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SAPFM Gateway Chapter – Summer Meeting 2011

June 5, 2011 By

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Details of SAPFM Gateway Chapter
Free — Summer Meeting 2011

Society of American Period Furniture Makers
Date: Saturday, July 30th, 2011
Time: 9:00 am till 5:00 pm -Dinner/BBQ to follow
Location:Fontainebleau Subdivision Clubhouse
12701 Grandview, Overland Park, KS 66213

Are you interested in period furniture? By period furniture I mean the great Chippendale and Queen Anne pieces of the 18th century, the delicate and intricate inlaid pieces from the era of our new country after the revolution. This is the furniture that fills all the historic homes and museums on the East Coast, from Independence Hall to Mount Vernon, to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City (click on the images to enlarge them):

Most of these landmarks are far from the Midwest; but you might be surprised that the Society of American Period Furniture Makers (SAPFM) has an active Chapter, right in our area. On July 30th, Calvin Hobbs is hosting a SAPFM meeting in Overland Park, Kansas, followed by BBQ and beverages. Craftsmen and enthusiasts from several of the surrounding states discuss period furniture, show off their work, and enjoy a good time of fellowship. Outstanding presenters include Tony Kubalak, accomplished furniture maker, carver, and author of “Carving 18th Century Furniture Elements,” and Joel Ficke, teacher and maker of period furniture at his school in Wisconsin. A detailed schedule of the day is attached in PDF format – click on the following link to open the document: SAPFM Summer 2011, meeting schedule.

♦ This meeting is free; we request you pay for only for food and refreshments.  After this meeting, I suspect you might feel the need to join the SAPFM — then you will be ready to get involved in the Fall meeting!

Guests are encouraged to come, but we need a head count. Contact Calvin at bhobbs@tcco.com, or leave a Comment below, to confirm that you will be there. Please let Calvin or I know if you have any questions.

— Al Navas

 

Filed Under: Blog, Design, furniture

Attend a course to learn to make the tricky Chinese stool

May 3, 2011 By

Yesterday I posted a short article, showing the cursed three-legged Chinese stool made by our Guild President, Tim Streeby. And, in case you missed it, Bob Lang, Executive Editor at Popular Woodworking, left a Comment on the blog; he wrote that he will be teaching a course at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, on August 27-28. If you want to build the stool with Bob, this is your chance! How cool is that?

If you wish to sign up for the course, and also read other information about it, make sure to read the class announcement at the Marc Adams web site.

In case you are on the fence about this, I show one more time the stool made by Tim Streeby, to nudge you toward signing up:

The tricky Chinese stool, by Tim Streeby, our Guild President.

If you wish to avoid total frustration, I suggest you consider signing up for the course. Or, if you are masochistic, go ahead and try building one on your own. Just don’t leave me a nasty Comment if you have a headache because you screwed up the project. Just like Schwarz and Lang did :)

By the way, I am not associated in any way with the Marc Adams school. I wrote this as a PSA (Public Service Announcement), because Bob Lang is a a friend, and the Marc Adams School of Woodworking is terrific.

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Design, Education, furniture, Joinery Tagged With: , ,

A rocking chair made by a high school student

April 29, 2011 By

I got sidetracked, and did not do as promised. I have not returned to complete the slide show of the 2011 North West Technology Education Association of Missouri (TEAM) Awards contest. But I am working on it. In case you missed it, you can read my recent article showing the best entry in the woodworking category.

Some of my recent work highlighted to me the very real difficulty in perfectly matching multiple tenons into multiple mortises. And that brought me back to the high school competition. It was the rocking chair in the photo below that brought me back. All of the slats, the arms, the legs, everything in this chair is put together using mortise and tenon joinery. I can only imagine a high school student working on this chair, and matching all the joinery:

Rocking chair entry.

As if matching all the back slats perfectly were not enough, there are plenty more mortises and tenons to match on the base. The stretchers must be installed properly, to minimize racking due to the forces exerted during rocking. The rockers themselves must be secured in the proper spot, to ensure smooth rocking:

Detail of rockers.

This is one of the reasons I find the efforts of the educators in shop classes fascinating. They are showing our children the importance, and the relevance, of getting an item put together just right, of making it durable. All of this adds up to a quality item that will last a long time, rather than being placed on the sidewalk after a couple of years.

I am proud of our high schools in Missouri, for continuing to teach our youth the importance of working with our hands, to create. KUDOS, Missouri Technology Education teachers!

— Al Navas

Filed Under: Blog, Design, Education, furniture, High School Competition Tagged With: , ,

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