Done at last! I finished building the Ship Chaboo for Evan B Harris.
The flag and crows nest are nice touches. There are three different sizes of masts 3/4″, 7/8″ and 1″ diameter. This project was very difficult but oh so fun. Seriously, who gets to go to work and build toy ships?
I had Evan draw out the shapes he wanted for the sails on paper and I handled the rest. The ship body and upper deck I came up with spontaneously as I built the thing. It just didn’t look right with the original design. I made some little details where the masts meet the ship body. I spent a lot of time wrestling with the design, not compromising until I was satisfied.
This project reconfirmed to me how important it is to be able to make design decisions in full scale. I made numerous adjustments to the templates Evan provided for me while I built the ship as I saw fit.
I CANNOT wait to see this thing painted by Evan! He is such an amazing artist and I trust him completely to take this project into the finish line. Ive learned through this project that we are similar in our masochistic tendencies to do crazy projects that no one else would ever want to do because it is too much work.
Building the ship chaboo for Evan B Harris has been like wrestling an alligator. I know they say everything has been done but im pretty confident on this one. No one has every built a CURVED toy pirate ship onto/into a piece of furniture! If someone has seen it, send me a picture and ill stand corrected.
Making these lap joints is painfully complicated because of the irregular shape. Every part must line up correctly with each other and the chaboo. Im routing out the channels for the joints with my Festool router/guide rail setup. The setup is great for awkward situations… which I seem to attract both in woodworking and socially.
I had the chance to go to the opening last wed at the Mark Woolley gallery featuring two chaboo artists, Amy Ruppel and Evan B. Harris. The show was to feature their individual work and also some collaborative pieces they did. I had never seen their work in person nor met them before so I was psyched to go.
The arrangement was such that you could see each artist individually and the collaboration in the same space. Amy’s work on the left and Evans work on the right. In between those two was the series that they collaborated on- Amy did the rabbit and Evan did the flora into the wax around it in this example. The work was… well it speaks for itself- beautiful! The energy that collaboration can create was really showcased here and encouraging for me.
It was great to meet them and get an insiders scoop on their process and inspiration. We talked briefly about their chaboo ideas. Amy wants to do something with thick pieces of felt and Evan wants to build and paint a ship motif onto a chaboo. Ambitious! Im in! Their enthusiasm for trying something new is awesome.
