For as long as I can remember there has been an old wooden cabinet in the corner of the bathroom of the family home. Readers of my articles may have caught a glimpse of the cabinet when I looked at making bridle joints.
In this article I revisit that cabinet and re-create it by up-cycling an old 8’ x 1½” x 10” scaffolding plank.
Wormy Maple Side Table:
As a woodworker and very avid ‘upcycler’, I am always loathed to see wood go to waste. So, when a friend said they had some ‘wormy’ maple they couldn’t use, I just had to have it. Instantly, I knew that I wanted to make something with it that would show off the worm holes, creating a beautifully organic effect in the piece.
The Shakers came to America in the 18th Century and over the years became highly skilled woodworkers, developing their own sense of design. Their furniture and interiors were simple and austere believing that everything be made with a minimum of extra detail or decoration, and only made for their intended use.
The Moravians, who can trace their roots back to the 15th century, re-emerged in the 18th century in Bavaria. These colonial Germans were members of the Moravian church and they came to America for the same reason others also did around the same time: to escape religious persecution in Europe.
Books about the Shakers are always littered with photographs of rooms prominently displaying one or two pieces of furniture standing on the signature wide-boarded wood floors of the time. But, looking beyond the ‘staring’ piece there are always other furnishings being kept out of the way hanging on those characteristic shaker pegs.
In this article I am going to take you through the steps of making a Shaker candle stand based on one first made in New Lebanon, NY Shaker Village in the first quarter of the 19th Century and is currently in the collection at the American Museum in Bath UK.