Wednesday Project and Petit Point Update

I haven't had much time for working on my Wednesday project for quite a while and are way behind my three friends, but this weekend I finally had some time to work on the tombstone doors for the upper case. One of my friends made a cutter from an old drill bit for the tombstone edges of the door panel, I am rather pleased with how it turned out. The cutter makes the top edges rounded, so I had to make the top corners square by hand, the door on the right still needs to done, hopefully you can see the difference. All the moldings on the door frame pieces were cut with  first a straight cutter and then a heart shaped cutter on the drill press. The trickiest part is making the slot in the door frame pieces where the panel fits in and mitering the small molding on the inside. The top rail is sticking out a bit, I think I will cut it flush once the door has been glued together, at the moment it is still all loose.

Showing the back of the door on the left, if you open the photo in a new tab you should be able to see it all a bit bigger.

The door lying in the case frame. You can read older posts about this project here.

Most days I make sure to take some time for doing a bit of petit point, I find it very relaxing, the deer is almost finished.

Have a great week.

Elga

Wednesday Pennsylvania Secretary: Adding the top dividers and Bargello embroidery

I cut all six dividers for the top part of the secretary, they are only 0.5mm thick and here is how I did it.

You have to be careful because the wood is so thin, the easiest way to get six matching dividers was to cut the wood a bit longer than needed in the back and gluing all six together just at the very back. Next I put them in the jig and cut them out by pin routing on the drill press and there you have six with perfect matching profiles. Next I cut off the extra bit in the back where they were glued together with the table saw.

You really need patience when gluing such little pieces, I do them one at a time and wait a good half hour to an hour before gluing in the next one, I use Lego to help keep them square and yes they do have a tiny groove that they are glued  into.

The top all glued together, now I need to make a back for it and a face frame where the doors will fit in. And this is what I do while I wait for glue to dry, embroidery.

I have started with the embroidery for the wing chair and I can predict that this is going to take a few years to complete. I just fell in love with the riot of colors ever since I first saw photos of this chair, I can't wait to see the real chair in June when I will be in New York for 3 days before going to Guild School in Castine. I am stitching this on 112 count (yes, you are reading right and yes, I am crazy, haha) using Florentine stitch, also called Bargello or Irish Stitch. I put the embroidery on a scaled print of the chair, the needle that you see at the top is only 33mm long (1 19/64"). I use +3 reading glasses together with my magnifying lamp to see this small count and then only just.

Have a great mini weekend.
Elga

Wednesday Pennsylvania Secretary: The Upper Case

Today we cut all the grooves (0.5mm thick) in the two top shelves and in the two bottom shelves. The top will have 6 shaped dividers fitted into the grooves, you can see them laying next to the case. In the top of the photo you can see the shape they need to be on the plan. Hopefully I will have some time over the weekend to cut the dividers to shape.

Here you can see the grooves better, the two big slots in the bottom shelf are for two candle slides and the three thin spaces on the next shelf will be for one drawer on each side with an open space between.

And thank you so much everyone for the lovely compliments on the Tall Clock, having good teachers and learning so many techniques in making power tools work in this scale is so rewarding.

Elga

Updates on various projects

I haven't worked on the sewing tables for the last few weeks, I really just needed a break from them after working on them for the last 6 months, but I have just about finished stitching the petit point for it, just 3 more rows of white to go. The stitching is just a tad wider than 1 inch as the opening in the screen is only an inch wide. I found the chart in Raffaella Serena's book Berlin work Samplers and Embroidery of the 19th century, she charted it from an 1850's sampler that is in the V&A museum in London. I stitched the design with Pipers Silk on 75 count silk gauze.

I also started stitching a cover for the Queen Anne stool that I am making at our mini club over Feb and March. This time I am cross stitching on 60 count silk gauze once again with the Pipers silk. What you see here is the design for the four sides of the cushion, the central part will look different, the chart is part of Geometric patterns, an original Victorian chart that was digitized by Roland Designs in Norway.

On the wood work front I worked yesterday with my friends on our Wednesday project. We cut the dovetails on the top, bottom and sides for the top case of the Pennsylvania Secretary, it was the first time that I made dovetails, we used a jig, I am not quite happy with the fact that they are not symmetrical at the sides, but all the jointing will be covered by moldings in any case. I will check out the jig carefully before cutting dovetails for the drawers which will be visible. I also made a groove in the sides in the wrong place, fortunately that part will be completely covered with face boards and molding, I simply don't have time to do it over again. The five shelves has been cut and are ready to receive grooves for various dividers in the top and bottom of the cupboard. The wood is Imbuia salvaged from an old table, lots of this wood was imported from Brazil in the 1950's and 60's and was used widely for all kinds of furniture in South Africa.

I am also busy turning some more stretchers for the Rhode Island easy chairs that I am busy with. Next week I plan on turning the pad feet on the cabriole legs and starting to put them all together.

Wow, I am feeling tired all of a sudden now ;-)

Elga

Johannesburg Mini Academy

Last year I joined a mini club in Johannesburg called the Mini Academy, we meet once a month on a Saturday and our club concentrate on teaching furniture making with full joinery in 1/12 scale. Our first project for the year is a Queen Anne Stool.

Yesterday we started on it and built the jigs for cutting the cabriole legs and the four sides on the drill press, I only had time to cut two legs in class, so I finished the rest today. In the next class in March we will cut all the tenons and mortises and put it together. The legs still have a lot of sanding work on them and the square pieces that you see on the top and bottom of the legs will be cut off later when the mortises have been cut, they help to keep everything square while cutting.

Four of the club members (I am one of them) that are so lucky to have the free time will be working on most Wednesdays this year to build this wonderful Secretary, I will try and show you our progress each week.

Have a great week
Elga