Wax production has been slow this fall because Katy’s class load is pretty heavy, and she’s taking art classes during the weekend (they’re making an entire board game?). But amidst all the teen-ager stuff, she’s made another 25 tins and put them up on her etsy site here.
The tins are $12 each for 4 oz. of wax, which is useful for all manner of things, from finishing the insides of a cabinet or other project, lubricating drawers or (as Raney Nelson pointed out) it’s a great lubricant for tools. He’s been using it on our dividers – the wax makes the action smooth but not sloppy.
I am pleased to announce that expanding the number of people who work on our books is showing results. With the help of Megan Fitzpatrick (who has been assisting us from the beginning), Meghan B. and now Kara Gebhart Uhl, we are finishing up some massive projects (and even taking on some new ones).
The latest news: We just sent the third volume of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years” to press and it will be ready to ship in late November or early December. It covers joinery, is 288 pages long and filled with a huge amount of information on designing, cutting and even repairing your joints.
The book is $37, which includes domestic shipping. You can order the book here or download an excerpt here to check it out.
When we began planning this third volume of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years,” we used the 1954 edition of “Woodwork Joints” by Hayward – a 5-1/2” x 8-1/5” folio printed by Evans Bros. Limited – as our guiding light.
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of the book “Woodwork Joints,” which was first published in 1950 then reprinted many times and in several different editions of varying quality.
The compact 168-page book is beautifully illustrated by Hayward and contains the kind of spare prose that made him the best woodworking author of the 20th century. Like a good woodworking joint, Hayward’s text contains nothing superfluous and lacks nothing important to the task at hand.
Every illustration from “Woodwork Joints” had appeared in The Woodworker magazine, where Hayward was editor from 1939 to 1967. So as we read every magazine issue from those years for our book, we marked and scanned every magazine article on joinery to make sure we captured everything that could have ended up in “Woodwork Joints.” We almost succeeded.
The good news is that our efforts have produced a book that covers nearly all of Hayward’s writing on joinery during the 28 years he was editor at The Woodworker. And because of the nature of the magazine format, we actually were able to plumb much deeper into the details of cutting and fitting joints to include things that never made it into “Woodwork Joints.”
For example, Hayward wrote 20 pages on dovetails in “Woodwork Joints.” This book has 90 pages on dovetails, and the pages are much bigger (8-1/2” x 11”) than the 1954 edition. As a result, you’ll find far more information on the secret mitre dovetail, stopped dovetailed housings, decorative dovetails and the double-lap dovetail. Plus details on how to correct faults in your joints, how to avoid crushing the end grain when chopping out and even a novel way to cut both the tails and pins simultaneously.
In addition to Hayward’s take on joinery, this volume also contains the perspective of other British writers of the day that Hayward published in The Woodworker, including J. Maynard, Robert Wearing, K.J.S. Walker and C.A. Hewett.
So where did we fail? Despite our best efforts to find them, this volume does not contain a couple short sections from “Woodwork Joints,” including hand-cut joints specifically for plywood and the use of metal fishplates with scarf joints.
Those faults aside, we think this volume is an admirable companion – if not a replacement – of “Woodwork Joints.” I hope this book becomes as ratty and thumbed-through as almost every copy of “Woodwork Joints” I’ve ever seen. That would be the best tribute ever to Hayward as his work continues to inspire the next generation of woodworkers.
Like all Lost Art Press books, “The Woodworker: The Charles Hayward Years” is produced and printed entirely in the United States. At 288 pages, it is printed on smooth acid-free #60 paper and joined with a tough binding that is sewn, affixed with fiber tape and then glued. The pages are covered in dense hardbound covers that are wrapped with cotton cloth.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. We don’t know which of our retailers will carry this title but will announce it when they sign on. Also, this volume will not be discounted when bought as a set with the other volumes. Sorry, but it would get too complicated for our accounting to handle.
Aesthetic Movement furniture can give you whiplash. On one hand it can be delicately rendered, on the other hand it can hit you over the head with goofiness. The Aesthetic movement was a reaction to the heavy and suffocating Victorian styles. It was akin to the counter-culture of the 1960s when the restraints and conformity of previous decades were thrown off. The Aesthetic Movement began in England and was also embraced by America. It started around 1860 and extended to the 1890s when it gave way to the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Furniture and decorative items from this movement eschewed any deep meaning and emphasized beauty over any political or social statements. The term “art for art’s sake” is used to sum up the movement. There are several common themes in the Aesthetic Movement: the use of natural motifs, especially flowers, birds and insects; ebonized wood with incised gilt lines; Asian, particularly Japanese, influences; strong blue, green and yellow colors; blue and white ceramics.
Carved sunflower panel and brass drawer pulls.
The sunflower is one of the most common flowers carved in furniture, while gilt and brass are used for their yellow color. In the mahogany chest pictured at the top the red of the wood contrasts nicely with the gilt sunflower panels and the brass drawer pulls and locks.
Side chairs, American, 1880-85.
These side chairs are of ebonized wood with incised gilt lines. The crestrail has delicate panels of inlay leaves in satinwood and brass.
A more robust corner, or roundabout, chair is made of rosewood and rosewood veneer.
Rosewood chair, American, 1870-80.
The crestrail is in three parts and is carved with sunflowers, foliage and two butterflies. The arms end in a scrolled sunflower. The back rails are carved with foliage and flowers.
A closer look and you can see the lace wings of the butterfly, its carrot-shaped body, jaunty antenae and gimlet eye.
Detail of the rosewood chair crestrail.
A magazine rack from the 1860s is elevated with ebonized wood and a Japanese crest on the lowest rack.
Even the smallest pieces of Aesthetic Movement furniture have layers of detail. A small side table of ebonized wood has a top made of mahogany bordered with ebony and brass. A gallery gives the lower shelf the appearance of a balcony.
Side table, America, 1880.
The table top has two inlays of exotic woods: an Egyptian scarab and a bee:
Liberty & Co. in London made their own line of furniture and this is a typical side table in mahogany with an unadorned top. But on the right side you can see the detail given to this table in the pierced gallery of the lower shelf and the pierced sections of the legs.
Liberty & Co. side table, 1895.
Minton brought Japanese artists to England to paint decorative tiles and ceramics. The tiles for this mantle depict birds, lakes and islands of bamboo.
Walnut mantle, England, 1880s with inset of tile detail.
A small cabinet with sides and front of glass shows the influence of Japanese architecture.
Japanese-inspired cabinet, 1875.
The glazed red back panel sings against the ebonized wood.
In the gallery are several pieces that fall into the catagory of “ornamentation for ornamentation’s” sake. Two pieces are by the American avant-garde designer George Hunzinger.
–Suzanne Ellison
Games table with pietra dura marble top, American, 1880.
Sputnik-like center support.
Thebes stool, circa 1400 BC-1350 BC, British Museum, aquired in 1835.
Every furniture generation has a Thebes-inspired stool. This one is in bamboo with ball and spindle stretchers.
Liberty & Co. side table with a lot of spindles.
Hunzinger armchair, American, 1875, with spindle turnings and ball terminals.
Detail of back leg.
Hunzinger mechanical rocker with a lot of ball turnings, 1890.
The balls at the top have their own little patches of velvet upholstry to cushion the sitter’s head.
I don’t often write about current events – Wait! Wait – this isn’t about the election. I swear on a stack of Roubos that I will never write about that. This blog is a safe place.
What I’m writing about is a recent story in The New York Times about furniture styles headlined: “Why Won’t Midcentury Design Die?” Here’s a link to original story (no guarantee that they will let you read it, I’m afraid).
The story begins:
In 1998, The New York Timesnoted a new design trend. Cool creative types were tossing aside their thrift store décor in favor of midcentury modern. Out went the funky votive candles and wrought-iron beds, and in came the clean-lined furniture of Arne Jacobsen,Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Florence Knoll. The look’s adherents were labeled “Generation Wallpaper,” after the magazine.
For some reason, time stopped.
Nearly two decades later, midcentury modern remains the rage. If anything, it’s even more popular. Flip through a shelter magazine, scroll on1stdibs.com or shop at a mass retailer like CB2 or West Elm, and it’s all variations on a spiky-legged-chair-and-Tulip-table theme.
Art Nouveau, 1920s Spanish and shabby chic were all looks that the cognoscenti embraced at one time or another, but never for this long. It’s as if the mechanism that refreshes cultural trends every few years has developed a glitch.
The writer then interviews editors of shelter magazines, sellers of furniture, gallery owners and interior designers about why this has happened and what they think of it. Two typical comments:
DAVID ALHADEFF, owner, theFuture Perfect: “I’m completely over it. I roll my eyes. Placing another Womb chair in the corner of the bedroom is easy and a real cop-out, frankly. Designers and architects should know better at this point. Oh, my gosh. Enough!”
MICHAEL BOODRO: “Your eye does get bored. Twenty years ago, when midcentury was first being discovered, you could do a straight interior, and that was exciting. People want to go beyond the expected. You don’t have to show the Florence Knoll sofa in nubby beige like she did.”
I read the whole piece, of course. And I was both nauseated and thrilled. Not by the photos of midcentury pieces or the comments of the interior designers. I was instead deeply affected by the word that rarely gets discussed when talking about interior design. And that’s “waste.”
Interior designers thrive on change because it gives them work. Someone wealthy wants to redo their brownstone. They call an interior designer, who then gets to go shopping (and, perhaps, employ some makers), guts the rooms and installs the new stuff. And the scene repeats itself every so often.
This cycle of destruction and redecorating used to be reserved only for the rich. But with IKEA and other contemporary manufacturers, we can all act this way, throw our old stuff to the curb and redecorate with new stuff, which will last five or six years at most. (Rinse and repeat.)
But what happens where a particular style, such as midcentury, gets stuck in the public consciousness? What if people don’t want to throw out their Eames fiberglass chairs or their tulip tables? What if they become illogically attached to their Hans Wegner chairs. Or Mid Century Mobler?
If you have read “The Anarchist’s Design Book,” then you know what I hope will happen. Furniture will become like craft beer, cave-aged cheese or artisanal no-kill lederhosen. And there will be one more giant purge of our termite-barf furniture.
I’m too jaded to think this could really happen. But you have to have hope.
Megan Fitzpatrick at Popular Woodworking Magazine has posted a video tour of the 1505 Holy Roman Workbench that was filmed at Woodworking in America last month. Roy Underhill has also shot an episode of “The Woodwright’s Shop” about both of the Roman workbenches I built this summer. I’m not sure when that will air during season 36. When I get news, I’ll post it here.
I am pleased to announce that expanding the number of people who work on our books is showing results. With the help of Megan Fitzpatrick (who has been assisting us from the beginning), Meghan B. and now Kara Gebhart Uhl, we are finishing up some massive projects (and even taking on some new ones).
A closer look and you can see the lace wings of the butterfly, its carrot-shaped body, jaunty antenae and gimlet eye.
Even the smallest pieces of Aesthetic Movement furniture have layers of detail. A small side table of ebonized wood has a top made of mahogany bordered with ebony and brass. A gallery gives the lower shelf the appearance of a balcony.
