Jul 28

African wood-themed bedside table

African wood-themed bedside table

Bedside table is done!!

@tamarynart told me a couple weeks ago that she wanted a little table to replace the tiny stool that had been next to her side of the bed. It had to fit between the closet door and bed. She picked the padauk for the top (which roughly matches her ginger hair). Since she grew up partially in South Africa (her whole mom’s side is there), and the padauk is African, I decided to do something a little special for the drawer face. The wood is African stinkwood, which I talked about at length in the Jasper Family intarsia post. It’s from a chair my South African mom-in-law @sledv_life_rocks bought in the 70s. The pieces I have are small, so I glued up a couple with a walnut strip in the middle. The pull was hand-carved – intentionally rough and faceted. The base is walnut I got on clearance. The drawer was made from a really old 2×4” I found in our basement when we moved in (probably from the 50s). It will soon be graced with a small Qi-charging/USB lamp

Jul 08

The Jaspers, Daniel D. Brown, 2019

I can finally reveal my “family portrait” of the Jasper family, consisting of the Copper Pig himself (Paul @copper_pig_fine_woodworking), his wife Vicky (@jasperfarms – the fact that she raises chickens and teaches yoga is all I knew about her), their daughter the talented Copper Piglet, and of course Henry, their furry son.

This whole project came about because we had a trip to Boston planned for a family reunion. I had mentioned it to Paul a while back and he essentially said “stop on by!!”. Paul has been a huge inspiration to me and has helped a number of times in my woodworking. Our message history is just rife with advice, tool recommendations, and general encouragement. He once video chatted with me on how to make my “Three Rivers Table” so that it didn’t destroy itself with seasonal wood movement, drawing out floating tenons on a napkin. Everyone in the community knows what a positive force he is, constantly supporting other makers with shout outs, collaborations, encouragement, trades, and purchases. It doesn’t hurt that he’s part of our brotherhood of PhD scientists moonlighting as artists/craftspeople. Basically he’s my #mancrushmonday.
My idea was to just make a quick little pig or something for when we visited him in Boston. As soon as I started designing it, this “family portrait” idea hit me. Once it did, I really had no choice but to make it. The design snowballed and I ended up spending a couple weeks on it. The idea demanded I finish it as envisioned. That’s just usually how it goes when I get excited about something.

Made from 14 species: African stinkwood (from an antique chair my mother-in-law @sledv_life_rocks bought in South Africa in the 1970s. This is a species that is no longer commercially available due to overharvesting and subsequent protection. It was exterminated on Table mountain, in the shadows of which my wife @tamarynart was partially raised), walnut, bocote, yew, spalted maple, bubinga, ash, cherry, ebony, bloodwood, sumac, aspen, and two unknown species from an exotic hardwood pallet. Designed in Adobe Illustrator and cut it via scrollsaw.

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I can finally reveal my “family portrait” of the Jasper family, consisting of the Copper Pig himself (Paul @copper_pig_fine_woodworking), his wife Vicky (@jasperfarms – the fact that she raises chickens and teaches yoga is all I knew about her), their daughter the talented Copper Piglet, and of course Henry, their furry son. This whole project came about because we had a trip to Boston planned for a family reunion. I had mentioned it to Paul a while back and he essentially said “stop on by!!”. Paul has been a huge inspiration to me and has helped a number of times in my woodworking. Our message history is just rife with advice, tool recommendations, and general encouragement. He once video chatted with me on how to make my “Three Rivers Table” so that it didn’t destroy itself with seasonal wood movement, drawing out floating tenons on a napkin. Everyone in the community knows what a positive force he is, constantly supporting other makers with shout outs, collaborations, encouragement, trades, and purchases. It doesn’t hurt that he’s part of our brotherhood of PhD scientists moonlighting as artists/craftspeople. Basically he’s my #mancrushmonday. My idea was to just make a quick little pig or something for when we visited him in Boston. As soon as I started designing it, this “family portrait” idea hit me. Once it did, I really had no choice but to make it. The design snowballed and I ended up spending a couple weeks on it. The idea demanded I finish it as envisioned. That’s just usually how it goes when I get excited about something. Made from 14 species: African stinkwood (from an antique chair my mother-in-law @sledv_life_rocks bought in South Africa in the 1970s. This is a species that is no longer commercially available due to overharvesting and subsequent protection. It was exterminated on Table mountain, in the shadows of which my wife @tamarynart was partially raised), walnut, bocote, yew, spalted maple, bubinga, ash, cherry, ebony, bloodwood, sumac, aspen, and two unknown species from an exotic hardwood pallet. Designed in Adobe Illustrator and cut it via scrollsaw. #pittsburghwoodworking#scrollsawart#intarsia#woodworking#woodart

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Jun 04

Flower jewelry bowl from walnut

Flower jewelry bowl from walnut

I carved this little jewelry bowl from a walnut cookie I cut from a piece of firewood (found on the side of the road in my neighborhood). I made this on a whim just to have a little something to carve on while enjoying the weather. It’s intended as a temporary bowl for when @tamarynart takes off her earrings in the living room. Which is often.
Carved with a handful of chisels, gouges, and at least 6 different @saburrtooth burrs. I also did a fair bit of pyrography on it, but you can really only see it when you look closely. Finished with @odiesoil.

May 14

Caretta, Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D., 2019

“Caretta” – 2019, walnut and scorched maple.
This loggerhead sea turtle started as a simple experiment after I sliced up a walnut firewood log into “cookies” and had a vision of turtle shell scutes in the endgrain patterns. I then designed the shape in illustrator, basing it on a few different turtles. The shell pieces were cut on the scrollsaw, shaped with an oscillating sander, epoxied, and sanded silky smooth. The fins and head were cut from maple, which I shaped with a variety of @saburrtooth carbide bits and sanders, burned with a blowtorch, and the spaces between the scales were ground with more bits and hand-carved with gouges. A final bit of detail was burned with @tamarynart’s @colwoodwoodburning wood burner. Finished with @odiesoil specifically because I wanted to retain the super-smooth natural wood feeling of the shell. All in all, I’m pretty excited with how it turned out! The entire process took just over three weeks, taking up most of my personal free time. Most of that was sanding and shaping. I documented the entire process in stories which are now archived as a highlight in my Instagram profile for those of you curious to see how it was made.

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“Caretta” – 2019, walnut and scorched maple. This loggerhead sea turtle started as a simple experiment after I sliced up a walnut firewood log into “cookies” and had a vision of turtle shell scutes in the endgrain patterns. I then designed the shape in illustrator, basing it on a few different turtles. The shell pieces were cut on the scrollsaw, shaped with an oscillating sander, epoxied, and sanded silky smooth. The fins and head were cut from maple, which I shaped with a variety of @saburrtooth carbide bits and sanders, burned with a blowtorch, and the spaces between the scales were ground with more bits and hand-carved with gouges. A final bit of detail was burned with @tamarynart’s @colwoodwoodburning wood burner. Finished with @odiesoil specifically because I wanted to retain the super-smooth natural wood feeling of the shell. All in all, I’m pretty excited with how it turned out! The entire process took just over three weeks, taking up most of my personal free time. Most of that was sanding and shaping. I documented the entire process in stories which are now archived as a highlight in my profile for those of you curious to see how it was made. … #woodworking #scrollsawart #woodart #powercarving #woodsculpture #pittsburghwoodworking #madeinpittsburgh #turtleart #turtlelover #seaturtlelove #savetheseaturtles #loggerhead #turtle #tortuga

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Quick update on my sea turtle in progress for those of you who see 50 stories and think “nuh uh. ain’t got time for that. swipe” (like me). I’m getting closer to finished. It’s looking more or less how I envisioned. I still have to do a lot of detail cleanup and carve out notches in the appendages for attachment so the depth between them and the shell isn’t quite so dramatic. I always intended this to be flattish, with the full 3-dimensionality only hinted. Thanks to everyone who has responded with questions and comments to my stories. I really didn’t expect this much encouragement and support given that this started as just a little experiment after looking at a piece of firewood. I love this community of makers and artists, and you all remain the reason I even post this stuff. … #woodworking #intarsia #scrollsawart #powercarving #pyrography #pittsburghwoodworking #madeinpittsburgh #seaturtle #seaturtleart

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Mar 26

No Risk, No Reward or Safety in Numbers, Daniel D. Brown, 2019

The title is meant to embody the dual possible fates of that lone fish racing from the school. Schooling evolved for a reason, as there can certainly safety in numbers in this scenario. Unless the sharks devour the entire school (google “baitball” from Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet). But perhaps if it swims fast enough it may escape being lunch. Or it may just make itself a target. I think this duality can serve as a metaphor to many aspects of our own lives as well, if you use your imagination.
I built this piece over the course of a few weeks, the process of which I documented with more stories than I’ve ever made (see “Sharks!” highlight on my profile). My inspiration came from both Blue Planet and from a photo of unknown provenance I saw online showing sharks swimming through a school of fish. One of my goals was to use different tools and clashing styles, with no idea how the final piece would look together. I was filled with trepidation starting it, just because of the complexity of scrollsaw work in the fish layers. But it wasn’t as difficult as I feared. I did make the fish bigger than planned, due to the exponential increase in the number of cuts with decreasing fish size.
I drew the initial design in illustrator, making many versions of one fish using the new “puppet warp” tool. The fish are built of three two-tone layers, with an alternating gradient of tones (i.e. mahogany/walnut, red oak/mahogany, ash/red oak – from bottom to top). These were scrollsawed. 
The blacktip reef sharks were made from a single piece of ash, first roughed out on the bandsaw, then power-carved with various Dremel burrs and some hand carving. The fin details were all pyrography using @tamarynart’s wood burner. The ocean floor is a nice piece of “curly” maple I had that I thought would be nicely reminiscent of both a sandy floor and the caustic light refracted from waves above. Finally, the walnut frame was power carved using @kutzall carving dishes on an angle grinder. The scene was finished with minwax gloss and the frame with Arm-R-Seal semi-gloss.

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“No Risk, No Reward or Safety in Numbers” The title is meant to embody the dual possible fates of that lone fish racing from the school. Schooling evolved for a reason, as there can certainly safety in numbers in this scenario. Unless the sharks devour the entire school (google “baitball” from Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet). But perhaps if it swims fast enough it may escape being lunch. Or it may just make itself a target. I think this duality can serve as a metaphor to many aspects of our own lives as well, if you use your imagination. I built this piece over the course of a few weeks, the process of which I documented with more stories than I’ve ever made (see “Sharks!” highlight on my profile). My inspiration came from both Blue Planet and from a photo of unknown provenance I saw online showing sharks swimming through a school of fish. One of my goals was to use different tools and clashing styles, with no idea how the final piece would look together. I was filled with trepidation starting it, just because of the complexity of scrollsaw work in the fish layers. But it wasn’t as difficult as I feared. I did make the fish bigger than planned, due to the exponential increase in the number of cuts with decreasing fish size. I drew the initial design in illustrator, making many versions of one fish using the new “puppet warp” tool. The fish are built of three two-tone layers, with an alternating gradient of tones (i.e. mahogany/walnut, red oak/mahogany, ash/red oak – from bottom to top). These were scrollsawed. The blacktip reef sharks were made from a single piece of ash, first roughed out on the bandsaw, then power-carved with various Dremel burrs and some hand carving. The fin details were all pyrography using @tamarynart’s wood burner. The ocean floor is a nice piece of “curly” maple I had that I thought would be nicely reminiscent of both a sandy floor and the caustic light refracted from waves above. Finally, the walnut frame was power carved using @kutzall carving dishes on an angle grinder. The scene was finished with minwax gloss and the frame with Arm-R-Seal semi-gloss. #powercarving #scrollsawart #sharkart #woodart #woodsculpture

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🦈 If you’ve seen my stories, you know I’ve started a new art project. This will be a 3D piece with blacktip reef sharks swimming into a school a fish, made with a mix of scrollsaw, dremel, handcarving, bandsaw, and pyrography. When I first came up with the idea, I was VERY skeptical that it would even be worth trying. Even after designing it in illustrator, I wasn’t sure if I could really pull the scrollsawing off, or whether the layered pieces would look as cool as I imagined it might. I also wasn’t super confident I could carve a decent shark. But I’m far enough along to say that I’m pretty stoked with how it’s turning out. Each of the 3 layers of fish are themselves made of two layers. I wanted to give the fish a two-tone appearance on the sides, with walnut/mahogany on the bottom layer, then mahogany/red oak, and finally red oak/ash on top. So the bottom of each layer matches the top of the next higher layer, creating a sort of alternate gradient. The sharks are being carved from ash and I plan to burn the “black tips” on them. I used a really nice piece of curly maple I had lying around to be the “sand” beneath them. There will also be one escaping fish between the sharks. #woodworking #woodart #woodsculpture #shark #sharkart

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