Expert to Beginner

CWB Portfolio Awards

Sometimes we enter design competitions, sometimes we dont. This year though, I felt The Duck Bed was one of our all time good ones, so, off it went to the Custom Woodworking Business Magazine Design Portfolio Awards contest, where we were happy to receive an honorable mention. Loyal readers may have seen the original posts for the bed back in April of this year, but, if you missed it then, its worth a look. The bed was a technically demanding and rewarding project on many different levels. The clients were old friends (that always helps), and everyone in the shop was involved in the project. Will did the turning, carving, and finishing; Sam did the mini sculpting and patinas; Trevor did the cnc work on the inlay pockets and walnut inset, and Jim was there as always to help you do whatever you needed help with at the time .. fun project.
Click the photos to enlarge them ...
Our neighbor and sometime collaborator, Steve Holman, (see The Big Tables") also won an honorable mention for the piece he did for the Bennington Museum Show State of Craft ... 50 Years of Craft in Vermont that took place earlier this year ...
The overall winner in our category, Residential Furniture was Parnian Design of Scottsdale, Arizona. They nudged us out with a project that took Parnians craftsmen 8 months to build and
was two years in the making by designer Abdolhay Parnian. ... nice commission ...

Weve had luck in CWB Portfolio Awards in the past and so has Steve ... Honorable Mentions before for Harveys Sideboard, once for Nancys Screen and just two years ago for Elliots Poker Table.
In 2005, we were the overall winner in the Specialty Products division for our mahogany,curly maple and walnut traditional style pool table ...

Below are few photos from my earlier duck bed posts describing the process of building the bed ... This post is the last one I wrote and has links to all the previous ones so this is the place to go for a start to finish tour of the project ... Feel free to comment or email if you have questions on our techniques or execution ...
First rough mockup on site ...
Will, adjusting his music before carving the posts ...
Headboard template test fit with inlay designs still in progress ...