Posts by Richard Oedel
Gilded feet for the embroidered jewelry casket project
While I don’t do gilding on a daily basis, I do occasionally, and the Cabinet of Curiosities project asked for some gilded, carved feet to offer to these unbelievably talented embroiderers. So here they are. Since individually hand carving each one would have put them beyond the reach of most people, we carved the original…
Read MoreThe Makers Guild at the IDB
Over the past few months, we have moved into our new space in the Makers Guild section of the Innovation and Design Building here in South Boston. While we moved in a couple of months ago, it is only just becoming comfortable and easy to work in. Every shop takes on an aura of “home”…
Read MoreThomas Jefferson’s chairs
This chair was probably made at Monticello – by Thomas Jefferson’s joiner and slave, John Hemings. Whether TJ himself ever sat on it is up for discussion. In the collection of Colonial Williamsburg, it is an example of a chair with less finesse than those made in large urban centers, but with a bit more…
Read MoreInvitation: Makers and Making, and the opening of our new shop
Yes, we have finished our move, and are ready to start making again! Join us March 27th from 6:15 to 8:30 and see the new space. But you have to register with Eventbrite by clicking here, because of the crowd we are expecting. Miguel Gomez-Ibanez, President of the North Bennet Street School and I will…
Read MoreCaskets? You make Caskets?
Well, yes. In a way. But not the casket you normally think of. Jewelry caskets. Specifically, embroidered jewelry caskets similar to ones made from 1625 to 1700 in England. And some in France. And an occasional one in the Low Countries. I got started with this almost four years ago when I was introduced…
Read MoreDesign by Hand and Eye
I usually don’t get involved with little snippets of things, but every once in a while something comes across the bench that shows significant creativity and an understanding of a more complex topic. This happens to be one. A great stop-motion short about designing a footstool using Leonardo’s concepts embodied in Vitruvian Man, which he…
Read MoreA New Beginning
Fort Point Cabinetmakers, where I have been a Managing Partner for the last 9 years, is moving. There are eight of us, all traveling on slightly different paths, but coalescing in a supportive group of furniture makers working together to keep the craft alive and vibrant. Here is where we would normally get into the…
Read MoreThe Ultimate in Bog Oak trees
Earlier in the week we heard about the woman who discovered a 10,000 year old forest – underwater – about 300 yards off the north Norfolk coast of England. She was out for a morning dive and came across the trees lying in 20 feet of water, probably uncovered in a big storm the year…
Read MoreThe Creative Process…
It has been almost 15 years since I started making furniture seriously, and over that time I have tried to hew to one particular mantra – to make only beautiful, useful furniture. And sure enough, over the course of time I have made hundreds of pieces, and each time I vow to make the next…
Read MoreLouis Comfort Tiffany – Chairmaker
At the Winter Antiques Show in New York this weekend, I ran across this chair at the Hirschl&Adler Gallery booth. Made by Louis Comfort Tiffany (yes, the same guy who did all of those wonderful lamps) sometime around 1891-93, it is a sidechair, and H&A has a table that is also similar. So I…
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