A brief ‘break’ to make a table

Several months ago, I promised my daughter, Allegra (Leggie, Legs, Lulu), I’d make a dining table for her apartment in Boulder… As she’s coming home for Thanksgiving, my wife has insisted that I postpone additional work on the big press to complete Leggie’s table…

Mark Sfirri and I were roommates while we were teaching at Anderson Ranch Arts Center 18 month or so ago, and I dropped into his workshop to see what he was teaching — turned out to be ‘eccentric spindle turning’ in the lathe shop… COOL STUFF! Been meaning to give that a try, so I cut some whimsical table legs from a large cedar beam I’ve had sitting in the shop a few years and… Here are the turnings for the legs:

I’d intended to make a 40″ circular table top, but it didn’t seem to coordinate with the fancy legs, so I made a somewhat bulging square top, gessoed it, and mounted it to my lathe for painting… Painted with acrylics again, and then used marker to make some dark circle accents, then heavily spray-lacquered the marker, causing it to dissolve and run like crazy — I LOVE this effect!

Break is Over and I’m back working on the big press!  Here are a couple of photos of Leggie’s completed ‘fruit monster’ table — four legs, fruity feet, and one big eye staring up out of the top… Kinda whimsical, I guess — and fun — I think she’ll like it. But I’m gonna have to make her a set of chairs to go around it now, too…