Curly mineralized maple piece

[Mike Parzych]

A while back I posted about some curly mineralized maple I had just gotten and someone wanted to see what it looked like when finished. Here's a picture of a coffee table.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a130/boardmanWI/t1.jpg

I had some difficulties with the pics, so this is the best I could do so far. There's an icon to expand the picture for a better look.

[Jason Tuinstra]

Mike, very nice job. The wood looks fantastic!

[Roy Wall]

Mike,

That is very nice....I like the wide inlay...

Great job!

[Dan Forman]

A Stunning piece of work. Love that figure, set off nicely by the calmer border.

Dan

[Chris Padilla]

Mike,

Stunning bench! All that wood is maple? The color of the (what I assume is "mineralized" maple) center section and border is quite interesting for maple! Nice job...looks great where it's at, too!

I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty to post it directly here in this thread! :)

[Mike Parzych]

Thanks Chris - I haven't figured that part of putting pics up yet.

I got about 200 bf of the stuff and just grabbed the first wide board and was amazed at the crotch figure. Needless to say, I rooted thru the rest to find the sister boards. Unplaned they are similar, but probably as not spectacular.

Yes, the red part is soft maple. It was from a huge maple on the sawyers farm. The lumber came from the exterior portions as the center was rotted out. Some of the 6-8" boards have more of the traditional maple pattern, but still large amounts of curl.

[Corey Hallagan]

Absolutely very kewl! The figure and how you capitalized on it is great. Nice work!

Corey

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mike....beautiful table....exquisite figured wood!

[lou sansone]

hey hey hey


very nice in deed.. I remember that post.. you done good my friend
lou

[Mike Parzych]

I'm looking for so input/advice from others here who have more experience selling their work in galleries, etc. I sent a photo of this piece to http://www.blueskygalleries.com/ in Minneapolis. They will put the piece in their gallery under their standard terms of a 40% commission. This entails a $120 annual memebrship fee which will get me a page on their website, board meeting voting priveleges, featured in ads/monthly themes, wall displays/flyers, etc.

I have absolutely no experience in this sort of thing, but I believe this is probably a boiler plate type agreement for this venue. Of course nobody wants to take a 40% hit on their work's sale price, but I'm thinking they can probably sell it for more than I could. And I guess I have to look at the long term benefit to my woodworking, since it's what I do for a living now.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[Alan Turner]

If you decide to do this gallery thing, please post a follow up as to how it went. I would be interested in any such experience.
BTW, nice table, and beautiful wood.

[Corvin Alstot]

The curly maple can be difficult to get smooth without tearout.
What was your process for getting a difficult board smooth.
I am working on a birdeye maple board with a lot of swirling grain
and am trying to avoid going to the sandpaper. (too much dust).
Thanks,
Corvin

[Mike Parzych]

Sanding was unavaoidable, but primarily because of the crotch figure The grain switches caused rough spots no matter how carefully I planed it. There really wasn't major tearout - deep tearout spots - if I took as light passes as possible. But the actually curly spots required less sanding. They really came out as perceptible (by hand feel) smooth high spots.

[Mark Singer]

Really beautiful wood and great design! The gallery fees seem consistent with what I have learned in talking to artists.

[Russ Massery]

Very Nice Mike, Thanks for sharing it with us. Is most of your work of your own design?

[Mike Parzych]

Yes, except for projects people bring to me. I'm trying to develop a niche of simple design with the wood species or figure being the focus. Quite frankly, because it's easier. And I like out of the ordinary wood too. Some people have the patience to do more intricate design and construction, but I ain't one of them. And I live in an area where Mission/Stickley is popular now, so it's within the same look, sort of.