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Before we Went Viral

Posted on by Andrew Roy Woodworking

A little while back I did a collaboration with Maker and Goods, a startup web platform designed to curate and sell hand-made goods. I shared it with all those I could and while the company did not get the funding it needed to take off I think their goal is still a good one. Plus, their videos of me are still online. I have only watched it once because I have a hard time hearing my recorded voice. It just sounds weird coming back at me. But you are welcome to watch over and over and over. 

 

Isolate

Posted on by Andrew Roy Woodworking

One of the glories of woodworking, not to mention working primarily alone, is that I get to listen to whatever I damn well want. Because I'm in the midst of ruckus heavy machinery this means I'm often plugged in to some sort of noise isolating headphones (I've got a few) and what I'm listening to inevitably carries a great responsibility because it is not in the background - it is right there pressed up against or into my ears, a sonic barrier to the mayhem of industry. And don't go giving me a hard time about ruining my hearing - I know. I know.

I am currently indebted to Radiotopia for filling my days with just perfect radio stories. I have been trying to put a finger on what it is about radio and listening that separates the platform from television or reading. For now I have decided on nostalgia. The stories often refer back to memories of childhood, high school, early twenties, or the eighties in ways both brief and heart wrenching. I love it. 

As it happens Radiotopia is in the home stretch of a record breaking Kickstarter drive and again I have donated (gotta get some new t-shirts!) and am binge listening. Just today I listening to one about a phone sex hotline and another about flag design. What a day. I don't think I'll convince you to listen to podcasts if you don't already but here's to hoping. 

Watch out, this one's explicit:

A couple months ago, a friend handed Julia a scrap of paper with a phone number on it. One night, bored and maybe a little tipsy, she called it up. This is who she met.

This one is pedestrian:

Vexillologists—those who study flags—tend to fall into one of two schools of thought. The first is one that focuses on history, category, and usage, and maintains that vexillologists should be scholars and historians of all flags, regardless of their designs. The other school of vexillology, however, maintains that not all flags are created equal, and that flags can and should be redesigned, and improved. Ted Kaye of the Portland Flag Association—the largest subnational flag organization in the country—is one such vexillologist. Kaye has a word for these activist vexillologists of his ilk who go out into the world and lobby for more beautiful flags: "vexillonaires."


Quilting Room

Posted on by Andrew Roy Woodworking

​These quilters are serious. They have blogs, galleries, they have whole rooms dedicated to their fanatical craft (sounds a bit like woodworking) with cloth storage, display cases, recessed desks customized to house vintage sewing machines.

​This desk is humble by comparison.  Built from maple apple plywood with ample work surfaces for cutting, sewing and layout. The lighter wood was chosen to add texture to the painted room without drawing attention away from the quilts in progress. Hardwood walnut feet and aprons were added for warmth and understated contemporary detail and to lighten the look of the storage cabinets.

Bevels along the cabinet edges and desk tops and offset routed drawer pulls offer depth to the utilitarian piece. On the whole the desk will offer a comfortable and customized work space that compliments the detail of the quilters art. 

Slab Rant 2012

Posted on by Andrew Roy Woodworking

Way back in my youth, in 2011, I had some reservations to the idea of the wood slab table. "That isn't woodworking," I thought. It's just screwing a plank of wood to a base. Lazy sunday. You see, I spent 6 years learning woodworking way over in Boston and although George Nakashima's (arguably the forefather of slab designed furniture) workshop is also in New England (New Hope Pennsylvania) I had yet to build any slab furniture.

A couple of years ago, upon my move to Northern California I read Nakashima's book, The Soul of a Tree. It was interesting, romantic even, but I didn't get it. Nakashima seemed a little overdone, spent a little too much time listening to the trees ala Ferngully.

Then I got a slab of my very own.