Storefront Classes
Click here to see the current classes we offer.
Search this Blog
My Personal Site & Gallery
Blog archive
Categories
Subscribe via RSS
LostArtPress on Instagram
The more I thought about it, the more I realised this is how most people feel when faced with doing a new design. Scared. Scared big time. You want to make a special piece, but you are facing the probability that it won’t actually be that special…and you don’t want that. This was to be a lovely writing table for my beautiful wife, Carol, and with it a special chair. We have made lots of chairs through the years, and I have built a reputation for it. I wanted a chair that would sum this up in one piece. I wanted it to be elegant but not overly complex, to be the most difficult piece in the book, but makeable for the careful amateur maker. If you are like me, you carry images in your head of the pieces you want to make. They may not be in clear focus or show the whole piece of work. But they show us bits of it – a leg, or a detail for a flashing moment of clarity on the drive to work, or whilst soaking in the bath. But nobody else can see it there between your ears. You can tell people of your blinding ideas and they will look at you as if you needed a kind, helping nurse. Poor sad old devil; can’t get it up any more. So, you go to downloading. This is the process of getting it down somewhere in sketchy notes. Three or four lines in ink on a Post-It Note can do the job. Which was all I had at the start of the chair. — from “The Intelligent Hand” by David Binnington Savage @finefurnituremaker #The_Intelligent_HandI’m closing in on finishing this Nicholson campaign chest for a (very patient) customer. Today I cut all the mortises for the brass strapwork (not shown). Tomorrow I’ll install the drawer stops and do the “make pretty.” If the weather cooperates, I’ll apply shellac Wednesday or Thursday.Forming a volute - an arc that continues to descend. After each arc, move the (compass) point to the next focal point and reset the line. — from “By Hound and Eye” by Geo. R. Walker @georgewalker.design and Jim Tolpin @jimtolpin #By_Hound_and_Eye@RudeMechanic on Twitter
- RT @merrittk: it is my firm belief that anyone's personality can be described as a point on a triangle whose vertices are labeled "mark," "… 1 day ago
- Begin at the Bottom (or Back) blog.lostartpress.com/2019/06/24/beg… https://t.co/qj1i1h2kfe 2 days ago
- RT @WhiteHouseHstry: This writing arm Windsor chair was used by President James Madison to write dispatches in Brookeville, MD, where he to… 2 days ago
Translate
Author Archives: Kara Uhl
Free Excerpt of ‘Joiner’s Work’
For a more in-depth look of Peter Follansbee’s “Joiner’s Work,” check out the (free!) PDF excerpt we’ve posted here. It includes the table of contents, dedication, acknowledgements, introduction and the bookstand chapter. While copy editing Peter’s book I was delighted … Continue reading
Posted in Joiner's Work
12 Comments
Highland Woodworking Reviews ‘Cut and Dried’
“Every now and then there comes a work of exceptional importance for a wide range of woodworkers,” writes J. Norman Reid in a review of “Cut & Dried: A Woodworker’s Guide to Timber Technology” by Richard Jones. “This volume, by … Continue reading
Posted in Cut & Dried
1 Comment
Take a Photo of Your Shop
We’re putting the finishing touches on “The Difference Makers,” an inspiring book by Marc Adams, founder and owner of the largest woodworking school in North America. In this 11″ x 11″ book (which will likely be 250 pages) Marc profiles … Continue reading
Posted in The Difference Makers, Uncategorized
17 Comments
What. Why. How.
Editor’s note: As we wrote about in August, longtime LAP author Don Williams is writing a new book, “A Period Finisher’s Manual.” Don is a conservator, craftsman and author of many articles and several Lost Art Press books, and the … Continue reading
Posted in A Period Finisher's Manual
16 Comments
‘The Best of My Ability’
Editor’s note: In January we announced a new book about Dick Proenneke. Here, author Monroe Robinson shares how building furniture with his father, counting sockeye salmon in Alaska and a bridge led he and his wife to be caretakers of … Continue reading
Posted in Dick Proenneke, Uncategorized
6 Comments
The Will and the Deed
“It looks as though today we are at the beginning of a new era. Values are shifting and changing, in many ways coming nearer to an ancient order of things than once we would have thought possible. Work in farm … Continue reading
Posted in Honest Labour, Uncategorized
8 Comments
Free Excerpts of ‘The Intelligent Hand’ & ‘Shaker Inspiration’
For a taste of what our two most recent titles offer, we’ve created PDF excerpts, which you are welcome to download. The pdf for “The Intelligent Hand” by David Savage includes the table of contents, foreword, a look at some … Continue reading
Posted in Shaker Inspiration, The Intelligent Hand
4 Comments
