Sensitive Carpentry: 2007

As the Sensitive Carpenter blog celebrates it's one year anniversary, I find myself reflecting on a list of varied & interesting jobs that I want to write about. Fabrication of furniture, cabinets & set pieces require an investment of energy and resources, which doesn't always leave time for the writing muse.  And then there's that whole thing about wood chips and microchips not mixing.  Let's face it, sawdust & computers aren't really on friendly terms.  Nonetheless, I consider it a privilege and an honor to do this work & I want to pay the joy forward-to you.  So here are a few of this years projects that I enjoyed & I hope you will too..thank you. -SC

• As a freelance art & craft journeyman in New York City, I take on all sorts of neat projects, many of them in production as a scenic/set carpenter. Whether Off Broadway or on the runway, every job has its own unique vision and identity.  I designed and built sets for a friend's production of five one-acts appropriately titled "A Night of One Acts" - Highlights from this job were a dilapidated kitchen set equipped with a butcher block island and sink with fleck counter tops and an Upper East side balcony set comprised of stucco walls, french doors and a banister made of insulation foam painted to look like concrete & slate.
• Another set for a different play, "Dossier: Ronald Ackerman", consisted of a bench & cube reflective of design in the plays country of origin, Holland.  I was pleased with the modern and sleek look of the pieces and am inspired to use elements in future furniture projects.
• The right piece of furniture can illuminate, uplift & really turn a room into a "place". In keeping with my polychromatic love of wood, I designed a space efficient kitchen table & stools for my small NYC apartment.
• I also built set pieces for a MAC cosmetic photo shoot.  Nothing says make-up better than 20 over sized enamel cherry cut-outs!
• I had a couple of cabinet jobs that coincidentally were for the home offices of two different teachers.  One was an addition to a college professor's library in a Manhattan townhouse-it was designed & built to blend with existing wall to wall bookcases that have been there at least 30 years.  The other job, for a Baltimore High School teacher, was a large maple work desk custom designed to fit in the corner of the room & accommodate optimum function for the small space.  It was a pleasure to enhance the lives of two people who've devoted themselves to enriching and enhancing the lives of so many others.
• A neighbor of mine asked me to contribute some original artwork to a skateboard he and his son were building as a gift for a 10 year old relative.  I made a crazy graffiti spraying monkey and released my inner 10 year old.
• I revisited set design elements & foam carving with a 6 foot alligator for a theme party thrown for family & friends during the holiday season entitled "Christmas on the Bayou". We all ate crayfish & gumbo and celebrated yuletide spirit admiring the colorful and festive alligator, instead of the more traditional...log.
• The Christmas season also proved to be busy with a whole lot of small woodworking projects.  I made decorative & functional necklace trees for my sisters and a multi-colored keepsake box for my brother and of course...cutting boards.  I love making & selling each unique handmade board.  They may not be my bread & butter, but they are most certainly my butter.  

Stay Tuned for Updates

After a long break, filled with much carpentry, I will be updating soon.

More sawdust-more tears to come.

Golfer in Paint Pants

Next Stop...Central Illinois.

I spent over 2 weeks right in the middle of cornfields, bean fields and stories of Abraham Lincoln. While there, I took a job as a painter. Donning the required white paint pants and white t-shirt, I reported to work at 6:30AM & clocked out at 4:00PM for a week. I spent my days touching up dorm rooms at Illinois College in preparation for the fall semester. After work, I spent time on my newest athletic pursuit-Golf. I would tee up in my newly marked paint pants. My hair would be speckled with little white dots & the paint was still dripping from my hands as I gripped my 7 wood. Working on my swing at the driving range was a great way to relax & let the paint dry.

I'd never played golf before, minus the windmill...mini-castle...putt-putt variety. Driving on a course, pitching with an iron and putting on the alien surface of green was a recreational revelation. Who knew you could have so much fun carrying around a big heavy bag of tools. Swinging a club is a bit like swinging a hammer-nice & smooth with the follow through, staying square with your target & keeping focus on a single point. And like it is for any carpenter, it is also true for any golfer: know your tools & know what they do.

I loved being outside exploring the contours of the course, choosing the right clubs & swinging away- sending my little white dimpled ball on a scouting flight as we mapped our journey together. I loved hitting balls in the afternoon and I loved my time in Central Illinois as a golfer in paint pants.

A Walk in Oak Park Illinois

It's been a busy summer.
Lots of sawdust and lots of tears, along with a little travel.
I was fortunate enough to have a month to travel and work throughout the Midwestern United States and see some of its architectural and geographic treasures.
The first stop on this journey was Oak Park Illinois, a Chicago suburb & early home of famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, where he designed & built his first residence and studio.
The streets of this Victorian village were full of beautiful gardens and well kept homes, many of them designed by Mr. Wright during and for a few years after his employment as draftsman for the well known turn of the century firm Adler & Sullivan.
My walk through Oak Park was a peaceful botanical & architectural feast.

Woodweb

There's a great website called Woodweb that I find myself coming back to-not only to use their extensive knowledge base and to read their really great forums on everything from adhesives to cabinetmaking-but also to read stories and advice from other carpenters and remodeling professionals.

Below is an excerpt from a forum about dealing with a client that is impossible to please. One carpenter found himself in a precarious situation after installing a vanity and asked for advice about how to walk off a job...

From contributor J: What you've got here is a job that has gone sour due to the behavior of the client. There is nothing you can do to make this person happy, bar doing the rest of the work to museum standards and paying him for the privilege of his letting you work on his house. Your job now is to detach yourself from this situation as quickly and as gracefully as you can. If you can't manage graceful, then settle for quick.
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From contributor B: I too have had clients this way. There is nothing you can do to satisfy this guy... nothing. He will always find something to complain about. If not yesterday, it's today or tomorrow. I'd take the above advice. Remove the vanity, saying that he's not pleased with it. Also take yourself off the job, saying that it is beyond your ability to make maple look like cherry... color, grain and all. The client I had like this, I figured he suffered from OCD and had to have everything perfect, which is impossible to achieve. I am convinced he contributed to my heart attack. Walk and be in better health.
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From contributor L: Been there, analyzed it to death, finally concluded the same thing everyone above has said - bow out quickly and whatever you do, don't go back. Some things never change their stripes!
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From contributor K: Absolutely... get out now. He sounds like the kind of guy that will be shocked that you don't kiss his butt. When he frantically says "What are you doing?" (while you're carrying your stuff out), just tell him how sorry you are that there was an obvious misunderstanding from the beginning and that you cannot give him what he wants at that price. If he tries to barter with you, ask you to stay, agree to pay more, etc. (savor the moment), tell him you'll consider it and then just keep on walking. Leave him hanging.