June 2009

I’m currently in New Mexico on vacation with my wife, Lindsey.  On Tuesday, the 9th, I received a phone message that I was invited to attend the Design in Wood awards dinner.  As Martha Stewart would say, “That’s a good thing.”

Unfortunately, the dinner was Friday, and I was still here in New Mexico.  That was a bad thing.

I was hoping Bob Stevenson, the coordinator of the event, might email me after the dinner with some news.  Saturday went by with no additional information, so I emailed my friend Pam Goldman of Woodworker West.  She and her husband Ron cover the event and are usually present during the judging.  They would know.

She emailed me back with this message:  “You got the Master Woodworkers Trophy which is the most skillfully executed furniture piece, and an honorable mention in your category.  Ron went on Sunday after all the judging was done so he didn’t have any inside info…  I didn’t go with Ron so I haven’t seen any of the pieces.”

That “inside info” can be very enlightening, and would undoubtedly explain the seemingly incongruous awards.

I was a judge at the exhibition last year, and Bob does a really great job making sure the awards get spread around and the good stuff gets recognized.  There were many excellent pieces in my category (which I mentioned in my last post), and an honorable mention does not surprise me, given what I saw when I delivered my piece.

The other award is the result of Bob doing his thing (a good thing as far as I’m concerned).

This will probably be my last post on the hall table project.  Thanks to all of you for your encouragement here on the blog and at school where I teach.  Your support means a lot to me.

I delivered my hall table to the Design in Wood show yesterday, taking the afternoon to drive down to Solana Beach near San Diego.  I got there around 4:00 pm, the halfway point of the noon-to-eight delivery window, and about half the pieces were already present.

Last year, I had the privilege of judging one of the special categories at the competition.  Through a friend referral, I had been asked to select Popular Woodworking’s Best Use of Traditional Woodworking Techniques award.   The judging process was a real eye-opener, in that I got to really see “behind the curtain.”

It’s amazing what you find when you can open doors and drawers.  Poorly sanded surfaces, lousy joinery, home center plywood drawer sides, and various other workmanship shortcomings not seen by the masses.

With those thoughts in the back of my mind, I perused the entries present yesterday.  Most of them were amazing, from what I could see.  I didn’t feel comfortable prying to much, so I only opened a few doors and drawers (and only those in my category, Contemporary Furniture).

Let’s just say I have low expectations for garnering any awards.

My hall table, although (IMHO) it is nicely done, just doesn’t stand out like some of the other pieces.  It’s a pretty understated piece, and may not get the judges’ attention as they take their first looks.  No exposed joinery, no sinuous lines, only one drawer, few curves.

I’ll be curious to see how things turn out.  While my expectations are low, I must admit I’d be a bit disappointed to leave with no award.  We’ll see…