With the rough stock for this table acclimated to my shop for a week or so, I started this project as I usually do, by viewing all of the stock and marking out all of the components for best grain use, etc. I then broke down the rough stock into more manageable, slightly oversize, pieces. [...]
Continue reading about Modern Shaker Table: Making the Tapered Legs
Usually, I do not design pieces with very contemporary styling. However, when I was asked to design and build a table for my brother-in-laws vacation home, I knew that I would need to change course a bit from the more traditional. My brother-in-law and his wife’s tastes lean a bit more toward the contemporary side. [...]
Continue reading about Modern Shaker Table: The Design Process
Blackburn’s third pillar of design which complements both Function and Construction is Proportion. The topic of proportion is something that I have written about here before. So, I won’t repeat too much of that information in this post but rather, I will touch on some additional design paradigms that are useful in developing proportion in [...]
Continue reading about Three Pillars of Design: Part 3 Proportion
Building on the first post in this series, it’s time to explore Graham Blackburn’s second pillar of design: Construction. When one thinks of construction in woodworking, the first thought is inevitably joinery. While joinery is definitely one element of the construction of a piece of furniture, as you might expect, there’s more to the equation. [...]
Continue reading about Three Pillars of Design: Part 2 Construction
This weekend marked the opening of the season for the Rochester Woodworkers Society, the woodworking club that I belong to. As I have mentioned before, each year the club hosts several national woodworkers for lectures and workshops. The first talk of this season was given by Graham Blackburn. Graham has an interesting background. Born in [...]


