot on the floor. You can also sit right up on top of it with your feet on the longer stretcher. The through tenons of the stretcher-to-leg joint makes for a very strong joint and is an interesting detail. Let me know if you like these legs or if you'd like to see something different. This stool will cost $450. Click to see it on my website.

That's all for now.

Tim

Work Stool

This is a new stool design that I am just completing. The seat shape is based on my previous work stool that I designed around 20 years ago. I was looking for something different and contemplated a round seat for a while but a round seat is much more limited in seating possibilities. This shape allows the sitter to straddle it in one direction and to turn it and sit right up on it when it is turned sideways. The new seat has a fuller relief of the sides and an undercutting of the ends that adds a visual benefit and is nice to feel when picking the stool up by its ends.

The through wedged tenon joinery throughout is new also for this design. The last design was very solid but this one is even more so.

I apologize for the terrible photo but I wanted to show the joinery before I trimmed the tenons and I did not check this image until after I had trimmed them. I will add a photo of the finished stool when I get there.

Finishing a Windsor Bench

These shots show a few of the final steps of building a piece such as this 6' Windsor bench. Japanese saws are used for trimming off rails and also for cleaning up wedged tenon joints. The grouping of tools are some that are used for mounting rails and for cleaning up before final sanding and finishing. These really are the most important tools in the shop. I can pretty much go into any shop and make do with their power tools but if I do not have a razor sharp chisel, cabinet scraper and proper measuring tools then I feel quite handicapped. One develops a feel for any tool but feel of a chisel of the weight of a mallet are very special. I feel very clumsy if I do not have the tools that I am used to using. I made the mallets in the image and have used them for years. One is for delicate strikes and the other is for a more powerful blow. The blue chisel is more than 20 years old and the metal is polished to a silky smoothness from years of handling. A new chisel has rough edges and milling lines that feel awkward in the hand.

Below is a movie clip of trimming the wedged tenon joints at the underside of the seat. These are the ends of the back spindles coming through the seat.

To see the finished bench go to www.TimothyClark.com

Have a good one,

Tim

Cherry Windsor Bench and Fall in the North East

I am finally ready to assemble a 6' Settee that I have needed to finish up for a while now. Here it sits with a finish sanded seat and back rail. The next image is of the back spindle ends being super-dried to shrink them down before assembly. This is the key to a long lasting Windsor piece that will withstand years of changing seasons. Click here to see photos of the finished 6' Settee.

Fall is always a busy time in the North East as we get ready for the snow to come. I finally cleaned the chimney and stacked the rest of our firewood for the season. Our straw bale house stays pretty warm so we do not need a whole lot of wood. It still seems to take me forever to get it stacked. The rear blade is on the tractor and garden is put away for the winter. Winter is my most productive time of the year as the evening darkness makes it easy to stay in the shop and work longer hours.

President and Michelle Obama's Wedding Anniversary

The Obama's celebrated their wedding anniversary at the Blue Duck Tavern at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C. a week or so ago.

They were among my furniture that I made for the Hyatt a couple of years ago. Here, you can see my Waltham Rocker- , and here you can see the 29' Windsor bench that I made for the the hotel .

There are eight of my rockers at the Hyatt and six of them are spread around the common areas on the first floor. The long bench is in the Blue Duck Tavern and there are also eight 4 1/2' benches in glass walled booths in the Tea area. For info on these pieces, take a look at my website.