Sour Grapes and my Blanket Chest

I posted this one a while back, but I wanted to gripe. :^)

I submitted this chest to be published in a book by Fine Woodworking. I actually designed/made the chest specifically for the entry. Anyway, I don't think I made the cut; I would have heard by now. So I'm not going to buy the book out of spite :^(

Mine (small images enlarge):

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Reply to
GarageWoodworks
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Well, at least now you don't have to supply them with the scaled drawing and measurements...Nice looking chest, by the way. Tom

Reply to
tom

Thank you. I already have the CAD drawing ready to go. I'm interested to see what beat me out when it's published.

Reply to
GarageWoodworks

Don't know how important the photo of your entry is with furniture, but for wood turnings a seamless white or neutral gray background and no Hot Spots on the piece from the lights (minimum of two, three if you've got it) are minimum requirements just for consideration.

Digging the details out of the weeds, literally, probably isn't the best way to present your blanket chest. A few minutes in photo shop can eliminate the distracting grass etc.

Reply to
charlieb

Bummer, I *much* prefer yours (assuming that the top being wider than the bottom is just camera distortion, of course :)

Reply to
dadiOH

I think that is a really nice piece of furniture, and the work looks top shelf.

But I agree with the others on the photos.

I first noticed the photo taking aspect of woodworking about 7 - 8 years ago in my woodturning, when everyone started making light boxes, talking about different Kelvin degrees of the proper lighting, then of course, Photoshop and its relatives.

Now on the knife makers/collectors forum I frequent, photo skills haves become so important, there is a running thread on using Photoshop as part of conducting good business to sell your wares.

The level of sophistication on photo representation is quite high these days.

Robert

Reply to
nailshooter41

The published pictures were to be shot after the final selections were made. So I assumed that if selected, the chest would be re-shot.

Next time I will definitely spend more time on the photography. Thanks for the tip!

Reply to
GarageWoodworks

on the outside and then the taper on the right makes it look even lighter (IMHO).

Reply to
GarageWoodworks

Thanks Robert!

It looks like I need to pay more attention to photography. It probably would have been a good idea to hire a professional.

Reply to
GarageWoodworks

grain/color match of the panels is not so good and not up to the standard of the workmanship that went into it.

-Kevin

Reply to
Kevin

Kevin,

I appreciate your candor. And I agree. The only panel that worked out the way I intended was the center panel. The two outer boards of the center panel are book matched. I wanted all of the panels to contain book-matching originally, but my resawing didn't work out as planned.

Reply to
GarageWoodworks

I appreciate your candor. And I agree. The only panel that worked out the way I intended was the center panel. The two outer boards of the center panel are book matched. I wanted all of the panels to contain book-matching originally, but my resawing didn't work out as planned.

I suspect that in a couple of years when that cherry darkens the grain on those panels will pretty much be a non issue.

Swingman build a chest about 3 years ago and made it out of cherry and walnut. Today the untrained eye might not notice the different woods.

Your chest is just going to get better looking with age.

Reply to
Leon

How'd you cut for the inlays(if those are inlays) on the two center stiles? Tom

Reply to
tom

It's interesting that you planned on putting the bookmatch pieces with another piece between them, I hadn't thought of doing that. I would have mated them and tried to find a third piece to match as best I could on one side if I couldn't get stock thick enough to resaw into 3 boards. I actually didn't even notice it at first but then I thought, I really like the shape of this but something is bugging me, and I had to stare at it for a bit before I figured out what it was.

Cherry is just darn hard to match. I did a jewelry box with coopered doors on the sides and I had a semi decent match, but somehow in the glueup I swapped the center pieces. So one door has a lighter middle board and one has a darker middle board. I keep waiting for Leon's it's all going to match in a few years theory to kick in, we're on year two now and it still sticks out like a sore thumb to me. I even went to the trouble of covering all the dark boards with tape and paper and setting it out in the sun every day for a week or two, and that evened it out pretty well. Put it back and in a few weeks it went right back to not matching. Arrgh! I wish someone would buy it so I don't have to keep seeing the stupid thing.

I think the next time I do something like that I'm just going to surface all the boards, sand them somewhat, throw a coat of shellac on and then take them all out into the sun and do the matching outside rather than try to do it in the shop light which always seems to diminish the differences.

And then hopefully not screw up the glueup again...

-Kevin

Reply to
Kevin

They are inlays about 1/8" wide. I made two shims of equal thickness and used a router with a fence attached. Add both shims between the fence and the sile then rout - remove a shim - rout - and repeat. You end up with perfectly spaced grooves. I then squared the corners with a 1/8" chisel. The inlay is ebony which was cut on the table saw (next time will use BS to reduce waste).

I have some in process pictures that I will post at ABPW and my website.

Reply to
GarageWoodworks

See:

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Reply to
GarageWoodworks

I agree with Keven. On the front, the 2 left side panels seem to me to be poorly picked. They seem to be obviouly made up of 3 glued up pieces each. And it seems to me, that when that's done the intent is to try to make the boards blend together better. However, I love the side rails, they are beautiful! Craftmanship is great! The bottom style seems to be to light.

Reply to
fallen.morgan (at) gmail.com

I'll overlook it then because I like the black insets :) Ebony?

Reply to
dadiOH

Fluorescent lights in the shop? If so, *never* trust them if you are trying to see/match color...they are deficient in red light. That is true of all fluorescents, regardless of being "warm" or "cool" or whatever. That deficiency makes anything reflecting red light - wood is one - appear greyed down, lower in contrast, dull, etc.

Sunlight is great. Even incandescent light is better than fluorescent although it will give an opposite effect; i.e., accentuate reds rather than dull them.

Reply to
dadiOH

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