I was pleasantly surprised to hear from CustomMade.com that we were chosen as one of their top ten favorites just before Christmas!  Scroll down through the other beautiful pieces to find my dresser "Took A Hit". CustomMade is a great website begun by one guy trying to promote the work of bespoke furniture makers in North America. It's now expanded considerably and includes jewellers, glass makers, and many others.

It's quite humbling to see the standard of workmanship out there; it reminds me of preparing for the show in Cody each year. I think - "yes, I like the piece I have created" and then I get there and see the incredible creativity and standard of work by my fellow woodworkers. That's why it's good to go to shows in my opinion - it reminds us that nothing is new under the sun! I'm getting ready for a show in March - the Scottsdale Arts Festival. I think my pieces will be different and unique - and yet, and yet... we shall see.

Here is a peek at the end tables I am making for Scottsdale. Not quite finished but three quarters of the way there. Today I'm working on the copper; you will have to wait and see what it's purpose will be!

P.S. CustomMade.com is an online marketplace that connects buyers of custom furrniture, decorative items and other products with the artisans who make them.

I was going to talk about the "bad breath" wood this time but upon reflection I have decided that topic stinks!  So in brief, the wood is Russian Olive and it stinks in so many ways. First it's a messy and dirty tree with nasty thorns.  Second it is a water sucker, and Third, it smells like cat pee when you work it.  It does have one redeeming quality however, it is pretty nice looking when all finished up.  Here is a website that has many pictures of stuff made from it. Some pretty cool stuff.

You will want to keep your distance from all the woodworkers however, as they will now and forever smell of cat pee.  Not a good marketing strategy I think.  Ok, so they don't smell like cat pee any more, but they did.  Give me scrub oak...it smells of a whiskey barrel.

The video here attached shows how Game On is beginning to take shape.  With much effort, tedium and persistence, a design gradually becomes a tangible piece of...well...Art.  There is not another one like it that I have ever seen or heard of and it is doubtful it will ever be mass produced.  What you see here are the stages of a piece that excite me.  You start off with some graphite and a lot of eraser marks on a few pieces of paper.  Then you gather the raw material, from the forest in this case.  Some of it you mill into planks that are then "Stickered" and left to air dry for months (slow is better me thinks) or kiln dry for days.  Then you make the parts to make other parts to make other parts to eventually combine the parts to make the sum of the parts and voila! you now have something that looks like part of your original sketch, and it is good.  Sometimes very good.  Sometimes not so good, which is very bad but in this case it was very good.

At these times, I often think of the line in Young Frankenstein where Gene Wilder (aka Dr. "roll in da hay" Fronkensteen) says, "It's  a-l-i-v-e!"

So...now you are beginning to "see it" where as before you did not.

This is Dan Rieple, Believe it.

(download)

Click here to download:

FineIdeas-GameOn-Part8.mp4 (73.78 MB)

Oyster Veneering was a technique used to embelish exquisite furnishings in the 17th Century. The name was given due to the resemblance of cross cut wafers to a whole oyster shell. It is a labor intensive procedure even with our modern methods but the finished product is well worth the time and effort.

In this video, you will see the process I use in the fabrication of the oyster pieces being joined together to create the veneer. The wafers start off at 3/16" thick and sanded to 1/16" once the wafer oysters are all joined together.

(download)

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part3_the-oystered-veneer-of-the-game-table_20111003.mp4 (17.26 MB)

N.B. No live oysters we eaten or harmed in anyway during the making of this film.

You may have seen my latest creation which I named "Game On". My sweet and most devoted fan, Susie, has made a series of videos that might be of interest. What a fantastic job she has done putting this together. I am always amazed at the things she figures out how to do and in such a short amount of time.

There are numerous clips so we won't put them all up at one time but here a couple to start things off. 

If you have't seen the album of photos, you can check that out on the Facebook Page.

(download)

Click here to download:

part0_opening-description-for-game-on_20111004.mp4 (19.07 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

part1_describing-the-vision_20110928.mp4 (24.5 MB)