Exhibition!

Exhibition 'The Sky From My Car' at the Bear Steps, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. On till this Sat 5th November :)
An exhibition of contemporary art and sustainable furniture made using recycled car parts and local hard woods and inspired by the sky. Mostly all work I've done this year.
Take a look if you're in the locality.

http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/shrewsbury/events/326169/exhibition-by-shrewsbury-artist

Website!

Have launched my website :)

www.ekoecodesign.co.uk

Glueing up the table top...

After spending most of my summer with my children because they're only young once and will grow up so fast, its now back to work! :) With my eldest back at college, my middle one starting school for the first time, and my youngest going to nursery 2 days a week.

Well, the top is a glue up nightmare! Matching curves, joints assembled with biscuits, using a ratchet strap to hold the whole thing in place and a mallet to 'tap' (well more of a wollop) it home. It's not gone together as well as I'd planned, but I don't intend to sell it, it's just an exercise in repair and re-design.

So am 'throwing' it together now so I can get on with some new work for some new exhibitions I'm planning :)

...its amazing what you can fit in a beetle!

To and from a friends workshop with the table top.

Redesigning my table...

The copper ball used to sit in the centre of the table and spin :) very effective and a real talking piece at dinner parties, however, not that practical if you want to lay a feast on the table, or place flowers in the middle. So, since the table needed repair I decided to change the design.

Positioning the ball underneath and visualising how to attach it.

The design process....

Designing in air with shapes!

For some new work to exhibit :)

Putting it right...

A new piece had to be fitted to the table top, grain matched as best as I could, using the same selection of wood I originally made the top from.

Planed by machine then by hand to butt up to the join.

Now to re-cut the curve to fit back into the celtic cross of the table top. Plane and finish bevel edge, biscuit joint and assemble!......

Photographs superimposed on furniture...

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2RD6oN/inhabitat.com/ohio-design-photographic-furniture/


Cool stuff :D

Warped...

Since my table has been stored in the shed for the last 2 years the top has warped due to damp. The direction of grain in its assembly means this will always be a challenge, however, if kept in stable conditions indoors the movement is neglible.
The bevelled edges in the jointed pieces is to detract from slight movement. Though, unfortunately the damp in the shed got so bad this last winter, its not stood a chance.

The table's indoors now, will leave it several weeks before I do anymore to see if it will shrink back to fit.

Tools have gone rusty, wood and furniture mouldy, the shed, my place to work, needs sorting out!

Changing the structure of my table...

Have made a metal ring as a supporting structure for the table top, out of stainless steel! Because it was an off-cut and steel will react with oak, however as this will go underneath this wasn't a main reason for choosing it. And it's soooo hard! Don't want to use stainless again in a hurry! And still need to drill it, lol!

Table renovation continues...

Hi, had some time out from blogging and from doing much in my furniture making.
Other stuff in my life has taken my attention.

Though I have been doing little bits when I can such as removing the old pva wood glue; this involves scraping back most of it using a cabinet scraper and spoke shave because of the curved shape. I'm not worrying about any glue left in the biscuit joints as I will be cutting new ones when I reassemble. Finally I used a belt sander on edge and a sanding drill attachment to remove the last bits as its important to get it back to bare wood so that new glue will adhere well. This was quite a delicate task! lol! The edges aren't sharp square as they have a slight bevel which helps :)