Smiling from ear to ear!

I know that I said that I was going to try and update this every week. I apologize for the fact I haven't been very good at it. But I promise to be better. Especially since I found that Fine Woodworking's website has put a link to my blog on there site. So first I would like to thank Fine Woodworking for doing that. I hope that I can help inspire others to follow there dreams.

I have to be honest, this evening I went out to dinner with a guy named Chris that I met on a Australian woodworking forum. He was the one that told me that Fine Woodworking had put a link to my blog up. I haven't stopped smiling yet, thanks Chris!

So where am I with my latest projects. Well right in the middle of things. The class has voted and I will be making my bar stools for this unit. Which I am very pleased about. But the design has evolve greatly since I last posted. I have gotten rid of the back rest and arms. It was becoming to much of a chair. I have lowered it so that you won't need a foot rest. I also plan to laminate some slats, so that they curve down in the front ( making it easy to get out of ) and curve up in the back ( so you know when you have gone to far back ). But I also plan to laminate a really nice thick piece of leather on top of each slat. I think this will give it a really nice and elegant look.



I plan on putting a nice curve in the front legs, because they are being made really wide. And I don't want them to look chunky. So I feel that putting the curve in them removes a lot of the size, but gives me enough meat at the finger joints where it will be needed. Also I'm going to curve the top and bottom arms. But the curve will start out at 60mm wide and then curve up and through to a 20mm wide section. So the curve will flow through and not come back on the ends. (like the pictures show).
I will be making an actual prototype hopefully by Wednesday.



Other than that things are flat out here. We have about 3 weeks to make all the jigs and produce at least 3 of everything. I hope to make 1 set of 4 stools all the same. And then make just 1 stool different. I plan on using celery top pine for the set, which is a very blond almost white timber. And then have either a nice dark brown leather or a jet black piece of leather. The the one extra stool, I want to make in Tasmanian Blackwood. I will use the same leather for that one. I just want to be able to give people a choice and a visual of the same stool in different timbers.

I had a discussion with on of my fellow students today. He's a really good kid, but he is an 18 year old kid. He was complaining about the timetables for this project that we are doing. Telling me that it is impossible to get these things done with the time that we have. And that why should he even try when he knows he's going to fail. I felt so sad for him and this thought process. I know that it is a valid defense, but I guess I have never felt that way before. So I guess my little fortune cookie message for you all is this.

"By trying you either succeed or fail, by not trying you just fail". And personally I would rather fail trying then just fail.

By the way if you like that little saying it's mine so don't forget to quote me. I hope to get some more pictures up soon of my final prototype. Until then.