A Much Better Idea

While looking though the exhibition guide to Sean Scully's show at Dartmouth's Hood Museum, I came up with a much better idea for the floating triptych failure I had put to the side in October. In reviewing the guide I had the same thought I had when I saw the show, it is interesting work but it would look much better in wood. I especially like his work with sets of stripes placed in perpendicular directions and with curly maple you have the added benefit of the figure being perpendicular to the stripes, giving you a multiple perpendicularity effect.

My biggest concern with gluing the sections together was in losing the live edges. Luckily, I was able to save one of them but the glue up was difficult and imperfect. I ended up having to route-out (i.e., use a router) the last strip of cherry and inlay a new, wider piece.
I like this one much better.

Shell Commission Part III

I'm about ready to start painting it. Both walnut and birch are open-pore so it take a ton of shellac to seal, walnut especially. With maple, being closed-pore, it is really much faster to get to the painting stage.

I Know A Two Year Old

I know a two year old who needed a birthday present so I figured he should get something educational. With these, one can learn an enormous amount of information, including:

-How much noise can blocks of wood make as they fall down the stairs;
-Whether maple makes more noise than cherry and/or walnut;
-How much noise can take the downstairs neighbor endure before they complain; and
-How much damage wooden toys on wheels can inflict on furniture, flooring, or walls before ones parents get angry.

I tried to keep the designs simple, mostly because I think it leaves more for the imagination.
I think this one looks something like a Washington, DC Metro train, which may make it more interesting for a DC area two year old. Personally, I like the big wheels and ambiguous directionality.
This one is the most sporty of the three but it may not be the fastest. I'll leave it to others to do the research.
This one is the oddest. I'm not sure what to think about it but maybe that is a good thing.