I’ve been following Jamon Schlimgen blog over at The Drawing Boards for a few months now, so I was excited to see his commitment to designing something new every day of this year. Interacting with something new each day has been a great mental exercise, not just for Jamon, but for myself as well.
Even outside of Jamon’s site, there has been plenty of encouragement within the woodworking blogging community around sketching up new ideas whenever the muse strikes. So in this spirit, I’ve decided to sketch on a regular basis. I know I wouldn’t be able to maintain a daily batch of drawings, so I’m committing to something new each week.
Here’s is my catch-up for Week 1 – a Compound Tapered Leg Side Table:
I got the flash of inspiration for this table while listening to Bob Rozaieski‘s podcast, Hand Tools & Techniques. In Episode 12, Bob is building a story stick for a porringer top tea table. As he’s describing some of the dimensions, he talks about the height of the “knee” on the table leg. For some reason, hearing that work struck a chord within me and this table was the result.
I like the simplicity of this piece. It is all straight lines, yet it avoids looking like a box. Having the table top offset from shelf by 45 degrees also adds a dynamic element to the piece. If you wanted to spice it up, you could add an ogee profile or even a simple chamfer to the table top. I think I’ll add this to the list of pieces I’d like to build. Getting those multi-tapered legs cut will require a lot of thinking and planning to get right.
Bringing this idea to light was a labor of love – I just could not manage to draw it 3-D by hand. Hopefully my drawing will improve over the course of this exercise and I won’t have to build everything in Sketch-Up!
If you are interested in starting your own sketching exercise and need a place to get exposure and feedback, check out Jamon’s new community design effort Furniture Design and submit your own designs!
DAMN!!!