Draw Manga. Tom Carpenter

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      Antique stores, salvage yards and furniture stores are rich with possibilities for generating ideas. Explore them. Pay attention to shapes and proportions and even joinery techniques. If you see something you like, chances are you can come up with a way to make one for yourself.

      Even watching television and movies can be a productive way to generate some good ideas. This may sound a little strange, but most professional woodworkers and designers are on constant lookout for new ideas. Television and movie stylists tend to put a lot of time and effort into choosing their props, and they pay attention to style and design trends.

      In reality, the things that can influence you and help you generate ideas are everywhere—you just need to look closely and you will see them.

      Creating a concept sketch. Once you have a rough idea of the project in mind, it’s time to get it down on paper. The initial drawings, called “concept sketches,” don’t need to be fancy or even drawn to scale. But getting them down on paper is the trigger to refining the design—it’s also a good idea to have a representation of the idea that you can hold onto, since none of our memories are what they used to be.

      As you sketch and doodle, start thinking about some of the more concrete design issues: Is there a particular style you favor (See here to here)? Exactly how big do you want it to be? What should the proportions be (See here to here). In short, play around with ways the project might look until you find one you like.

       Share ideas with other woodworkers

      One of the best sources for project ideas is other woodworkers. As a group, woodworkers love to talk about woodworking. You probably already know a lot of other woodworkers, but if not, they’re easy to find. Look in the phone book to find local professional woodworkers. But don’t just pop in on the professionals. Be considerate, call and ask if they would be willing to spend a little time guiding you. Phrased that way you’re more likely to get advice.

      You can also find woodworkers at a local woodworking club or guild. Woodworking guilds can be professional, amateur, or a combination of both. Most of the members are amateur woodworkers who joined to learn more about woodworking by attending our monthly educational meetings. You could also visit your local woodworking supply stores and see who you run into. Woodworkers are all over those places, and most of them are very eager to talk shop and give out a few of their opinions.

      At a typical woodworker’s guild meeting, like this one in Minnesota, one of the members or a special guest will give a demonstration on a new or favorite technique.

      Practical considerations. Once you’ve got a fairly detailed concept sketch in hand, and a pretty good idea of where you’re headed with the project, turn your attention to some of the more practical details.

      One of the first “practical” decisions you’ll need to make, other than the approximate size and scale, is which wood species to use. In most cases, the furniture style you choose will dictate the best wood species to use. If your goal is to reproduce a style accurately, then not just any wood will do. For example; Mission-style pieces were almost all built using quartersawn white oak. Not only would it be a shame to build a Mission-style piece using, say, knotty pine, it probably wouldn’t look right. In the same respect, building a country-styled piece using teak would be a questionable choice. It isn’t unheard of for professional designers to throw an odd species or two into a more traditional plan for effect, but more likely than not you’ll be disappointed with the outcome if you try it.

      As much as (if not more than) style, function and budget will bear on your wood species selection. Outdoor furniture, for example, must be made using rot-resistant lumber or it won’t hold up to the weather. Unless you’re willing to shell out the money for teak or mahogany, that leaves white oak, redwood, cedar and cypress as the main options (excluding pressure-treated pine, which is perfectly suitable for projects that are not “fine woodworking”). By the same token, making a woodworking bench using a softwood would not be advisable. It wouldn’t be long before the benchtop would wear out and the joints would fall apart from the stresses they’d receive. When building any kind of load bearing piece, you need to consider the strength of the wood you choose. Softwoods crush easily, and under repeated stress, the joints will weaken and fail quickly.

      Browse published woodworking plans in your search for project ideas. You may even stumble across a design and plan that will work for you, saving you a lot of time and energy. Since most published plans already are shop-tested, you can be fairly confident that they’re accurate (but it’s still a good idea to double-check as you read the plan).

      As for the budget issue, you should certainly factor it in. If making your spice rack out of zebrawood means your material costs would be $100 instead of $20 for maple, ask yourself if the benefit is worth the extra cost. But be sure to consider the impact, if any, the species choice will have on the longevity of the product. If the zebrawood spice rack will last 50 years and the maple only three, which one is the better bargain? The old tool-buyer’s saw “Buy the best tool you can afford” can easily be applied to wood selection.

      Another factor that should influence your wood species choices is the desire to match the piece you plan to build with the wood found in other furniture pieces and trim that will be in the same room. Before purchasing all your stock, get a sample of the lumber so you can see what it looks like with finish applied. Compare the sample to wood you’re trying to match.

      Make concept drawings. They don’t need to be as pretty as the concept sketches shown above, but making a few drawings that capture the gist of the project will get the project-design ball rolling.

       American Farm

      Typical features: Elaborate “pressed” backrest with relief design, heavily beaded turned legs and spindles, caned seats.

       Country

      Typical features: Overall rustic appearance (although often achieved with complex construction methods).

       Queen Anne

      Typical features: Cabriole legs, upholstered seat, curved back legs with decorative center slat, spindle-turned spreaders.

The Essentials of Style

      “Style” is a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to woodworking. Borrowing from a particular furniture style is a good way to ensure that your project design will work out, but paying too much attention to the period of a piece can limit your creativity and even cause you to lose sight of the most basic goal: creating a nice furnishing for your home. But СКАЧАТЬ