6 Days to Aurora – Day 4

Today was an absolute blast, for many reasons! We started by fitting the top “anchors”. These 4 pieces of wood not only create a decorate element just under the table top, they also give us a means of securing the top to the base. You can see the front one needs to be cut carefully into the leg itself. The rest are just attached to the aprons. And being jealous of all the attention Brad got for his injury yesterday, I sustained a very painful and terrible injury from the tip of my freshly honed Japanese chisel. OH the agony!

After licking my wounds, we turned our attention to the table top. This particular top has breadboard ends. The holes on the outside of the breadboard will be capped with ebony plugs, of course, and the breadboard is connected to the table core with a series of splines. Notice how only the center 4″ or so are actually glued in place? This will allow the outer edges to expand and contract with changes in humidity. Screws will secure the breadboard at the ends.

As some of you may know, I have expressed interest in building a very special frame I saw in Darrell’s book. This particular frame was not made by one of the Greenes, but instead was made by John Hall. John and his brother Peter were the ones responsible for actually building the designs that were thought up by the Greene brothers. When Darrell heard that Brad and I were interested in reproducing the frame, he made a few calls. And imagine my giddy school-girl delight when the frame showed up at the school today! Not a close reproduction, but THE frame. John’s name adorns the back and has the date 1909. Seems appropriate that I plan to reproduce this piece in 2009. As if having complete access to the frame for measurements and scrutinization wasn’t enough, the frame was delivered by its owner, Gary Hall (grandson of Peter Hall). We capped off the day with a great dinner with a bunch of Greene & Greene enthusiasts. Being a new “fan” myself, I didn’t have much to add but I sure did take it all in. I was honored to be sitting at the same table as these guys. Now, back in my hotel room, my brain is busy trying to process the day’s events while my fingers type out the blog post. Somehow, I need to sleep.