| This house was completed in 1984. The entry doors were done with the same technique as described in the first group of pictures. The kitchen is Oak with Walnut accents. Behind the tambor door in the oven cabinet was the first built-in microwave that we designed into a kitchen. Residential microwaves had just been introduced into the residential market on a large scale. If only we had known how much microwaves would eventually be used; we would never have put a door in front of it. If you look closely, you can see how the boards were picked and laid out for their particular grain patterns. I even made the shelf supports out of Walnut. The Walnut is from 1914 Springfield rifle gunstock blanks. These blanks were a surplus from World War I. A man traveled all over the country selling them to Cabinetmakers after the war. Several of them were given to me by the man whose shop I moved into in 1978 after he retired. He also gave me small amounts of some very exotic species. Gaboon Ebony, Madagascar Rosewood, Tambootie, Genuine Mahogany, Brazilian Rosewood to name a few. I still have most of the pieces today. I have only used small amounts of them to make small pieces over the years. The most notable being a display case for a brick on which I used some of the Ebony. The display case was for a collector of revolutionary era items. The brick had a connection with Paul Revere in some way. The man whose shop I moved into was Jacob Malott. He was known all over the world for his beautiful furniture and gun stocks. Especially the gun stocks he carved for all the major manufacturers of luxury game rifles and shotguns. He could carve an elaborate stock in a day that would take an average carver a week to do. I commissioned Mr. Malott to carve me a very small heart out of the Tulipwood which had an ebony arrow through it as a gift for my wife, it was one of the most exquisite pieces I have ever seen. Mr. Malott was a personal friend and frequent hunting companion of Fred Bear, the founder of Bear Archery. He showed me several pictures of Mr. Bear and himself standing next to bears and other large game animals that they had brought down with bow and arrow in Alaska. |
| Click on the pictures for a larger view |
| This was the first house where I used a small crown over the tops of doorways. I also used it as an accent for the kitchen archway. All of the casing, base and crown were profiled on my Williams & Hussey. The curved pieces were made long before you could purchase all of the add-on accessories available today for the W&H. I made up all my own jigs for all the processes. This house was done for a retired Navy Master Chief and his wife. That is the reason for the nautical designs. Look closely at the detail on the beams in the family room and above the exterior of the entry door to see the detail that I added to try to bring out the nautical designs. All the glass work and ships' sandblasting was done by Moss Art Glass of Anderson, Indiana mossglass.com I did all the coloring on the ships. Notice the curved glass light fixtures in the kitchen. This was the first curved glass that Moss created for me and I think the first they did on a large scale. Another detail is the oak inlaid tile in the entryway. This was one of many times that I had used this technique with the first being the 1978 house. We usually used a new idea on several houses after the owners we were contracting new work for at the time saw them in preceding houses. I would continuously come up with new ideas and implement them in my work. I would try to implement new techniques on a regular basis. This house was featured in a page and a half article in our local newspaper. |
| This page is dedicated to the memory of Jacob Malott, Master Wood Carver, Anderson, IN. Without whose influence in the earlier years of my career, I could not have accomplished the creative output that I was able to achieve. |