Creative Woodworks & crafts 2001-11, страница 23

Recent design highlights

Over ihe past five years, John has hit some notable "home runs" in the area of scroll saw project design. One such success was an extensive line of "woven" scroll-sawn baskets earlv in 1997. Naturallv, they were not reallv woven, but

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absolutely appeared to be, even upon very close inspection! The idea for these baskets came from Joyce Nelson's basket collection (Joyce is John's wife) which hung from the hand-hewn beams in their kitchen. John studied the baskets closely, finally concluding that they could indeed be translated into scroll saw patterns. In the April 1997 issue of Creative Woodworks & (.'rafts, we did a product review of these remarkable baskets, and the Nelsons were literally flooded with orders and reorders. For the

next year and a John's "woven" scroll saw baskets half, they were a were a brilliant success.

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success and dozens of new varieties were released.

Shortly thereafter, Dick Hoi Icy of Steebar Corp. asked John to design a large wooden "wrist watch" for him. John designed an 18"-long wrist watch and it turned out to be a

phenomenally successful project.

In 1998, John busied himself designing a different style of basket for Creative Woodworks <& Crafts Exclusive Patterns. He designed 11 patterns, and Creative Woodworks & Crafts Special Projects Editor Wes Demarest developed the prototypes from exquisite hardwoods. The magazine's April 1999 issue featured one of these patterns, The Candy Dish, on the front cover, and the other ten patterns were made available (as individual patterns for sale) in the following issue under the name "Gallery Baskets." Again, these were an incredible success. Literally thousands of gallery baskets have been made over the past few years, many given as gifts and many others sold at craft shows. When John first designed them, he was excited that they tended to waste less wood than the "woven" style baskets.

About a year later, John approached me with an idea for a new series of patterns, scroll-sawn lamps (subsequently-named the "ArtDecor Lamp Series"). We loved these lamps, and, again, had them developed by Wes Demarest. I.ike the baskets, they were purchased by a great number of people and have been an overall success. But perhaps more significantly. Ihe lamps demonstrated that the scroll saw could be used effectively to create upscale functional items for the home.

Throughout the design and development of the Gallery Baskets and ArtDecor Lamps series, John forged a strong creative relationship with Wes Demarest. John and Wes both strongly felt that one of the most important elements in raising the level of scroll saw projects was to choose beautiful hardwoods that maximized the effectiveness of each design. Every Gallery Basket and ArtDecor Lamp was made with this thought in mind, and many people were inspired by the results of John's designs coupled with Wes' "Product Development."

The Fruil Bowl and Small Sculptural Bowl were among the most popular Gallery Baskets.

The Jaffrey and The Warwick were two very successful lamp designs.

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23 • Creative Woodworks & Crafts November 2001