The Cycloidoscope is on its way, though I've no idea where to, if anywhere. Velo Village arrives on Saltspring next week, with 400 bicycles and riders taking their very own BC Ferry from Swartz Bay to Fulford Harbour on Saturday 23 June, followed by a mass ride to Ganges; the associated Art show and Auction ("pART), sponsored by SRAM, will take place in Ganges from June 20th to the 24th.
Howard Fry's photos of the Cycloidoscope can be seen here, along with his pictures of all the other works that will be on display next week.
For the last couple of weeks I've been working on three lamps for S.B. We've been talking about these for a year or two — can it be so long? — and their time has come. Like the teak and concrete table I made for her and H. in 2010, and the subsequent teak bed, the initial design has been hers, its form often suggested by some unrelated object or detail that has caught her eye. In the case of the teak/concrete table it was the chimney cap of her house. For the lamp (all three are of the same design) the origin was the legs of two small occasional tables, possibly Edwardian, in a slightly Egyptian style:
Now, if you turn the tables upside down, you will find that you have a potential standard lamp:
Well, you get the idea.
Nothing of this nature gets made without a full-size drawing followed by a prototype. The first drawing was changed somewhat after consultation, and then a full-size pine model could be made:
Unlike the final lamp which will be made by bending strips of hardwood over a bending form, the prototype is band-sawn out of the bread-and-butter lamination pictured above. The prototype was "approved" with only minor changes of dimension, and the construction of the bending form for the final shape could be started. This was made by gluing together six more-or-less identical pieces of 5/8" ply; rather than screw and glue them all together and then saw out the required curve, a much better result can be achieved by accurately making one of the ply pieces to the required shape, then screwing to it a second, somewhat oversize, roughly cut piece. Then using a flush-trim bit in the router, cut this second layer in situ using the first piece as a guide. This results in a perfectly accurate two-ply laminate. Further layers are added and similarly routed. Each layer is thus identical to the preceding one; this process is repeated five times, until the full required thickness is built up.
Ready to glue up the third laminate.
Flush-trimming the final piece. Note the perfectly square and aligned stack that results from this method.
Next: Making the tapered laminate strips and gluing-up.
Journalling music tonight, courtesy rdio:
