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Queen Ann Lowboy |
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This is just after the last coat of varnish. The wood is walnut. I had some sapwood to try and hide, so I used Van Dyke crystals from Lockwood to try and even things up. It got darker than I planned, but it isn’t near as dark as this picture looks. I added some amber dye to a glaze to try and “warm” it up a bit. That worked pretty good. This picture makes it look more red than it is in person too.
The design was done by Phil Lowe. I took a class at his school, the Furniture Institute if MA, in July of 2006. We didn’t complete the piece though. I had LOTS of work to do at home. I shipped the whole thing back in pieces that were packed and shipped at a shipping store. They did a pretty good job though. Everything got here in pretty good shape.
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Here is the top. This shows the color a little better. The wood I got in class had some sapwood in it. I really didn’t want to try and hide that in the top since it would be more obvious, so I bought another piece of walnut locally and cut the sapwood off the two original pieces. The new piece is only a few inches wide and it matches pretty well. The two original pieces from class have some nice figure. You can barely see it in this picture, but there is some nice curl there. |
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This shot shows some of the handcut dovetails and the backing plate pattern I chose from Horton Brasses. These dovetails are the first I’ve ever done by hand. I was fairly pleased with them. Not great, but ok for a first shot. I should have made the pins thinner—they almost look to similar to what a router bit makes. These are half blinds and are easier in one respect because you hide most of the joint. On the other hand, they are more work because you have to chop the sockets out for the tails. I really like the brasses I got from Horton. Nice pattern and color. You can see the carved fan in the center drawer better here too. Another first for me. I feel like the lobes are a little flat, but they look ok. One thing that happened I didn’t count on...when I laid out the fan, I used a compass with a pencil. Well, evidently, I pressed hard enough that the pencil compressed the wood. So, later, when I sanded, then stained, the wet wood expanded back and if you look close (in person) you can see a trace of the circle that marked the outer edge of the fan! Oh well. |
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References for this project
Phil Lowe—Furniture Institute of MA (Class for the lowboy at Phil’s, and a carving 101 class with Phil at Highland Hardware) Norm Vandal’s book on Queen Ann Furniture Jeff Greene’s book on American Furniture Articles in FWW too numerous to list (though I’m working on it) - look for cabriole legs, staining walnut, fitting drawers, dovetails, etc. Lonnie Bird’s School and DVD on cutting dovetails (I took a chair class at his school) The good folks at WoodCentral for all their help Freddy Roman at the Furniture Institute of MA helped me out a lot during the class. SAPFM—the members are very helpful with questions by a rookie like myself)
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Chippendale Footstool
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This stool was actually from the Ball and Claw carving class at Phil Lowe’s school (back in 2001). The focus of the class was to finish one leg, but we were given enough material to complete the stool. Mine sat on a shelf for several years! I finally decided to finish it. The wood is mahogany. This was one of those classes where you learn much more than just the ball and claw carving. A good reference is Phil’s video. There are also numerous articles in FWW and the SAPFM journal on cabriole legs and ball and claw carving. |
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Coat Rack |
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This is a coat rack that I built a few years ago to fill an empty wall space in our new house . We had seen several coat racks like this in antique stores and really liked the concept. The design is all mine. The wood is mahogany. This is the first veneering project I did. The crotch mahogany I got from Certainly Wood was beautiful. The was also the first carving I had done. Sorry for the poor quality pictures. |
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Fern Stand |
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After I took a weekend carving class with Phil Lowe at Highland Hardware, I came home looking for a project that I could practice what I learned. This is what I came up with. The design is mine, although the carving pattern in the “bulb” was heavily influenced by a project in Chris Pye’s book Carving on Turning. This project required many jigs. I spent more time building jigs than I did making the parts. The wood is mahogany. |
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Hall Table |
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This table was another project to fill a blank space in the house. It resides in the same hallway as the coat rack above. The mahogany crotch in the top is the same veneer as what I used in the coat rack. The banding is satinwood from Certainly Wood. I really like this top. It turned out better than I expected. The satinwood “dances” when you walk by. I love that. It gives the table motion almost. The legs were the first turnings I did. I bought my lathe during this project and decided to turn the legs. I’m glad I did that. I like the turned legs much better than the square legs I would have made. |
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References
Certainly Wood—great veneer
Vacupress—I didn't use their press (I didn’t own one at the time), but Daryl Kleil I svery helpful on his forum. I did get my glue from them. I did get their hobby level press later and really like it. Daryl’s videos are very helpful too.
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Tony’s Shop |