Box for Andrew and Jackie's wedding

After the school year ended I got down to work on this box for my brother's wedding.  It holds a bottle of wine, two glasses and notes that he and his fiance wrote to each other.  On their 10th anniversary they will open the box, read the notes and drink the wine.  (I took most of the pictures on my mom's camera, but forgot to get them from her before leaving St. Louis, so there will be more posted eventually.)

The whole box.

Detail of the decorative feet.

Lid with extensive scroll work.

Engagement/Wedding Rings

It is old news by the time that I am getting this post up that Kelcey and I are getting married!  As many of you know I collaborated with a jewelry making student at school to make silver and wood rings.  The wood in hers is pear from her parent's back yard.  In mine is walnut that my maternal grandfather cut down before he died.

This is Kelcey's ring right after I got it from the jeweler.  It is sitting on a piece of the pear wood that her mom sent me.  They had been planning on cutting down the tree, but actually did when I called and asked for a piece of the wood.

You can kind of see my process in this picture of the rejected pieces.  I cut slices of each type of wood thin enough to fit in the rings.  I dried these pieces in a toaster oven.  Next, I cut each in half.  Then I scribed a circle equal to the inner diameter of the rings and carved out the semi-circles with a carving chisel.

Then I fit the two halves back around the rings until they matched up perfectly.you can see the seem  in the light colored pear wood, but not in the walnut.

Next I cut away the extra wood with a straight chisel until it was almost flush with the metal and then filed the wood down with a jeweler's file until it was just recessed below the metal.

Here are the finished rings with the box I made to hold them.

This is a blurry picture of the breakfast in bed that I made Kelcey when I proposed.  Strawberry and cream cheese stuffed french toast and mimosas.

Pembroke Table

This is the project I was working on to finish out the school year.

I started by cutting the finger joints for the fly rails.  This is the part that you can pull out to holdup the leaf.

Dry fitting the legs all the joints.

Adding decorative stringing to the legs.

A look at the full length of the stringing.

Prepping the banding.  It was especially difficult because I decided to run the grain perpendicular to the leg since I was using curly maple and wanted the figure to be parallel to the leg.  This meant I had to cut little 45 degree miters on all the pieces and then fit them together perfectly.

One finished banding and two taped up and drying.

Finished stringing and banding on the bottom of a leg. 

Finished stringing and banding on the tops of the legs.

All the decoration done on the legs.

Had kind of a disaster gluing up the drawer, but managed to get a ridiculous number of clamps on it.

And it came out perfectly square!

Finished drawer and the pieces for the top.  That is a 24" ruler on the top for reference.

First rule joint finished.

Another view of the rule joint.

Table top completed, leaves down.

Table top completed, leaves up. 

Another view, leaves up

Another view, leaves down.  On to the finishing room.

Georgian Footstool with 4 Different Legs

Here are the rest of the photos of my footstool with 4 different legs:

Laying out the shell carving on the knee.

Finished shell carving

Laying out and grounding the acanthus leaf

Starting the stems.

Developing the leaves.

Finished acanthus carving.

Four finished legs and applied shell before assembly.

Finished and upholstered.

Lance's photo

Finished Projects

Here are a few pics of some finished projects.  Photos by one of my instuctors, Lance Patterson.

Chippendale side chair with tree/leaf/flame design

Dressing mirror with walnut crotch veneer

Engagement/ wedding rings for Kelcey and I.  Curly maple box. Walnut and pear rings from our respective families' land.

Chippendale chair

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.  I completed an entire project since my last post.  I am really happy with the way this chair came out.  A should have Lance's professional picture to post soon as well.  It is for sale if anyone out there is interested. :)

Here's the finished product.  Keep reading to see the whole process.

Back legs cut out and shaped.  Connected by the back seat rail.

Oversized splat fit into back seat rail.  Crest rail fit into back legs, but still needs to be fit to splat.  Front legs cut to length.  Back stretcher fit.

Crest rail fit to splat.

Piercings and shaping of splat started.

Crest rail shaping started.  Side seat rails fit.

Shaping of crest rail and splat done.  Front legs, front seat rail and side stretchers fit.

Shaping from behind.

Center stretcher in.  Glue blocks in.  Construction complete.

Dressing Stand Finished!

Here are the rest of the pictures of the process for the dressing stand.  As soon as I get Lance to take a professional picture I will post that too.

Mirror frame hung

Back on mirror frame

Standard carved

In the finishing room

On the drying rack

Done!