A Furniture Maker's Notebook

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The Putney General Store Fires - A death in the family

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:32:00 +0000

Yesterday morning I got the news that the Putney General Store had burned down - again.

The Putney General Store (PGS) is literally in the center of Putney at the intersections of the two main roads: Route 5/Main St and Kimball Hill. It has been a general store since 1796 and was the longest continually operating general store in the state of Vermont until May 3, 2008 when a fire destroyed the roof and attic of the building and left the two main floors extensively damaged. The first fire was a huge shock to everyone in town and when the owners of the PGS said they could not afford to rebuild it the Putney Historical Society decided to buy the property and rebuild it, raising the funds through donations and grants. The response to this from the townspeople of Putney and various State agencies was very enthusiastic and as of November 1, 2009 a new roof slate roof had been built and the interior had been gutted and restored to the point where the reopening of the PGS was slated for May of 2010. I know everyone in my family was really looking forward to the PGS reopening and I'm sure just about everyone else in Putney was too.

And then my son called from Burlington, VT yesterday morning to tell me he'd just heard from a friend that the PGS had burned to the ground. "What?!" I was in shock. I couldn't believe it. While on the phone with my son, my wife called from work saying she had just heard the news. I was heading out to buy lumber yesterday and drove by the PGS which is now just a pile of charred timbers in a cellar hole. It is hard to look at and I haven't been able to bring myself to take a picture of it. It really feels like a death in the family.

I can't imagine what all the people who have worked so hard on rebuilding it are going through. All that hard work destroyed in minutes. The initial indications are that the second fire was intentional set which I find unfathomable. Who would do such a thing and why? And what happens now?

Selling out? A review of Snapit.

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:32:00 +0000

I must officially be a blogger now because I received my first "request for product review" email this week. It was requesting me to write a review on my blog about a product called Snapit . I'd never heard of it but the email said I would be given a free product license if I reviewed it. I'd heard of this practice recently on the news because I guess some people think bloggers should have to disclose they are receiving something in return for their reviews.

I went to the Snapit website to see what Snapit does. It turns out Snapit is a tool for easily making screeen captures - a picture of what's on your computer screen. This is something I rarely need to do but when I do I google "windows screen capture" and remind myself how it's done: get what you want on your screen and press ALT+Print Screen. This makes a copy of what's on your screen. Go to the program you need the image in and paste it. What could be easier than that? It seemed to me that Snapit would be a waste of money no matter what the price (currently $17.99).

I figured I'd give it a try anyway. I had just recently needed to do some screen captures and found that I had to open the captures with my image editing program, crop them and then resave them. I was getting the whole computer screen in the capture when all I really wanted was a section of it. Again, not too difficult to do but if Snapit could make that easier than maybe it would be worth $17.99 .

Snapit has a trail version that's available online and can be used for 14 days. I downloaded (just over 1 mb) and installed it in less that 3 minutes including reading the license agreement (which was amazingly short).
Once installed a small camera icon shows up in the system tray:

Right click on the camera and choose properties and you can set what folder you want screeen captures saved into and have Snapit assign names automatically. If you don't do this the screen capture will be copied to windows clip board and can be pasted when needed. You can also set what key to press for a screen capture. The default is Print Screen. I set up Snapit to save to a folder I called "Snapit screen captures" and to name them capture1.jpg, capture2.jpg, etc. (You can also save as gif, tiff, png and bmp files.)

You can take captures two ways: press "printscreen" or click on the camera icon. Clicking the camera icon saves the entire screen (using the auto-save setting) or the active window (without auto-save). Using the "print screen" button changes the cursor to a cross. Use the cross to select the area you want to capture and if you're using auto-save you're done! The file is automatically saved for use whenever you need it. No need to paste then crop than save again. Now that is easy. If you need to use screen captures on a regular basis then Snapit will definitely make your life a lot easier. Download it and try it for yourself. (Note that Snapit is currently only available for use with Wwindows 95/98/ME/NT/XP/2000/2003/Vista)

Now can I have my free license?

Tractor seat stools

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:21:00 +0000

Today's photos show part of the process of making my tractor seat stool seats. These stools have deeply carved seats that are inspired by the old cast iron tractor seats that, despited being made from a very hard material, were comfortable enough to sit in all day long.

This photo shows a stool seat blank with the holes for the legs drilled in it. On top of the seat is a board with a crescent shape traced on it. This crescent shaped piece will be glued to the back of the seat blank to add thickness. The wood for the seat blank and the crescent were all cut from the same board so that grain and color match perfectly.

This photo show the crescent being glued to the seat blank.

After the glue is dry the outside shape of the seat is cut.

Next the contours of the seat are carved out with a custom made machine that duplicates the contours of a pattern onto the seat blank. There is a tremendous amount of sanding necessary with a variety of sanders starting with very course sandpaper (36 grit) and working up to very fine sandpaper (220 grit) to get this seat ready for assembling into a stool but the basic shape is there.

I make my tractor seat stools in a wide variety of woods and several heights. It is most often used at kitchen counters or breakfast bars but I do make an 18" high stool which can be used wherever a standard height chair is needed.

Richard Bissell
Putney, Vermont

See all of my handmade furniture at Bissellwoodworking.com

Designing furniture with 3D CAD

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:30:00 +0000

I have been drawing furniture with 2 dimensional CAD (Computer Aided Design) programs for many years and have always found 3D programs (where you draw the piece and rotate it to view it from any angle) intriguing. However, only in the last few years have I found any of the 3D programs affordable, easy to use and powerful enough to accomplish what I think they should be able to do.

I now use two 3D CAD programs. The easiest to use is Sketchup which was bought by Google a couple of years ago. Sketchup has a free version available (Google Sketchup) which is really quite amazing and easy to use. They is also a Pro version which currently costs about $500 and has some added features. One feature of Sketchup I found lacking was the ability to "stretch" things easily. For example, if you draw a raised panel door and then want to make it larger or smaller. With Sketchup I could scale it to make it larger or smaller but that would also make the door frame members larger or smaller in both dimensions. There was no way of making the panel larger or smaller and the frame members longer or shorter without also making them wider. I found this disappointing and started looking around for other 3D programs that could do this properly. (I should note that I believe Sketchup Pro now has the ability to do this.)

I had read about another CAD program Alibre Design at some point (perhaps even before finding Sketchup) and had download a free version of it but had found it too difficult to learn. Alibre design is quite different from any other CAD program I've used. It seems that most CAD programs I've seen are primarily intended for architects and builders. Alibre is designed more for engineers designing products. Parts of a product are built individually and then are assembled which is the same way furniture is built. Subassemblies (such as a frame and panel door) can have dimensions assigned base on the overall width and height of the door. For example:

Door width = 12"
Door height= 22"
stile width = 2"
top rail width = 2"
bottom rail width = 2.5"
panel width = door width - 2 x stile width + 1"
Panel height = door height - bottom rail width - top rail width + 1"

Once these dimension are defined all you have to do is change the door width and height and the assembled door size changes. This is the same math you do in your head when working from a simple drawing in the shop. For something like a bed design all dimensions can be defined as a function of the matress width and length. When you want to change the bed from queen size to king size just change the mattress width dimension from 60" to 75" and all appropriate dimensions change in the entire drawing. The number and spacing of spindles can be defined as a function of the width and more spindles added as needed. This type of dimensioning is referred to as parametric. Alibre can also generate cut lists for all the parts of an assembly.

Of course learning a program like this takes time but the results are worth it. Basically you can build the entire piece on the computer, figuring out all the joinery issues before you go into the shop and cut a single board. From a customers perspective they can view the finished piece from all angles in the wood of their choice and know exactly what they will be getting. For complicated pieces this is a very valuable tool.

Here's a rendering (done with Alibre Render) of a sleigh bed design I have been working on:

Here is an exploded view rendering of the same bed:

Walking to Work

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:31:00 +0000

I am fortunate enough to be able to walk to work everyday. My house is about a quarter of a mile from my shop and I have the choice of walking on the road or through the woods and fields. I generally only take the road if I have to go to the mail box (rural delivery route) or if there's to much snow on the ground. I really enjoy the walk through the fields and woods. Below are a few photos I've taken recently along the way.

Mushrooms in the hollow of a tree. This large old maple tree in the court yard just outside my shop.

These next photos are of a tree that is about 50 yards to one side of the path I take through the woods. I noticed the fresh white broken off tree truck from the path and went to investigate. I assumed that this pine tree had been weakened by woodpeckers going after insects in the secction of the trunk that broke off.

What I found was something I'd never seen before and didn't realy know what to make of it. There was no evidence of any rot or weakness in the trunk and the standing portion of the trunk looked like it had been twisted. Even more odd was the fact that a sction fo the trunk about 11-15 feet long looked like it had been literally blown apart. The were 6 or 7 long pieces of this section laying on the ground radially around the standing truck. One of these sections was jambed into the ground. You can see it in the photo below angling out of the ground.

What I eventually concluded was that this tree had been struck by lightening. We had a powerful thunderstorm a few days ago which included a ligtening strike that sounded like it was very close by. This photo is powerful evidence for the rule: Never stand under a tree during an electrical storm!

Harvest Table continued

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Today's photos show the assembled harvest table rule joint in 3 different positions - leaf down, leaf half way up and leaf up. Proper routing of the joint and positioning of the hinges is necessary so that the finished joint is perfectly tight when the leaf is up but does not bind as the leaf is raised and lowered. Notice that as the leaf is lowered the leaf begins to move away from the edge of the table and when it is down there is good clearance between the leaf and the table edge.

Table leaf down. Good clearance between leaf and table edge:

Table leaf half way up. Clearance between leaf and table edge is decreasing:

Table leaf up. The closed joint is tight:

Mission bookcase

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:27:00 +0000

Today's photo is of a custom sized mission bookcase we are making. This bookcase is 72"h x 52"w x 12"d. Because the bookcase is so wide the shelves are a full 1" thick rather than the usual 3/4" so that they don't sag. The top and bottom shelves are fixed. There will be 5 adjustable shelves. There is a cutout in the back of the bottom shelf to allow for a heating vent on the wall that the bookcase will be placed against.

Rule joint

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:18:00 +0000

Today's photo is of the rule joint of the two harvest tables I'm working on. This joint is simple enough when you get it right but the first time I made a harvest table I found I had problems with it binding as it closed. I know rout the joint and place the hinges in such a way that the joint is tight when it is closed but gets more clearance as it opens. This prevents binding but still gives a tight joint.

I'll post photos of the open and closed joint once I get the leaves attached to the tops.

Too much to do - Photo of the day

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:06:00 +0000

Who has time to keep up with all of this web 2.0 social media stuff - facebook, twitter, blogs - not to mention just keeping a website up to date? As you can see from the how infrequently I post to this blog I certainly don't have much time to spare.

I recently read an article online - can't remember where - that talked about how businesses haven't yet really figured out how to take advantage of Facebook and Twitter yet. The article went on to say that the most popular use of Facebook in particular was sharing photos. This got me thinking. If people really just want to look at photos maybe that's what I should be posting. So I've decided to post a "photo of the day" . We'll see if I can at least keep up with that. I'll probably post here and on Facebook.

Today's photo is of a harvest table base being glued together. I'm making two 7' 10" long harvest tables. You can just see the end of the second table in the upper left of the photo.

Thoughts on global warming, trees and lumber

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:09:00 +0000

Every since I saw Al Gore's movie The Inconvenient Truth I've been reading a lot of books about global warming - both the science that leads to the conclusion that this is really happening and possible solutions to the problem. I find it is a very interesting but also very scary subject. As I've been reading these books and articles I have found myself wondering what I should do about the fact that I'm a woodworker who relies on someone cutting down trees so that I have lumber to make into furniture.

Since an increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the main cause of global warming and trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, it would seem that cutting down trees is a bad idea. Less trees means less carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. However, when trees die they decompose and release the carbon back into the environment. When a mature tree is cut down and sawed into lumber the carbon remains stored in the lumber rather than being release through decomposition. Of couse the whole tree is not usable for lumber. The limbs can be cut into firewood or chipped and burned. This releases the carbon but no more than would have been released if it had decomposed and burning it provides heat that can be used for heating or generating electricity or both.

This all makes it sound like cutting trees down is good. The problem is if all the trees are cut down this can change the enviroment of that area. In the rain forests this is particularly true. These forests have developed over thousands of years and are perpetuated by the fact that the forests themselves create a lot of the moisture necessary to sustain them. The Amazon rainforest creates up to 50% of its own rainfall (http://rainforests.mongabay.com/0201.htm). This means that cutting portions of the rainforests down threatens the viability of the remaining rainforests. This is why it is important that forest are responsibly managed so that they remain viable as forest while also providing trees that can be harvested for lumber and other uses.

Because I believe it is important to encourage and reward those who are making the effort to ensure that forest are being responsibly managed I now pay very careful attention to what the source is for the lumber I use in my furniture. I currently have 2 main sources. The first is lumber that has been harvest from forests that are enrolled in Vermont's current use program. Forests enrolled in this program must follow accepted forestry guidlines for sustainable management. The other reason I prefer this lumber is that it has not travel a long distance to get to me. It is grown, sawn, dried and turned into furniture all in Vermont. When Vermont lumber is not available I purchase FSC certified lumber. This is lumber that is certified to have come from forests that are responsibly managed. Only when I can't find what I need from one of these two sources do I purchase lumber what I refer to as "traditional sourced" lumber. This is lumber that may or may not have come from responsibly managed forests.

When I receive the lumber at my shop each board is marked as to its source. When lumber is picked out for a piece of furniture the quantity and source of all the lumber in that piece is recorded so the customer can know what percentage of lumber in their furniture was harvested from responsibly managed forests. This system takes a little getting used to but I think it is very important to encourage the responsible management of forests and lumber suppliers who sell this lumber as well as customers who care about where the wood for their furniture comes from.

Richard Bissell
Putney, Vermont
To learn more about my furniture visit my website at http://www.bissellwoodworking.com/

The Furniture Maker and the Princess

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:01:00 +0000

Once upon a time there was a furniture maker who worked long hours building simple (but well made and beautiful) furniture in his workshop in Putney, Vermont. At the end of every day he would go home and check his email (this was a very tech savvy furniture maker) and delete all the emails he got from Nigerian Princes whose fathers had just died in a car crashes leaving them millions of dollars that they had to get out of their country with the furniture maker's help.

One day the furniture maker received an email from someone claiming to be a decorator that the furniture maker thought might be from a Nigerian but he wasn't sure. The grammar wasn't great and the email was from a foreign country but the email's author did seem to have a legitimate question: "Could you make your mission bed for a european size mattress?" The furniture maker decided that there could be no harm in answering this question so he replied that he could make the bed in whatever size the customer desired. A week after replying the furniture maker received another email explaining that the decorator was waiting to hear back from his client but that he thought he would certainly be ordering the bed within a week. The furniture maker was still very suspicious that this "decorator" was really just someone trying to somehow steal his hard earned money.

Another week passed and by now the furniture maker had forgotten all about the foreign "decorator". Then one day when checking his email the furniture maker saw a reply from the decorator saying that he would like to order the mission bed and two mission night tables for his client and that the furniture maker should send the bill for this to:

HRH The Princess of (name withheld for privacy)
The Princess's Palace
The Princess's Country

Now the furniture maker was sure he was dealing with someone who was trying to steal his money. After all, why would a princess want his simple (but well made and beautiful) furniture? Surely a real princess could have whatever she wanted for her palace and surely she wouldn't want his simple (but well made and beautiful) furniture. Knowing now that he was dealing with someone who was trying to steal his money the furniture maker decided that he would see how the "decorator" would try to go about doing this. The furniture maker replied to the "decorator" that for all foreign orders full payment was required when the furniture was ordered. Once the furniture was completed full payment for shipping charges would be required before the furniture would be shipped.

The reply to the furniture maker's email came quickly: "That is fine and the Princess needs your bank account number."

"Just as I suspected" thought the furniture maker. They want my bank account number so that they can steal my money. The furniture maker's reply was short and to the point "NOBODY GETS MY BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER!" And with that the furniture maker decided to ignore any future emails from the "decorator".

But then the furniture maker received an email from someone claiming to be the Princess's secretary. She wanted to know how much the shipping costs would be. The furniture maker ignored the email. She email again a week later: "Did you get my first email? We need to know what the shipping costs will be on the Princess's order."

"Boy", thought the furniture maker, "these Nigerians really want my money." He ignore the secretary's second email too.

Several weeks passes and the furniture maker forgot all about the decorator and the secretary. One morning, while the furniture maker was working in his shop building simple (but well made and beautiful) furniture, the phone rang. It was a woman claiming to be the Princess of (name witheld for Privacy)'s secretary. She spoke with a foreign accent but in excellent english and was very polite. She wanted to know if the furniture maker had received her emails. She needed to know what the shipping costs would be for the Princess's furniture. The furniture maker answered that he had not replied because he knew the shipping costs would be expensive and he thought perhaps the "Princess" wouldn't think it was worth paying that much to ship his simple (but well made and beautiful) furniture. The secretary (who was translating the conversation to another person on her end) replied that she still would like to find out how much it would cost so the furniture maker agreed to get a shipping quote and reply to her email with it.

At this point the furniture maker started to wonder if perhaps the "decorator" was a real decorator and the "secretary" was a real secretary and the "Princess" was a real princess. But how could he know for sure? He decided to contact the consolate in the U.S. for the Princess's country and ask them if they could help to confirm whether it was the real Princess who had contacted him. The consolated agreed to do this and in a couple of days the furniture maker had the answer: It was, indeed, the Princess of (name withheld for privacy) who wanted to buy his simple (but well made and beautiful) furniture for her palace!

The furniture maker got paid and his simple (but well made and beautiful) furniture is currently on its way to the Princess. Hopefully everyone will live happily ever after.

Moral #1: Not every email from a foreign Prince or Princess is a scam.

Moral #2: Princesses are just like you and me. Sometime they just want a simple (but well made and beautiful) piece of furniture.

Moral #3: I recently received a resume and photos via email from a man in Nigeria who is looking for work as a cabinetmaker. He appeared to be legitimate. It leads me to believe that not everyone from Nigeria is running a scam. I hope he finds a job.

Richard Bissell
Putney, Vermont
To learn more about my simple (but well made and beautiful furniture) visit Bissellwoodworking.com

Friday the 13th

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 03:49:00 +0000

Friday morning the 13th of February went rather smoothly. Chris, my assistant, was finishing assembling a set of spindle back chairs while I was working on a Mission bed. With any luck we'd be putting finish on both these pieces later Friday afternoon. But this was Friday the 13th and there turned out there was no luck to be had. When I went home for lunch (a short walk up the road) I discovered a plumbing leak that took me most of the afternoon to repair. When I did finally get it fixed I returned to the shop to try to salvage what was left of the day. As soon as I walked into the shop Chris asked me in frustration "What's the stupidest thing you've ever done making chairs?" It turns out Chris had assembled one of the chairs he was working on with the front legs on one side of the chair and the back legs on the other side. Since the front legs are 1/2" longer than the back legs (to create a backwards slant to the seat) this is a big problem. Chris was forced to cut the rungs of the chair and carefully drill out the center of the legs where they go through the seat so that he could remove the legs and install a new set without damaging the chair seat. That's what he'd spent his afternoon doing. Just for the record I have never made that mistake before. I did once miscut the taper on a post for a pencil post bed and realized this about halfway through the cut. I instantly stopped but it was too late and the post was ruined. I set it aside and made a new one. It was standing in the corner of the shop for at least 12 years as a reminder of what not to do until Chris salvaged a portion of it recently for use as a night table leg. I've never made that mistake again and I can assure you Chris will never again lose track of which are the front legs and which are the back legs.

Stand-up Desk

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 03:04:00 +0000

This stand-up desk is based on my standard Shaker writing desk but was custom designed for a customer. For added rigidity I opted to keep the legs straight rather than have them taper and also added the lower stretchers. The cross stretcher is near the front of the desk to provide a foot rest. The drawers are 6" deep and the outside corner of each leg is beaded. The desk shown is 45"w x 23"d x 42"h but these dimension can be customized to whatever you need. When purchasing a stand-up desk it's particular important to make sure you get the height correct. Most stand up desks I've seen have slanted tops which looks cool but I think a flat top is more practical. I suppose the slanted top design comes from the days when people wrote with pen and paper. Of course now it seems almost everyone uses laptops.

January's to-do-list

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 02:47:00 +0000

Furniture making is not all fun and games in the workshop. January is a month I dread because of all the tax forms that need to be filled out and paid. Here's my list:

W2's for employees
federal 941 employment tax report
Federal 940 unemployment tax
VT sales tax
VT unemployment tax
VT withholding tax
Worker comp insurance audit
Federal estimated tax payment
VT estimated tax payment

In addition to this I have to fill out college financial aid forms. My daughter is applying to college for next year and my son is a senior at UVM. I think I hate financial aid forms more than tax forms.

The good thing about January is it is generally a very busy month for furniture orders. People are done with the holidays and are getting back to normal life. Long winter nights inside give you plenty of time to decide you need to spruce up your home a little with a new piece of furniture. Need anything? Give me a call.

Inspiration

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:43:00 +0000

This Salada tea bag tag is tacked to a post in my shop. I got it when I was just starting my woodworking business and thought it was very appropriate so I tacked it to a post and it's been there ever since. It has gotten a little hard to read over the years but it says "It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't." This sums up my approach to making furniture and it applies to pretty much everything else too. Not bad for a tea bag tag.

Beginnings

richard@bissellwoodworking.com (Richard Bissell) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:48:00 +0000

I've been working for myself making furniture for a living since April of 1982 when I was only 22 years old. I really had no idea what I was getting into when I decide I was going to be a furniture maker. I'd read a couple of books about woodworking by James Krenov (A Cabinet Makers Notebook may have been the first) that made woodworking seem really romantic - working in a small basement shop making fine pieces with beautiful yet simple details. Choosing the wood carefully paying attention to grain and color. Painstakingly cut dovetails and hand planed surfaces.

So I'd read a few books, bought a few tools (an 8" tables saw and 4" jointer, a router and sander, a 7" planer) taken a very basic evening woodworking class and made a few very simple pieces on the side while working as a carpenter for about a year and a half. By that point I decided I pretty much knew it all and so decided to start my own business - Richard Bissell Fine Woodworking. I quit my carpentry job and moved my tools into the basement of my parents vacation house in Putney, Vermont and hung a sign at the end of the driveway. Only after I'd done this did I come to the realization that nobody knew I even existed (as far as woodworking was concerned) and that I really had no idea how to change that. Quite a scary realization.

As it turned out I didn't know a heck of a lot about woodworking either but I wasn't aware of that and as it turned out I had plenty of time to hone my skills while trying to figure out how to sell things. I believe my first sale was a crude file cabinet for a friend had seen one I'd made for my brother. It was frame and panel construction with oak frames and 1/4" luaun plywood for the panels. The drawer fronts were oak as well and if I remember correctly the drawer boxes were made of 1/2" or mayby 3/4" plywood. In hindsight it was a hideous piece but it did hold files and the drawers went in and out.

Anyway, that's how I got started making furniture. Fortunately I was very young and I'd read a few books that made furniture making sound very noble so I stuck with it. I'm glad I did. It's a wonderful way to make a living and I'm fortunate enough to do it in a wonderful place to live - Vermont.

My plan is to use this blog to give readers an idea of what it's like to be a furniture maker and to show what goes into making a well made piece of furniture. I'll also present new designs here and show work in progress so please check back regularly.