Hope Chest Drawer Case

Below is a group of photos of some details of the construction of the black walnut drawer carcass and the drawer fronts for the cherry and walnut hope chest.  Please click on any of the pictures to view larger.

The lower web/ frame for the bottom of the drawer unit, it is constructed of white oak with the front (visible) rail being walnut.

The drawer case with the web installed with tongue and groove

The main chest rests upon the drawer case

Flattening walnut drawer fronts with a jointer

A forged bench hook (I learned from Peter Follansbee)

The flattened and drawer fronts ready to be marked and cut to length

The drawer fronts wedged in their spots to see how they look.  Also the dividers have been installed with stopped dovetails.

Gessoed Door Panels

Over the past week, the white oak panels  for the painting cabinet were gessoed using a traditional cooked recipe of rabbit skin glue, and ground calcium carbonate.

The panels dry fitted in the doors.

The panels with the  masking removed.

Gessoing the panels.

The thickness of about 12 coats of gesso.

Jonah and the Gourd Vine

A painting of Jonah and the Gourd Vine, from 1999, painted on a mdf panel with mahogany veneer.  Done while I was still in school, I had previously omitted it from the archives on this blog.  It is in the same line of the paintings I am now doing- and have been doing since around 1999, so it now seems appropriate to add this and a few others from the last few semesters of my schooling to the paintings archive page.

White Oak Painting Cabinet

A dovetailed painting cabinet  in quarter-sawn white oak.  The tree grew along the Van Horn Branch just south of Boaz, Kansas, until it’s bank gave way.  The panels will be gessoed and receive an oil painting.  The cabinet is only dry fitted.  It will not be glued up until the panels are fully prepared.  In order to eliminate the center stiles of the frame and panel doors, the inside inch and 1/2 is a full tenon into the rail, while the rest of the panel will float in the customary grooves.

Hope Chest

Pictured below is the beginings of a hope chest in cherry and walnut, primarily.  The pictures depict the joinery of the upper case of the chest, which is cherry, and will lit atop a narrower walnut case with a row of drawers.

Here the dovetails have been cut and the piece is clamped together in order to mark precisely the corresponding pins.

cutting the pins with a dovetail saw…

cutting out the majority of the waste with a coping saw…

chopping out the rest of the waste with a paring chisel…

the board with pins cut out on both ends…

the case dry fitted.