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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Mastery Through Repetition
Practice is the best of all instructors. Maynard lived next door. When he wasn’t spinning wrenches at the local Ford garage, he was out in his driveway, hunched over a...
Ideas that Jump Off the Page
Isometric views help keep your designs grounded. The kite leapt into the wind and I frantically uncoiled string that burned and chafed my hands and fingers. The thin wooden crossbeams...
