I can not officially say thank you to everyone here that voted for my work. My Nakashima inspired bench won the Popular Woodworking Readers Excellence Award for seating and will be in the November Issue.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/w...og/award-winning-woodworking-from-pwm-readers
This was a very interesting piece. I started with the concept to combine the aesthetics of Sam Maloof and George Nakashima into a single piece. I had a very nice sycamore crotch slab from Asheville Hardware and decided to build the Maloof settee using the natural edge slab as the seat. I had the entire piece shaped and glued together and had started to sand but it never looked right. I finally had my wife come to the shop and take a look and her first response was "its ugly".
I decided since it did not look right to cut the legs at the top of the seat and remove the crest rail and arms to make the piece into a coffee table with natural edge and Maloof style legs. This did not work either as the piece was too tall and just looked strange.
I then proceeded to turn the spindles out of matching walnut to the legs and make a thin crest rail in the traditional style of Nakashima. Once this was completed it became the piece pictured. Unfortunately, I still did not like the piece nor did my wife. Her impression was "it is better but not my style, I do not like it." I finished the piece in the summer of 2013 and had no other pieces for state fair so I entered the bench. My eye for aesthetic was different than the judges as it won best in show. Once I had the piece back, I placed it in a gallery and sold it in the first month. I had taken photos which were posted on this site.
This year I decided to enter the Popular woodworking contest as the Maloof dining table and chairs was my largest project to date and a major milestone for me to build 6 nearly identical chairs. The project took 6 months and I was really pleased with the work. I submitted a photo of the table and chairs to the contest for the tables division and as a last minute decision decided to enter the Nakashima Bench since I still had photos and could have a slim chance in the seating division. The table competition was extremely intense as there was a piece that did not win that was amazing and in my opinion should have been the entire contest winner and the piece that won for tables has several hundred more votes than my table. The Nakashima bench had the most votes in seating.
The lessons learned, 1) never give up on a piece and 2) even though I do not like does not mean that someone else may like it. That being said, I will not build another Nakashima piece.
It will be interesting to see how I do in State fair this year. I am entering the Wharton Esherick music stand that was posted a few weeks ago. This was the most complex and difficult build that I have made to date (more complex than a Maloof Rocker) although it does not look like it. It is my first error free piece and one of my favorite that I have ever built. I had no plans and built the piece based on photos from the NY metropolitan museum. I added a few Maloof inspired attributes and an elevated bottom shelf to make it my own design. It will be interesting to see and the most fun part at State fair is to stand in the crowd while at the fair and listen to the comments the observers make as you can get honest feedback on your designs and work without them having a clue you are there. I know what I like but that is often different than the general public.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/w...og/award-winning-woodworking-from-pwm-readers
This was a very interesting piece. I started with the concept to combine the aesthetics of Sam Maloof and George Nakashima into a single piece. I had a very nice sycamore crotch slab from Asheville Hardware and decided to build the Maloof settee using the natural edge slab as the seat. I had the entire piece shaped and glued together and had started to sand but it never looked right. I finally had my wife come to the shop and take a look and her first response was "its ugly".
I decided since it did not look right to cut the legs at the top of the seat and remove the crest rail and arms to make the piece into a coffee table with natural edge and Maloof style legs. This did not work either as the piece was too tall and just looked strange.
I then proceeded to turn the spindles out of matching walnut to the legs and make a thin crest rail in the traditional style of Nakashima. Once this was completed it became the piece pictured. Unfortunately, I still did not like the piece nor did my wife. Her impression was "it is better but not my style, I do not like it." I finished the piece in the summer of 2013 and had no other pieces for state fair so I entered the bench. My eye for aesthetic was different than the judges as it won best in show. Once I had the piece back, I placed it in a gallery and sold it in the first month. I had taken photos which were posted on this site.
This year I decided to enter the Popular woodworking contest as the Maloof dining table and chairs was my largest project to date and a major milestone for me to build 6 nearly identical chairs. The project took 6 months and I was really pleased with the work. I submitted a photo of the table and chairs to the contest for the tables division and as a last minute decision decided to enter the Nakashima Bench since I still had photos and could have a slim chance in the seating division. The table competition was extremely intense as there was a piece that did not win that was amazing and in my opinion should have been the entire contest winner and the piece that won for tables has several hundred more votes than my table. The Nakashima bench had the most votes in seating.
The lessons learned, 1) never give up on a piece and 2) even though I do not like does not mean that someone else may like it. That being said, I will not build another Nakashima piece.
It will be interesting to see how I do in State fair this year. I am entering the Wharton Esherick music stand that was posted a few weeks ago. This was the most complex and difficult build that I have made to date (more complex than a Maloof Rocker) although it does not look like it. It is my first error free piece and one of my favorite that I have ever built. I had no plans and built the piece based on photos from the NY metropolitan museum. I added a few Maloof inspired attributes and an elevated bottom shelf to make it my own design. It will be interesting to see and the most fun part at State fair is to stand in the crowd while at the fair and listen to the comments the observers make as you can get honest feedback on your designs and work without them having a clue you are there. I know what I like but that is often different than the general public.
ccasion1 
