Library Rare Book Display Stand

[4DThinker]

I've just delivered this book stand to my college library rare book room. It now sits in the front large window of that room where it can be seen from the general library space. 

I was asked by the chief librarian to design something original and representative of the creative design environment our college is.   These photos are of it in the finish room of our fabrication lab where I teach different sections of woodworking and furniture design to students in Interior Architecture and Industrial Design.   CNC created aspects of this piece include the VCarved quotes cut into the two stretchers, the soft curve on the front of the dark front ledge, and all joinery including sliding tapered dovetails to slide the side support of the back shelf into, bowtie tenon rows between stretchers and feet stretchers and posts, and also between feet and posts.   You can see a 4-tenon stacks of thru tenons bowtie shaped piercing the top.  The thumbnail curve on the top edge of the feet was also done using the moulding toolpath in Aspire.  

  

Edited February 24, 2020 by 4DThinker
fixed spelling mistakes

[p_toad]

nice.   very nice.  thanks

[Cal]

Now that is sweet!  Thanks for sharing

[difalkner]

Excellent work, as usual!  The design is good and the execution is very good.  I like it!

 

David

[4DThinker]

Thanks, everyone.   

 

A little background on the build process includes my intention to make it all out of Northern White Ash. Unfortunately the Ash we had on hand turned out to be riddled with bug tracks.  Our local supplier also wouldn't sell any for the same reason.  I don't care much for the face grain of Ash, but in the past we've cut it into strips and turned them 90 degrees before gluing into slabs. The quarter-sawn edge growth rings are very straight and parallel and add a nice tough to linear designs.   The two stretchers are Ash. 

 

I took a chance on some White Oak, and did the same thing with it for most of the stand parts.  In person and under good light the variation in color and grain details are IMO very beautiful. Also much nicer than the face grain of White Oak. 

 

4D

[Gunny]

That is fantastic.  Really like the quotes!

[FlGatorwood]

Modern, functional, excellent quotations.  Excellent job.  I love it.  

[Artie]

I love it, Please post more of your students works here, if you can.

[4DThinker]

As my student's work is their personal intellectual property, I leave it up to them to post photos of their own work if and where they want to.   I occasionally see work my students did on facebook and linked-in, but not often.  If I've posted images of student projects before it was with permission of the student.   The stand above is my own design, and will likely never be repeated.  As it was being built it was interesting to hear what students and other professors thought it was. Anything from a drafting desk to a church pulpit to just a standing desk before they realized the top would be fixed at an angle. This stand was a rare request.  A student of mine was working in the college library when the chief librarian mentioned her desire for a nicer stand to display rare books/artifacts on.  The student suggested asking me if I was interested in such a project, and things progressed from there.    I like odd challenges such as this, where other than the height, width, and angle of the top all details of the design were left to me.  The base expresses my pursuit of simplicity in structure.    Among the sketches I did for it is a way to have it fold up, but there was no need for that feature in the final design.  It fits nicely through most doors, and was not heavier than I could lift myself. Awkward to lift alone, but not heavy. 

 

4D

 

 

[4DThinker]

A little irony here.   I teach in a design college.  Design is the functional descriptor.   Although I can certainly build whatever my mind creates, my mission for the last 40+ years has been to educate the public about the value of design.  Much pf the pubic, even my own relatives, haven't yet come to realize that everything that exists around them is an outcome of someone's creative design effort.   I happily pay extra when I have the opportunity to reward anyone working for me that expresses some original design thinking toward the work they do. 

 

So my department produces a weekly newsletter that gets emailed to the whole design college as well as all the alumni we have email addresses for.   I was happy to see mention and a couple photos of this stand in the latest version.  What surprised me though was the caption under the photos:  "New Weigel Special Collections book display stand constructed by IAID Professor David Brown".     True, I did construct it. What my department office failed to mention, perhaps didn't even realize, was that this was my original design.  A personal creative effort, independent from the build part.  

 

I come to this forum to see the creative designs of the members.  It is the design of the thing, even more than the woodworking of the thing, that tickles me most.  Here's to your design brilliance, forum members.

 

4D

[Gunny]

16 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

was that this was my original design

My wife just calls this magic, from the place where magic happens.  

 

16 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

Here's to your design brilliance, forum members.

 

Not to sure on the brilliance part.  I have moments to be sure but mostly I stagger like a drunken fool.

[4DThinker]

12 minutes ago, Woodbutcherbynight said:

My wife just calls this magic, from the place where magic happens.

I'm lucky to know the secret behind creating original things.  I get more joy though from sharing that with my students.  The design process involves iteration to find solutions rather than simply spits them out or watches them appear from the wave of a wand. Often the most original details are the results of an accidental stroke of a pencil.  It may still be a little magic that reveals a useful detail among many sketches, but knowing that would happen implies there is science in the process.  Method to the madness.  The stagger itself is likely what shakes free the brilliance.   

 

4D

[Gene Howe]

Then, I need to stagger more. 

[4DThinker]

11 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Then, I need to stagger more. 

I can't argue with your logic.   Just take care not to injure yourself.   There is an old saying out there I'm sure:  "Staggeringly beautiful".   Those times when you go weak at the knees over how beautiful a thing is.    

Edited March 6, 2020 by 4DThinker

[Gene Howe]

Then, I married her.

[John Moody]

That is one beautiful book stand! I love every aspect of it, from the design to the build, the quotes and the awesome finish. 

[4DThinker]

Thanks John.    My only challenge now is how to get my university to pay me for the design and build time.  Once delivered the librarian ask for an invoice.   I made one up and gave it to her.   A few days later I received an email from the college accountant stating they couldn't pay the invoice because I worked there.   I think I'll wait a few years until I retire from there and send them a new invoice.  The money should be more useful then anyway, and compound interest will have inflated the price.       

[Gene Howe]

Shoulda got a P.O. 

[Artie]

I’m still trying to learn how to glue two pieces of wood together and have them stay together LOL. I sometimes figure out how to make some simple things on my own, and there is some fun involved with putting it together in my (alleged) mind.

[4DThinker]

14 minutes ago, Artie said:

... and there is some fun involved with putting it together in my (alleged) mind.

You've hit on the reason every woodworker/maker does what they do I'm sure.  Some undoubtedly also get paid for their efforts, but that is just the icing on the already enjoyable passion. 

 

4D