The mirror frame was finished in an ebonized finish and is ready for my clients to inspect.
-
It is too bad that I don’t have the mirror that will go into the frame.
The frame was designed by Deep River Partners for a client of theirs.
Now I have to finish cleaning my shop and get ready for the next commission.
This is four days after the last storm I posted about. This is what’s in front of our house. We’ve had several inches since then with more expected today.
Meanwhile I’m completing the the art nouveau style mirror frame. The last ribbon of wood, fret as I call it, is just about finished.
This is how it lies into the back of the mirror frame.
Two other frets, completed and ready to be glued in with the fret patterns.
-
As I was milling the tenons on my router set up as an end mill, for some reason the site of this graceful arc of wood clamped to this machine inspired me to take out my camera and shoot today’s shop series.
The tenons, or end tabs, are initially milled by this end mill.
-
I have to finish the joint by hand though. This is because the face being trimmed will have to mate against the inside curved surface of the mirror frame.
-
After I have the joints completed I shape the cross section into a gentle, flowing curve. I start by carving bevels that are eventually refined into the final curved section.
This flowing bevel or chamfer reminds me of the path a down hill skier might take or even a surfer flowing across the face of a wave. It’s been a very long time since I did any down hill skiing and from the looks of the snow and ice it will be a while before I do any surfing. Winter!
It developed into near white out conditions this afternoon as we were hit with a major winter storm. The storm was projected to hit us over night with 10 inches of snow on the ground by sunrise. The low slowed and by morning we had only 4 or 5 inches. The worst was yet to come.
I decided to do my best to get into my studio today.
Here is my preferred mode of transportation on days like this. It only took about half an hour to ski in and I only had to take the skis off once to cross a major intersection. The rest of the way was kick and glide, kick and glide.
By the time to storm got really bad I had classical music on in the shop and was chopping out mortises on an art nouveau style mirror frame I’ve been commissioned to make.
Some of my favorite hand tools are my set of Sandvik chisels and the maple mallet I made many years ago.
The mirror frame was designed by a client, a design firm, for a client of theirs out in California. They sent me a hand drawn design that I turned into a CAD drawing on Rhino. From that drawing I was able to print out enough data to create full size templates. I use lead ingots that I’ve fashioned into lofting ducks that can be used to hold a thin wood spline to pick up a curve from plotted points.
As the afternoon wore on I started getting phone calls about how bad the weather was getting, a friend asking why I was still at work, my wife saying she had made it home, so I decided to close up early, strap on my skis and head out.
The wind had picked up to 25 mph with gusts over 35 and the snow was still coming down hard. I picked a path that climbed the high ground above the river early on so that I could ski down hill for most of the way to the bridge I had to cross. I skied across a wide field in a park and tracked across the face of a large hill. It was quite disorienting as the snow in my face and the snow on the hill in front of me blended into a uniform visual field of all white. Eventually I came upon some hearty down hill skiers taking runs down the hill and climbing back up.
A little further on some folks saw me skiing and brought out a camera and asked me to stop for a picture, many people shouted encouragement, one woman wanted me to ski by tomorrow to give her ride to work on my skis! I love the way big storms bring out the best attitudes in people.
It took a good hour to make it home. The wind really slowed me down, but there were some great sections along the way that were pretty easy gliding.
Holly and I shoveled out our sidewalks. Tomorrow it will be back to shoveling as the snow is still coming down hard. It looks like we’ll end up with a good 20 inches out of this storm. For now I’m about to settle in and enjoy the rest of the evening inside.
