Honing in on Proportions
Small changes can make a big design difference – and help train your eye. How do you dial in the proportions on a furniture design? I used to pose that question a lot. Perhaps what makes this [...]
Rustication in Woodworking Design
Rustication adds a sense of nature to refined designs. One of my favorite places is a neighborhood Italian market called DeVitis. Every time I step through the door, I stop and let the smells of [...]
Fine-Tuning Furniture Designs
Minor adjustments typically beat a hatchet job. I knew a guy who didn’t shave or cut his hair for 12 months at a time. On day 365 he looked like the wild man from Borneo. On day 366 (or day …
Make the Most of Figured Maple
The right orientation adds shimmer and pop to your work. by George R. Walker pages 18-20 The barn loft was hot and dusty – and especially so after digging through piles of [...]
Understanding Lines & Edges
Control the eye for better design. Nice Lines. We say those words to describe a well-designed boat, sports car, chair or saw handle. It expresses our pleasure when all the parts of a design seem [...]
Build Without Plans
Move beyond a measured drawing and let your imagination reign. My 6-year-old nephew, Ryan, loves to eat cheese puffs and play with Legos. For his birthday, I bought him a set of the colorful [...]
Where Art & Function Intersect: Meet Reid Schwartz
Meet Reid Schwartz: artist, interested human, maker of tools, worker of wood and restorer of old things Crooked Knives & Curved Lines A canoe is a study in curved lines. The curves allow it [...]
See Like a Designer
Look for the ‘bones’ to observe how form defines design. It happens during almost every furniture design workshop. At the start of day two, a carload of students shows up 20 minutes late. One [...]
Designing With Curves
Getting off the straight path can be liberating. I can see it with my eyes shut: a curving stretch of highway snaking past Otter Cliffs in Acadia National Park. Each twist in the road opens up a [...]
Sketching Strategies
As with woodworking skills, design and drawing skills take practice. For many woodworkers, design seems like a leap into the unknown. It’s one thing to teach our hands to saw to a curved line; [...]
Plans vs Proportions
Adapt a furniture plan with your eye. I think of plans as sort of a roadmap. They were a big part of my early work as a machinist and later as a woodworker. We had an unwritten rule in the …
Drawing Strategies for Design
It will take more than one drawing to get it right – and that’s OK. My best days in the woodshop are with my 4-year-old grandson, Seth. He’s just tall enough to see over the benchtop and quick to [...]
