Centerpieces - (Spalted) Elm with Walnut Bowties

Photo Credit: Uttke Photography & Design

I was lucky enough to get married to the most wonderful person in the world. While this post is not really about how wonderful she is (answer: quite), it is about how she was able to pull these awesome centerpieces together. Between her and the florist, Milwaukee Flower Co., they came up with all of the awesome stuff you see above (as photographed by the indescribably spectacular TJ and Shannon Uttke. Go to their website, give them your money, have them photograph your things. You won't regret it).

My job was to take care of the wood part.

Pictures/discussion after the jump

Walnut Raised Panel Bed

So I built a bed. Our old bed was... uh... not great. Good news though, this one is an improvement (let's hear it for setting a low bar!).

But in all seriousness, I worked off a random advertisement that caught my wife's eye. Naturally, I looked at it aghast at how much they wanted for the quality they were providing. Not to let some furniture outlet show me up, I built this out of solid walnut because there's two ways of doing something, right, or again.

Waterski Console Table

I received a query from an old friend/customer with an interesting request. His recently acquired the waterskis that his wife learned to waterski on as a kid (I prefer to think of it requiring some elaborate nefarious dealings with a series of unsavory characters, but it probably just took a phone call). "Can we make something cool with these?"

We went with a console table.

Pics and discussion after the jump.

Chopsticks

I made the chopsticks and chopstick rest (and the food, but that's not really the point), not the plates

Some projects are complicated. Some are tapered pieces of wood. This is a post about the later. I made "Japanese" style chopsticks from paduak and walnut, post and pics after the jump.

Aromatic Cedar Shoe Rack

Too bad there isn't some kind of "Gentleman's Guide to Shoe Care," like those quaint old dating guides from the 40s. If there were, I suspect it would say something along the lines of: "Use as much aromatic cedar as humanly possible, son." So, when I received an inquiry about a shoe rack, I followed the advice of our fictional old sage.

More pictures and description after the jump.

Wedding Card Crate - Vintage Cherry

I ended up making another wedding card crate for a customer on Etsy. This one is pine stained in Vintage Cherry. They are available for sale here.

Details and more pics after the jump.

Lidded Elongated Octagonal Dice Tray

An Etsy customer contacted me to inquire into whether I could make a dice tray with a lid. This is the direction we took it. The elongated octagonal dice tray with a top secured by rare earth magnets set into both the rim of the tray and the top itself.

More pics after the jump.