Snippets on Shakers

A friend and I are giving a presentation on Shakers (or, the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, as they called themselves) to the Howard County, MD Woodworkers Guild this Saturday, so I'm busy preparing notes and organizing photos.

I have a special affinity with the Shakers, whose religious movement began in 1747 by a woman named Mother Ann (Lee), maybe because some of their basic tenants are in line with my own: honesty & integrity, industry & diligence, prudence & economy, humanity & kindness, cleanliness, order, humility, perfection, and equality of the sexes, to name a few. "Shakers" was a derogatory name ascribed to the Believers because of their worship practices where they were found to whirl, tremble and shake. Okay...probably my similarities with them would stop there.

The Shakers' principles influenced every part of their daily lives, labor, and furniture design. Highly skilled craftsmen built chests of drawers, tables, sewing desks, chairs, and other things, that were based on contemporary designs of the time, but that were pared down to their most basic elements of simplicity, proportion, scale, hierarchy, and pattern, forcing the observer to notice the design fundamentals, unencumbered by ornamentation and superfluous extravagance.

Shaker furniture was built on a scale not seen in worldly design, because it was made for their communities, each of which often consisted of several hundred people. So, we find built-in cabinetry with 860 drawers at the Enfield Shaker Village in New Hampshire, trestle tables over 20 feet in length, workbenches that were 18 feet long (sweet!), and tailoring counters that were 6-12 feet long and 4 feet wide, with drawers on all sides. Highly efficient and industrious folks who possessed exquisite craftsmanship.

I could go on and on about the Shakers, but I'll post more some other time. I will leave you with this tidbit: Tabitha Babitt, a Shaker woman, is credited with inventing the circular saw...

...and these photos: taken on my trip to the Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield, MA. (Note to my woodworking friends: Yes, that is THE workbench.)

Pen Making

Here's how I spent my Saturday: turning pens on a lathe—the extent of my woodturning capabilities. There are lots of great pen making articles online, so I won't go into the details of how to make them, but I did take progress shots. A friend of ours commissioned me to make them for Christmas gifts. She chose 5 birdseye maple and 1 marado (sp?). I've also made pens out of other woods such as bloodwood, chakte viga, yellowheart, purpleheart, wenge, padauk, ziricote, walnut, and apple.

Marking Gauge

Marking gauges come in several styles. I own two from Lee Valley and several from antique stores and other woodworking stores. I have altered the points on some by filing one side flat to make a knife edge, which improves their performance. None of them work as well, however, as the one Steve Latta taught me how to make in a class at Olde Mill Cabinet Shoppe. Steve's design works like other marking (and slicing) gauges, but with improvements. For instance, the knurled knob is on the bottom where it doesn't get in the way of your hand and it uses replaceable exacto blades, which are mortised into the wood behind the brass plate. The end of the blade is filed down a bit, so the tip doesn't break off in use. This gauge also excels at cutting thin strips of wood for inlay. Plus, it was fun (and easy) to make!

I Need A Good Comeback

So, I just returned from a trip to the Woodcraft Store to pick up supplies. As I was entering the store, an old dude said to me as he was leaving "Your husband said he'll take one of everything." Obviously, he thought I was there to pick up something for my hubby and never considered that I might be a woodworker.

Now, let's look at how many ways that statement does not apply to me:
1. I've been a woodworker for 15 years.
2. I have a workshop that makes grown men cry.
3. I teach classes at the Woodcraft Store.
4. I frequently give demos/presentations to the two woodworking clubs to which I belong.
5. I'm the president of our local woodworking club.
6. I'm GAY.

Granted, I'm workin' the middle-aged soccer mom look pretty hard, but jeez! I get this sometimes from guys, not as much as when I was younger, and it forever catches me off-guard. I usually just smile in my befuddlement, but I'd love to have a funny comeback. Any suggestions?

Reluctant Cook

I really, really hate to cook. Except for twice a year when I LOVE to cook. Makes no sense, I know, but at Thanksgiving and Christmas there's nowhere I'd rather be than in the kitchen. For breakfast today, I made (from scratch) Lemon Scones and Lemon Curd. For our main meal, I'm making baked ham with a glaze of brown sugar and crushed pineapple, baked sweet potato and apple combo, and green bean casserole. For dessert, I made a cream cheese pie with cherry topping.

And what's my partner doing while I'm hard at work?
This:

Mom-in-Law's Antiques

We visited my partner's mom (Lynn) this weekend in Charleston, WV, home to gorgeous mountains, friendly people, and 70 mph speed limits on circuitous roads.

Lynn has an extensive collection of 18th and 19th c. antiques that fills 3 houses and a 3-story barn. In the Charleston house, here are a few of my favorites.

The first is an 1840's corner cupboard made from poplar. The simple design and turned knobs are similar elements found in Shaker furniture.

The second piece is an 8' tall, and nearly 8' wide, cherry flatwall kitchen cupboard that belonged to General McCausland of the Confederate Army, who was responsible for burning the town of Chambersburg, PA to the ground during the Civil War.

Next is a mahogany highboy from the late 1800's.

Fourth is an 1840's sugar chest made from cherry. Woodworkers are famous for checking beneath the "undercarriage" to investigate joinery, as I did with this piece. The sides, front, and back of the sugar chest are joined to the legs with very large mortise & tenon joints, hence the split in the side. The wide boards were restricted in seasonal movement across their widths, having been glued to legs whose grain runs vertically. By rights, all four sides of this piece should be split, but are not.

And finally, some very well made English style half-blind dovetails. English style refers to very thin dovetails, where the tops of the pins are as thin as the width of the kerf of a sawblade. Not sure why the maker felt it necessary to also nail the sides to the front. With dovetails that tight, it would have held together just fine without even using glue. Notice also, the little nails that attach the cock beading to the drawer front.

Woodworking Humor

A friend who builds high-end furniture for a living told me this weekend that it's entirely possible to make a small fortune in woodworking.

The trick is to start with a large fortune.

Images from the Show

The class and seminars I signed up for at the show were all taught by Garrett Hack, an exceptional furniture maker and author. At right are are some of the inlay patterns he makes and applies to his furniture, which was the topic of one of the seminars. In another seminar, he talked about different ways to bend wood, but I had broken my camera by that time (I have a habit of dropping it) so no photos.


Next is a photo of our club's booth as we're setting up. I demo'd lettercarving for several hours on Saturday.


The bottom photo is a guy from the scrollsaw club working on an antique treadle scroll saw. He told me it runs on ham and eggs.