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Barrister Bookcase Storage

Barrister Fabric case

I finished the Barrister bookcase I mentioned in my last post. It now sits in my wife’s sewing room so she can see the fabric she can choose from to make quilts. She makes wonderful quilts, and color selection and pattern are amazing. I will have to do a post on her work in the future.

The bookcase is 48″ wide with 5 sections all 16″ tall, with flip up doors with plexiglass front panels. The bookcase had a minor issue with the slides on the bottom drawer failing right after I did the final setup. The drawer slides were ones that I had as extras from another job, they were ok but not anywhere near the quality needed. The drawer with a 4 foot drawer length and only 12 inches deep the slides would rack and bind, the long length and small glide depth were the main issue. I ended up with a pair of the new Blum slides that work great. It did require remaking the whole box to get it right, but they work so well they are worth the price. I hate to have less than my best work leave my shop.

Foxy Lady

While working on house projects I carve out time to paint. I try to at least spend time every Sunday at my painting desk even when I have other projects waiting. I turn on the TV to Hockey, Football or Golf so it plays in the background, with a background noise I can tune out everything else and paint away.

Nuthatch Study

Painting a series of nuthatches on a single page is my way of pulling together images for a final painting in the future, fun to do and works on keeping a limited pallet so i work on color mixing.

Ron

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Stone slab outdoor table

This was one of those ideas that came from having some bits and pieces from taking apart past projects hanging around. The rusty old wheels were on the beach for years waiting for a home. The rock slab had a former life on a driftwood base as a table but the base finally rotted out.

The nice weather has finally arrived and I am enjoying the sunshine and warmth. Working on various outdoor maintenance projects and yard work has inspired projects like this one.

They are beginning to ease the shelter in place rules in northern NY and hope that they get to the point we have art fairs this year.

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Slim-Line Desk Lamp

I had some time in my shop and picked up a thin piece of cedar that was an offcut from making picture frames. I thought about how cool it would look as a super thin desk lamp. I had a piece of quartz crystal to use as a counter weight, a brass tube, a short strip of 12v LED lights, a small block of cherry from the scrap bin, a few pieces of connections materials, and voila the Slim-Line Lamp.

This is what happens when I get distracted and have a few pieces of scrap in hand.

The lamp looks cool, works very well over my desk, and its fragile making shiiing a big problem, so it won’t be making the gallery of items. It may make the trip to an in person show, if I ever get to addend one.

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First Driftwood and Stone Lamps

Hollow Branch Lamp

Another week of free time in the studio. I was able to get to a location that had internet access where I could start to upload more images for the web site. I have major problems with internet access at my home, no cable and no DSL that works. Now my wireless hub is acting up.

I promised lamps in an earlier post so I have finally been able to get some photos and upload them to the site. I completed 4 lamps so far and have a couple of others on the workbench. I enjoy the beech feal with stones and driftwood of our shoreline.

You can find the rest of my lamps in my gallery under furniture.

I have put in applications for a couple of art fairs and if I am accepted I will add them to a calendar of events. I am also working on a newsletter that will celebrate all the art items I had produced for the month.

Spiral Branch Lamp
Spiral Branch Lamp
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Bow Lamp

My most recent endeavor is making lamps. I have a barrel of odd looking driftwood and a couple of pails of nice stones from the beach and decided to combine them. I have a large stump and root-ball on the beach with rocks caught up in the wood. I have used stones from the beach for some of my sculptures, so coming up with a way to add them to the driftwood lamp was a natural fit. So now I have a lamp with stacked stones, it’s kind of like and stuff happens and then Lamps. This is the first in a whole series of lamp, more in future blogs.

Spoiler alert, the natural edge slab-table you see will be the subject of my next post.

In the future, I plan to offer some instructional information about how I make these lamps along with materials and tools I used.