"Fall Creek"

This is a custom piece a customer ordered as a gift for her father– it is an imaged scene based on a place in Wyoming he has a strong attachment to- the view of Fall Creek running through Wilson, Wyoming with Nora’s Fish Creek Inn nearby.  9″ x 12″, ink and watercolor on rice paper, custom frame made of reclaimed barn wood (Eastern Pine).

"Labor Begins in a Snowstorm"

"Stuck Truck"

"Cow and Calf"

detail of "Labor Begins in a Snowstorm"

Detail of "Stuck Truck."

These are in my homemade snow globe series which depicts the harsh realities of living in the Western landscape in contrast to our romanticized visions.  Here are three new additions:  “Stuck Truck”, “Labor begins in a Snowstorm”, and “Cow and Calf.”  Go to “2010″ under “artwork” to learn more about them.   Materials: sculpty clay, water, glitter, old blue Mason jar and zinc top.

9'6" Entryway table

This is a custom entryway table I did for a coop building in Brooklyn.  They already had the mirror and wanted something to match the mirror and fit well in the space.  I worked with the client from the coop board on the design.  Because the top surface is quartz (i.e. heavy) I decided to go with ash as the wood species for the table.  Ash is notoriously strong.  But it is also very light in color with large pores, which make it difficult to stain a dark color.  After experimenting on some samples, I settled on alternating layers of pigment and dye mixtures in a water-based sealer.  I slowly brought the color up, layer after layer.  And it worked beautifully.  The color matched and the finish gives a solid polish look without losing the grain character of the ash.  The legs and apron are mortise and tenon joints.  I added a middle stringer for strength and it is doweled in place.  The legs have a slight taper.  I added a highlight of the corners of the leg to match the mirror trim highlights–I sanded the corners to reveal a small golden line on the outside corners.   Special thanks to my friend Rob Davidson for technical and moral support.  Rob is an amazing furniture maker– see his website at: http://www.davidsonwoodworks.com/

Skinny Buffalo, only darker

In January I finished a custom table for a client who saw the original “Skinny Buffalo” coffee table and wondered if I could make another one, with slightly different dimensions and in a darker color, to match her dining room table.  We raised the shelf up a bit to accommodate dinners on the floor (room for knees to fit under the table) and made it slightly longer and taller, to fit just right in front of her couch.   I used the same reclaimed eastern pine from barns in Ohio that I use for many of my reclaimed pieces.  But this time I darkened it with an old technique of rubbing in shoe polish.  I alternated rubbing in black and brown shoe polish– I didn’t want it to be too dark and lose the warm glow this wood has naturally to it, thus I didn’t want to stain it a solid dark color.  Rubbing in the show polish allowed me to smash it into the crevices and give it an overall darker tonal quality without sacrificing the warm glow.

Virgin Voyage Red

Virgin Voyage Red from Red Dirt Brewing, 2009 Irish Red Ale

This is my first homebrew beer and the first for Red Dirt Brewing.    It is an Irish Red Ale.  For years I’ve wanted to brew my own beer and make up labels, and finally one Sunday last winter I just did it.  I ran down to our local (and only!) Brooklyn Homebrew store (www.brooklyn-homebrew.com) and they set me up with anything I didn’t already have and a great recipe.  Special thanks to my friend Derek Steel who helped me bottle and Dani Karr for her amazing graphic design help with the labels.  I did the painting and told Dani what I wanted and in a 20 minutes she sent me over an awesome label.  R.D.B. is named for the rich red dirt at my folks place in Wyoming– where the well water is pure and clear, the hops grow in the cold, and the beer tastes better.