custom walnut timber shelves
Custom Walnut timber shelves
Last week we completed two low tables, refinished a dining table, and finally completed this custom walnut timber shelves unit. This can be made to the customer or designer's specs. Typically, the vertical pair is cut square (much like most of our tables) and the horizontal shelves left with natural edges.
The walnut shelves are particularly stunning, with the contrasting, almost white, sapwood natural edges.
Custom walnut timber shelves
sassafras - getting her feet wet
Except for the wet part, Sassafras seems to really like the water. So far, at 11 weeks old, her record depth is maybe an inch or so. But she's hanging close to the edge, sitting in it, and following her big sis - Havana around.
Sassafras - getting her feet wet
the shape of the universe
The shape of the universe
It's amazing what we find in nature, and in life, if we just slow down and take a peak. Last we took advantage of the wonderful weather, and worked outside planing a few more oak slabs that have recently been dried and ready.
Throughout the day, as I stepped outside from time to time to check on things, I started noticing some interesting configurations in the natural edges of a few of the oak slabs. Then, I began to pay more attention to the details of the edges, to see if there was anything I was missing. There is was, the shape of the universe right in front of me. I've gotta start paying more attention.
The shape of the universe
right here in this big oak timber slab.
grouper with walnut and papaya
Grouper with walnut and papaya
Sunday's wonderful lunch was another from Linda's famous walnut recipe box. Grouper with walnut and papaya, along with yellow rice and Linda's perfect cole slaw. The walnut and papaya marinade had a bit of honey and lemon. The Orange beach grouper was from Crocodile Ed's Fish Market. The only way it could have been better would be if we had caught the fish ourselves, and grilled it on the boat. Even then, I'm not sure - because Linda probably wouldn't have joined us.
Linda's grouper with walnut and papaya
First Friday Find - Florence Alabama
Finding a new, possibly up and coming artist at First Friday is becoming a regular occasion. July's downtown First Friday event uncovered another. It was a pleasure meeting Carl Brackin and learning about his photography work. Carl is working on his Masters in Photography. I am totally intrigued by every facet of his work. Catching the moving fire of a local fire dancer, the salt and wax treatment of the work, along with the amazing, unique symbolism within each piece is stunning. Carl's got it going.
Kelvin Holly and Little Richard again at the white house this weekend.
Kelvin Holly and Little Richard
Our small community is chock full of creative types of all kinds. I'll try to start posting about them as I think of 'em.
Here's one that's right next door that doesn't receive nearly enough credit. He's been backing up Little Richard all over the country - and world - for years. I've been wondering where he, Kelvin Holly was this weekend. Well, I figured it out after reading this morning's front page of the TimesDaily. He, along with Wayne Chaney will be accompanying Little Richard again this 4th of July on the west lawn. It will be live again on PBS.
Kelvin, I know you are busy, but your dogs are barking. . .
low head dam kills another kayaker
Our low head dam kills another kayaker
The low head dam on cypress creek has killed too many boaters and kayakers through the years. The low head dam that city illiegally built back in the late 70's? is so much more menacing than it looks like. Even when the creek is at normal levels it is dangerous.
My dad and I organized and ran the Great Cypress Creek Raft Race a few decades ago. The first few years of the race, there was no dam. But after the dam was built, I kept hearing from racers that they had a close call. That the dam pulled them down under the water, kept them down, stole their beer and coolers, that it was a close call. Well, dealing with the public, honestly, at the time, I disregarded most of these "danger" comments.
That is, untill it happened to me (and my dog Wilber) ten years ago. We were living in South Carolina at the time. We were visiting family here in Florence, and didn't bring our kayak back with us. So, my brother and I grabbed some innertubes and jumped in for the 5 hour float (in a very slow inner tube). My brother elected to walk around the dam. Wilber and I just floated on thru the small dam. And, I think, we almost didn't come back up alive. The very strong vortex, first held us under for way too long. And, after we came up, it kept us about 10 feet from the dam, not allowing us to swim away from it for a bit.
Well, since then, I have portage around this killer - dragging my fairly heavy long plastic kayak each time.
How many more deaths is it going to take before the City of Florence decides to do something about this killer? My thought this morning, is that it might be a good "value" to the city to purchase some land just below the dam, and build a parking and safe "put in" area for boaters. Seems less expensive than more deaths or moving the dam upstream, above the Cox Creek Parkway launch area.
Here's Boatsafe.com's info on low head dams
Our low head dam kills another kayaker
in the workshop today - oak bench
Oak bench
This chair (or couch or bench??) is almost complete and will be moving to the finishing room tomorrow. I'm not sure what to call it, but it's feeling, looking, and sitting pretty good.
The curved top is the natural edge of the tree. I'll get some pics of the completed piece next week.
Oak bench
apple computer proposed campus
Apple's proposed campus
The plan will be to house 13,000 employees in one building. This is in addition to their nearby existing complex at one infinite loop (which is where we mailed montly checks way back when we were in the computer business).
Parking undergound, only using the grid as backup power (so cool), and he hired Stanford's top arborist to plan all the green spaces at Apple's proposed campus.
Steve just isn't looking so good lately. I hope he's able to hang around long enough to see this one. - Me too!
Apple's proposed campus
I didn't know - alabama boy running Apple computer??
I've been having problems mith my Mac lately. Sent it in for repair a few weeks ago. They didn't find the problem. It just froze up on me again this weekend, so I took it to the closest Apple store for repair. They were able to fix it over night, so I returned to Huntsville again Sunday. Ends up the little receptacle that the mag safe adaptor fits in was pretty fried. All is working now. Whew.
All that to say that during the Saturday trip, I had time to visit a bunch of sites that I typically don't have time for. Linda drove, and I was able to use the Ipad2's 3g features to browse the web and have fun. I was even able to catch Tim's talk at the Auburn commencement ceremony last year. Those are typically such boring speeches, but this one was quite amazing. He talked about using your engineering/business brain to prepare yourself for the future. AND to use your intuition to make the most important decisions of your life. He said he would have never made the decision to come to Apple computer if he used the methodical, rational side of his brain. Very interesting.
Ed Bridges - The museum of Alabama
Ed Bridges with the Museum of Alabama
I thoroughly enjoy my second visit with master Alabama historian Ed Bridges with the Museum of Alabama. I'm afraid he wanted to talk more about furniture, but I was hitting him from all sides with intriguing, and possibly controversial Alabama history questions. He is the most knowledgeable local (Alabama) historian I've ever spoken with. Quite amazing depth of understanding.
And, I'm so honored to have some some of my work showcased in this new Museum as well as used functionally, to allow visitors to enjoy the museum's other works and voices.
I'm looking forward to attending the grand opening ceremonies on August 26th and 27th, as well has sharing this off the wall furniture maker's story.
Ed Bridges with the Museum of Alabama
solid walnut daybed
Walnut daybed
Walnut daybed
We just completed the hand rubbed oil finish on this walnut daybed and brought it into the gallery area of the studio for some photography. I performed just a bit of silhouette work in photoshop and here it is. This is the first of several planned iterations of this daybed. The next couple in line will use the same base design. We should have plenty of time to complete a couple more, and select which will be featured in our booth in High Point. Unfortunately, it didn't get completed in time for the upcoming Atlanta or Las Vegas markets.
Oh, if it looks like we just tucked a sheet in around the mattress on the pic on the right, that's because that's all we did. Just wanted to show how it should look with a standard 11" thick mattress. I don't do fabric. Not that I'm against it really, just have my hands full with wood.
Walnut daybed
museum benches
Museum benches
Well, I can't tell you how pleased I was when Ed Bridges, the director of the Alabama department of archives and history started planning the benches for his new museum - the Museum of Alabama. The museum will be opening in stages, with the grand opening in August. And, for the first stage, we worked with Ed and his design consultants in the design of these first benches. It was really a simple matter of taking a standard bench design, customizing the length, adding a couple inches to the height, adding some width for extra stability, and adding a low stretcher to plan for lots of heavy use. I think they turned out just great, and look forward to seeing them in action during the grand opening ceremony in August.
museum benches
I can't get enough of this wild oak console
Rot is just another area that is completely absorbing my attention. We seem to get more of this organically distressed effect with oak than any other species. You see, is the toughest hardwood species (at least for me) to dry. It is very slow drying. Even when most of it is dry, there may be (usually are) small pockets of moisture cells. But the more obvious problem is that oak just rots faster, and easier than any other hardwood species - at least that I deal with. So, over a period of a few years of air drying, if one slab sticks out in the weather a bit, or if moisture gets in for one reason or another when it rains, we start getting some rot. I don't think I've had so much that I can't use the entire piece. So far, there's a much better chance that we don't get enough of this magical organic discoloration. Well, that's at least my opinion.
This rotten oak podium will be on display in the ShawFlooring Atlanta showroom this upcoming market. And will be showcasing Shaw's catalog of beautiful, sustainable products.
Real food
Real Food in Russellville, Alabama
Why is it that a little trailer on a back street of a small north alabama town can consistently serve MUCH better food than 95% of (larger) restaurants?
I'm really not sure what the answer is to this quite perplexing question. I do understand that not all dives or trailers can do it. Some could probably kill you.
But I LOVE finding out of the way dives that have amazing food. I typically enjoy doing this when out of town, but yesterday, we were driving thru Russellville on the way home from Phil Campbell. And, being Saturday, Linda's favorite real (southern country) food spot around - Taylors - was closed, so we had a chance to explore a bit. We had heard of a little spot we've been wanting to try - El Pollo Loco (not the really good Mexican and west coast franchise) but a little local spot. But before we found it we saw this dive, and I knew we had to try it. And oh man was it good. Home made corn tortillas smell so good from blocks away. And the tacos were more like real Mexican. Meaning kinda heavy of the beef and light on the veggies - which isn't usually my thing. They asked gringo if we wanted the traditional cilantro and onion topping or (American) lettuce and tomato. I jumped at the cilantro and onion. Of course they had home made tomatillo salsa. So simple. So real. So perfect. And so much better than 95% of restaurants.
Real Food in Russellville, Alabama
phil campbells support phil campbell alabama
Phil Campbell Alabama
This morning, Linda and I (and the pups) took the short 40 minute drive due south to the tornado devastated town of Phil Campbell. Today the town, took a break from survival mode, and celebrated it's 100th anniversary. The celebration took, like the town, wasn't fancy, but it was wonderful. Lots of laughing, children, music, marching, and a whole bunch of phil C's everywhere you looked.
What a treat it was to visit with the town and many of the citizens that survived the storm. Among those that we visited with were Mayor Mays, to councilmen, to the girl scouts, FEMA workers, rescue squad members, along with over 20 folks named Phil Campbell that arrived from all parts of globe to help. Quite an amazing cross section that, all with a single goal to try to help. There was an amazing positive energy in the air - It seemed like this might have been the first time many of them have been able to slow down and take a deep breath.
I didn't realize that the Mayor had been in the furniture business throughout his life. I'm commited to doing what I can to help. Seems like building a table from one of the downed trees and auctioning it off for the town would be appropriate. I'm thinking that their may be others in our industry that might also want to help. It's going to take years to get this little town back on it's feet, if it ever is able to. Maybe something like furnishings for phil? If you have any thoughts, please share.
I've got a good bit of video from today's remarkable event, and hope to put it together soon. Stay tuned.
headed to ShawLiving's Atlanta showroom
ShawLiving's Atlanta Showroom
Kevin, the showroom designer with Shaw Living visited this afternoon, to do a final inspectiion of these two custom pieces for their showroom, as well as choose the pieces that'll be on display at the upcoming Atlanta and Las Vegas markets.
This catalog stand with matching vertical slab was a collaboration, and I think we both couldn't be more pleased with the result. The coloration of this partially rotten oak is mesmerrizing. I'm going to be looking for more rotten lumber around here - really.
If you will be attending the upcoming Atlanta or Las Vegas markets, be sure to visit the ShawLiving space and let us know how you feel about "rot".