We changed our blog’s theme yesterday to make the site run properly on a phone or a tablet. It now loads faster, too. We are trying to get it functioning like the old blog, but I have run into a couple snags.
The worst one is that when you are scrolling through all the blog posts, it doesn’t show you the “comment link” – or a link that says “there are 13 comments” with a quick link to the comments.
To see the comments (and to comment) you must click the headline of the story. The comments are at the bottom of that page. We are trying to get the comment link restored to make your life (and Suzanne Ellison’s) easier.
One of the “print on demand” books I’ve made through the years.
If you are writing a woodworking book, you have a lot of company. During the last six months, we have seen an alarming spike in the number of people who have sent us book proposals or even finished manuscripts.
To be clear, we don’t even accept unsolicited manuscripts at Lost Art Press. And still, I’ve rejected at least 20 book proposals so far for 2020, which is a record. John and I have no interest in becoming a bigger publishing company. We don’t want employees, overhead, debt or potentially watered-down content. So we can’t take on these projects.
Luckily, if you are writing a book you have options. So whether you are writing “Alf” fan fiction or the next “Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking” here are some paths to consider.
Traditional offset printing. If you think you can sell 500 copies of your book, then you should investigate traditional offset printing. This is the same process we use at Lost Art Press. It is the cheapest way to print a book – by far. And you have the most options for binding, paper and other manufacturing details. The downside is you have to come up with the money for the press run at the get-go. And you have to produce “press-ready” pdf files. And you have to find an audience. And sell them. And pack all the books. Deal with customer service and returns. But if you can sell 500, you’ll probably do OK. We use several printers and press brokers, including Signature Book Printing.
Print on demand (POD). This is a fancy photocopier or digital laser printer that prints and binds your book. It prints them one at a time, which is great because you will never have 1,000 copies of your novel mouldering in the attic. But it is at least twice as expensive as offset printing (in my experience). And you have fewer choices as to paper, cover and binding. The printing quality gets crisper every year, but the bindings have yet to equal traditional sewn signatures in my experience. I’ve seen some sewn POD books, and I wouldn’t let an enraged baby or dog alone with them. A good place to start investigating this option is Ingram’s Lightning Source service. Companies such as this can handle everything, from sales to distribution. But it costs.
POD marries DIY. You don’t have to go through a big company like Ingram to use POD. Many libraries and “makerspaces” have POD machines. One brand is the Espresso machine, which is what we have at the Cincinnati library. I’ve made many small-run books on these machines and sold them to students and given them away to customers and friends. If you can find a non-profit entity, such as a library, the books are pretty reasonable per copy. But you are very limited on the size, shape, paper and cover. For example, our library only does black-and-white interiors and a color softcover. But the price is right and you have to start somewhere.
Give it to Amazon. Amazon has self-publishing services that allow you to upload your book to them and sell it all over the world – both electronically and in print. The quality I’ve seen so far has been in the middle range of POD. It’s not the best but it’s not the worst. But you do get to tell your relatives at Thanksgiving that your book is on Amazon. That’s something, right? (No.)
A final option is to work with a traditional publisher. There are fewer of these every year, and I can almost guarantee you will have a frustrating experience. Almost all first-time authors do.
Publishing is a tough business, kind of like woodworking. I tell my family that I combined two terrible professions into something that almost works. But if you really want it, it can happen. John and I are proof of that.
This week I’m finishing up a set of Roorkhee-style ottomans for a customer, and today I applied Liberon Black Bison Wax (dark oak shade) over the two coats of garnet shellac.
This is one of my favorite finishes for campaign furniture. The garnet shellac warms up the mahogany; the dark wax fills in the pores and tints any pink left in the wood.
My youngest daughter, Katherine Schwarz, is working for Lost Art Press this summer, doing a lot of photography and website maintenance. So I asked her to shoot this quick phone video to show the before and the after.
Katherine and I will make a few professional videos this summer, including the long-promised video on sharpening scrapers and a video on our Crucible Pinch Rods. The phone video above is not indicative of the quality she can produce (she’s in art school).
Sometimes you have to look for clues to period lighting. I suspect this kitchen had a 9′ ceiling, considering the apparent length of the ceiling fixture rod, but you can achieve a similar look with a flush-mounted fixture. A less common light fixture is the lamp on the top of the Hoosier cabinet, which would have been this kitchen’s main preparation space. (Drawing: The Kitchen Plan Book, circa 1920, published by the Hoosier Manufacturing Company, New Castle, In.)
The older you get, the more important it is to have adequate light, whether you’re working at your bench or the kitchen counter. Natural light from windows, glazed doors and skylights is ideal, but in pre-dawn hours and evenings, or on overcast days, you need more.
If your ceiling is 8’ or lower, as ours is, choose light fixtures with headroom, as well as illumination, in mind. (I really really wanted to have 9′ ceilings on the main floor of the house, but that would have increased the cost…and I had to mind my budget.) Fixtures that hang too low can cast a blinding glare, let alone pose a risk to your noggin. Lights recessed in the ceiling maintain maximum headroom and are an excellent choice for general illumination; some varieties allow you to angle the light toward a particular spot such as a stovetop or counter (though in such cases, you’ll want to make sure you won’t cast a shadow on the workspace when you’re working).
If you’re interested in a period look, bear in mind that lighting standards have changed dramatically over the decades. Many of our grandparents cooked in rooms with much less light than we consider necessary (or at least, desirable) today. The kitchen of my 1925 bungalow had a single-bulb sconce in the mulled trim between two small sashes over the sink (similar to the set-up in the drawing at the top of this post – look closely! – and also to the one on the cover of Jane Powell’s Bungalow Kitchens, above) and a central fixture in the ceiling. When I bought the house in 1995, the ceiling fixture was one of those fluorescent coils I now recognize as cool, though I thought it ghastly when I moved in. (Nor was it the original fixture; it had been added during a mid-century update.)
A mid-century style fluorescent ceiling fixture. (Image: Home Depot)
A third fixture, a 1970s pendant wired through a wall and hung on a coppery chain, illuminated a small corner where a breakfast table had presumably once stood. This three-light set-up is typical of many 1920s kitchen I’ve seen in vintage plan books. It may have been fine for people who cooked during the day, but it’s frustrating for those who cook when it’s dark.
Reliable sources for period lighting guidance include vintage catalogs for products such as flooring or cabinets, as well as periodicals such asOld-House Journal, or books such as Bungalow Kitchens and Bungalow Bathrooms.
Architectural salvage shops and yards are a good source of original fixtures; you can often find pieces that are unique. For safety, you should have antique fixtures rewired with modern wire (and where applicable, plugs). An easily accessed, reputable source of antique lighting already rewired to contemporary safety standards is Rejuvenation.
A ceiling fixture I bought at an architectural salvage shop. The fixture itself is metal; someone painted it white. One day I may strip it, but for now I’m just happy to have the hand-painted shade that came with it.
When a fixture will hang over a sink, headroom is less important. Just make sure the bright light won’t be directly in front of your eyes.
Another find from a salvage shop, this pendant with a subtle lavender tint to the glass shade hangs over our sink. (It’s not turned on in this shot.) The bottom of the shade lands at 74″ from the floor. If that had been too low for us, we could have shortened the chain that suspends it.
If the fixture will go over a table, it can hang lower without posing a problem for headroom.
The ceiling here is 95-1/2” high. This fixture, which is quite a long one, hangs down 15”, leaving 80” of vertical clearance–no problem at all, when it hangs over a table, and high enough to avoid posing a problem even if the table weren’t there. A two-lamp sconce illuminates the stove. (The gaping round hole in the ceiling is still-unfinished vent.)Closer to the ceiling: this “Otis” fixture, one of several low-profile models from Schoolhouse Electric.Here, kitty kitty! Another ceiling hugger from Schoolhouse, this time with a gray tabby shade.
OK, so schoolhouse fixtures have become trite by this point. The sources mentioned here have plenty of other styles, including a burgeoning range for mid-century modern and later aesthetics as late-20th-century design regains its moment in the sun.
Wall sconces can illuminate work areas, as well as provide ambient lighting for the room. Many old-house kitchens had sconces over sinks or stoves. Some had a sconce on the wall at each doorway, too. Just make sure that any light fixture near a sink or stove is UL rated for damp locations.
The Alabax sconce from Schoolhouse Lauri Hafvenstein installed a pair of antique sconces for lighting over the sink in her 1917 house in Washington, D.C.. (Photo: Lauri Hafvenstein)
Also consider concealed lighting in the recess below upper cabinets, which provides ideal illumination for work at the counter.
The kitchen of Bruce Chaffin and Jana Moore incorporates under-cabinet lighting, recessed lights in the ceiling, an exhaust hood with integral lighting for the stove and ambient lighting above the upper cabinets, too.
While this is by no means a comprehensive list of lighting options for kitchens with 8′ ceilings, I hope I’ve provided some food for thought. These and many more are covered in Kitchen Think.
Editor’s Note: Publishing books that are simultaneously technical and personal can put you through the ringer. After months (sometimes years) of work, the result is boiled down to a brick of wood pulp, fiber tape and cotton cloth. When I wrote my first book in 2007 I thought that holding it in my hands would be akin to seeing a child being born. For me, it’s the opposite. I feel only dull relief that the project is done. I feel nothing for the book.
Usually, after a few months, I can pick up the book and look at it with fresh eyes. Eventually I make peace with it. I’m in that process with “Good Work: The Chairmaking Life of John Brown,” one of the more emotional projects I’ve worked on. Today I opened the book to some of John Brown’s essays in Good Woodworking. I came across this one and smiled.
— Christopher Schwarz
Parallel to this abject disposal of hand skills is the rise of the purveyors of plans. Design is a subject that frightens many woodworkers. There are certain rules which can be quickly picked up: proportions, shapes, colour, finishes, etc. Anyone can design. Look at a child make something from a cornflake box. Some design will function, but look ugly, or it might look good and not work well. The next time it will be better.
The secret is to recognise beauty. Look at furniture. Some will cause you to be excited, so try to identify what it is that excites you. Sometimes the need comes before the inspiration. Don’t hurry! A picture will come in your head and you will be fired to get started. Sometimes the inspiration will come before the need. But, unless you can see the finished article in your head before you start, it is better to wait.
Another good thing is to copy a successful design that you like. Copying is the sincerest form of flattery. Remember, it is always polite, and you will be respected for it, to say where your inspiration came from.
My inspiration comes from all sorts of places. The opening of a book and experiencing that moment of delight when you turn a page and see a fine colour plate which causes you to catch your breath. I am fired by the impeccable hang of well-cut clothes, the style and grace of freshly washed hair over a lace collar, the sweet curve at the nape of a neck, a novel that paints pictures in my head, fine linen or cotton lawn which man-made fibres cannot copy, great architecture, and of course views of the countryside, trees, flowers and weeds, fresh under recently fallen rain.
I am not ashamed to talk about the minute things that fire my imagination. Most of them are totally unconnected with woodwork. They are to do with curves, shapes and texture. These joys, sometimes only momentarily glimpsed, set me off thinking about the next chair. There is no connection with the wonders of my eyes’ memory, but one excitement begets another. If someone says: “Are you a woodworker?” say: “No, I am an artist, I think things with my imagination, then I create them with my hands.” Do it!
