Some more carved work
and a link to the next loft sale item
Today’s post is about more of the carved box lid I’m working on. But first a short bit about the loft sale. In late December of 2024 I started a new piece of joined work, one I had never done. The so-called “dressing” box.
I had photos & measurements of Winterthur’s, examined the one at Boston’s MFA and set about making one based on those two, but not a strict copy of either. I got it 99% done in 2025, but left one tiny drawer to finish last month. Finally. Now it’s truly finished and I’ve posted it as the next piece for sale from my loft. Rather than clog up this blog, I posted it on my little-used website - so here’s the link if you care to look at that piece in detail.
https://www.peterfollansbee-joiner.com/loftsale2026
Now onto the shop work lately - the snow is gone and for right now, the door is open bringing in fresh air. Weird to go from nearly 3’ of snow two weeks ago to low-60s F temps this week.
A while back I carved a seat to try my hand at a thumbback Windsor chair. Turned the legs - then stopped. Only because I had several parts for a bowback Windsor made - the seat, the turned legs and the bent bow. Decided to finish that one before I dove into a chair I’ve never built before. Turned the stretchers yesterday, now to dry the tenons and assemble the undercarriage. I’m not a Windsor chair maker, but I try to be someone who sometimes makes Windsor chairs. But I need to do it more often if I want to get anywhere at it.
Otherwise, I’ve been poking at my carved lid for the large white oak box I’m making. Once I had the whole thing incised, I knew I could carve it in spare hours here and there. Overall it will probably take me 6-8 hours to carve this whole panel and I have no interest in doing that in one fell swoop. So an hour here, two hours there. Today I was working on some background removal, then filling in some details…and hollowing some of the volutes.
These pinwheels are some of the most difficult parts to carve. There’s only a few cuts from a gouge- the trick is doing it without blowing through the whole piece. And - there’s 48 of these on the whole panel - some larger, some smaller. The one in the photo above is about 1” in diameter - up to the right from it is a slightly smaller one-to-be..
Likewise the volutes. These are hollowed around the scrolled inner bits. And I hit one too hard and popped it off. This is one place where I do glue the bits back on - if that middle of a volute is missing, your eye finds that void pretty quickly.
I have another 15-minute video today about two subjects - one is how to cut the leafy shape that runs under some of the arches. The other is how I glue that “popped-off” volute piece.
