Guitar Stool/ Guitar Stand

I’ve just completed the first guitar stool/ guitar stand and will soon be putting it in my new Etsy store. I’ll link to that as soon as I have it up and running. I am also showing it on my web site. In the mean time I wanted to post some of the pictures I took of it here.

I whipped eyes in either end of 1/4″ yacht braid to create a restraint to hold the guitar into the stand. This is easily removed from either end and is not required to hold the guitar, just an extra sit of safety for your valuable instrument.

You can see the cork lined crotch that holds the guitar neck as well as one of the knobs that the retaining line is held by.

The seat is carved from walnut and the legs are ash.

Industrial felt is used to cushion all other contact areas. One note: this works best as a stand for hollow body guitars.

I created a short video (slide show) of this piece and may be seen here.

You may purchase this directly by contacting me thru my web site. Or by contacting me by email. Or by posting a comment here. Also, I will be glad to answer any questions you may have about this piece.

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What Am I working On?

A stool to hold your guitar.

A Slide Show

A small table from scrap pieces

I had intended to post part II of the Three Rivers series before posting about anything else, but it has been some time since I’ve posted about furniture and I’ve just finished this new piece so I thought I’d sneak this post in now.

We needed a table of just the right height to hold a fan in our bedroom window at home.  Although I am in the midst of a pretty big project just now I thought I’d check out a few of my scrap piles to see if there was anything there to inspire me.

And, while I was at it, maybe I’d check out the paint locker and see what was lurking in there.

Here’s what caught my eye:

A couple of pieces of MDF, some interesting walnut cut-offs and a nice green latex paint.

I glued up the MDF pieces into a block 1-1/2″ thick-

Cut the walnut cut-offs to a uniform length-

Then drew a pleasing curve to shape the legs.

I cut out the first leg, used it as a pattern to trace out the other two, cut them on the bandsaw and sanded the curved cut.

Next I created a guide for my router to cut out the mortises into the top that would hold the legs.

The legs were rounded over on the router table on the long straight face.

I used a variety of implements to draw out a pattern for the top, created a template for 1/2 of the top, transferred that shape onto the top, flipping over the template to get the other half so that the curves would be symmetrical and shaped the top.

I wanted to create an interesting joint detail where the legs met the top. I did some sketching and decided that the top should have its bottom edge rounded. This was done on the big shaper, a finger chewing machine if there ever was one.

I managed to get the top rounded with out loosing any fingers and proceeded to cut the mortises on the under side of the top using the jig I had created earlier.

I adjusted the fit of the legs into the mortises by carefully sanding down their final thickness.

You can start to see what this table will look like at this stage. I still need to square off the round corners left by the router bit in the mortises. I did this by hand using a sharp chisel.

Now I was able to see if the joint detail came out like I had hoped.

OK, this was what I wanted. A look as if the legs were cradling the top. This is reminiscent to me of the original tripod that held a bowl or tray from eons ago.

And here’s the table before finishing:

I painted the top, glued in the legs, rubbed on some of my special oil/ varnish mix and the table was complete.

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The next table. part 4

The delivery date nears and I still want to apply a few more coats of finish so it looks like, once again, I won’t be able to take the time to properly photograph a piece before it leaves the shop.

I have been building up the polyurethane finish to a point which I can then sand it flat.

At this point the table is ready for the final coats.

Although these shots don’t really show it there is a subtle wood grain showing through.

Here’s the table with two more coats to go.

Part 3 is here.

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The next table. part 3

With the veneers glued on I do some final trimming of the top.

I use sharp chisels with masking tape applied the areas that will ride along the face adjacent to the veneer being trimmed so that I only cut what needs to be trimmed. A sharp knife and guide board also comes in handy.

I then use a card scraper to flatten the veneers.

Once everything is as flat as possible without scraping through the veneer to the paper backing beneath I apply a black dye and start building up the layers of polyurethane finish.

This process will take some time and will require a few adjustments as it progresses. I’ve started with gloss polyurethane varnish to build up the base coats but will finish with a semi-gloss finish. It is important to keep the shop, or at least this area of it, as dust free as possible while the varnish dries.

Part 4 is here. Part 2 is here.

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Glass base

Some time ago a delightful young lady called my studio. She had an idea for a table she wanted but had become very frustrated in trying to find aomeone that would make the table for her. I invited her in to the studio and she layed out her idea for me. It was very challenging. She wanted the table to be completely supported by two glass panels.

I thought it over and developed a rough idea about how it could be accomplished. My price came in considerably higher than her budget for this project however. I offered to lower my price  if she would handle the purchasing of the glass. We also agreed that the project would be put on hold until she was able to save enough money for it. I believe it was a year later that she called back and was ready to proceed.

Along with the chairs she found here is the result.

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The next table. part 2

So, the “machine” turned this:

into this:

And this is the lower part of the table. A top will be added to this. Then I will apply the veneers. In this case I am using maple veneers on a paper backing.

Each piece of veneer is  trimmed to prepare for the next piece  on the adjacent face.

I am using a very sharp, rather flat carving gouge to trim the veneer. One wrong move and… well it’s not worth thinking about at this stage.

I don’t use a vacuum bag to clamp  these veneers, primarily because I don’t have the set up. Instead I use just about every trick in the clamping book.

I am using weights, clamps (shop made and store bought) and long spring sticks that go up to the ceiling. I have a product known as kerf-board ontop of the veneer to help spread the clamping pressure. The most important thing is the glue I use. It is made for applying this particular kind of veneer, that is,  paper backed veneer. It is a water based contact cement that you set by applying hand pressure with something known as a veneer hammer. The glue needs to be “dry stacked”,  that is,  have some pressure applied,  for 24 hours after you use the veneer hammer, so that is what all of this in the above picture is about.

Just before writing this I just finished applying the final piece of veneer, the top piece, and will post the final finishing steps soon.

part 3 part 1

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Oh what a long time it’s been…

…since I’ve last posted.

I have been working on such a number of interesting projects. There’s one, really interesting one that has been mostly in the planning stages.  I’ll have to wait just a little longer before I can post about it. But, I’ve been busy in shop as well.

I’ve been working on a couple of tables for a long time client. Both of these are headed for my client’s Florida home. The first one is a very large coffee table. It measures 88″ by 55″. But the wild thing about it is that it is not flat. The top is wavy.

Todd cutting the table to size.

Here I am cutting of the end of the glued up butternut planks. The table was too big to run through my table saw and a sharp handsaw works just as well.

The planks had a natural curve to them so during glue up I took as much advantage of this as possible.

Carving the surface with disc grinder.

Here you can see some of the waviness. The table was so large and heavy that I had to plan my work to minimize how often I turned the piece over. I carved out the bottom face first then flipped it using a block and tackle.

I used a number of tools to shape the top.  Here are a few, ready at hand.

The final sanding was very tedious, but since this table was to be varnished with a gloss spar varnish it was very important. I spent a lot of time carefully sanding the top.

Careful sanding was a must.

The table is wrapped in blankets now and I haven’t taken any pictures of the final finish. I’ll try and get to that before the trucking company shows up.

Update: I found s few more images.

One of the base units being fit to the table top.

This and the next picture is of the table upside down as the two boxes that act as the base for the table are being fit to the wavy underside of the table top.

The 2 base boxes being fit.

The next project was another table with curves, for the same clients. That’ll be in the next post.

Update 2: I pulled back the blankets and took a picture of the finished table top.

Found Composition

While digging through my flat files, looking for early designs for rocking chairs, I came across this accidental layering of drawings and thought it interesting.

I also uncovered some old drawings I had done, probably in response to having seen some of Gerrit Rietveld’s work in an exhibit of De Stijl furniture.

The drawings were too big to fit entirely on my scanner bed so I’ve cropped them.

detail

Details of an armoire I designed and built.

Tamo burl ash, figured anigre and curly maple veneers with a piece of Honduras mahogany.

These are the drawers behind the doors:

Cherry drawers

Going through my pictures for uploading to my new web site I’ve found several that I thought I’d post here every so often. This is a set of drawers I was fitting for the interior of a computer armoire commissioned for a home office. The joints are hand cut dovetails, the wood solid cherry.

Surf Board Table III -vi

I mix a custom blend for my wipe on, oil finish. After the oil mix is applied I allow it to soak into the wood then wipe it dry. I’ll apply at least three coats, buffing with very fine steel wool in between coats. Each coat takes a day to dry.

After the second coat of dye dries on the base I’ll apply the oil mix over the dye.

Surf Board Table III -v

I’ve attached the cross pieces onto the base structure and after a little final sanding it is ready to be dyed black.

I use a water based aniline dye. It will take two applications with some light sanding in between to give a nice even color. The water based dye will not fade when exposed to uv light as will alcohol based dye. Water based dye does raise the grain a little, hence the extra sanding step.

While the base dries I work on sanding the edges of the top.

It’s important to not overlook any detail at this stage. Soon I’ll be applying the finish and any touch-ups or adjustments will be very hard to do after that.

The edges are staring to look nice and wood grain is starting to show it’s beauty. The top needs a final sanding and I will be ready to apply the finish.

As I work through ever finer grades of sandpaper, to bring out the true beauty of the wood, various small scratches begin to appear. They were always there, but were so fine that they weren’t visible until the wood around them is sanded with a very fine grit. The scraper takes very fine shavings off these areas, which will then be further sanded so that the top has a uniform, very fine, surface.

Surf Board Table III -iv

The table base is glued up. While the glue sets I’ll start sanding the boards I’ve glued up for the top. First I set up some cross pieces on a work bench.

By using shims I can get the three cross pieces aligned in a single plane. This helps as I need to now sand the top as flat as I can. Having the work piece rest on a flat plane helps a lot. And now I begin sanding the top. Table tops take a lot of sanding.

I start with a belt sander.

To make sure that I am sanding the work piece flat I check it often with a pair of winding sticks.

And then I go back to sanding. Eventually I get one face flat, then I turn it over and work on the other face. After an hour or so of using the belt sander I turn to a jig I developed some years ago to further flatten the work and to take out the machine marks left by the power belt sander.

It’s good exercise!

When the top is flat and smoothed I lay the pattern back on it, trace the outline one more time and then cut it out with a jig saw.

Sorry about the dust on the camera lens. Things are pretty dusty at this point.

The sawn edge is smoothed by using a sharp block plane.

The edge is then rounded over with a router.

And the top is starting to look like a surfboard.

Surf Board Table III -iii

The legs are cut to fit up against the center arc at a 30 degree angle and mortises or slots are cut on that beveled face to receive the tenons that fit through the arc. I use the arc pattern to locate the slots in the arc.

After cutting those I do the final shaping on the arc. The convex curve is shaped on the belt sander table.

And the concave curve is shaped by hand using a spoke shave.

A test assembly of two of the legs to the arc reveals an interesting form.

I often take a little time to consider the forms created by accident when assembling furniture elements. To some degree there is not that much “accident” involved as I intentionally created the parts with the goal of creating an interesting or compelling shape.

I use to whip out an old Polaroid camera and take a few shots. Then I’d pin them to my office wall. I still study them for ideas.

Now I use one of digital cameras and my hard drive has become the studio wall. I actually like the studio wall better.

Adding the second set of legs makes it easier to see how this could turn into a coffee table.

Next I’ll shape the top, add some cross pieces and I can glue up the base.

Surf Board Table III -ii

Part 2 in the making of the surf board coffee table.

One more check of the pattern with the boards test clamped then I trace the pattern onto the boards to help me align them during glue up.

I gather up my supplies- wood glue, shop made applicator, extra clamps, wax paper and a rag -and bring them to the glue up frame area of the shop. You can see the boards set on the glue up frame in preparation of a test clamp. Once you start spreading the glue you have to work fast to get the boards set up on the frame, aligned and clamped so it pays to have everything you may need at hand.

Here’s the glue up frame with the work pieces all clamped in the test clamp. This is the time to decide if you need more clamps, cross palls or other supplies.

The cross palls are, in this case 2 x 4s, clamped across the direction of the glue joints to hold the boards in alignment and in a single plane. They also keep the whole glue-up assembly from popping off the frame when I crank down on the bar clamps.

Now I take everything down and spread the wood glue on the edges to be glued.

Did I mention that you have to work fast to do this?

While the top is in the clamps as the glue sets I work on cutting out the legs.

Once the legs are cut out on the band saw they go to the drum sander to sand out the saw blade marks and get the legs to their final shape.

to be continued….

Surf Board Table III

Hmm, maybe it should be “surfboard table” instead of “surf board table”. I better check it out.

I got another order for one and have taken a few shots of the some of the steps in making one. This is a very general description of the process and is not intended as instructional.

The first step was to check my lumber supply to see if I had some nice pieces on hand that would work for this table. I generally make these out of maple and ash, with a nice strip of walnut as the stringer, the center strip of wood on the top. I didn’t have enough maple and needed a little more ash so I drove down to my favorite lumber yard last Friday and sorted through their stacks. I found some nice maple and just enough ash.

I like to let the wood sit in my shop for a few days before I start working with it, especially in the winter when the heat is on and my shop may be warmer and drier than the lumber yard. Wood is a fickle material and to work it you need to understand and respect it. Moisture moves in and out of wood through hollow cells that are arrayed in unique ways for each piece of wood. As the moisture enters the wood the cell expands, as it leaves the cell shrinks. When you get thousands of these cells expanding and contracting the piece of wood changes shape. My job is to work with the wood to shape it into the shapes that I want. Sometimes that means just letting the piece sit for awhile and acclimate to a new environment.

I planed flat and glued up the ash for the long arc under the top and laid a pattern for the arc over the wood, traced the outline and cut it out on the band saw.

I then selected the wood for the top. I start by eyeing the boards to check for warp and twist and carefully noting the grain pattern. I use the half pattern for the top to determine the best way to cut the boards to length.

Here is the half pattern on the boards that I’ve cut to roughly the length I need.

A half pattern is a great way to make sure that a shape is symmetrical. You just trace the shape out on one side and flip the pattern over, line it up and trace the other side.

The next step is to flatten the boards to eliminate as much twist and cupping as you can before glue up. The narrower pieces can be run over a jointer, face down. This tool has cutters on a drum that rotate so that the top edge of the cutters is exactly even with the outfeed table. Several passes and you have a flat face, for now.

The wider pieces have to be run through my planer with a carriage. A planer has the cutters above the board and will trace the same twist and warp that a board already has as the board passes through it. By shimming the work piece so that it doesn’t rock, onto a flat carriage that can then pass through the planer you can cut off the high points and after many passes arrive at a relatively flat board.

Eventually I can get the boards relatively flat at least on one face.

I then pass each of these boards through the planer again, but with out the carriage. I place the flat face down and the planer will trace this flat surface onto the opposite face, hopefully ending with a very flat board.

I qualify the above because I also have to take into account the way a piece of wood reacts when you remove part of it. Some of those cells that take on and give off moisture were held in tension by others. By removing some of the cells the others can relax into a different shape. As this happens I try different strategies while running the boards through the planer to compensate. I may flip and reverse a board, I may press on it as it comes out, it is surprising how physical an activity this really is.

After the boards are flat on their faces I lay them out again as they will be glued up and lay the pattern on them once more. I now determine how wide each board has to be to be able to create the pattern of grain movement and color that I want for the table top. This also allows me to see which edges I need to straighten by running the edge over the jointer.

After I get one of the edges straight and square with the two faces I then saw the board to its final width by passing it through the table saw.

This process of truing the edges is time consuming as it is critical to getting good glue joints.

I recheck with the pattern to make sure the pieces are lining up with true edges the way I want and I’m ready to glue the pieces together into one large blank ready to be cut out, sanded and finished.

I’ll blog more on this process soon.

 

 

 

 

 

The Design Process: A Table, part 2

The dialog with my clients generated an interest in two of the sketched designs I had created, sketch #3 and sketch #4.

Sketch #4 was derived from an earlier table I had made and shown in my portfolio. Jackie had wanted to be sure and have the table legs as far out towards the edge of the table top as possible to maximize leg room under the table. Both of these designs accomplish that as part of the design motif.

Since these designs were quick ideas drawn to look for a direction to move in to accomplish a final design I felt that they needed some refining. I discussed this with Jackie and Peter and got their impressions. From those discussions I created two designs, one of each table.

At this point I’ve started looking at the joinery as well as other technical considerations so that I don’t present a design that would be too expensive to accomplish. Here is design #3.

I had also modeled the site, the clients kitchen, in my 3D cad program and was able to place the table within that model to give my clients an idea of the scale of the table and how it would look in their space.

 

I did the same process for design #4.

 

I’ll show another view of the rendered model here. I provided Jackie and Peter with several views of each but am not posting them all here to save some of my bit space.

 

 

 

For both designs I also created line drawings with dimensions. Here is the line drawing for table #4. Click to get a larger view.

 

Now it was up to Peter and Jackie to decide which of the two they liked the best or whether they would like to think about another approach. Their house had several elements that were of the Prairie/ Arts and Crafts genre. One of the elements of Arts and Crafts style is the use of exposed joinery and table #4 has more explicit exposed joinery. They eventually decided on #4.

After they made their decision I worked out a bid price for them and we signed a Commission Agreement detailing the design, materials, price, completion date and delivery details. I then created shop drawings, selected the lumber and built the table.

Here is a detail of the completed table showing the exposed joinery.

The cherry will darken with age and exposure to light. The kitchen it went into had plenty of light exposure and that is why I rendered the models in dark cherry as the finished table would soon darken.

Jackie and Peter were quite happy with the table. As a matter of fact they wrote this testimonial for me:

Todd Fillingham is the best kept secret of a craftsperson in Milwaukee. He has a beautiful portfolio of lovely, creative and usable furniture. I have known Todd for 25 years but it was only when I heard his name sponsoring an NPR show did I think- “he is the one to design a perfect table for our newly remodeled kitchen.” And I was right. He looked at the site, he listened to my ideas, he did an array of drawings, he made a few alterations after discussions and he used both his sense of design and what I wanted with his skill and computer savvy to do a picture of a table that is exactly what he then produced in beautiful cherry wood. We thought the price was reasonable for this utilitarian piece of art.

Jackie Boynton

 

 

The Design Process: A Table, part 1

I’ve been meaning put up a post that describes the process I go through in designing a simple project such as dining table. This project was completed this fall.

The client contacted me about a dining table for a new kitchen they had recently added. The client, Jackie Boynton, and I discussed the general requirements and set an appointment or me to visit her house so that I could get a sense of the space and other furniture they had.

The table would need to regularly seat 3 and occasionally seat 4. Once I got to the site it appeared that an oval shape top would be appropriate. The new kitchen was contemporary enough, with large windows and clean woodwork for an oval to work, the space was somewhat small for a rectangle and we did not want to constrict the traffic flow of a busy kitchen, used for cooking, homework, family gathering and many other activities.

I eventually established a comfortable table size by taking measurements of the site, modeling the site in my 3D cad program and by using my “ergo man” model. This is a model I’ve created to allow me to assure enough room for table settings as well as many other ergonomic design concerns in many projects. Here’s a screen shot of this model:

Here’s an image I took while on site of the area the table would eventually occupy.

You can see the old table, obviously too small.

I manipulated this image in my photo editing application and added a rendering of an early sketch idea for a table to get a sense of the style direction I should be going towards.

This process of manipulating the image in a photo editing program is awkward and doesn’t allow me to measure the clearance around the table and to get a good idea of how the table will look so I modeled the space in the 3D cad program and was able to drop in various rough ideas for table designs.

To get a dialog going betwenn Jackie and myself about the table design I created a series of 3D sketches and quickly rendered them and was able to email them to her and her husband, Peter. They were able to discuss them and get back to me. Here’s a link to my Flickr set showing several of these sketches:

I think that these designs have a lot of potential and look forward to interesting another client into having me finish one or more of them.

In part 2 I’ll show the two finalists that Jackie and Peter chose, the eventual final choice and the completed table.

Surf Board Table II

There seems to be some interest in the surf board table I posted about a little while ago so I thought I’d post this image of the completed table. If you are interested in having me make one for you I would be very happy to just get in touch.

-Todd

Intrepid

My Microtek 4850 scanner has an attachment for scanning slides. It does a pretty good job on slides that are not very dark, but on dark slides it adds a lot of noise that is hard to edit out. In working on my new web site I’ve been going through a lot of old slides and a lot of old digital images. I found a few slides of a piece I did some time ago as a commission for a fund raiser. It was auctioned off and I’ve lost track of it now so these slides are all I have of it.

I think you can get idea of the piece even with all the image noise.

Here’s a scan of slide I did in the same session. It’s of one of my 3 legged stools. This was sold through a gallery.

You can see the difference in image quality between the two scans. It must be that the stool slide had a lot of light.

Over the years I’ve done quite of few of these three legged stools all based on the stools of Wharton Esherick. As a matter of fact here’s a set of 3 I recently made on a commission basis.

OK, why am I posting stools and mobiles? Maybe it’s because I think of the stools as sculpture. I really like the carved seats, each one is unique and they are a sculptural element that you interact with. Also, I like the contrast between the sensuous carved stool seats and the flat, metal elements in primary colors of the the mobile.

web site progress

I’ve been working on the mock-up for my “client pages” landing page. The plan is to allow clients that want one to have a web page on my site on which I will post design images, details and related links to their project. They will then be able to post feedback to me any time they want and they will be able to share this page with friends and family to get their feedback. The whole point is to improve and sharpen the communication between my clients and myself particularly during the early stages of the design process.

I also want to develop a way to engage the secondary customer, the spouse, close friend or other person that my primary customer will likely seek approval from for their investment.

I am also creating a database of my work with associated images, bid spread sheets, product name, product ID number related thumbnail images, etc. I’ve looked at a lot of options for applications to help and have decided to stick with Excel to create a spreadsheet/ database and use Windows Explorer to add key words, i.e. product ID numbers, to the image files. This means that I have to save all the images that will be uploaded to my new web site as jpeg files. I use Paint Shop Pro to edit the images and optimize them to a resolution of 29 pixels/inch as well as to minimize the colors used. I cannot use PSP to add key words though because if I do it wipes out the key words Windows had as well as  the key words Picasa, another image sorting application I use, uses.

It became tiresome entering all of the file paths and file names into the spread sheet as Windows Explorer only allows you to copy the path, then to separately copy the file name. I decided to nose around a little on the web and I found this cool utility that adds an option to copy the path (with file name) onto the clipboard when you right click a file in Windows Explorer. It’s called ClipboardPath.  It saves a lot of time and aggravation.

Surf Board Table

In searching and reviewing all the images on my hard disk yesterday to find the ones I want to put up on my web site I remembered this great coffee table I designed and made for a fellow surfer. This was something I wanted to be sure and show. Unfortunately I could not find it on my computer. Eventually I started looking in various CDs I’d burned and finally found it in a zip archive. Actually, the file I found was the Rhino file I’d created to do the design work. After all that searching I though I might as well put it up on my blog today as it will still be sometime before I can show it on a new web site.

Rhino let’s me create simple line drawings like this:

as well as renderings using Flamingo. Here’s a rendering that I created then used Paint Shop Pro to reduce the number of colors used to slim down the file size. By doing that it made a nice ring pattern reminiscent of water on the floor.

In designing a surf board coffee table I wanted to express some sense of the curve of a wave under the table top. I chose to abstract that curve and make use of the negative space around the structure to give some dynamism to the design. The curved space varies as you change your view point.

This is a good example of a design that really has to have several jigs to accomplish the joinery. Now that I have worked them out and have saved my construction notes I hope to sell a few more. The price for this table would start at $1,000. The price will vary depending on the wood species used.

I would love any feedback on this design.

Todd

Fillingham Art Furniture Design

web site progress

I’ve been working on the heart of my new web site, the portfolio. The biggest problem I have is that I have a lot of images of my work that fall into a variety of categories. Part of what I’m trying to do is generate orders for furniture that I’ve already designed and made, that I have worked out the various jigs and templates needed to make the work and that I can therefore offer for sale at prices lower than I would have to charge if I were to make just one of these designs. I also want to generate more commission orders, which are my bread and butter. I would also like to show my sculptures and sell some of them through the site.

Although this could be confusing and may be on my current site I am hoping to create something of a synergistic effect on my new site, carefully threading between the Charybdis of confusion and the Scylla of too categorical and didactic approach, so that viewers will get excited, or at least very interested in my work, whether they want a made to order, already designed piece or a custom designed commission piece.

I do have to set up the categories though. Art is self explanatory. I am characterizing the work I’ve done for other people as “previous commission work”. A little long, but some people have told me that they weren’t sure what I meant when I showed them pieces as “commission work”. The next category is a little trickier. I am calling it “current designs”. This will be the work that I have developed the production processes for and will initially sell on a made to order basis. Any pieces that sell well will be further developed so that I will have some level of inventory, at least of major components, so that I can ship orders quicker.

There is another category that I will slip into the current designs category, these are pieces that I have designed and not yet built but will sell at a price point as if I’ve already done the preliminary development on. I also would like to show sketches and design ideas. These are to spark new commissions by again developing an interest. Right now I’m not sure how I’ll display that material.

The portfolio page as I see it now will have a “nav bar” under the main heading that essentially has the three main “tags” for the categories plus a “show all” “tag”. Clicking on any of these will sort the thumbs that run vertically on the left. Clicking on a thumb on the far left will bring the data and images associated with that thumb into the central section that “floats” more or less in the vertical center of the screen as the page is scrolled. At least, that’s the idea. I’ve sent Nate my mock-ups, I’m sure he’ll be busy for a while.

new web site progresses

Today I have to refine the design of how I’ll present the images and information in the portfolio section of my site, my new site, the one I’m working to get up soon.

Right now I have someone who is doing the actual html coding. I’m creating mock-ups of the pages in Paint Shop Pro-5. I add a layer with notes and comments about how I want the page to look and where the links should go.

Something like this. I send Nate, my computer wiz, the file and associated image files and creates the page in html.

To work out how I want the site to be organized I am using FreeMind, a mind mapping app. to map out the links, write notes about content and to keep a focus on my goals for the site.

You can learn more about FreeMind at SourceForge.

One of the things I’m trying very hard to do for this site is to focus on specific goals for the site. First of all this site is a site for my business and should contribute to adding to my bottom line. I polled past customers about what they would like to have seen on my current website when they visited it and got some eye opening answers. One that stood out was that it wasn’t immediately clear what I do. Another comment was that they were not sure where I was located and since they wanted to do business locally that was very important to them.  Those were great comments and I am doing what I can to address them on my new site.

It is very tempting to try and create a really slick, very cool, very hip site. My focus on this site however is to be as clear as possible to potential clients how I can benefit them. My prime benefit to 90% of my clients is that I can design and make for them something that they have not been able to find anywhere else. There is a lot more that I offer and once someone has done business with me they often soon realize that. They begin to get a sense of some of the wealth of non-tangible  value that I can offer, part of what I hope to communicate on my new site is exactly that. More on that later.

Now I have to work out a clear way of presenting work I have done in the past in such a way that someone will get the message that I can do their project as well. I also want to show some designs that I will be selling on a made-to-order basis that will not only be practical pieces but also give much of intangible value custom work can give. I also want to put up some rough designs and sketches that may spark an interest in someone. Maybe someone is looking for something but they can’t quite articulate exactly what it is. If they see some of my rougher ideas they may interpret that image in a way that allows them to form a clear idea of just what they had been looking for. OK, that’s a little  inarticulate on my part but this is something I hope to be writing more about.

The wall.

I’ve just started this blog by uploading a header image taken from my studio wall.

Weber’s airline chair, Giacometti’s “le Nez”, a glass head by Vallien and a post card of Narendra Patel’s work along with a navigational chart of the entire Lake Michigan have somehow managed to stay up on that wall for many years. Many other things have come and gone.

I design and make custom furniture. I also make sculpture and do some painting. Weber, Giacometti, Vallien and Patel are just a few of the people I look to when I’m searching for inspiration.

Today I am in the midst of creating a new web site. My current site, Fillingham Art Furniture Design is the third iteration but has been unchanged for far too long. I created this last version in Dreamweaver and dread re-learning all of that again. I thought I might step away from the site for a while. Something of another wall seems to be blocking me.

For a while I’ll be writing about getting the new site up, my plans for it, some design ideas for furniture I will show on it and some ideas about how I’ll sell the furniture through the site. Soon I’ll write about furniture design, construction, working with clients as well as fresh water surfing, and sailing. I’d also like to write about making mobiles, resin sculptures, carved wood,  and figure drawing.  That’s just for beginnings.

Todd Fillingham