Artist Name: Wharton Escherick Title: Spiral Library Ladder Details: The first was made in 1966 out of walnut. Several more were made in walnut and cherry, left- and right-handed. Why It's Notable: Jonathan Fairbanks, an authority of American furniture design described it as "one of the great masterpieces of American furniture, perhaps the most wonderful work … Continue reading Wharton Escherick – Spiral Library Ladder
In Part I - Visualizing in Wood, I selected and prepared the table components. Part II - Putting it Together covers everything else - joinery, sculpting, and assembly. To facilitate laying out and cutting the long tusk tenon, I first flattened one face of the upright. I used three round, wooden bench dogs to immobilize … Continue reading Black Locust Wall Table, Part II: Putting it Together
This table was inspired by a coffee table design of Brian VanVreede with a daring cantilevered top. I worked out my design in my head over the next five months until I built the first wall-mounted version. How I Chose My Materials The entire table was made of black locust because it was hard and strong enough, and … Continue reading Black Locust Wall Table, Part I: Visualizing in Wood
Most of my speculative work, including Sculpted Ash Table and Maple Trestle Table is built spontaneously and every design decision I make is dependent on how the piece looks at that very moment. Sometimes, that means I don't even know what I'm building. I believe that the best, most soulful work cannot be planned. It can … Continue reading New Quote Added to “Quotables”
I am reading Wharton Escherick: The Journey of a Creative Mind, written by Mansfield Bascom. It's a fascinating book, exploring Wharton's background and how he evolved as an artist. This quote, from page 232, speaks to the difficulty of making sculptural furniture. Almost yearly, some furniture manufacturer would seek a design that could be mass-produced, … Continue reading New Quote Added to “Quotables”
Friday night, I went down to the shop because I wanted to build something. I started with a small slab of Western maple and designed the piece on the fly. I documented the build live on Twitter and what you see below are the updates from the third session (see what I did in the … Continue reading Maple Slab Build, Session 3
Yes, I realize that the temperature is hovering around 5 degrees, there's still snow on the ground, and the sun doesn't come out much. But what I mean by summertime is that I can spend my day out in the yard doing my darnedest to cover the ground with sawdust and wood chips. I started … Continue reading Feels Like Summertime
