current workings

Winter is a great time to take stock and rethink old ideas. To this end I have been working on a new line of side tables, hall tables and coffee tables. I am also in the process of changing the name of my company, something I should have done long ago, but since it is an incredible pain in the rear I have avoided it like the plague. However 2015 is a new year and with that comes a  new name- Austin Heitzman Furniture- and with that comes a new website (in progress) new business cards and a new line. My interest in exquisite and original pieces of lumber remains the same, I just feel the new name reflects the one of a kind artistry in my work as opposed to inferring a more manufactured line. The work I create is art, art for the home, but art all the same.
How about some pictures?

The new Moon table, more sculptural, a more focused palette and more subtle, and I believe classy, details. 

The new hall table is in progress. I am calling it the Horizon table. The live edge forms a backsplash that also resembles a distant horizon line. The top one is "Sedona Sunset" and the bottom is "Great Plains". Designing the legs for these has been a difficult endeavor, but I am happy with the direction I have chosen.

A new toy. A vacuum press, that makes the bent lamination for the Horizon Table skirt a breeze. I am very excited to explore the potential in this tool. 

I will post about the new website when it is done. 

Wrapped up

Christmas is coming, this is something I am not allowed to forget right now, as many are planning their vacations the retail world is working itself into a frenzy- such is the life.

A lot is going on- I have three articles coming out:
One in Furniture and Cabinetmaking #225 and #226, a British publication for those of you on that side of the pond
http://www.thegmcgroup.com/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=701

I also will have an article in an upcoming issue of Bonsai Focus, also a European publication funny that, but I am not sure which issue yet.
http://www.bonsaifocus.com

For now how about two finished coffee tables.

Catch up

I wanted to catch everyone up on how the coffee table commission is progressing. I am a little ahead of where this post will leave off and I will try and post again shortly- try.

Looking more like a scarab than anything else the parts for the base are rough cut and laid out.

The veneer process takes shape. Brown tape is specialty veneer tape that adheres with water- I once used blue tape instead and after the pressure applied to adhere the veneer it stuck like I have never seen tape stick before. Like removing duct tape from kleenex. Never do that again. On the lower image you can see a rough sketch of the final shape. I made a template with some MDF and a pattern bit to cut the base to size. Also note the other base in production- this, I think, will be a hall table. 

Both bases veneered and cut. 

The four legs attach via sliding dovetails. Using this jig and a guide bushing on the router I can cut the channels fairly easily for the dovetails. 

Art in the Pearl Labor Day Weekend!

For those of you in the Portland Oregon area my wife (http://www.ashleymayjewelry.com) and I will both be participating in one of the top arts and crafts fairs in the country, Art in the Pearl. It is held Labor Day weekend, August 30, 31 and September 1st 2014 at the North Park Blocks in Downtown Portland OR. This is a highly competitive event with only about 130 vendors chosen from over 900 applicants, so the work is always stellar, and we are both very proud to be involved. It is an outdoor event held under the large Elm trees of the Park Blocks, truly beautiful setting and Portland usually provides the perfect weather. Hope to see you there.

visit:
http://www.artinthepearl.com
for details and a complete list of participating artist.

Coffee Table is back

For those who have been following this for a while here is the coffee table with its fossil installed. For those new to this blog, don't look, go back and see this being built, then check out the image.

New commission

The summer show season is drawing to a close, which means a couple of things. Most importantly, to me at least, I will now be able to breath once and awhile. Also I will start to dive more seriously into the many commissions I have piled up. Some of these won't make it here, I am working on getting publications to cover a few and they need the content to be original. However this one will:
Really excited about this piece, I will be making a base to a wall hanging I made a few years ago, turning it into a coffee table. And yes, it will have brass lions feet toe caps.

"Live" Edge

It is a misnomer that the liveedge we hear so much about in contemporary furniture naturally emerged out of the tree fully formed like Athena from Zeus's head. Unless you intend to just cake the bark with finish, and in turn be left with a lifetime of debris as bark and rotten weak bits fall off from use, a liveedge demands a lot of human intervention. However, like bad open mic night performances, there is nothing worse than an unnatural liveedge on a piece of furniture. A successful liveedge is an artistic dance with nature, utilizing many tools to mimic her lines so that the man-made and the natural appear identical even under the sharpest scrutiny. Every bit of bark and other weak parts must be removed so that only the most solid edge is left. The following photos are from a Redwood Table that lost, on average, 3-6" of material around it's perimeter from rot and cracks, most of the liveedge is a fabrication, however if I never would have told you, would you have known?