Molly Bagby

Follow Friday: Woodworker John Eugster

Sep 132013
 
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Handmade Marking Gauge

This week’s #FollowFriday is woodworker, John Eugster from Las Vegas, Nevada, who was featured in our September 2013 Wood News with his article on Making Your Own Marking Gauge.

John retired from teaching Industrial Arts and Wood Shop classes in 2008, and in his retirement he has focused on creating custom, one of a kind furniture pieces. He has also taught several classes at Wood It Is!, also located in Las Vegas. He has also had his work shown in several Las Vegas galleries including the Willow Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ, and the Gallery at Summerlin in Las Vegas, NV.

The pictures below are from a series of boxes that John made for a show at the Urban Ranch General Store in 2012. He started specializing in boxes in 2008, when the economy wasn’t doing so well and his furniture-making wasn’t paying the bills. The box-making allowed him to maintain and build upon his woodworking skills and continue being able to work in his shop.

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Urban Ranch Box, Medium

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Urban Ranch Box, Large w/tray

John’s second box series is the Slanted Dovetail series, in which the boxes are made up of multiple hand-cut dovetails. The shape of the box allows for the dovetails to appear slanted, which gives an added design element to the boxes.

Slanted Dovetail Series

Slanted Dovetail Series

Slanted Dovetail Series

Slanted Dovetail Series

Continue scrolling below to view some other projects that John has done. You can also see more of his work at his website, by clicking HERE. John also has a great blog on his website, which is keeping track of his current projects.

Custom Computer Monitor Cabinet made from Alder.

Custom Computer Monitor Cabinet made from Alder.

Santa Fe Style Garden Gate made of clear Redwood.

Santa Fe Style Garden Gate made of clear Redwood.

Heirloom Walnut Side Table

Heirloom Walnut Side Table

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–Fridays on the Highland Woodworking Blog are dedicated to #FollowFriday, where we use this space to further highlight a woodworker or turner who we have featured in our monthly e-publications Wood News and The Highland Woodturner. Would you like for your shop to appear in our publications? We invite you to SEND US PHOTOS of your woodworking shop along with captions and a brief history and description of your woodworking (Email photos at 800×600 resolution.) Receive a $50 store credit redeemable towards merchandise if we show your shop in a future issue.

The Highland Woodworker, Episode 8

Sep 112013
 

Just in time for the start of the woodworking season, we’ve got a brand new episode of The Highland Woodworker!

In the 8th episode, Charles Brock spends some time with Master Furniture Restorer, Alan Noel, to unlock the mysteries behind wooden antiques by looking at the way they were crafted as well as finishing techniques.

Chuck also hangs out in the shop with Popular Woodworking’s Glen Huey, who shares his router techniques for cutting circles and creating beautiful inlay.

For this episode’s Moment With a Master, Chuck interviews Gary Rogowski, author of The Complete Illustrated Guide to Joinery, and owner of The Northwest Woodworking Studio in Portland, Oregon.

So sit back and enjoy all of this and much more, with The Highland Woodworker!

Follow Friday: Preston Woodruff

Sep 062013
 

preston1A brand new Wood News has just been released and with that comes a new round of Follow Fridays! This week we are following Preston Woodruff, who we featured in this month’s Show Us Your Woodcarving column. Preston lives up in the Appalachian mountains of Brevard, NC, where he owns his own woodworking company, Appalachian Tree Works, and is able to obtain a lot of his resources locally.

With the plentiful trees in the area come a lot of downed trees, which Preston is able to incorporate into his work. He first took advantage of this when a Sycamore tree fell down on his land a few years ago, which he didn’t want to see go to waste. And so out of that tree came his company, Appalachian Tree Works, and he was able to turn the downed tree into Treenware (small handmade wooden household items).

Preston takes full advantage of all of the opportunities western North Carolina has for woodworkers, including the abundance of trees, multiple antique shops and museums, as well as a general feel for old-fashioned woodworking. If you are ever in Brevard, NC, make sure you stop by The Red Wolf Gallery, where Preston shows his work. He also has showings at The North Carolina Crafts Gallery in Carrboro, near Chapel Hill.

Take a look at Preston’s beautiful pieces below:

Raven Dulcimer

Raven Dulcimer

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Shallow Dough Bowl made from Sycamore.

Small Walnut Bowl with Carved Snake.

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Coffee Scoops made in a variety of woods including Walnut, Cherry, Butternut, and Dogwood.

Baguette Tray made from Sycamore.

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Small Oval Sycamore Dough Bowl made with squared ends.

Salad Set made out of Cherry.

Be sure to visit Preston’s website HERE for more information about him and his works. You can also visit his Facebook page HERE.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–Fridays on the Highland Woodworking Blog are dedicated to #FollowFriday, where we use this space to further highlight a woodworker or turner who we have featured in our monthly e-publications Wood News and The Highland Woodturner. Would you like for your shop or woodworking to appear in our publications? We invite you to SEND US PHOTOS  along with captions and a brief history and description of your shop or woodworking (Email photos at 800×600 resolution.) Receive a $50 store credit redeemable towards merchandise if we show your shop in a future issue.

Follow Friday: Carl Lehman

Aug 302013
 

carving2 Today’s #FollowFriday is Carl Lehman from Tecumseh, Ontario, who we featured in our Show Us Your Woodcarving section of our August 2013 issue of Wood News. Carl was a unique “Show Us” submission by submitting his story and photos through our Highland Woodworking Facebook Page.

Carl’s most recent projects were the construction of 3 motorcycle rocking chairs, which he made for his grandchildren. He made each part of the bikes out of the following different types of wood:

Seats: Spalted Wood, which made them look like leather.

Chrome  and Tin Components: Light colored woods like Ash and Maple.

Handle Grips: Made with veneer wrapped around dowels and worked to imitate knurled grips.

Cover Plate for Transmission: Each bike was made with a different highly figured piece of wood that Carl had in the shop, which included Cherry Flame, Spalted Butternut, and Lacewood.

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The first bike that Carl made was entered into a local wood carving competition, where he won First Place in two categories! He won both the Carousel Horse-Novice Category, as well as the People’s Choice-Novice Category.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–Fridays on the Highland Woodworking Blog are dedicated to #FollowFriday, where we use this space to further highlight a woodworker or turner who we have featured in our monthly e-publications Wood News and The Highland Woodturner. Would you like for your shop or woodworking to appear in our publications? We invite you to SEND US PHOTOS  along with captions and a brief history and description of your shop or woodworking (Email photos at 800×600 resolution.) Receive a $50 store credit redeemable towards merchandise if we show your shop in a future issue.

Show Us Your Shop Update: Temple Blackwood

Aug 272013
 
The old garage/shed on Temple's property in 2009, which he began to update and reconstruct to make his woodworking shop.

The old garage/shed on Temple’s property in 2009, which he began to update and reconstruct to make his woodworking shop.

As the hot summer months are winding down, more and more woodworkers are getting back into their shops. One of these woodworkers is Temple Blackwood, who we featured last month in The Highland Woodturner in our Show Us Your Shop Column. When he submitted his shop to us, he was still in the process of building the south-shed roof, which would be able to shelter his 1964 International 424 Tractor as well as firewood for warming his shop and home. We are excited to report that he has recently finished this addition and we wanted to show off the before and after pictures!

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The additional shed off the west end of my shop completes the exterior footprint of my original plan and solves several problems that have plagued me over the past four years.  I do “love it when a good plan comes together.”

In mid-coastal Maine we are always in need of more covered shelter from the elements, and the new shed provides that for various tractors and small boats. The walls will become half-walls built of future firewood when my oldest son and I process the nine cords of logs we have ready in the yard for the cooler weather of the fall. We heat both houses, my shop, and my office with woodstoves through the winter.

The design of the extended roof eve 4′ beyond the posts will basically shelter the fire wood that will be stacked between them to a height of 5′ leaving the upper level open for the light and view and accessible from either side. The extended steel roof also keeps the shop noticeably cooler in the summer, an unexpected benefit, while protecting the shop from the blinding glare of the lower sun early to mid-afternoon in the winter. That bright sunlight of a lower sun offered no heat and made it impossible to work anywhere in the shop without shuttering the west windows with cardboard blinds.

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Using the summer August visit of my two other sons with their families as a deadline (i.e. to complete the work before they arrived so they would not be enlisted while on their vacation) and to begin toning up for summer after an early spring carotid artery surgery, I hand-dug the post holes through the gravel and rocks in early May, squared and planted the five exterior posts leaving them to settle in until mid-July. In the meantime, I hand-cut the joints and squared and tied the outside perimeter in preparation for moving forward. Given the nature of my aging frame and the physics of the 16′ joists, batons, and steel roofing sheets, I convinced two of my local contractor friends who own scaffolding to come help me for two days, and we built the new shed to completion three days before my family arrived.
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Needless to say, my grandchildren enjoy playing in it on rainy days, but with summer sailing coming to an end, field mowing nearly completed, and the prospect of needing to keep one year ahead of the firewood piles, the new shed will be full. We will doubtlessly be wondering where to put something else, and I suspect my wife has plans already made!

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The finished addition!

 

Follow Friday with Artist/Craftsman Simon Levy

Aug 232013
 
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“Aftermath”, 2010
Wall-mounted Sculpture, Boxelder, Cedar root, pyrography, engraving

Today’s Follow Friday is Simon Levy, a woodturner from Ashland City, TN, who we featured in the Show Us Your Woodturning Stuff column in the August 2013 issue of The Highland Woodturner. Simon received his initial artistic training from The Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, CA, where he majored in Graphic Design, but also studied many different forms of the fine arts including drawing, painting, typography, and photography. Shortly after graduating, he became an art director in the recording industry, which took his graphic design and artistic talents and applied them to the music world.

In 1996, Simon delved into the three-dimensional design world of woodturning, a “natural progression” from his work as a two-dimensional graphic designer. His basic woodturning process involves the normal use of the lathe to create the vessel, and then making the piece “one-of-a-kind” by adding a complimentary element such as freehand drawing, pyrography, carving, low relief engraving, as well as adding various pigments.

Below are select pieces from his work. To learn more about Simon and see more of his work, you can visit his website HERE.

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“Whiskers”, 2009
Lidded Vessel on Base, Boxelder, pyrography, engraving, gesso, natural bristle

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“Omo”, 2007
Vessel in Standing Frame, Boxelder, Oak, pyrography, metal feet

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“Thicket”, 2011
Vessel, Cherry, carved design, pyrography

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“Inside Out”, 2012
Standing Sculpture with Vessel, Poplar, Beech, cinder block fragment, engraving, pyrography

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“Nebula”, 2010
Lidded Vessel, Boxelder, pyrography, engraving

Follow Friday: Stew Hagerty

Aug 162013
 

stuff1smThis weeks #FollowFriday is Stew Hagerty from Fort Wayne, IN. Stew was recently featured with his rocking horse project that he made for his granddaughter in the Show Us Your Stuff column in our August 2013 issue of Wood News.

Stew is a former General Contractor who got very sick 4 years ago with an unidentified bug that almost killed him! This led to more sickness and strange symptoms, which eventually got him diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis, a neurological disease that is a cousin to MS and causes lesions to form in the spinal column. The disease unfortunately left him wheelchair bound, but he quickly found the motivation to get back into woodworking and start building a wheelchair accessible workshop!

He described his shop with the following:

I had to build several cabinets, racks, and workstations, around the shop. I already had a very nice workbench that I inherited from my father-in-law that has a sturdy white oak frame and a 1-1/2 inch thick hard maple top, with both face and tail vices. I already had most of the power tools, although I did buy a Dewalt 735 planer and a Grizzly G0555X bandsaw. However, I did have to purchase quite a few hand tools, since the ones I already had were for construction rather than woodworking. I bought a full set of vintage Stanley Bailey planes from #3 through #8, a finer set of chisels than I had for construction, as well as quite a few precision measuring & marking instruments (I have a passion for Woodpeckers products). And, of course, I have continued to buy tools as I “need” them (wink wink). I like working by hand when I can, but I understand my limitations require a fair amount of power tool work as well. This workshop and my projects have really been a godsend for me.

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Rocking Horse made for Stew’s granddaughter with the description of materials

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Mantle Clock made for Stew’s son & daughter-in-law

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Three-Tiered Basket Stand made for Stew’s wife

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Wooden Chest made for Stew’s Daughter

You can see more of Stew’s work on his Facebook page HERE.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–Fridays on the Highland Woodworking Blog are dedicated to #FollowFriday, where we use this space to further highlight a woodworker or turner who we have featured in our monthly e-publications Wood News and The Highland Woodturner. Would you like for your shop to appear in our publications? We invite you to SEND US PHOTOS of your woodworking shop along with captions and a brief history and description of your woodworking (Email photos at 800×600 resolution.) Receive a $50 store credit redeemable towards merchandise if we show your shop in a future issue.