The Eidos of Table, part two

The essence of a Nakashima-style dining table is that the finished product evokes the original tree. Not in any rustic haphazard fashion but the elegant modern design makes one appreciate the living tree from which the lumber was harvested. It also brings to mind our connection to the paleolithic hominid who put their gathered roots and berries on a fallen log instead of dropping their dinner in the dirt.

Our Cherry slabs would be  book matched, placed side by side with the branch stubs in mirror image. The outside board edges would be left as the tree had grown. The inside edges would be trimmed just enough to join the slabs to make the table top but a void would remain where the growing tree had curved. The two sections would be joined by joined wedges, butterflies. George Nakashima had favored Mahogany with Black Walnut butterflies. As our table was constructed of local Pennsylvania woods, we would use Birds Eye Maple for contrast against the Cherry boards. The birds eye marking would resemble the variegation of an actual butterfly wings and I wanted to maintain a lighter color tone.

Hans Wegner was a Danish contemporary of Nakashima. The finished live edge table would be paired with set of light Maple Hans Wegner wishbone chairs. The wishbone chair combines the shape of a traditional Ming chair with sleek Scandinavian construction. Aside from the designs dating from the same era the maple butterflies and bowed backs would echo each other. 

The workshop had to grow to accommodate the project.

The 10+ foot slabs took over the workshop. Francis decided the solution was a bigger workshop to complete the project. His 12 x15 shed pupped a giant 15 x 20 child. Now he had the original workshop for tools and the new area for woodworking. No reason for a workshop to look utilitarian, along with expansion came french doors for better light and air flow, a deck to rest from his labors and a stone patio with a fire-pit to burn the scrap. It’s not a workshop it’s a cottage,
dubbed “Labrotorio Artigianale Di Francisco” with it’s own address 118b.

Sealing, smoothing and aligning the rough slabs took every day of several vacations in the new space. A snapped plumb line from end to end determined the minimum wood to remove to join the two slabs. Just a small sliver off the side opposite the branch stub would permit the two boards to be joined but maintain a partial void  towards one end. To support and level the heavy slabs 2x2 stringers cut two inches shorter than the table width and attached to what would be the bottom of the top.

 Once the wood was stable, it was butterfly time. A half-dozen butterflies would rest in this table top. Each butterfly in the table required both a carved insert and a matching carved divot. 

Francis estimated it took him seven hours to carve out and assemble each butterfly. He started out with a paper template. The paper template was scribed onto the cherry table top and then glued onto the Birds Eye Maple stock. He sawed out the block and hand beveled the edges. The table top was hand carved to crisply set the dimensions. With a Forsner bit he set the rough depth and removed some initial waste and using  a router he removed more waste. The delicate work of carving just to but not beyond the outline and beveling out the sides of the divot was completed with hand chisels. 

The bevel and shaping  of both the divot and the insert had to be precise in slant and proportion. The butterfly insert must be slightly larger at the base than the opening of the divot but precisely the same dimension as the base of the divot. When knocked into place the two units snap tight with just a film of glue between. The opposing angles of the butterfly's wings drawing the two slabs together. Delicate butterflies joining two heavy slabs of lumber into one elegant table top.   The stringers running across the bottom  counterbalanced by the butterflies snapped and glued in place on the top, the opposing forces preventing the table top from buckling or bowing.

 

Finally, the top is complete and the finishing commences. To a man learned in the ways of French Polish, a finish cannot be rushed. First a seal coat, sand it away, then base coat, sand that down, then a top coat, sand that smooth, then the finish polish, which must be buffed to a gentle glow. We are still at the buffing stage. Will he ever be satisfied? Hmmm...

And between the butterflies and the finish, we encounter a design dilemma and make another  trip to Aldenville.  Should our table base replicate the Conoid (cantilevered) style or the Minguren (slab) style? In any case  materials must be sourced and it’s back to visit Dan Droppa.

When we arrive at Aldenville Lumber http://www.avlumber.com/ there is a new addition to the site. In the center of the lot is a pen filled with Japanese Quail. Tiny spotted birds wandering around, squawking at us and dropping tiny spotted eggs at random. Dan tells us that he bought some lumber from a farmer and picked up some baby Quail while he was there. The minute birds leave him eggs every day, which he reports he greatly enjoys with salad.

Francis has speced a number of lengths and sizes of Cherry from which to make the base. Once again, all hands on deck become involved in the selections, trimming and planing. They pull blocks and boards from the stacks for Francis’ approval then cut the lumber to size and plane the rough surface smooth. We are only charged for the segments we request but the remainders are thrown in as well, plus a pile of Cherry 2x2s to use as checks when stacking the wood.  Amazed at the service we have received, we begin to drive away, only to have Dan run after us. His hands are full, “Would you like a dozen quail eggs to take home?” 

Francis contemplates his creation.

How can an Old Goat Learn a New Trick with New Tech?

Say Brioche to most people and they imagine elegant soft textured bread. Brioche to a knitter is similarly elegant soft textured knitting. Brioche knitting is rumored to have ancient Middle Eastern roots. The etymology of the term is equally vague.

Not this kind of Brioche...

It may be a reference to the shape of a brioche roll, two pieces, one stacked on top the other, like brioche  knitting has two yarns stacked one on top of the other. How it went from the Middle East to France is unknown.

This kind of Brioche...

When I discovered the shaker knit sweaters I’ve always loved were brioche stitch I set myself to learn the technique. Never have I been so confused. Books did not have a basic description. Written instructions were unintelligible text:  brk, brp and brkyobrkypobrkyo. At my local yarn store the resident expert was equally confused by the written instructions. Further more, she had never made anything in the two-color technique I wanted to master. It was frustrating.

Frustrated but undeterred I investigated three different types of on-line tutorials:  U-tube demos; a professional training video and a professional E-book (http://knitfreedom.com/classes/brioche). There are multiple u-tube videos on brioche stitch. Some were amateurish in the worst sense, poor audio and/or video quality or simply tedious. If you make mistakes taping an instructional video, start over for pete’s sake! The one which was clearest and seemed to the point was in a language which I do not speak so I was lost, again. A commercial instructional video which I purchased and downloaded had excellent production quality but suffered in two aspects: prolonged introductions and an inflexible format.  The expert explaining the technique unfortunately looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights and her extended verbiage-only descriptions were both uncomfortable and tedious.  Being an expert does not necessarily make one a teacher. In addition, the continuous video made it difficult for me to skip the items I easily understood and repeat the items for which I needed more time.

The winning way for me to learn the technique was the e-book. The e-book features short text introductions with concise and well focused videos. Each short video clip has a descriptive voiceover while the technique is displayed. This creates an effective learning tool by providing a conceptual framework, then demonstrating the concept with detailed explanation. As each segment is a separate clip, you can concentrate on just the skill you want and repeat until you have mastered it. This particular E-book like many others in this format is available both on-line and as a downloadable document, so that you can continue practice whether on or off the internet. There is even a receive a mobile version E-Book designed to run on a  smartphone, iPad, or Kindle so the instructions can go with you anywhere. Way cool! From now on when I want to learn how to do something my search will be for an E-book on the subject.
   
The E-book format enabled me to brk and brp with the best. If you have any interest in mastering Brioche waste not your time and proceed directly to http://knitfreedom.com/  for their excellent Beginning and Intermediate Brioche Knitting  video e-book (http://knitfreedom.com/classes/brioche). I am thoroughly impressed with knitfreedom.com and have placed myself on the waiting list for their upcoming advanced brioche e-book. They have a similar tutorials on a variety of other knitting techniques as well as some free patterns.

[Note to reader:  from here on it’s all about knitting.]

 
What makes Brioche really neat is - - it is a kind of double knit with two layers of fabric interwoven in a ribbed pattern. Each row is completed in two circuits , in two-color brioche once in each color. Basic Brioche is a kind of 1 x 1  rib, working in the round, the main color would be the knit stitches while the contrast color would be the purl stitches. What makes Brioche unique is you alternate a worked stitch with a slipped stitch. When working the knits you slip the purl stitches and simultaneously wrap each purl stitch with a yarn over.  Similarly when working the purls you slip the knit stitches and simultaneously wrap each knit stitch with a yarn over. In the knit or purl process the yarn over is worked together with the stitch. This is a radical departure from usual knitting, the yarn overs in Brioche are not individual stitches but are accessories to the worked stitches.

Dear Spouse was also very taken by the appearance and texture of two color brioche and requested a neck-warmer/hood/balaclava. To this end I’ve designed a simple tube garment which can be tucked under the coat collar and adjusted for comfort. If the weather is really nasty, just pull it up over the ears or all the way over the head. The doubled rib of the brioche stitch provides enough resilience to stretch from neckline to skull and return to the original shape.

Note about casting on:  Most brioche patterns I’ve read suggest unusual cast on and bind off techniques, often involving sewing. The rationale for these techniques eludes me. If I wanted to hand sew I be making crewelwork not knitting. Use the cast on and bind off with which you are most comfortable. My personal preference is the Old Norwegian/Twisted German Caston with a Twisted Stitch Bind off, as they create a softly roped edge.


Franiclava

Materials:  16" circular needles in size 10
and another larger needle just for the cast-on
One marker
3 oz each of two contrasting worsted weight yarns
    The yarns used in the sample are Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride Worsted (85% Wool/15% Mohair) in Onyx and Paton’s Classic Wool Worsted (100% Wool) in Grey Marl

Directions:
Cast-on in Old Norwegian/Twisted German [see reference] 60 stitches loosely using a larger needle.  Transfer the stitches to the 16" size 10 circular needle. Connect the two ends of the cast-on row without twisting the row and place a marker at the beginning of the work. The marker serves as a reminder that a half-round or round has been completed and it is time to change yarns.

Round 1 - - knit plain

Round 2a - - Brioche setup, alternately knit a stitch and slip the next with a simultaneouswrap of yarnover - - in knitting shorthand this is written as:
      (k1 yf sl1yo yb) to marker sm switch yarn 
Round 2b - - Brioche setup for the second color, alternately slip a stitch  with a simultaneous wrap of yarnover and purl the next one - - in knitting shorthand this is written as:  
     (p1 sl1yo yf) to marker sm switch yarn

Round 3a - - Knit each knit  stitch together with it’s contrasting yarnover wrap and slip each purl stitch wrapping the yarn over the needle as you slip the stitch. Knitting the stitch together with it’s wrapped yarnover if called a Brioche knit - - in knitting shorthand Brk1. This row in shorthand is:   
     (Brk1 yf sl1yo yb) to marker sm switch yarn 
Round 3b - - Purl each purl  stitch together with it’s contrasting yarnover wrap and slip each knit stitch wrapping the yarn over the needle as you slip the stitch. Purling the stitch together with it’s wrapped yarnover if called a Brioche Purl - - in knitting shorthand Brp1. This row in shorthand is:  

    (Brp1 sl1yo yf) to marker sm switch yarn
 
Continue alternating Round 3a and 3b, until the tube is 16" long. Bind off using your preferred technique or the suggested Twisted Stitch bind off, [see reference].





Reference:    
Old Norwegian/Twisted German Cast on
http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/howto/archive/2008/05/15/old-norwegian-cast-on.aspx

and 

http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/cast-on


Twisted Stitch Bind off  

detail of bind off showing rope effect

Can’t find this anywhere but it can’t be unique.  At the end of a round when you are ready to bind off:   knit one and place the new knitted stitch back on the left needle, knit 2 together through the back loop and place the new the knitted stitch back on the left needle while twisting the new stitch around, [the same maneuver as in a cable cast-on]. Continue in this fashion, placing each subsequent new stitch back onto the left needle in a twisted configuration and knitting the twisted stitch and the next in line together through the back loop. The double twist makes this  bind off wrap over the edge of the last row of the knitting project, similar to a i-cord bind off or crochet crab-stitch edging but stretchier.

Michelle's Ghost Story


Halloween was last week and it brought to mind an odd incident my Sister experienced.

Mom, is second from left, with her Aunts on either side
and her Mother to the far Right. 

Our Mother died years ago. She was around just after the birth of my Sister's son but was gone before his first birthday. Mom had immense charm, a great sense of style and no financial management skill. She was petite,  blond, adorable with great legs and a penchant for antique wire framed spectacles. Mom lived to shop. Case in point:  Dad was an economist but had to declare bankruptcy after a decade of salary without taxes overseas. As a result, my Sister inherited Mom's charm, style and great legs but very little of fiduciary value. The exception were Mom's wedding and engagement rings which my Sister always wore along with her own. 

Michelle

My Sister is a costume designer. At this point in her career she was shopping for a living. All day long she would dash through Manhattan buying character appropraite designer clothes, watched as they were tried on and fitted,then dashed off to return the excess. She had effectively turned Mom's shopping defect into a creative career. Taxis were her primary transport mode. Rushing from family to fittings to Bergdorf's to Barney's and ultimately to reclaim the infant son from the babysitter. 


One day shortly after our Mother had passed on, the baby was with relatives on the East Side and Michelle with bundles of garments was on her way, by taxi, to pick him up. Since she was all over the City, she would place her "valuables", the two sets of rings, in her wallet for safekeeping. When she arrived at her in-laws, she paid the taxi, threw her half-eaten bagel lunch in a trash receptacle and went into their apartment building. Rearranging her purchases and personal property upon arrival, she reached for her wallet and realized it was gone.


First she thought of the multitude of receipts which she had to turn in for reimbursement and credits, then she thought of the cards she used to make the purchases, then she remembered the rings. The rings! Bursting into tears, she tore out of the apartment heading back to the Avenue. The only tangible thing remaining from her mother, and her own mementos. She had to find the missing wallet!. 


She first checked the trash receptacle where she had disposed of her uneaten lunch. Her in-laws would not have approved of their Daughter-in-law butt-up in the air head-down digging through trash cans on Fifth Avenue. Her discomposure was to no avail,  the bagel was located but no wallet. Thoughts raced through her mind. Perhaps she had left the wallet in the taxi? The taxi was long gone. How to contact a taxi? Wasn't there a taxi commission? Maybe she could ask a police officer; would they know? How do you find a cop when you actually want one? As she gazed wide-eyed up and down Fifth, she saw two big burley blue backs talking to a doorman on the other side of the Avenue. 


She ran across. She was about to ask how to contact a taxi... but the words which burst out of her mouth were "How did you get my wallet?" One of the policemen was holding her wallet, waving it around gesturing to his crony. The cop looked at her and said "Lady, do you have some ID?" A discussion ensued in which she clarified that she had no ID because she had no wallet because the cop was holding the item. Once she had collected her thoughts and her property, the question returned "How did you get my wallet?" The cop shrugged and hooked a thumb towards the doorman. 


As the police departed the doorman explained that a few minutes before my Sister had made her breathless entry into his building, a cute little old lady wearing a short-skirt and incongruous wire-rimmed glasses had walked in. The old lady had  handed the wallet to him and immediately departed. Michelle was dumbstruck at the coincidence of the description. She turned away and shaking her head, began to walk back to retrieve her son. The doorman shouted to her "Oh, the old lady said something - - that you should take better care of your Mother's things." 

Mother’s Day Pense

Grandson just turned two. Our Maternal event was a Sheep and Wool Festival.  The little urchin is just distinguishing  different animals; discovering and petting the sheep plus alpacas and rabbits made his day. He kept calling the goats "doggies". His  impression was reinforced as the goats climbed on chairs. It is wonderful to observe and help him explore the world and learn.

The last of the Wisteria in my garden faded and fell on Mother's Day. Each year I wait for the week of floral glory. Not only are the flowers a visual treat and the new leaves a subdued bronze but also they exude an  aroma which the soft Spring breezes spread throughout the house. Wisteria combines the best qualities of any flower and the brief display makes their beauty all the more poignant.

The rampant Wisteria vines are lovely in and of themselves but the cascading racemes of blossoms also carry a divine message to me. They present, a moral lesson about the passage of time and the need to pause and appreciate the world in the display. Flowers don't have to be beautiful. Their beauty and our ability to appreciate that beauty is my evidence of  a positive plan to the universe. 

Each year we host a Garden Party to for all our friends to enjoy the Wisteria. This year, the Wisteria peak coincided with the Grandchild's second birthday. We were able to rejoice in two wonders at once! In hindsight, his childhood will seem as fleeting as the blossoms.

Running for the Hills

For three decades I dwelled in a suburban town contentedly working for the town and rearing my Daughter. The suburban setting never appealed to me but it was ideal for a custodial parent and an independent child. She could safely wander the neighborhood, ride her bike "downtown" or take the local bus to the Mall. As she became a teen my concerns of her being out at night were not new urban panic but more in line with mid-century boys with cars.

Before I settled in the burbs I had lived and worked in Manhattan. Working with multiply-disabled in a residential /training facility taught me more than I taught the clients. After a classic Ivory Tower education and a degree in Philosophy, I needed to learn about the real essence of  humanity. My clients had none of the intellectual graces or social refinements which I'd been told were the hallmarks of character. Oh, they were characters! They were interesting unique people, full of individuality, often possessing great personal charm and in some cases really good company. One fellow would take the subway uptown to watch ballgames and play cards with my Husband. He won most of his hands, too.

My specializations in working with clients became designing behavior modification and language acquisition programs and assisting with recreational and occupation therapy. My clients were admittedly difficult personalities and forget rational discussions about moderate behavior. The behavior modification techniques I learned to work with my clients also worked very well with your more standard issue children. Normal bouncy children need to be on-task and goal-oriented too. Relatives would comment that my Daughter had no chance, no chance at all of breaking bad. [She did, I can assure you, but she was never really BAD.]  Furthermore, dealing with the more adversarial and unbalanced clients prepared me for government work. After many years of small-town politics I can only state that politicians have better social skills but are no more rational than the residents of Manhattan Development Centers.
 
Lastly, I learned patience. When you spend days training someone how to hold a button or restraining them from bashing themselves into a cinder block wall, live is put into perspective and you begin to experience each moment on it's own. A tenet of Judaic philosophy is that each day should be like a pearl, your life like a string of pearls. Acceptance of the passage of time is embodied here. The patience I learned from the intellectually stunted helped me pass 30 years in the suburbs. To pass my time I practiced occupational and recreational therapy on myself, teaching myself one handcraft after another. While my nerves were fraying, my hands were becoming adept. Recognizing that the bustle of the city was no longer the best place for me, I found a cottage in the mountains, just a train ride from my home town. Here I shall stay patiently refining my artisan skills, designing and making crafts.  

The Eidos of Table, part one

A century ago when I was in school studying the great books and pondering the nature of Western civilization, there were long Socratic seminars about the perfect forms or eidos. While Plato intended the concept to indicate the perfect good or virtue, we always ended up talking about the perfect form and virtue of a table, making grand gestures over the conference tables around which we sat. When I first saw the life-edge tables made by George Nakashima, my thought was these are truly the eidos of table. The matched slabs of tree with the voids retained are a perfect combination of woodworking technique and practical function while maintaining a clear lineage to the original tree. Throughout my adult life I have yearned to have and use a Nakashima table. His furniture is highly sought and highly valued, not within my reach or in my price range.

When I became involved with and ultimately married a skilled woodworker, I would respond to Holiday and birthday wish lists with "a Nakashima table". This was a running joke for decades. Eventually we found a cabin in the mountains and he built a nice workshop. If we could find a good old-fashioned lumber yard, perhaps we could find the kind of interesting book-matched lumber similar to that which Nakashima used. At the local town hall we ran across a booklet promoting local wood products, in the booklet one name, Aldenville Log and Lumber, occurred in every category. We set our GPS to the rural location and set off for a day trip to nowhere. After an hour of driving as we passed the center of a large reservoir, the GPS instructed us to turn here! Not quite, we decided to try past the reservoir and in doing so found our destination. If you appreciate the natural beauty of  wood, the skill of turning logs into lumber or the methods of ecological manufacturing you will appreciate Aldenville Log and Lumber. [http://www.avlumber.com/] The owner, Dan Droppa, was in and proudly gave us a tour of his facilities. Three drying barns were in service and they were in the process of building an experimental drying facility. Raw lumber came from his own and local forests. When he had bought the Mill, lumber was cured using oil heat. He had switched the kilns to using sawdust by-products rather than imported fuel. This was a facility with which you wanted to do business.

As we toured the kilns, marveling at stacked Walnut slabs 4 inches thick and three feet wide, we explained that we were more or less looking for live-edge boards, book matched in Cherry. He said he thought there could be a few such boards in another kiln. As we walked into the last kiln, I saw a stack of sliced tree with an interesting branch void at one end. Hmm, "What's this? - - Oh, forgot about that one."  It was a 10 foot long, foot and a half wide Cherry log, sawn into eight 2" thick sequential slices. The two center book-matched slices featured a void where a branch joint had been. The contour of the log would make a perfect table with a classic Nakashima gap along the join. We obtained four slices of that tree, the two center cuts for the table top and two more for future matching accessory pieces. For the butterflies to stabilize the top, Bird's Eye Maple and for the stringers to stabilize the bottom, more Cherry.  Dan's staff dropped everything they were doing to trim, finish and load our lumber. Aldenville Log and Lumber treated like important clients not a couple of craftsmen on a weekend junket.