March First and a New Studio

For the past few days I have been moving into my new shop space. The Shop/Studio is run by Adrian Ferrazzutti. I was put in touch with him via a fellow furniture maker who works at Sheridan College.
The Studio is at best a 20min bike ride from home. I just need to wait for warmer dryer weather.
I have a 16X16 space in a 3000sq foot shop. I share major tools with the four full time guys, there are a few space mates who seem to have just dropped stuff off in their space but have not really set it up yet.
I am pretty happy to be in this space it’s been a long time coming, it means that I can now start building all the out for reach ideas that were not do able in my garage shop space.
I am going to go in tomorrow to paint a small partition that Adrian wanted me to put up between my space and the special effects guy in the back corner, I do not really understand why it was needed but I thought that going in and helping out would further my inroads with the group . In reality I did not need to do this because everyone there is really nice to the new guy.

Marks comes through with a treasure trove

We had a late lunch at our friend Mark and Alison’s place in Burlington. It was a wonderful afternoon spent catching up on how our children had grown and what we had been doing since we last got together at our place in the summer.

I have to tell you that both Ali and Mark are top notch crafts people in their respective fields. Ali works with glass as her main medium and Mark is one of the best woodworkers that I know. On another note, Mark has a tool collection that would make most grown men drool. Well, Mark and I got talking about what we were both working on and when it came to my turn, I told Mark that I was finding it hard to find material that I could use if my recycled pieces.

Now Mark being the stand up guy that he is, said.... Hey I have scrap coming out of my yang yang. Feel free to take whatever you need. Let me tell you he has enough material to keep someone like me happy for quite some time. With Marks help I filled my van that day and I had to make room for Jen and the kids so that we could all drive home together.

Let’s hope good things come from the visit / scrap wood grab and all.

I am still looking for a good table saw, but for now it can wait, After all I will be in a shop with a few cabinet makers’ saws, and I just need a Junker to break out scrap material on.
Mark and I have made a pact for me to come out to his place to help with a second floor walnut floor installition and shop clean out with the intention that I can bring home more wood.
Just when I thought that I could not continue with this idea I come across more material.

New Start

I have been quite busy of late. A recent trip into Toronto to see a friend’s show in December sparked my imagination. I drove home with a plan. It was time to 2 jump start my career, what I needed to do was get a shop and work with likeminded people. The second thing that was needed was to find locations in Guelph and the surrounding area to show my work. I also needed to get working my portfolio it was looking a little dated.

One day I was chatting with my neighbour asking her about shop space. She told me that her son was moving out of her Garage shop and that I could move in my tools and set up the shop as I saw fit, in return I would sharpen tools and help her with her woodworking questions, she is a very accomplished wood turner.

It did not take long for me to get my tools moved and set up. I was pretty happy given that I cannot get into my garage if you can call it that. In the winter the door which is already cut on a rakish angle jambs on the pavement when it opens 6 inches. I am quite a bit wider in the mid section than that. Think you can fill in the rest.

As you have probably all ready gathered, I enjoy working with recycled/repurposed material. I think that my father’s experience of livening through the depression taught me in a roundabout way that all materials are precious, and that working with ones hands is a very rewarding experience in its self.

Armed with a new idea, I pulled out all my recycled material and made two new pieces. One is called stacked (for now anyways) the other is well I do not have a name for it, let’s call it vertical. I milled all my material to a uniform thickness and stacked it together to form a cube 14X 14 X 16 tall end grain, painted material, recycled doors whatever wood I had on hand got stacked to make the piece. I am pretty happy with the outcome it speaks to me on many levels ,but it mostly says that furnishings need not be precious and made from the most exotic and rare woods to be worthy to be called fine craft.

For the other piece, I employed the same premise but arranged the material vertically. They are both born of the same idea but to me speak a slightly different language.

While I was working on these new ideas I joined an art collective called the White Stone Gallery. There is one other furniture make there but the majority of the 18 members are painters. This suits me fine because I can hang work and show floor pieces as well. It’s been good to paint and draw again as well. I have made new friends and feel that this direction is a good fit.

Icing on the cake

On Friday evening we went to the opening at the Carnegie Gallery.
Mark a fellow woodworker hung the show .I must say it looked really good
I knew that I was going to win something because. I was called to make sure that I would attend the opening. I would have attended any ways it was the first time I had work in a gallery in eight years.
Allison Rose the person who organized the show was presenting the awards and when she took her turn at the front of the room I became quite nervous..I knew that would not win an award for best wood work because this piece is more mixed media.
Well there was no mixed media award for me so I began to wonder, best new artist to the Gallery something like that, Then Allison said and now for the last award Best of Show. I just stood there for a while when she called my name. I was a little taken a back but at the same time very excited.
The rest of the evening was spent talking with friends and making new friends, it was a wonderful way to end the process of making this piece.
This award has given me the boost that I needed to get going again; it’s nice to know that after a few years off I can still produce work that others enjoy.

Its done and with time to spare

Bow Tie Bumper Daniel Durocher

With this piece I was interested in the process of making.
I was not interested in preliminary drawings or in controlled outcomes.
I did not exactly know where I was going and chose instead to let the material speak for its self.
In the process I let the unexpected things come from inside the material.
What became apparent in this piece of discarded bumper was a new use.
Maybe on some level it was because the truck that I was a passenger in hit so many birds on our trip from Edmonton to Yellowknife this fall.
Maybe it was the round hole on the section of the bumper that reminded me of a home for a bird.
Once I cut the section of bumper in two, it became apparent what it would be.

It's really a Chevy BowTie

Ok ...I have been a little busy, trying to get a job.... these days that is job one, this piece that I am working on for the juried show has taken up allot of time as well.
I am in the process of painting it and writing an artist statement. I hope to have it assembled tomorrow and will work on a system for hanging it on the wall. I will post new images soon.

Dodge Bumper

Ok.. I spent the better part of the morning, Fitting the top of the Bumper Bird House to the main section...lots of time spent with my pattern makers file, sometime later and I am ready to glue up the center leg section..I used Oak, Birch and Walnut paperback veneer to make up this section...it is good now, and fits the cross section nicely. Here are some pix’s of the glue up for the center section...It took some time to get here but I think that it is worth it...