Symposium Aftermath

Now that the 2014 edition of the Working Wood in the Eighteenth Century Symposium is over and all of our attendees are (hopefully) back home safe, sound, and ready for another year of period furniture making, we thought we should probably get to work finishing up those pieces we demonstrated on stage. Before we do that though, we wanted to offer up a sincere expression of our gratitude to all who attended.  It’s great to see so many familiar faces along with some new ones as well.  A lot of work goes into preparing these conferences, but the period furniture makers family reunion atmosphere you all help create makes the effort more than worth our while.  We thank you and hope to see you all again next year – that includes you too, readers who could not make it.  We’ll let you know when we have a theme for next year worked out.

Cabinetmaker Brian Weldy is just moments away from final assembly on the gate leg table.

I mentioned to folks that the end of the Symposium effectively marks the beginning of the new year for us in the Hay shop.  Here’s our collective resolution: to be more active bloggers.  That means we’ll keep you up to date on our progress with the early gate leg table, the Buckland and Sears sideboard, all the other shop projects underway, and any random musings about eighteenth century cabinetmaking we might have.

Bill Pavlak and Kaare Loftheim are progressing with work on the Buckland and Sears Sideboard. Here’s where we are on the front rail There is still a lot to do!

We would like to extend our congratulations to W. Patrick Edwards, the recipient of Society of American Period Furniture Maker’s 2014 Cartouche Award for lifetime achievement.  Patrick has spent the last 45 years studying and building pre-industrial furniture with period appropriate tools and techniques – a man after our own hearts.  Whether or not you are familiar with his work and writing, I encourage you to look him up: his blog, his website, and The American School of French Marquetry, which he runs.  For what it’s worth, his example was a real inspiration in my own decision to head down a path of historically informed cabinetmaking about a decade ago.  It was real pleasure for all of us here to meet Patrick and his wife and “talk shop.”

The Symposium also gave us the opportunity to work closely with MESDA and its gracious staff, especially Robert Leath and Daniel Ackermann.   We were also pleased to have Steve Latta back at the conference this year, as any opportunity to watch him present and teach is always welcome indeed.  Steve’s willingness to expand his presentations to accommodate a last minute schedule change was more than kind and we’re so grateful.  Our own Colonial Williamsburg joiner Ted Boscana also deserves a mountain of thanks for expanding his program at the last moment.

Finally, my drawings for details of the Buckland and Sears sideboard table came out quite poorly in the Symposium handout.  I apologize for that and have included them here for everyone.  I would also like to direct you to Tim Killen’s SketchUp blog for Fine Woodworking where he has included a digital version of the egg and dart molding.  Tim has been a steadfast supporter of the Symposium through his blog for the past several years and we’re quite grateful for that.

Here’s to a great 2014!

Bill Pavlak.

Buckland and Sears Egg and Tongue/Dart Pattern

Foot Design for Buckland and Sears Sideboard Table.