Popular Woodworking 2007-02 № 160, страница 18

I see a bright line between the "crude" work of a "mechanick" (an 18th-century term for person who worked with his hands) and the elevated artwork of the design.

Conclusion

I find working to proportions allows me the flexibility to create furniture around the stock I can produce with the least amount of effort, without sacrificing the important aspects of

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Start the five-drawer design by imposing a column order of your choosing. This is Ionic, a masculine order. The column gives us the crown moulding and lowest drawer. From here, we are left with a four-drawer chest. Those drawers can be determined exactly as the four-drawer chest above.

the design. It's an art-focused approach. So I am free to go fast, maybe a little sloppy, and straight to the point. The proportions define what is truly important.

The greater point I'd like to leave you with is the importance of design, and the relative unimportance of piston-fit drawers or perfect dovetails.

I would never argue that finely planed wood isn't beautiful. But I wonder at the sense of put-

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This William & Mary waist mould is a typical design. The upper half of the waist is sized to cover the thickness of the lower board in the case (⁷/8"). This moulding is beautifully long, making a roughly 30° angle. It is only slightly concave over all, bulging closest to the case, then meeting the bullnosed top of the lower case with a shallow ogee. Under the lower case's top is a simple cove. I personally do not find mouldings particularly quick and easy to make by hand. But the alternative isn't good. In my opinion, router bit makers generally make ugly mouldings with shapes based on circles instead of the ellipses typical of period moulding planes.

ting so much time and effort into something that may not be noticed from 3', while sacrificing that which is easily apparent from 50'. By following proportion rules established 3,000 years ago, we have in our power the ability to evoke a visceral human response.

Maybe this is why master cabinetmaker and fashion icon Thomas Chippendale (1718-1779) urged his fellow cabinetmakers to develop "an acquaintance" with the classical column orders and their use in art and architecture. He wrote in 1762, "These [proportion rules], therefore, ought to be carefully studied by every one who would excel in this Branch [cabinetmaking], since they are the very Soul and Basis of his Art." Pw

MORE ARTS & MYSTERIES oN ADAM CHERUBINI'S

new blog

This year's Arts & Mysteries column has Contributing Editor Adam Cherubini building a period case piece entirely by hand. As you might imagine, this is a vast and sweeping series, and therefore there's lots of ground to cover.

So we've provided Adam with a blog (artsandmysteries.com) where he will expand on many of the details and themes he touches on here, post photos from the shop, provide progress reports on the project and respond to your e-mails.

There are already several blog entries that relate to this first column on design that you should investigate:

• Form Follows Function, But What Function? Adam discusses why period furniture was embellished with mouldings or carvings.

• A Discerning Eye: Adam discusses how he gets inspiration for his furniture designs and then records them for him to use in the shop.

• Finding the Golden Section: Learn more about the golden section and how it is derived.

• Column orders: You might have noticed that Adam mentioned "column orders" in this piece. What are column orders? This is where you base designs off the proportions of different classical styles of columns, such as Doric or Ionic. There's more on this topic now on the blog.

— Christopher Schwarz, editor

In a four-drawer chest, the position of the middle drawer divider is determined by the golden section. In some regions, this would be the only divider that is dovetailed to the case sides. The top and bottom dividers are then determined by dividing each of the two remaining spaces by ⁹/i 6. So, for example, the big drawer at the bottom is ⁹/i 6 of the .618 space. The larger of the two top drawers is ⁹/i6 of the .382 space. This is almost easier and faster to do with dividers than with a tape measure and calculator. The question I'm not answering here is whether the middle divider is a golden section of the entire carcase side, or the space under the moulding. The reason I'm not answering is because I simply don't know. Realize that these images are all of real masterpieces and not my own designs.

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