Rob is the editor at Canadian Woodworking & Home Improvement and a studio furniture maker.
In my conversation with Yuri Kobayashi a few weeks ago, she named Gord Peteran as her favourite Canadian maker. Gord has mixed furniture making with art for decades, and has built a critically acclaimed career out of it. With pieces in many galleries across North America, his work will continue to be seen by the public for generations.
In my first “Ask the Artist” column I talked with Yorgo Liapis, who mentioned his favourite internationally made piece was “Being” by Yuri Kobayashi. I contacted Yuri, who was pleased to hear Yorgo loves not only her work, but her work ethic and willingness to help others.
I’ve said it before, but we woodworkers are a lucky bunch. While other folks are shopping for gifts for holidays, we’re in our shops making something for the loved ones in our lives.
I’ve just finished what turned out to be a really simple workstation renovation job for a friend. They had a pretty good idea of what they wanted the finished workstation to look like, but hadn’t a clue how to get there.
I’d like to bring more studio furniture into my weekly blog. There are so many fantastic pieces of one-of-a-kind furniture that have been carefully designed and crafted, it would be a shame not to celebrate these Canadian-made pieces, as well as those from all over the world.
Rob profiles prolific spoon maker Keith Sherwin from Banff, Alberta, and Yorgo Liapis, a furniture maker and wood artist from Toronto.
Before Christmas I wrote about the simple task of installing baseboard in about half of the house. It was going to go really quickly, take almost no energy out of me and be done before I knew it. I was also going to pop some crown moulding in place right after the baseboard was done.
To some, a new year is about making resolutions, setting new goals and getting a fresh start. The only resolution I’ve ever made and kept was a “stop making new year’s resolutions” resolution I made about 20 years ago. Easiest resolution ever.
Cutting Curves While Cordless
Building your own dining table can make those special moments even greater.
Simple renovations any DIYer can undertake to improve the resale value of their home and also make it more cozy, attractive and efficient to live in.
This column rounds out exactly one year of weekly posts (as long as you give me a pass for the week off leading up to Christmas), and I just realized today I have yet to mention a small, portable marble run I made with my son almost two years ago.
Installing trim is never easy. I set myself up for this. I tricked myself into thinking this job would be easy, even though I knew very well that’s almost never the case.
Beauty is subjective. Every one of us has a different opinion of what looks good and what doesn’t. I’ve seen many beautiful pieces of furniture, many of which are Canadian-made, but there’s one piece that stands out from all the rest.
I think adding intricate joinery to pieces of furniture, mainly to challenge ourselves in the shop, but also to add visual interest is a fun approach to working wood.
A good friend of mine enjoys cooking and hosting dinners. His birthday was coming up, so I decided a charcuterie board would make a good gift.
A wise woodworker once said, “The difference between a good woodworker and a bad woodworker is their ability to fix their mistakes.” There is definitely some truth to this, although I don’t think this is the only difference between these two types of woodworkers.
A Whole New World of Joinery
A cost-effective, simple and efficient solution to help woodworkers and DIYers with a common small workshop challenge of cutting sheet goods to size.
A quality table saw crosscut jig will help you make accurate, repeatable crosscuts every time.
We all need more shop space, but another approach is to make better use of what we have.
First, let’s get this out of the way. Power. It’s got loads of power. I completely buried a series of 2-1/2″ long x #10 flat head screws into solid red oak quickly and effortlessly.
Using Milwaukee’s Surge for a few days made me realize I should free up a place on my drill storage rack for a small impact driver.
Most woodworkers are guilty of saving a few too many workshop scraps. Whether it’s bits of domestic hardwood, offcuts of sheet goods or the always valuable small exotic offcuts, we could all keep less than we do. But once in a while our hoarding pays off.
