Open Studios Art Tour

The SLO Arts Council (Arts Obispo) began it’s twelfth annual Open Studios Art Tour this last weekend. It goes for three weekends and is supposedly the biggest Tour of this type outside of San Francisco, CA. Over two hundred artists/craftsmen participate.

San Luis Obispo is a pretty large county geographically, so the tour is divided into “North” county and “South” county. This year, north county (the part I’m in) went first. South county exhibits next weekend and then both halves combine for a third (encore) weekend.

My shop had about 140 visitors for the two days. That’s better than last year by a few, but sales were much lower.

For anyone who can’t make it to Los Osos California, here’s a brief tour:

 

Gumby welcomes all our visitors

 

such a friendly guy

 

Interestingly, Art Clokey the creator of Gumby, lived in Los Osos in his later years until his death at 88 early this year. We had his grandson(?) come by on this year’s tour. Sage is about 4 or 5 years old. (Although, the story was a bit convoluted as presented by the “step grandparents” he was with. So maybe he’s a great grandson.)  Our inflatable Gumby is about 25 years old

 

 

Coming into the shop

 

 

Sconces on the right, in front of my lumber rack

 

 

Craftsman Sconce of Ash & Karilian Birch Burl

 

 

joinery samples on the left, on my tablesaw "island"

 

 

Side table in front of Wolfhead Sander, Sanding table, and clutter

 

This is a woodshop, so it’s kind of hard to display pieces without a lot of clutter behind them.

 

 

Night Lights

 

To the right/rear of the night lights, is my Pistorius double miter saw. I get the most inquiries of “What is that?” I love this saw. It cuts a perfect miter, and with all the Wright lamps I make and all the miters I cut, this is the most expensive and most cost effective machine I own.

 

Walnut burl table & Penny

 

I built this small table many years ago for a neighbor of my mom-in-law’s. They had a lot of money, but the husband had the rattiest looking Lazyboy recliner I’ve ever seen. This table went right next to it.  Both Husband & wife have passed away, and my Mom-in-law bought the table back from the estate.

Penny the dog is not a shop dog — much too sensitive for that. She comes out with “mom” only for Open Studios. Makes a point of barking at the first visitors to the shop and then forgets about the rest of them.

 

Another mdf panel of sconces that conveniently hides a bunch of clutter

 

Visitors walk past the dog, and “round the bend” towards the exit. I have a Niche on the left. on the table is a “Bud Stand”, small Chest of drawers made of Baltic Birch and Rosewood, and a digital screen with my work plus construction pictures taken from this blog. Two of the squarish sconces are made using veneers for the shades. The middle one is hand painted silk.

 

Chest of Drawers

 

 

Bud Stand & Niche

 

The Bud Stand is “inspired by” a photo stand designed by Wright. The Niche is designed to fit between wall studs (16″ centers). It’s painted Alder and has a small halogen light in the top.

 

Approching the only clear wall I have in the shop

 

 

Coffee Table and wall cabinets

 

The coffee table is Hot Mottled Makoré, Lyptus, and painted Maple (see coffee table off to Carmel). The Coopered door Cherry Cabinet on the left was my first project at Jim Krenov’s Fine Woodworking program @ College of the Redwoods in Ft Bragg, CA. c1982. The cabinet on the right is made of Swedish Elm.

 

 

Cherry cabinet interior

 

 

 

Drawer detail showing dovetails

 

Ok, this picture is a bit crooked (like the others aren’t?)  The drawers are Japanese Birch fronts, Western Maple sides, and Rosewood pulls. I actually had someone ask me where my “dovetail machine” was and was quite surprised when I said that all the dovetailed drawers in all the pieces on display were hand cut.

 

 

Retirement cabinet mockup to the left of shop door

 

 

Table saw island with Guest Book and "free gifts" drawing

 

To encourage folks to give up their names & addresses, a group of artists –LOCA– are contributing art pieces to a drawing of several “Goodie Bags”. It seems to work. I got about 10-12 names in my guest book and 72 names from the drawing box.

 

 

The Snack table w/Deb in control

 

 

The real reason people come by.

 

For a treat, we offer fresh coffee, juice and home made cookies.

And that’s the end of the tour. I hope you enjoyed it.

I’d offer you a cookie & coffee but it really messes up the screen.