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Photo credit: Chris Mottalini, NYT.
Welcome to The Splinter Report, where I gather the assorted interesting and amusing things I’ve seen in the woodworking world. This week we’re looking at the Nakashima Family Home, art in wood, and getting out of a rut.
Tool News Quick Bites
Nothing this week!
Nakashima Family Home Needs Preservation
George Nakashima is one of the most well-known woodworkers of the 20th century, and the father of live-edge furniture. Over the years, he built seventeen buildings on his 12-acre compound in southeast Pennsylvania. Today, his estate is managed by the Nakashima Foundation for Peace, which offers tours to the public, as well as efforts to maintain his legacy and work. Recently, they’ve begun the process of ensuring the future of the Nakashima family home, which was constructed in 1946.
One of the key issues is that Nakashima built the house without architectural drawings or documentation of any changes made over the years. In order to assess the condition of the house and plot a path forward, they needed to determine the construction methods and structural design. This past year, with help from a grant, they produced architectural drawings, photographs, environmental condition reports, and laser scans for 3-D modeling of the House. (If you’re interested, the entire report is available as a PDF.) Now armed with comprehensive information on the structure, they can begin the process of preserving it for future generations.
The next step is a Historic Preservation Symposium that is happening November 15-16. The foundation will discuss the findings of their report, as well as highlighting preservation efforts underway and ones needed in the future. Limited tickets are still available for purchase.
Random Reddit: Art in Wood
Many a woodworker has looked at a piece of wood and been inspired by the grain pattern. Sometimes though, it’s a bit more literal than just some nice figure. Take this bit of ambrosia maple u/ducklady92 milled down for example.
milled down a piece of ambrosia maple and found this foggy mountain scene inside. so i framed it. and then made a whole collection of similar stuff.
byu/ducklady92 inwoodworking
Really makes for a very picturesque scene. What sort of images have you seen in wood?
Video of the Week: A Hand Plane for Nick Offerman
Anyone can get in a rut, but the one Ari Itkin has been in recently has been especially repetitious. Building the same piece over and over for six months is enough to make anyone go a bit crazy. So what does he do? He decides to build a hand plane for Nick Offerman.
Anything interesting I missed this week, or that you want me to highlight in a future Splinter Report? Let us know on social media or drop me an email at cknoff@aimmedia.com.
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