We're just plain ol' 'crafty' country folk that like
to sit on the front porch and look at sunsets and watch the occasional
car go by. KC does a little woodworking, and Jeannie does a little
cross stitch. We recently finished building our house (11/97) in the
metropolis of Leesville, Texas (don't blink or you'll miss the sign),
which is about 70 miles southeast of San Antonio, and 70 miles south of
Austin...plenty far for driving to work, but close enough to go to the
mall if you really have to.
We're to share our lives with two fine dogs, two indoor cats, two unwanted outdoor cats, and have 5 children between us.
Now that you're here, you can scroll down the page and see some
pictures of things we've made. Wow! We don't have near enough stuff to have a 'site', or even enough to be a
complicated page, but just to prove we can do it, here's a couple of links!
See the mutts!
Skip the wood stuff and go to the cross stitch!
A couple of house photos!
A few woodworking observations...
Go to KC's business site (please!)
Skip everything and drop us a line!
KC's Wood Story
I've been woodworking since 1979...I remember because it was my first Christmas in the Air Force,
and we didn't have enough money to buy things and make the trip home, too. So I bought a cheap
Black & Decker jigsaw and went after it. Made a couple of those towel racks with a 3/4" dowel and
a shelf on top, and curvy end pieces. Obviously, these were rudimentary projects, but I wore out
my fingers making sure all the curves were sanded smooth, and they turned out as good as they
could be under the circumstances. I've still got a picture of one somehwere, but you'll never
see it!
I progressed quickly to desk nameplates...bought a cheap Black & Decker router and a veining bit,
and routed the names in pine 1 X 4s. 'Your name here' for five bucks. My first custom work!
It was shortly after the nameplate kick that I discovered the Air Force had pretty neat Arts & Crafts
centers, with all the BIG tools, and people there to help you learn how to use 'em. That's when
I was hooked, and that's when I made my first checkerboard out of walnut and maple...the first time I
ever really spent any money for material. For me, that checkerboard was the difference between
being somebody who can make it if they have to, and somebody who has to make it themselves, even if it
ends up costing more than buying it!
I went through a 'furniture' stage where I built everything, and much of it has since fallen apart, since I
was in that 'I can build it' mode, but I really had no idea what I was doing. You won't see pictures
of these 'early-early' projects, because most of them literally did fall apart. With the exception of
a couple of things that have been accidentally destroyed, the photos below depict actual, surviving stuff
I've made.
I'm now woodworking full time, so hopefully anything I build in the future will also survive...
Woodworking Projects
Cherry and walnut rockers, finished with natural WATCO danish oil and Deft lacquer.
Here's Kristen sitting at
the cherry writing desk completed in April. It's based on the New
Yankee Workshop design, with some cosmetic modifications. The chair is
a copy of one I saw somewhere, and is very similar to a Woodsmith
design. Both are finished with danish oil and satin polyuerathane.
This mesquite clock with
a bim-bam mechanical movement was finished (finally!) on
11/16/98...that's when I decided I'd better quit before I REALLY
screwed it up. Dimensions are 17 1/4" W x 9 1/2 D x 38 1/2 H. It's
got three adjustable shelves for collectible goodies, and a pine
beadboard back for contrast. The shelves are cut to allow the pendulum
to swing in front. This project was riddled with problems and tool
failures, and hopefully I can apply the lessons learned next time! I
threw in a shot of my first mantel clock effort...more of these already
underway.
This is a 36" roundtop coffee table that I recently
finished (June 1998). It's mesquite with natural WATCO oil, followed
by Varathane semi-gloss. The black 'inlay' that's hard to see in these
pictures is routed, painted, and then filled with a two-part epoxy
filler. The little 'tulip' pattern is repeated 8 times around the border
of the top. I will soon be starting on a square coffee table, because Jeannie
doesn't think this one 'goes' in the living room!
This mesquite coffe table is
21 1/2" x 43 1/2", with turned 'club' feet. The leg is turned
'normal', then moved off-center at the bottom to produce the club.
The hole in the top goes all the way through, and is filled with epoxy.
This is a 22" roundtop mesquite table, 26" high.
2 drawer mesquite 'bedside' table, 26" high.
A cherry oval table with rosewood dowel pegs.
Walnut sewing chest, with velvet lined drawers and mesquite dividers. Made specifically to hold cross-stitch floss.
This cherry bookcase was the first ‘quality’ furniture project I made...sometime in 1985-1986. I think the
design was from an early Woodsmith magazine, and called for slide-up glass doors. I left them off, since
they would have just attracted fingerprints (kids!). The raised panels were cut on the table saw, and I
remember quite a bit of sanding. It’s finished with WATCO cherry danish oil and Formby’s tung oil, and
it still looks good (to me!).
I made this oak gun cabinet for my father-in-law (he helped!). It's
an eight gun cabinet, with shelves for pistols or whatnots on the side. We
used 3/8 'Rough-tex' siding for the back and side walls, beacuse I like the
way it takes paint...a 'country white' paint will still allow some of the
pine color to show through. On the inside, standard baseboard molding is
covered with velvet, and 5/8 velvet tape from the sewing department gives
the guns some protection from the wood. This unit is two pieces; the base
with two drawers and 1 cabinet, and the top. I made one just like this for
the neighbor shortly afterward.
This cradle is made from Honduras mahogany, and was built for what turned out to be my son, Kyle. I
remember I found the original design in a hardcover furniture book, but I modified it quite a bit. The
swing stand is built for knockdown, and held together with a series of turned dowels and pins. As I recall,
it’s finished with WATCO cherry danish oil and Formby’s tung oil. I was working on this cradle on my
lunch break the day the space shuttle Challenger exploded....so I’m one of the people who’ll always
remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard the news.
I made this table in early 1986, from a design I believe I got from the same book as
the cradle idea. It's a swivel/tilttop dropleaf table made from Honduras mahogany, with inlays
of walnut, cherry, and maple. The leaves were held 'open' by a sliding dovetail lock.
It was not stained, and finished simply with Formby's tung oil. It was a challenging project,
and quite impressive when it was new. This table was the 1st place winner in the
USAF Air Training Command Artist/Craftsman contest in 1986.
Unfortunately, young children, dogs, and 'delicate' furniture don't always mix well...
This is a hall/sofa table I made in late 1986 or 1987. It’s Honduras mahogany with a WATCO cherry and
Formby’s tung oil finish (must’ve been my favorite finish then). The legs are cut from 12/4 stock, and the
side and front rails are connected to them with sliding dovetails. The drawers are also built with sliding
dovetails, and the bottoms lined with red velvet. The carving on the front was my first (and last!) attempt,
and it was done with an everyday Stanley multi-purpose chisel...all I had back then. The carving was not part
of the original design, but covers some glaring error that I can’t recall. I look at this table today, and it still
irritates me that the grain on the drawer fronts is mismatched. This table was the 1st place winner in the
USAF Air Training Command Artist/Craftsman contest in 1987.
This ‘sewing chest’ from 1987 has become sort of a companion piece to the hall/sofa table. It’s also
Honduras mahogany with the cherry WATCO and Formby’s finish. The sides of this chest are solid 7/8
panels, and show no ill effects of movement. Like the hall/sofa table, the legs are cut from 12/4 stock, and
the panels and face frame joined to them with sliding dovetails. Having learned my lesson, the drawer
fronts on this project were all cut from a single, wide piece of lumber....all the grain is continuous. I made
the drawers with my new Craftsman dovetail jig using red oak for the sides and backs, and lined the
bottoms with red velvet.
I gave this firetruck to my younger sister when she married a volunteer fireman.
Many years later, I built one for myself out of ‘rescued’ mesquite. I sent the train
to my Dad for his 55th birthday. The train sits on it's own little maple track with walnut 'ties' and base.
It was the runner-up in the 1985 Artist/Craftsman contest. The judges didn't think it was 'functional'. I said, "Hey, it
sits there and looks pretty...and it rolls on the track!"....but they didn't buy it. As I recall, 1st place went to a little
bandsawn jewelry box. I'm almost over it, though.
While I was in the Air Force, I made quite a few retirement/going away gifts....shadow boxes mostly, but
occasionally, ‘going away flags’ were presented to the outgoing general. While I made several, this is by
far my favorite, and I wish I had a better picture of it. This was presented to then Major General Ralph
Havens, who passed away unexpectedly not long after while still on active duty. The ‘opposing flags’ are
in individual boxes, and angle toward each other in the middle. The solid ‘plaque board’ in the middle is
set back from the front of the boxes, and the emblem towards the bottom is inlaid. The frames of the flag
boxes have compound angle edge details, and the base angles outward in the front and follows the shape
defined by the compound cuts at the lower corners of the boxes. The ‘geometry’ of all the angles really
worked well together. This project was the first time I used a WATCO natural danish oil finish on cherry,
and also when I decided that I would never again put a stain on such a beautiful wood.
I made this oak cabinet specifically to house our small collection
of David Winter Cottages. It was stained with Minwax special walnut, had TIG natural
red oak for the back, and a spray poly finish. A good friend of ours had admired it, so we
'handed it down' to her on her birthday. Apparently I could've done a better
job building it...a case of the dropsies on moving day killed it (and me!).
Here's a porch swing I whipped up a couple of months ago. I used the
basic seat 'scoop' of an adirondak chair, and straightened up the back a little. I've got 2x6s
for seat supports, but otherwise the whole thing is made out of 1x6 dog-eared
pickets from the local McCoy's. The chain and hardware cost nearly as much
as the wood did. This is where we sit to watch the sunset.
I have turned bowls on and off for several years, but the recent ones seem to be better....imagine that! I use
mesquite when I can, because it works so well and has the ‘Texas flavor’, but I like turning exotic woods,
too. When I envision a bowl, it’s almost always a southwest pottery shape, but sometimes they don’t turn
out that way!
This is a fairly ordinary step-back hutch of cherry with TIG oak for the back, finished with natural
WATCO danish oil. I don’t like to cut around the white in cherry, but rather try to use it for accent, or
balance. I also think the lighter color helps the project ‘blend in’ with other furnishings. The lower doors
both have white in the middle of the panels, and ‘balancing’ white in the door frames. Squint closely at this
terrible picture and you'll see one of those nifty, multi-species turned rolling pins on the ledge...I made a few
of them one Christmas.
Anybody who's ever done cross stitch knows that these pictures represent
quite a bit of time (!!) We have tried to decorate our house in the 'southwesty' style,
so most of the more recent projects have a Native American or pottery theme. Teddy
bears are also a favorite.
