Federal Sewing Table and a Padlock

I have been working for quite a few months now on another sewing table, it is similar to the one I made last year.

Here is a photo of the original antique table that inspired my miniature table. I have researched many of these tables and this is the only one that I have seen with this shape table top that follows the leg shape, all other tables with six sides has the leg put in at an angle like this example here. Getting the table shape correct was quite tricky especially doing the inlay.....

but I think I managed fine : )

For this table I had to make a silk bag as well.

The screen slides in the back legs.

I am making a total of eight of these tables, for one of them I had a special request, to stitch the petit point as well, thank goodness most of my clients wants to do the stitching themselves.

And then, I told you in my last post about the chest I am making, three of my friends and I am working together once every fortnight on the chests, one of them is making a chest with a latch, well, a latch needs a padlock.... now, doesn't it, so I set out last weekend to see if I cant make a padlock based on the lock we made in Bill Robertson's class in Castine.

Remember the key from my last post, it has lost a bit of metal over the weekend, the padlock is far from finished, it is stuck with lace pins into the wood. I still need to do some final filing, polishing and putting it together permanently, in this photo it is locked.

Unlocked, this was great fun to figure out and make.

Have a great week!
Elga

Petit Point, Turning and Carving

Lately I seem to function best when working on more than one project, as far as orders go I am working on caskets, I still have about seven of them to make. I am also busy with some sewing tables, different from the one I made last year, I will show them to you in another post. In between working on the orders I snatch a bit of time here and there to work on a few miniatures for myself.

I finally finished the back-stitching on the third casket panel, I only stitch on it in the evenings, for some reason I see it best then with my magnifying lamp, I think it is because the electric back-light is softer than the sunlight in the day. The panels are stitched on 90 count silk gauze.

Here is the link again to the original casket that I am copying, I am rather pleased at how close my panels represent the full scale casket.

I also do a bit of stitching in the mornings.

I started this rug about two years ago, at one stage I put it aside because I just had no time for it, I have picked it up again since Castine, it is stitched with French Knots on 40 count silk gauze and the chart is an original Victorian chart that I found on the Antique Library website.

I found a gorgeous little ivory pincushion on the internet the other day and couldn't resist copying it in miniature.

The top is actually a lid, there is storage space inside for more pins.

The turned ivory part of the pincushion, the original pincushion is oval, I made mine round.

I cut the lid out of a bigger piece of metal that I had prepared for hinge making with a syringe needle silver soldered to the metal. Because it is so tiny I decided to drill two tiny holes 0,3mm into the ivory for the hinge pin, it worked very well, by the way the squares on my cutting mat is 1cm square.

And here it is open on my sewing table, now I must just stick a few pins into it, I have an idea on how to make a few tiny pins, but haven't had time to try it yet.

And lastly I am busy making a Spanish Colonial Chest, I am practicing all the new skills I learned in Castine this year on the chest, hand cut dovetails, carving, metal work and a working lock.

Here is the back of the chest with a V-groove gouge that I made out of oil hardening drill rod, something that Bill Robertson showed us how to make in Castine.

The back and one side joined with hand cut dovetails, not perfect but not too bad for a first try in wood. The wood that I am using is South African White Pear, an ornamental tree and no relation to the European Pear. It was used a lot in South African Colonial days for wagon building and gun-stocks, it is a protected tree now so the wood is scarce.

In order to make a working lock, I needed a key, in Castine Bill Robertson gave us each one that he had cast. I turned mine out of brass with a big fat part on the end, which I then grounded flat with my Dremel and then drilled two holes next to each other to form the oval hole. Lastly I silver soldered a small piece of flat brass on to form the blade of the key, this part may still need a bit of trimming to fit nice and tight into the lock. Here is the link to the original chest, still a lot of work to be done, but it is a fun piece to make.

Have a great week.
Elga