Composing: Summer 2019

Spring in BC was cold this year, winter reluctant to relinquish its grip. Warm temperatures eventually prevailed, winds calmed, flowers unfolded, and we relished our final season on this achingly beautiful stretch of coastline. Lara and I began to find our stride in meaningful connections and healthy routines. As Gideon's legs proved an ever more reliable means of transportation, our nightly ritual became a curious, wandering walk around our neighborhood and the surrounding forest.

I'm happy to say that I entered my final term at Inside Passage with a still- growing love for the craft. As the fundamental skills became more automatic, I was able to explore some more new techniques through a number of exercises at the beginning of the term.

What to build? I decided on another wall cabinet, with a frame and panel door on a curve. Robert brought in a photo of a recent cabinet by Michael Burns called Mini Jim. This was a welcome source of inspiration.

I met Robert early one morning to peruse options for wood. After much deliberation, I decided on two planks, one of English brown oak, and one of apple. I photographed both pieces after making some preliminary cuts...

English Brown Oak

Apple.

This exceptional piece of apple exhibited some lovely heartwood, but presented a challenge:

The heartwood did not extend very deeply into the plank. If I were to mill this plank in the conventional manner, I would lose the vast majority of the heartwood. Instead, I had to work within the curves already present. This became an important part of the design.

This is the lower panel for the door. I hand planed the show face, refining the existing curve. True to Krenovian form, the curve tightens a bit toward the opening side of the door. I then sawed parallel to the curve and hand planed the rear face with my curve-bottom plane, carefully working to create a panel of uniform thickness.

With the panel nearly finished, I turned my attention to the corresponding frame. First, the rails:

I worked to make three rails which follow the curve of the panel and are identical in shape and thickness to one another.

Next, I worked on the vertical members of the frame, the stiles. The joinery was reminiscent of some of the joinery I learned in Vidar's chair, as the stiles needed to continue to follow the curve of the panel and the rails. After fitting the joints, the frame began to take shape:

Then, to run a groove for the lower panel. This is the groove in the bottom of the middle rail. We decided to run the groove parallel to the front of the door. with the door's taper visible from the back.

The top panel of the door would be two panes of glass. The next task was to cut a rabbet to accommodate the panes. This required a jig which matched the curve of the door, while providing a reference for the shaper to cut two flat surfaces along the curve:

Here is the result:

In mid June, I took a Saturday off to celebrate our anniversary. Lara and I toured some islands off the coast via kayak.

Lara captured this incredible shot of a Great Blue Heron leaving his perch.

As the door came together, I began working on the case, building up the lumber core and cross-banding, and sawing my own apple and English brown oak veneer. The back of the cabinet, similar to the door, was frame and panel. As with the panel for the door, the Apple heartwood was a challenge to preserve. In similar fashion to the front panel, I refined the shape of the face, leaving a curve in the back panels, working to preserve the heartwood and end with a graphic that created continuity with the door.

Where, you might be asking, are the photos of the finished piece? If you've been following my blog for a few posts now, you've probably noticed that I haven't posted photographs of any completed work.

The projects I completed at school were photographed in July, at the conclusion of my final term. I've just received word that Tim has finished editing, and the photography will be available in the next few days. I should have the first installment posted within a week. Thanks for reading!