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| Volume 1, Number 1 |
November 2008 |
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| Welcome to the premier edition of The News from New England Modern! Here we will report on shop life and recent work, as well as the paintings, furniture, ironwork, pottery, jewelry, and decorative fabrics for sale at the New England Modern showroom, open every Saturday 11 - 4 at 70 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Our feature story focuses on a sideboard commissioned last spring. |
| Autumn Sideboard
 A sideboard was the last of three pieces planned when our client fell in love with a flitch of live-edge tiger maple boards. The figure in these boards is especially tight and vibrant, and the live edges are densely rippled. First we made two tabletops, one for a hallway table on a standard New England Modern Pinnacle base and one for a cocktail table on a shortened Pinnacle base.
Unlike these tables, the sideboard was a completely new design which originated, in familiar fashion, with a magazine photo our client had clipped and saved that shows a sideboard in dark wood with three drawers, turned legs, and a shelf below, laden with wine bottles, half-full glasses, an arrangement of pheasant feathers and gourds. The image exudes abundance and warmth. |
New England...
 We took that abundance and warmth to be the New England aspect of what we do--design and build furniture that embraces familiar tradition. Thus our shop drawing follows the original form, and the details of construction are also solidly traditional. For the hand-dovetailed drawers, we appropriated our favorite details from the Shakers: overlay fronts edged with a small thumbnail molding, mushroom-shaped pulls held by a wooden thread tapped into the drawer front, and tapered sides. Such details provide the visual delight, functional satisfaction, and durability that are the hallmark of heirloom furniture. |
...Modern
 We wanted to tweak the plain turnings shown in the magazine photo, so we modeled two versions of a carved twist for the legs, and chose the softer one. Its surface texture, highlighted by the milk paint rub-through, complements the tiger maple figure without competing against it. But the modern aspect of the new sideboard is most prominent on top, where the busy, irregular line and untamed surface of the live front edge escape the straight-and-square of the ends and back. Underneath this non-traditional top is the dark warmth of black-over-red milk paint, defining the overall form and framing the wild amber stripes of the shelf.
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Value
Building this New England Modern sideboard involved extended periods of narrow focus. For example, it took many hours to shave smooth cylinders into fifty feet of inch-wide subtly textured spiral surface on the legs.
We started in late summer, and by delivery time the distant hills were red and gold under a warm sun, and the time that had passed was well-embodied in an object to be used and enjoyed for generations.
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| Commission or candlestick?
We always welcome commissions, large and small. A budget, however it may limit options, can also expand creativity, and we are glad to bring our woodworking knowledge and design sensibility to every client's vision.
Of course, many New England Modern projects are far simpler than this sideboard. Next time we'll feature the small items and accessories we produce on a regular basis--mirror frames, candlesticks, and cutting boards, to name a few. They make excellent gifts with wide appeal, and can be seen at our showroom, Saturdays 11 - 4 at 70 Railroad Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Please also visit our website, www.newenglandmodern.com, to see the full range of our work.
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