Blanchard Creative Woodworking

Home
United States
Wilton, NH
Blanchard Creative Woodworking

now on Etsy! http://www.BlanchardCreative.etsy.com

http://twitter.com/Blanchard42

02/25/2025

Another leftover bit of an old project, (finally) en route to becoming something new.

02/20/2025

A little thing (made up of lots of little things), slowly turning into a bigger thing. What’s it going to be? I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see.

02/18/2025

A couple of small things in progress. Mini cutting boards born of pieces from other cutting boards.

02/09/2025

A great evenings gaming adventure - fun, and wonderfully designed.

02/06/2025

Don’t put the clamps on TOO tight, or your cutting board won’t come out straight. ;)
Last glimpse of my wavy charcuterie board before it goes off to the Church Auction next Saturday. - I’ll drop a link for early/proxy bids once their preview site goes live.
Full post and description at that time.

01/29/2025

Out of the clamps. Looking like a success. Cleans up real good too!

01/26/2025

Glue up with 73 thin strips. Never tried anything like that before. Too ambitious? Maybe. Too stressful? Nearly. I did a couple dry runs of the clamping procedure. Fingers crossed.
year post 5 years of P52. - still figuring it out.

08/15/2024

24:04-6 (2024, project #4, 5 and 6)

Three sets for Andy’s Summer Playhouse. Hereby doubling my yearly project count thus far! I haven’t succeeded in making much sawdust for myself, but I’ll do it for the kids!

The first was put together in a day with help from one kid in the apprentice program and two college alumni on summer staff. For scale, The risers are 24 feel wide, and the back walls (on the sides of the center screen) are 4’ high.

And as luck would have it, The power was out in the neighborhood for the first show. So the one and only performance of the 24 Hour Plays was moved outside to the front steps (Despite the last minute change of venue and drastically altered tech, It was spectacular - and in front of a MUCH larger audience than would have fit inside anyway.

The next day, two of us struck the steps, added a row of risers, and rebuilt the railings. All the changes in the third slide - need to be painted black. A reasonably easy half day making these changes.

Final edits for the 3rd show are significant, but mostly invisible to the audience. We added a stage behind the screen for back projection AND shadow puppetry. This was, surprisingly, a much bigger lift than the entire build - as everything back stage was in the way, So two of us played a herculean game of Tetris to move the decks, walls, stairs and other partially deconstructed remnants of old sets to reconfigure the backstage area and make it accessible AND safe.

This years evolving stage meant fewer hands needed, considerably less time AND money spent (we were only short six 2x4’s, and otherwise able to reuse, repurpose, or reconstruct everything else from previous sets. And so the sets for, ‘Out There’ and ‘Giant Slalom’ have been ‘Dispatched for the Hilltop’ ;) It’s always nice recognizing pieces from earlier shows, and getting to utilize them in new ways (or at the very least not have to make ANOTHER set of stairs EVERY year. ;)

The summer flew by - closing weekend is upon us… just 2 more chances to see what magic is happening, and what the final set ACTUALLY looks like when the actors take their places.

06/18/2024

24:03 (2024, project #3)
It’s been a year, and I’ve had lots of things pulling me and my attention away from the shop….
I did a little bit of clean up and re-organizing this weekend in advance of some anticipated time hiding in the cool basement and avoiding the impending heat wave.
I moved these flat files to a new home under the work bench. I had to do some wall surgery to fit these 23” deep drawers under a 22” deep top surface. - and put the whole thing on wheels.
Nice to have these shallow drawers for chisels, rasps, measuring tools and such right at hand, rather than on the other side of the shop.

03/31/2024

As the third month draws to a close, I start my third project of the year. Starting completely from rough lumber. (Didn’t even know what beauty was inside these boards.) …

02/17/2024

24:01 (2024, project no. 1)

Hickory and Mesquite charcuterie board.

In my continued effort to (somehow, hopefully someday) combine humor and woodworking, I present this charcuterie board made from woods normally used to smoke meats. Fitting, no? ;)
(just a little witty? … or at least appropo?)

This project fulfills a request to donate an item to the church auction. Tonight! Some lucky person will get to add this beauty to their kitchen or dining table, raise their spirits, and feed their soul. ;)

I used the wooden bar clamps https://www.instagram.com/p/CoC709Or9Qc/ I made last year to glue this board together. I am still loving those. The sheer amount of force provided by a couple of wedges can be seen on the mahogany wedges in the last photo. It’s impressive.

02/06/2024

P52 wrap up:

52 projects in 52 weeks. This was meant to be a challenge. Aspirational.

The notion of a project a week appealed more than one a month, or some arbitrary time frame.
While this seemed (and sometimes felt) like it was about numbers, it really wasn’t. I’ve done enough challenges over the years to know that doing anything out of obligation would eventually make it less fun.

Year 1: 36 projects were made. Some things were easy, others needed more time. Sometimes I didn’t have the time. Life and all that. I noticed I was tending to focus on quick/small projects to try to stay on track.

Year 2. The universe gave us time. Pandemic. Lockdown. 100 projects completed. 3/4 of them were wooden mallets. And one amazingly cool Eddie Van Halen inspired Frankenstein of a cutting board. None of those things would have been made if we were living life as usual.

Two years down, WAY ahead of the numbers! This might be doable!
More projects followed, and life kept making its demands, each year saw fewer things getting made. Not that 41, 31 or even 21 projects in a years time was anything to scoff at.

My work was improving. I wasn’t rushing, just enjoying my time in the shop. Savoring it. I was making the sorts of things I wanted to. Craftsmanship was paramount and I’m proud that a significant percentage of these projects have happily found a place in other peoples homes.

When year 4 wrapped on this challenge, I had created 208 unique projects in 208 weeks. Challenge met.

But, this has never been about the numbers. This has always been about finding the pockets of time to do the things we really want to do, and not have the excuses about why we can’t.

Year five may have brought the average down. It was a challenging year where my time and attention were increasingly needed elsewhere. I also made the decision to stay out of the shop when my kiddo was home on school breaks. Plus, there was the desire to take advantage of the rare day without rain, and a significant uptick in overtime at work… In short, life happens.

What have we learned?

We can fit in the meaningful things, the things that fuel the creative soul. Don’t wait, create! Make art everyday.

Address

Wilton, NH

Website

http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Blanchard Creative Woodworking posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Want your business to be the top-listed Furniture Store in Wilton?