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food |
FAMILY
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furniture |
what?
Taking inspiration from the local, organic food movement and the "know your farmer"/CSA mentality, Georgetown Joinery approaches the home cooked meal to be shared by the family from a different angle: what else do you need to share a meal with your family? Chairs to sit on and a table to gather around.
The furniture I make is meant to be used and loved for years to come and passed on to children and grandchildren. My goal is make furniture with its own story, and furniture that has heard stories told at dinner and repeated at holidays.
why?
The objects in our lives should enrich our experiences. The furniture we use – dressers, tables, chairs – are objects we interact with using our whole self – particularly when we are using these objects to interact with other people. Think of the time spent with furniture and people – from the dinner table to the poker table. When these objects are designed and built with this in mind, then our personal interactions benefit.
how?
I use solid, American hardwoods (Cherry, Maple, Walnut, among others), which I select for each project. After careful layout, the material is milled and joints are cut to fit. Depending on the particular joint, some are cut by hand, some by machine, but all are carefully fit so that after glue* up the two pieces have been joined.
Joints can be:
After assembly and any detailing is complete, the piece is treated lightly with sandpaper and then is ready for finishing.
I use a number of different finishes in my work:
Taking inspiration from the local, organic food movement and the "know your farmer"/CSA mentality, Georgetown Joinery approaches the home cooked meal to be shared by the family from a different angle: what else do you need to share a meal with your family? Chairs to sit on and a table to gather around.
The furniture I make is meant to be used and loved for years to come and passed on to children and grandchildren. My goal is make furniture with its own story, and furniture that has heard stories told at dinner and repeated at holidays.
- Tables that have helped with homework and replacing light bulbs; been there for baptism and funeral receptions. The table you gather around to share a home cooked meal with your family; that you return to, after the kids are asleep, to share a bottle of wine.
- Chairs, made one at a time, that have enough of their own personality that each member of the house develops a favorite. Chairs that your children grow up in and that they will use when they gather around the table with their children.
- Chests, presented at weddings, anniversaries or baby-showers, to be a home for heirlooms from generations gone by for generations to come.
why?
The objects in our lives should enrich our experiences. The furniture we use – dressers, tables, chairs – are objects we interact with using our whole self – particularly when we are using these objects to interact with other people. Think of the time spent with furniture and people – from the dinner table to the poker table. When these objects are designed and built with this in mind, then our personal interactions benefit.
how?
I use solid, American hardwoods (Cherry, Maple, Walnut, among others), which I select for each project. After careful layout, the material is milled and joints are cut to fit. Depending on the particular joint, some are cut by hand, some by machine, but all are carefully fit so that after glue* up the two pieces have been joined.
Joints can be:
- Mechanical - dovetails and wedged, through tenons
- Dependent on some fastener - mortise and tenon joints can be glued* and/or pinned
- Utilize the nature of the wood itself to create mechanical joint - the tapered joints used in Windsor construction lock into place as the members reach moisture equilibrium
- visible - drawer and carcase construction can use dovetails that are visible on the outside of the finished piece
- hidden - most mortise and tenon joints are not visible after assembly
After assembly and any detailing is complete, the piece is treated lightly with sandpaper and then is ready for finishing.
I use a number of different finishes in my work:
- Shellac* - most often used on the inside of cases to allow for the best drawer action, but also used alone in period work
- Linseed Oil - the most traditional of finishes remains one of the best, I often use a product by Tried & True
- Polyurethane - most suitable for table tops and other pieces of high use, not my favorite finish but occasionally necessary
- Tung Oil - a VOC free alternative to polyurethane which can be built up to a point where it is water resistant
- Paint - Windsor chairs are often painted with milk paint*, a VOC free casein based paint (Old Fashioned Milk Paint)
* For those of you who are vegan - please speak to me about your needs - not all of my work is necessarily vegan friendly, but it can be. I often use an animal protein based glue from Old Brown Glue, shellac is refined from the resinous byproduct of a bug in India and milk paint contains milk proteins.
