Wood is Amazing!

We get to see a lot of wood (and I mean a lot), so when we find cool stuff we photograph it and share.  In the picture below, look at the cool pattern that kind of looks like a forest.  Now we have seen this type of thing many times, but every time I always wonder if this is some type of message.  Okay I know what you are saying, this dude has lost his rocker, but doesn't it look too much like a forest to be a random occurrence?  What if there was some type of residual energy and somehow it was trying to leave some type of history or the like.  Hey, these are my buddy's I grew up with, or look at mom and dad. Anyways I think this kind of stuff is amazing. 

Walnut Slab

Harvest 2013 - Where Does the Lumber Come From?

From time to time we try to make our own materials.  I guess I should really say we try to harvest our own materials.  We like to do this as you can't get much closer to your supply chain.  So a friend called and said they had a really nice walnut log and wanted to know if we wanted it. It didn't sound too big and I already had my hernias fixed so sure!

In the past we have done some projects with literally firewood.  The wood for these frames below was literally taken from the firewood pile on the family farm, so fitting we make these frames as a family gift to the patriarch and matriarch of the family.  When you have a big farm eventually trees die and so even the cherry and the walnut are candidates for the woodpile.

Firewood Picture Frames

So we are not equipped to handle mass scale logging (well really any logging except like firewood), but with a chainsaw and some time you can get a pretty clean cut.  Here are a couple shots post cut.

Walnut Slabs Ready for Their 2 Year Air Drying Process

End Grain Detail

The transition between the heartwood and the sapwood is really cool on walnut.

Slab Detail

So there's more.  Now there is the cleanup of all the sawdust.  We try to not let anything go to waste, so a little factoid to close this out.  Walnut sawdust is a natural herbicide, put this on the ground and not much will grow.  Read more about Walnut Trees.

Walnut Sawdust Pile

Lastely, check out some of the equipment that a smaller producer might use to harvest logs.

What Do Do With All That Zucchini?

ZUCCHINI!!!

Well, it's mid summer, the zucchini is coming in strong, you've strained relations with friend by trying to pawn them off....you have actually harvested them before they are the size of your arm....its not really baking season and you definitely don't want the heat in the house...what to do?





So what we do to get the most out of this crop, especially since it seems to come all at once in mid summer, is to prep these for use later.

Grating Zucchini

We start by grating these as in the picture above.  The recipe we are following is the old stand by, Zucchini Bread out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

After grating we pre-measure these to the quantity needed for the recipe.  We use these little containers to size them exactly as needed for the recipe, then we put them in the freezer.

Zucchini prep for bread using custom cutting board that drops into sink pan. 

After they are frozen we pop them out and put a bunch of them in a freezer bag.  This way when we are ready to bake we just take one out of the bag and let it thaw as we prep the recipe mix.  

Zucchini Bread recipe mix

Of course it's hard to resist at least getting a couple loafs out of this when you harvest the zucchini.

Love the taste of the crust on this recipe!

If you have any ideas about what you do with all your zucchini let us know or if you would like for us to fashion you a custom cutting board for your sink, visit our website or our Eyrieatomy Facebook page and send us a message.

Santos Rosewood Table - Table Top Finishing Update

We are done cutting this to size and sanding.  Since this is a rare piece we wanted to maintain the largest size as possible, which also meant keeping some imperfections (if you remember back to the design sketch we only had one predetermined dimension, wanting to optimize the proportions given what the top slab would allow).  So I can now say that the top is approximately 16” x 48”. The most obvious is the tear down the middle, but this is what actually makes this unique and adds a lot of character. There are some other minors but again choosing to keep as natural a look as possible.

So this is a new wood for us so we wanted to do a little research to make the best choices for finishing.  Normally we favor a hand rubbed Tung Oil finish for most of our pieces but with woods that are dark we always have a concern about color change with exposure over time to sunlight.  So we found a pre-finish, Watco Teak Oil that looked like it was perfect for this wood.  It provides some UV protection and it sure brought out the color in the wood.  Here is that same sample piece from the last post with the pre-finish applied. 

 This oil needs to be applied liberally so it can penetrate and then set aside to dry for at least 72 hours.  And don’t leave the finish materials, rags, etc around, highly flammable.

After applying the pre-finish, and letting this dry for a week, we started final finishing using our Tung Oil of choice and are starting to build up the finish.  Here is a little preview in processing of the actual top in process.  

Next we are onto starting the base, hard maple legs with the Santos Rosewood inlay to pull the base and top together.

Santos Rosewood New Project - Sofa or Hallway Table

Here is a little preview our next project!  As is the case with most of the items we make it all starts with finding great materials.  We happened to run across this dark grained slab piece while at Owl Hardwood.  Walked by it a few time, didn’t have a species listed and no price (usually that’s not a good sign), so inquired as to what it was and the cost.  Needless to say they told me it was Santos Rosewood.  

This picture is an unfinished edge piece taken off the slab, you see the light color sap wood and whats left of the outer surface and of course the heartwood.

So after a little more questioning I found out that it’s pretty unusual that you get slab pieces intact with this species due to the nature of the way the tree grows (the interior either rots or shrinks or gets torn up in the growing process).  Also this stuff is pricey, on order of $25/board foot.  As a comparison Cherry is $6-8 a board foot.  I finally decided I needed to take this and figure out something to do with it.

Here is a link to the particulars for Santos Rosewood.  One of the most interesting material aspects to this piece is its weight, 54 lbs per cubic foot (this is pretty dense wood).

We have seen many who will use an epoxy fill for the crack region to provide structure and close up the opening.  Me first thought was to build an LED lighting system below as an accent to the piece with some lighting showing thru.  The test cases I tried just didn’t turn out like I thought.  Also decided I didn’t want to fill the crack so I plan on building up some underside wings to give the piece some structure and support the open cracked middle section.  Not exactly sure how this open crack will ‘age’ but I personally like the look.  Can’t wait to share the finishing process so you can see how great this wood looks. 

So I came up with a general design idea (shown below).  I thought a light wood might tie into the live edge of the top would be nice with some inlayed pieces of Rosewood on the base to pull it all together.  Decided that hard maple was going to be used for the base, a nice hardwood without too much busy grain to distract from the top.

  

So many of our designs start this way with a simple layout.  As you can see the design is a floating top.  From this type of view you can see the straps to secure the top that I spoke of previously and the gentle curve in the legs to match the top (which exposes a little bit more of the Rosewood accent near the top of the legs).

Since then I have grabbed another slab piece (not as in good shape as the first) and many pieces of edge stock for accent pieces for future projects.

Stay tunes for updates as we start the process of finishing the Rosewood top piece.

Driftwood Inspired Sofa Table

Our family does a lot of traveling, hiking, biking, kayaking, beaching (is beaching a word?) and the like. So a few years back we were walking this beach and I found this really cool piece of driftwood.  It was kind of like a bar of soap, it was oval-ish, it was smooth, but had a texture to it.  I walked around the rest of the hike with it in my hand and when I got back to the car I tossed it into the car door pocket where I toss my cool finds.  

Now I didn’t really think about it for a couple years, saw it from time to time when I was cleaning out the door pockets (annually to bi-annually).  Fast forward and I’m in The Hardwood Connection in Sycamore, IL and there it is, the big daddy of my driftwood, a large slab size piece of White Ash.  Well of course, put it in the truck, don’t even bother wrapping it.  Ash was perfect because as you sand it the dark part of the grain seems to be softer than the rest and so the sanding created the smooth yet ‘driftwood’ texture surface.

Well I get home and go to get my driftwood from the door pocket and its gone.  Now I know I would not have gotten rid of it, so where is it.  I look, sleep a few nights, I look some more, can’t find it...

So from memory I start working the Ash slab trying to remember everything about the driftwood piece from the day I found it.   I decided I wanted to make a floating top table and wanted to use a contrasting/complementary wood variety for the base.  I sketched up an idea and decided to try a wood I had not used before for the base (Jatoba (some call it Brazilian Cherry)).  Jatoba has a very rich tone and contrasts the Ash top perfectly. 

So here is the table.

And as it turns out I found the inspiration driftwood piece half way thru the project.  

This table is currently for sale at Eyrieatomy.

Expanse Picture Frames

We have been busy at work and are finally coming out of our winter hibernation.  We know what you are thinking, just leaving hibernation in May!  Well anyway, we are pleased to announce a new product, our ExpanseÔ  picture frames. 

The ExpanseÔ  frames are in contrast to a traditional frame where the subject is constrained by the frame.  The ExpanseÔ  frames free the image(s) from being closed in and allows the subject and the frame to stand alone and yet together in a complimentary way.   In addition the ExpanseÔ  frames have more depth and texture that a traditional flat frame and allow the wall color to blend into the overall presentation.  The frame members all have different depths, shapes, symmetries, sizes and compilations, and materials.  These combinations are almost limitless and we are working on new versions all of the time.  This is a little hard to explain in words so scroll down and take a look and let us know what you think.  

We favor untraditional picture size (ie 4x10, 10x20, 8x24, etc) proportions for some of our frames.  In these frames we offer our stock photos but also intend to provide a coupon where we will get your photo sized and printed for the frame (should you be interested in having your own image).

We are busy building stock for our summer show season and for our website www.eyrieatomy.com.  We also are interested in building iterations/variations of our designs using your ideas so give us a call and we would love to get it built for you.