whining

after seeing the first table, a recently re-united aquaintance asked if i'd make him one, but with the ability to store wine. after drawing some truly shit ideas, i just bought the wood and used this as an opportunity to design in real life as opposed to drawing on paper. first idea sucked, totally annihalted the first piece and it was ridiculously hard to get it to re-align again. and i thought to myself that by doing it this way i was going to end up with a really boring standard rustic table. so far most things have had some weird backward design process going through them. i decided i wanted the legs to hold a wine bottle, and try and push my leg design a bi,. going with this angualr idea (originally four but smashed two).

attatching these together wasn't too bad, screwing them to the top was a fricking nightmare. some intnese drilling, and some gnarly blisters later, all was good. the frame was a last minute idea, accidentally it adds as another rack, able to hold more awkward bottles (apart from J.P Chenet.)

........................................................................................................

a few days later, we crammed into a lift (with table) and put it into moustache boy's apartment. not going to lie, i'm amazed it's level and the feet fit to the floor pretty good. another friend's table next.

o

the pig.

recieved a warm applause for my last efforts, so good in fact i've been asked to make a couple more, with some alterations. I confirmed with the client a la facey b, the next day i pootled to the demolition yard and purchased some more haggard pieces of timber. they were in a lovely state as always; full of nails, plasterboard dust and weird stains. now that i have a vague idea of what i'm doing, i cleaned them up pretty quickly, cut them to some rough sizes, attatched them together then went home. designing this one was a bit tricky, it had to be double the distance from the floor as the prevous table, with a shelf incorporated to house a PS3, and a box of K'nex. I was also trying to be wary of it looking too similar to existing ideas, which of course is impossible but hell i may as well try. i wanted to put some legs on which came out at an angle, as i hadn't done that yet. the table and legs on their own looked like this:

really struggled for ideas on the shelf, at one point i was seriously considering the concept of hanging one from the metal rods that hold it together. eventually, i came to the conclusion that it would be better if the shelf added strength to the whole structure rather than be something that could create stress in places.

had the roughest idea ever, purely made it up as i went along, as is the style that works for me. i was tempted to sand down the shelf struts back to wood, then thought it would be cooler (lazier) if i just left them alone, all discoloured and painted. it would also add more contrast to the piece, so you have clean, shabby and totally knackered looking timber it. the hardest bit about assembling the frame was that i actually had to measure accurately where to drill the holes. i just nailed in the rest, didn't see much point in doing anything intricate. so the final item appears as follows:

the next one has to incorporate a small wine rack.........

o

all's better

barely functioning after last night's activities so i thought i'd try and do something productive. a friend of mine is moving to an unfurnished flat, and is only there for a few months, and didn't really fancy spending out loads on furniture.they described to me how the room was going to look in their head, fairly low level stuff, eg no bed, cushions on floor etc, and they wanted a table to go in there somewhere. this was pretty exciting, actually making something for someone, and having criteria to follow, not only just for the room, but also for the person who's using it. when i was thinking about how i was going to go about designing it, i asked myself, "what do i know about this person?"
 #1. They like parties.
#2. They are kind of clumsy.
#3. They hate pidgeons.

taking the first two points into account, i figured that this thing is going to have to be the most solid thing ever. i drove the micra to the usual place, and picked up these bits for the princely sum of £15.

as with every piece of wood i get, these were knackered. two evenings sanding and sorting them out in the sun and they were lavly. at this point i still had no idea what to do for the feet. (not legs as it's so low to the ground.) after several attempts with dowel to attatch them together side by side, i gave up as they were useless. dad stole me some metal rods from work, after some intense drilling (obviously i didn't have the right size bit) i forced them together. i wanted to give to try and hide the feet as much as possible, in the end i decided on screwing some triangular shaped bits on the bottom, this works pretty good.

didn't take too long to make this one, but i think it's pretty cool. the wood has some insane character to it, and it can definately withstand a few million drinking games. next thing, a chair! sort of.

cheers


o.

camelphant.

finally cut myself from my shackles recently and dragged my pasty self to the workshop, with the intention of making something in a day, as after i would end up doing 13 lucky days straight of cheese on toast service. this took about ten hours from start to finish, admittedly i had done a bit of prep beforehand but on the day i probably did about 7 hours, given at the time i was unable to skate or do anything with much movement, and didnt really think putting myself into a drunken stupor for a whole day was very acceptable.

before carving.

 not sure on the idea behind this, i followed my my creative juices (winged it) and this is what turned out. i tried to work a bit more methodically this time however, taking more care to mark out and cut and drill etc, as shown in some of the pics below. pretty pleased with the final result to be fair, and it has fitted nicely next to a set of shelves in my room (amazingly, it is the exact same height as well.)

definately pissed off an enire village for a good few hours as i carved these bad boys.

 this project was fun, as yet again i got to do whatever the hell i wanted, and it's cool as i think after 3 items i actually have a style, kind of. next thing in the pipeline is for someone else though, and there are a few specifics, like certain heights, what they'd like to use it for and how it's going to fit in its surroundings. as with this post, i'll probably post up about it around a month after i've made it.

toodles,

o.

x

bye bye bench.

after what seems to be a million zillion shifts at the cheese on toast factory, and trying my hardest to catch diseases in foreign lands, i've found time to do a new post. woke up too early on a tuesday to drive up to stratford upon avon to deliver the bench to a charity place. did some final adjustments (screwed the legs together and made some plugs) and we lumbered the beast into my mum's car.

 it rattled around in the car a bit before we wedged it in, then i fell asleep most of the way on the journey up. after cleverly avoiding some traffic, we squeezed the car through some tiny gate before we park it in the yard of the old blacksmith, where it's set to rot and fall about the next few months. sorry, i meant decades. it fitted in pretty well, the yard just as ropey as what i'd made. eventually the lady finally let me leave, meet the gayest fenchman i have ever seen, and get stuck in traffice for a few hours before another shift at the cheese on toast place.

tomorrow im going to try and make a table in a day.

o      

x

parsnip horse.

after much intense carving with the arbotech, and swallowing my own weight in wood dust, i finished the legs and joined them today. i used mortise and tenon, they actually turned out pretty sweet and with the added dowel insertion it's solid as. pretty chuffed, i actually made something which turns out like i intended to. the oak on the top has opened up a bit which kinda sucks, but adds a bit of character. thats my excuse anyway.

made a total schoolboy error by malleting the top into the leg joins, foolishly denting it. total idiot. however, nothing that a kettle, steam and a tea towel couldn't fix, all sorted. i think my favourite part about this table is the glaringly obvious, having a super straight table top with some weird legs that look like parsnips. or from some angles, the rear legs of a horse as it walks. it's also possible i've spent far too much time in there and the wood dust has had some odd hallucinogenic effect. whatever, i'm well happy with this and actually pleased to show some pics.

just need to wax it, make sure the glue has fully dried, and off we go.





o     x

new project.

went to the woodyard with no idea really what i wanted to make or what i was going to buy. kind of wandered around it like a zombie for a bit, before finding this rather grubby piece of oak. was only a tenner, so i threw it in the back of the micra and went skating before the heavens opened.

first job, and the main one really, is cleaning it up. not sure where this had been, had a real nice layer of scum on the top but a bit of scraping, sanding and planing sorted it out. although summed up in a sentence, this has taken me a few hours. running along the middle of this particualr piece is the heartwood, and it is one tough motherbitch to try and plane, especially given my current skill set at sharpening tools.

 i wasn't sure whether i wanted to keep the wonky edge or not, in the end i decided against it as hopefully it's going to have some pretty crazy legs. i did want to start making the holes for where the legs go in today, but forgot my drill. couldn't be assed to go back home and get it so i came home and wrote this.

im trying to make it so the top is square (ish) and the legs have all the character, kind of opposite to the bench really. should be cool, will probs end up being a coffee table. watch this space. please.



o.

xx

ready as i'll ever be.

well, i guess i've finally finished this thing. overall i'm pretty happy, in the sense that i made something and it actually feels pretty solid. it is full of mistakes though, some obvious and a few you can't see. some of the joins dont fit quite right, a couple gaps here and there, and i totally butchered it in one area. however, i have learnt an unreal amount whilst making this, what i can do, what i can't, and what promise it shows to me of what i may be able to achieve in the future.

clearly, this stuff does not come naturally to me in anyway, at all. to be honest, at somepoints i was like "seriously why the fuck am i bothering this is gnarly. and i'm getting blood all over it." but i carried on regardless, not even forcing myself, so i guess i naturally wanted to do it. plus it was too wet to skate. i could sense i was getting marginally better though as it went on, so that was cool. plus there were a load of different processes involved in getting to the final piece from the scabby bits of wood tim gave me so it's hardly surprising i'm not great at any of them. it'd definately going to take a while.

even though i'm not 100% with it, i absolutely loved making it, and i am definately going to keep making crappy things until i make something decent. no idea what the next project is yet still.

anybody want a bench??


o      x

no way near

it's very possible you've seen this on my facebook, but recently i "finished" the bench. when i say finished, i mean the joints are all cut and it fits together but its pretty scabby, so i've spent much of the time in the last week trying to tidy them up so it fits together. got a slight problem currently which is that the workshop is like an oven, which means that it is hell to work in currently. it's so hot, and so dry, and liquids quickly evaporate, including the sweat falling off my beard chin as i slave away trying to make this massive piece of crap look slightly more appealing. cracks are opening, some things dont fit which did before and trying to get some of the legs to fit properly is a bit a nightmare as i don't think any of the surfaces in there are actually flat.

cracks.

this is total contrast to the winter, when it was insanely cold and i had to leave after an hour to get warm, now im doing the total opposite. don't read this as a massive moan though, it's good fun and i love how varied it all is. plus i'm a big fan of making things more difficult than they should be.

weather

i also bought a decent camera, need to play around with it abit and learn to use it so i can get the most of its capabilities, but the photos are way better than that of my phone so i dont care.

starting to get ideas for my next project, no clues yet but it's garunteed to look a total mess if this is anything to go by.

o x

ditl

i wake up far too late as always, and trip up over an empty tea mug as i get out of bed. stumbling my way to the kitchen, i fill up on honey nut cornflakes and tea before being ready for the outside world. i gather my bag which i assume has everything in it, hop in my trusty micra and head to the workshop through the backlanes. they've been somewhat eroded during the recent inclement weather, the car slides a bit round some of the corners along with the occasional jump. as i arrive at the workshop, i instantly wish i'd worn more clothes, bloody freezing up there! i open the door, and the instant smell of wood dust and sap hits you straightaway. it's a nice smell, but im pretty sure i wouldnt want my house to have the same aromas. as usual, i begin by looking (i'd say studying but i wouldn't want to pretend im a pro) at the pieces i have, and what im going to do today. cutting i decide is the order of the day, with a bit of paring. i amatuerishly mark out my cuts using my trusty scalpel and my not so trusty square, and using Predator (the name of the saw, apparently) i cut the rebates or notches, whatever they are for one of the legs. this goes well, after i make them as square as i can using the resources i have, which are some sketchy chisels, squiffy eyes and dodgy squares. although summed up in a sentence, this takes me an hour. however now, one side is nearing completion. all i have to do is cut the joints for the other side, and cut the notches from the main beams for it to rest on. weirdly satisfied, and too lazy to do anymore for the day, i head home and eat a bacon sandwich, and write this.

pretty boring this week really, i'm just trying to make sure i have a post a week to keep it semi regular. time to go sell pizza.

o x

ngng

so i haven't posted anything for a while because i've been busy making stuff, and actually finishing them, so apologies to the 2 or 3 people that look at this. No Guts No Glory is a wicked shop in exeter that sells t shirts, zines and prints all designed by some insanely talented artists, as well as loads of other organic and ethical items (non food related.) Nathan wanted to redesign the shop so it fitted his newer stock better, and so that more of it was on the wall rather than on the floor (the shop is tiny as.) Keeping with their DIY aka "i'm going steal as many pallets as i can and make weird things out of them" theme, we very loosely designed a table, a wall display unit box, and some other gubbins. these pics are the making of, getting a sweet badass camera soon so waiting to get some decent pics pics on that.

one table sans drawers.

the table legs were made from old fenceposts, and the top from a pallet we mysteriously acquired. the top kind of rests on the shoulders cut into the posts, afterwards we pegged them in with dowel so it looks slightly more accomplised, and less like the dodgiest thing ever made. i will add however, it is rock solid. somehow. ish.
eventually, i made some drawers which slide into the table top, one doesnt really fit properly currently as the wood has warped to shit, but soon they'll be fine.

one drawer.

also there was a display box to hold zines and prints, this was just two simple frames which were then pegged together after to make it deeper. this wasn't too hard, although because the workshop is freezing, and nathan's house is ridiculously warm, it didnt fit together there. i had to cut the slots a bit bigger in his living room.

the frame bits pre cutting.

the frames after.

 there's still a few little bits in the shop which Nathan and Hayley want to improve, but we'll do them later.
these items were made in time for the first handmade arcade, me and my mother shared a stall, there, didnt sell much but it was a wicked atmosphere, and mother got loads of good feedack about her stuff, so she was chuffed. she can knit any design you want, provided you draw it on graphpaper, email me or contact if your interested, adults jumpers start at around 80 or 90 quid ish. room for negotiation though :) 

been on the bench this week. pics soon!

o     x

rough hands

nearly there!

been sanding like a madman the last couple weeks (no it doesnt take this long but i only work on this for maybe 4 hours max a week currently) and have nearly finished making them smooth. which is bloody good because i am now rather bored of sanding, plus all the roughness from the wood has transferred itself to my palms and fingers.

problem is now, i cant draw anything which i like, and want for the legs. i guess im having trouble trying to figure out all the proportions free hand, i should probably do a scaled drawing and that would help quite a bit. also i am a tad worried about having thin skimpy legs which may break, or making ones that are too big and will make it look oafish. plus my cutting skills aren't much to shout about, so i really don't want to mess it up! but that's the fun of it. i get the same amount of satisfaction cutting a sweet join as i do skating a massive ramp, so may as well just go for it and see...... measure twice, start cutting, measure again, start cutting again, chisel off the gammy bits. thats how it usually works. began part of a collaborative project with nathan from No Guts No Glory, not giving away anything right now but some awesome DIY furniture is spamming its way to you soon.

in other news, it was a lovely day the other day so i took this

somewhere in devon, answers on a postcard please.

o x

lazy

no blog posts recently, went snowboarding for two weeks and there hasn't been much to talk about. have continued sanding down the second beam, and made an executive decision not use the bits i picked up a while ago. may have to actually buy some wood for the legs, which would be a first! i guess this was because i want the legs to all be the same, and i couldn't guarantee the wood i collected from the school bench was totally ok.i want the members you sit on to be mad and rustic, and the legs to be perfectly straight and refined. yes i know this look has been done before, but im just trying to learn as much about this material as i can! by next week i should have something slightly more interesting to show other than a close up of some crocheted wool.

o x

can you guess what it is yet.

headscratching

a friend got in contact with me recently,  saying they were going to dispose of a big school bench, and asked if i wanted it to go towards my little project. i eventually said yes, and after i finally got out of bed this afternoon i drove my trusty micra in a dorset-ly direction. no breaking into the school was necessary as we had a key, and i quickly started to attack the bench with my limbs, and my mother's saw. after one minute, i had completely destroyed one of the pieces i definately want to use. i therefore took a slightly less physchotic approach, and resurrected these members....

there are a couple others too, which i haven't photographed due to my professional ability not to be able to focus on any one thing at a given time. after filling my car up with all of the remains for firewood (which i've just remembered are still in the car, sorry mum) i headed back to the workshop to try and figure out what to do with them

i'd say i just sat on the floor looking at those two beams for about 20minutes, trying to imagine in my head what i want to do with it all. how should i join them? how tall should the seating height be? shall i scrape off all the moss-type stuff on the legs or leave it on?  i may leave it on, adds a bit of character, and with the old mortiise holes and tenons showing it adds a bit of character. would be quite interesting to have these big oak beams, all sanded aup and clean resting on these old, used bench legs which bear the scars and stains of the school playground. and then to decide which features to keep on those bits, two of them have this bends and curves which would be good to incorporate, but then this that this that then that and the other. problem solving at its finest, interspersed with large doses of mumbling.

i'm sure my mind will totally change soon, need to make some decisions. hmmmmmmmm.

o x

hasn't let me down yet.

second beam

after many hours spent sanding the first beam, i decided i'm probably not going to get it a lot better than that and decided to move on it is pretty smooth, few machine marks here and there but i guess it adds to the "rustic" look of it.  conviently, the second beam has more nails than the first piece, and a brand new element. woodworm. also it is covered in a load of paint too.

woodworm holes.

after a few goes with the angle grinder.

 so, i took off the outer layer of paint with a scraper, then an angle grinder, which didnt do as much as i'd hope so i grabbed the arbortech. 

weapon of choice.

i'd like to apologise to the sheep outside which i really must have pissed off whilst i was using this very very loud piece of equipment, however it saves me countless hours of physical labour. in all fairness, it took me about half an hour to clean up all the dust and wood particles that went everywhere! had to take off a lot more material than i imagined, luckily for me there was an area on the other beam which had a lot of material taken out because of rot, so they kind of mirror each other. here are the two pieces together, there are both 63inches long, lots of work to do to the one on the right but hopefully this week i can start thinking properly about legs.

getting there.

o. xx

the beginning part 2 (posted in the wrong blog)

i have always loved being busy, making stuff with my hands. though i guess in my mum's eyes "stuff" would be "a mess". hopefully, this will be the start of something more productive than just daydreaming about what i want to do, and actually doing it! many of us are guilty of this i think.

100 year old oak, before any clean up had been done.

i recently aquired two lengths of timber (oak we are led to believe) from a regular customer at work, who is converting an old stables. fortunately for me, he donated them for free. unfortunately for me, there are tons of nails, a bit of rot, and some considerably massive knots. beggars can't be choosers i guess, plus it is an awesome opportunity to give some 100year old timber a new use. not quite sure what i'm going to make of them yet, going to clean them up massively first! after getting a feel for my uncle's tools (he has very kindly let me use his workshop for free), and realising their sheer destructive ability, i am slowly exposing some of the amazing character this item holds.

close up. a lot of work yet to be done! 

so far i have learnt that the abortech is a seriously gnarly piece of kit and should only be used when necessary, that if i press too hard with any power tool it will definately cause me more work by hand later on, and if i think something is a bad idea then it means that it definatley is. you can see evidence of this learning process in the photo above.  more to come!

o.