Almost ready for Robert Trent Jones

 

This fourteen footer has been "almost ready" for too long.  It will be on display at Robert Trent Jones club house as soon as we get several more coats of our tung oil / linseed oil mix applied. 

This big'un', our largest yet, is sitting on our shipping dock for this final step.  Won't come close to fitting in our finishing room.

Once it's been moved in to the club house at  Robert Trent Jones I'll get some pics for you.

Robert Trent Jones

to the kiln

After almost two years of our slow sawmill work, this natural edge lumber is headed north today.  Amost filled up the 40' trailer with our walnut, oak, and cherry lumber.  It'll air dry for quite a bit longer.  Once the internal moisture content is down to around 30 percent, we'll move it on over to the kiln for a month of the final cure.  Life is good, although very often quite slow, here in the deep south.

saturday's farmers market

 

Lot's of wonderful local produce again at Saturday's farmer's market.  My timing was just a bit off this week.  The blueberries must have sold out before I arrived, and the Athens peaches got a late start and arrived after my visit.  No complaint's here.  Just more to look forward to next week.

Saturday's farmer's market

new alabama art gallery

 

During downtown Florence's monthly first friday celebration I was pleased to see a new alabama art gallery.  These guys did a beautiful job of restoring an old upstairs downtown location into a thing of beauty.  Featuring several local artists, this nice little jewel should be well received.

new alabama art gallery

kiln dried lumber

It's a little like Christmas around here when we receive another batch of kiln dried lumber.  Because the drying process for this exceptionally thick hardwood lumber is sooo slow, I forget a lot of the nuances of each batch and tree.  Maple and cherry were the variety we were sourcing almost four years ago, and what is now ready to become your custom table.

kiln dried lumber

right side of the tree

   

Several years ago, we sliced the bulk of this tree into natural edge lumber.  The right side of the tree had such a nice wave, that we saved it.  Just received it from the kiln last week and started cleaning it up a bit.  Still not exactly sure what to do with this right side of the tree but I'm pretty sure it's coming.  If you have any ideas, bring 'em on.

right side of the tree

Alabama Arts radio interview

Several weeks ago, I delivered seven tables to Montgomery that were to be included in a group showing.  While I was there, our friend Georgine Clarke cornered me for an interview.  I was happy to get the "press", but am not comfortable with public speaking, etc.  But, I don't think it turned out nearly as badly as it could have.

Click on the logo to the left to go to the Alabama Arts website and hear the interview.

cutting coffee tables

We placed a few logs upright in order to cut some coffee tables this morning.  This is green lumber, so keep the coffee warm for a few years.

fund raiser and good times

Last night, our long time buddy Grace Fox, the executive director of the local education foundation put on another successful river boat cruise fund raiser.  The weather was perfect, and the master captain of the paddle wheeler masterfully commanded the vessel in and out of port without a drop of sweat.  The food and drink was good, wonderful music, and the boat was filled to capacity.   We are proud of our good friend's very good work again this year.

st luke - one more shot

Being the largest table I've completed to date, I kept having to set the lighting back up for reshoots of this one.  Here's a pic of the entire table.  It's kinda wild.  Hope you like as much as I do.

sweet sassafras permeating the studio all week

We've been enjoying the sweet smell of sassafras this week as we've been working sassafras timbers into furniture.  What a pleasure working wood can be.

Dillon at Riccatoni's

Dillon Hodgs is so talented.  What a treat is was at lunch today to have lunch at Rick Elliott's Riccatoni's with Dillon performing in the background.  Enjoy Dillon around town while we've got him.  Hope he stay's home, but I'm afraid he's going big time soon. 

George Benson at Rosie's tonight

Ok, it sure sounded/felt like George Benson.  Eric Essex was rocking down again at this year's handy fest.  But for the first time, he was out cooled by the 12 year old drummer.  This little kid was amazing.  Sooo cool.  Eric had it going.  This kid's a coming.

St. Luke Missionary church

This table  came from an oak tree that provided shade to the St. Luke Missionary Church for over 120 years.  Several years ago, it became a risk to the church and had to come down.  We cut the 45" wide log into slabs, debarked each with a draw knife, and stacked them to air dry for years.  We recently took them to the kiln for a month of the final cure.  For several months we've been turning this historic slab into a functional piece of furniture.  You might be able to see the ribbon that was awarded at the Arts Alive juried art competition recently.

Tennessee Valley Museum of Art artists reception

Tennessee Valley Museum of Art

Local artists are featured in the latest showing at the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art.  Couldn't be more pleased with the way they displayed a couple of my pieces.  I tried to sneak a peak of my pieces, but building was way too busy.  Will try again this week.

mallard release last week

After 10 weeks of protecting these baby mallards that lost their mom, they have grown up, feathered out, and were released last week back to the creek.

yellow oil boom headed to the Gulf

Wednesday I was taking 65 south to Montgomery to pick up several pieces that had been on display at the RSA building.  On the way I saw several of these trucks, obviously delivering the much needed yellow booms for the clean up effort.

Jean Schulman Exhibit

UNA hosted a reception and exhibition of some of Jean Schulman's amazing work Tuesday.  I am mezmerized by Jean's pieces whenever I get a chance to be near them.  So clearly from the dirt, few artists seem to celebrate nature's beauty without impeding like Jean does, and has throughout her life's work.  I look forward to seeing her permenant collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of History and Technology next time I'm that way.  It's quite amazing the depth of creative talent in our small town.

flowing stream walnut low table

We made this table several months ago.  Took the pics, photoshopped the background out - all ready for the website.  But somehow it never made it to the website.  We'll here you go.

It was a little tricky figuring out how to originally make this flowing 90 degree angle work out.  Have several internal mortise & tenons hidden inside, with no visible joinery.  The

flowing stream 

walnut low table was one of my fav's when I first made it.  It still is.

Overnight guests

We had overnight guests camping on the back deck Sunday night.  Sunday morning, I gathered two more of the baby mallards and brought them home with intentions of setting them free on the creek to their single parent (dad - duck).  Well, he wasn't around, so I carried them back up to the house and looked for something to keep them in safely.  This portable/collapsable dog kennel was perfect.  Never found the drake, so we loaned them a dog bowl, threw in plenty of their first serving of cracked corn, and tucked them in for the night.  This morning we woke up to a wonderful booming thunderstorm.  Worried about the ducklings, we flashed a flashlight their way.  It was drenched in there.  A couple of inches of water, and they were having a time, splashing and all. 

Well, the drake showed up, we carriend these two down to the creek before work, and released them.  They seemed fine.  I know I shouldn't worry, but I take my "child rearing" very seriously, even though we never had a real "child".