Authentic Nautical Accessories, and Custom Furnishings
"luck is what you stumble upon in life. Providence is what God plans for you, and planning is how you thread your way between the two without getting crushed." The speaker of these words was the rather infamous first-class petty officer John O'Toole. Destined never to become a chief, he was swimming towards retirement. Along …
I'm from New York City. But I've lived in New England for so long that lots of it's habits and ways rubbed off on me. Much came from Coastal Maine. there I learned a style of English, cooking, and life that was very different from life in the City. The incidents described here happened in …
Fair curves are important to ship & boat builders, carvers, furniture makers, and traditional sailmakers. The Oxford English Dictionary describes a fair curve as "a smooth curve; especially (Nautical) one in the body of a ship." That works out well until you put practitioners of different crafts together on a stage and ask them to …
Continue reading "The Fair Curve – closing your eyes to see"
Daily writing promptWhat have you been putting off doing? Why?View all responses Let's not be too quick to dismiss procrastination. It can actually serve a useful purpose. I once learned from a friend in historic preservation that procrastination was one of his most valuable tools in saving landmark structures from demolition. By slowing, distracting, and …
Going into Will's workshop was always on par with entering a sorcerer's hut. He might be working on anything. Sometimes it was toys for the grandkids, trap stock to make lobster pots for Lowell down at the Cove, or a boat. The rafters hung with templates for boats made anytime in the past century or more. Will's father before …
The photo captures a piece of art that caught my eye in a restaurant in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Its reductionist style immediately drew my attention, reminding me that schooner sails are all different sorts of triangles, each varying in angles and sizes.It was appropriate that I found this in a seafood restaurant in one of the …
I play around with carving elements on the computer before I begin carving. But in this case, I wanted to play with the elements in the shop. I had run across some mid-19th-century sailors' dioramas online and wanted to experiment further with how they brought elements together. The best way to do that was more …
A favorite term among the older seamen of my acquaintance was "A calm Sea, Never a good sailor made." There are at least a dozen variations on this saying, and everyone from Teddy Roosevelt to his cousin Franklin gets quoted as saying it. Sailors have a penchant for friendly competition. And the seamanly way to settle a …
Continue reading "Stream of Consciousness – 8/10 – Ship Shape"
I once imagined setting up a shop on a waterfront and selling the carvings that I created. Then, reality intervened when I considered the actual costs versus the take minus the overhead. It was a wonderful dream, but keeping a shop and trying to carve in volume stopped being a dream I might actually do …
The ship in the background is the USS Constitution. The nearby building is the maintenance facility where much of the new materials for the Constitution's rebuild were fabricated. Tucked away on the far back of the second floor was my friend Bill Brommell's workshop. Around that time, I was newly unemployed by the Department of …
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