Home Archives for Peter Follansbee
September 28, 2010 By

A little push for Woodworking in America – 17th century carving

If you are still on the fence about attending Woodworking in America this year, don’t wait any longer. I trust what follows will change your mind.

First, class sessions are sold out – you won’t be able to attend, as you simply cannot register for any courses. Registration closed a while back.

What is still available? The Exhibitor Marketplace, of course!  Click here to read an article by Christopher Schwarz – you will get to meet Tommy MacDonald, Rob Cosman, Reto Odermatt, and Don Webber; in fact, they will be “permanent fixtures” for the duration of the Marketplace!

And if you have not considered attending the conference this year, maybe this article will make you want to attend next year. For example, a 17th century carved box by Peter Follansbee, which he shared with us during his hands-on session at Valley Forge, in the 2009 edition of the conference:

Carved box by Peter Follansbee.

If looking at this box still does not sway you to plan to attend, maybe the following video will help change your mind. I extracted 20 minutes from Peter’s 90-minute hands-on session at Valley Forge. This is the value you get when you attend the conference: you get a unique chance to watch, and to work with, the principal woodworkers invited to lead the hands-on sessions. The close-up exchange of ideas, the question – answer environment, is a terrific way to learn during the conference.

Enjoy this video! And Please let me know if you like what you see – details of carving, Peter’s technique to quickly make a tenon using a large chisel, his drawboring technique, etc.  — Al Navas

I hope to meet many of you in Cincinnati. Have a safe drive!

Filed Under: Blog, Conference, Drawboring, Education, Joinery, Layout, Mortise, Popular Woodworking, Tenon, Tongue & groove, Valley Forge, Video, Woodworking in America, Woodworking Magazine Tagged With: , , , ,
February 22, 2010 By

Woodworking in America at Valley Forge: 17th century carving for furniture makers, with Peter Follansbee

Download this episode in Quicktime format
(In Windows, Right-click | Save Link As…)
Duration: 26:14 minutes

From the session announcement:

Early American furniture was decorated with bold and lively carvings that are straightforward for the modern woodworker to reproduce. Find out how to prepare the material for this low-relief method and watch the tools being used to produce a simple for a chest. Close-up camera work will show all the details.

— Woodworking in America announcement
October, 2009

I first met Peter Follansbee at Valley Forge just minutes before he started his session. He was attentive and totally focused, although many people were already finding seats in the room; the room would be quite crowded before long. But he was relaxed, ready to get to the job at hand: Showing us how he carves panels in the style of 17th century craftsmen, and to share wonderful information on carvings and details of furniture of the period.

Peter was introduced by Steve Shanesy, Publisher, F&W Media, Inc., who called him a historian, teacher, one of the “wonderful people” who found a craft and has pursued it for well over twenty years. Peter works at Plimoth Plantation’s Living History Museum; he also makes and sells wonderful period pieces. I encourage you to visit his blog, where he documents much of the work he does.

Peter proceeded to give a wonderful slide show of very old furniture pieces and carvings, placing them in historical perspective, and in preparation for the techniques he would later demonstrate. Then he proceeded to demonstrate the carving techniques that result in wonderful panels, to be used in chests, stools, tables, cabinets, etc.

About the video: I hope I have given you a good sense of the terrific work Peter does in carving panels, and the joinery techniques he demonstrated for use in various period pieces. To see a wonderful carved pattern emerging from a flat piece of gorgeous, “true quarter-sawn” (riven) oak, is a wonderful thing. But to experience it in person is something else again.

Now I want to whet your appetite – this is a sample of Peter’s work, which I posted some time ago:

Details on carved box, by Peter Follansbee, Joiner.

Note: I will also be posting video of Peter’s hands-on session, which he conducted the day after I filmed this “formal” session.

Looking forward to October 2010, in Cincinnati: I also hope you will get a sense that the Woodworking in America conferences are a unique experience, where we have an opportunity to see fine craftsmen like Peter demonstrate their skill and knowledge. I hope to see you in Cincinnati!

I would love to hear from you about the following:

  1. Please let me know if you liked this video, and the techniques Peter shared with us during this session.
  2. Do YOU do any carving on furniture pieces you make? If you do, I would love to highlight it here!

— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Cabinetmaking, Conference, Education, Valley Forge, Video, Woodworking in America Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
October 31, 2009 By

Woodworking in America at Valley Forge: A 17th century carved box by Peter Follansbee

I invite you to step back in time. Step back to the 17th century, please, and admire the carving in this little box by Peter Follansbee; the attention to detail in the delicately scalloped edges of the lid; and the joinery, enhanced by the beautiful nails used to assemble the box.

I also recommend Peter’s web site, and his blog. In them he documents his work, and his “Joiner’s Notes”.

follansbee-box-1

follansbee-box-2

follansbee-box-3-till

follansbee-box-4-till

follansbee-box-6-scallops

follansbee-box-5-till

Thanks for sharing your work with, us, Peter. I look forward to learning so much from you!

And for my readers: This is intended strictly to whet your appetite. I have video of Peter’s sessions at the conference, both his formal presentation, and the hands-on-session. I think you will like those two!

Update: My thanks to Bob Easton for suggesting in the Comments section that I start including something in the photos, to give an idea of size of an object. Bob, I will find something, I promise! In the meantime, I called Peter and got the (approximate) dimensions for the box shown above:  it is 5-1/2 inches high; 12-1/2 inches wide; and 7-1/2 inches deep. He gave these from memory, as he had already made a second one, and he remembered these dimensions as being quite close.

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—— Al Navas

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Filed Under: Blog, Conference, Joinery, Valley Forge, Woodworking in America Tagged With: , , , , , ,