The 100 Club and Making Mesquite Furniture

New Ad Style. What do you think?

I always thought joining the 100 Club of anything was an honor or privilege. I'm still trying to see the honor, the privilege or anything positive about living through 75+ days of temperatures OVER 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I mean REALLY this is ridiculous!  Lou Quallenberg continues to make mesquite furniture through this scorching heat, in a shop without an airconditioner, day after day.  It is unrelenting with no relief in sight and a large project deadline creeping ever steadily closer and closer.

75+ days over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and no relief in sight!!

We won't go through another Texas summer without a swimming pool.  I'll even pay to have water shipped in to fill it if I have to.  We are currently bailing our bathwater to save a few of our trees. It is amazing how much water runs down the drain wasted so don't let me get started about flushing toilets....

This may end up being the first year that we do not have a mesquite furniture piece entered in the Texas Furniture Makers Show since we started showing there in 2005.  Lou won Best Art Furniture in 2005 and Best Texas Style Furniture for the past three years consecutively 2008,2009,& 2010. We are busy and that is a very good thing. We feel blessed. Besides it is just too hot to do ANYTHING. So the show pieces get put on the way back burner while the commissioned pieces get built and delivered at the slow moving, sweaty,  hot and tired pace.  

We will certainly attend the 12th Annual Texas Furniture Makers Show and are making plans to catch Thea Marx's seminar "How to Market Your Work without a Big Budget" & "Western Design: The Old, the New and Why It's Western."   We really like Thea Marx and ALL that she has done to promote Contemporary Western Design.  She is the reason we entered the British Airways Face of Opportunity Contest and while we did not get much of a chance to visit in London at the Face to Face Conference it was great knowing she was there working her western style magic on the United Kingdom, at Harrods and I know she charmed them in Paris as well.

Lou Quallenberg Clamping the Mesquite Bench Back Rest

I thought I would share a few photos of the current mesquite furniture project taking up most of the space in the shop these days.  Lou is working on the mesquite benches for the private chapel in Bandera.  They will sit curved, facing the alter and the Dancing Trees.

Solid Mesquite Slabs for the Bench Seats

They each have a slight curve on the seat and back rest. The back rest on each bench is composed of four slices of mesquite wood that are 9/32" thick. They are cut and then epoxied together and shaped into the curve. The same process is used on the base apron to match the curve of the seat. It is also used on four other smaller pieces that serve as braces for both accent and strength.

They are really taking shape and coming along.  Lou's God Son Travis will be visiting from New Jersey  for a good portion of September and we hope he will be able to lend a helping hand on this job.  Just hope working with mesquite in the Texas heat does not do him in.

Barney with Mesquite Bench (partially assembled & clamped together)

Finding Passion and it's HOT !?

I'm only gonna mention this once. It's HOT! Okay I'm back to visioning the thermometer at 70 and the Llano River rushing full of cool, clear water.....

A July Wedding Lou & Cheryl Quallenberg

This week we celebrate 16 years of marriage.  Our Sweet 16!  It is a marriage full of passion and passions. We have been through our share of good times and bad times, surviving all of it with lot’s of laughter and of course love.  I wanted to focus this month on passion because that is what started us down this journey of mesquite furniture making.  It is a passion for this unique, unusual, cranky, craggley, old wood that got us to this successful point on our path of mesquite furniture making.    

Passion is the fuel that takes an idea and pushes it into creation or reality.  

The Arnosky Family back then.

Lou and I got married on a flower farm in Blanco / Wimberly known as Texas Specialty Cut Flowers.  I was still a career girl with a passion for flowers.  With my Horticulture degree from Texas A&M, I had conceived, created,  implemented and managed  the floral department at Central Market - a new concept store for HEB Grocery Company at the time.

The Arnosky Family and their company Texas Specialty Cut Flowers were and still are ALL about a passion for growing flowers.  It shows in the beautiful product they produce.  It is hard work growing cut flowers in Texas but they do it with such grace and  I am still  to this day in awe! I still have my passion for flowers but my health has dictated a much less physical lifestyle for me.

We are spending our 16th Anniversary at the Inn above Onion Creek a place where we hope and expect to find a passion for food, hospitality and life..... 

Passion can be seen, heard, tasted, smelt and felt.

 SEEN

Ira Kennedy's "Spirit of the Buffalo"

Ira Kennedy's "Between Two Fires"

Passion can be seen in the unique works of Ira Kennedy.  Ira’s work is a unusual mix of folk,  native American, aborigine, and pointillism.  His style while ever evolving has blossomed recently as he nears his 70th birthday.

His passion for art has been there with him all along. From his youth when he lived in New York City (1965-1970) participating in the art scene and a show with Andy Warhol, to his creation of Enchanted Rock Magazine, up to this day as he paints in his new style on a patio, boxes, canvas and even deer as part of Llano’s Trail of the Deer Art Project.  We have enjoyed watching his passion flame again knowing full well that Kathy was the spark that set this man afire.

I recently discovered Pinterest and want to share it.  I kind of think of it as a place where folks can collect their passions - just be careful it can be addicting.  You create boards with subjects of your choosing and pin images of your choosing to them. A sort of virtual collecting (or hoarding as the case may be)  of the things you like, "your passions." You can see a few of my passions on my boards here: http://pinterest.com/quallenberg/
Just remember I DID warn you.

HEARD

Danny Brooks

Passion can be heard in the voice of one of our local favorite singer, songwriter, musician Danny Brooks
take a listen here: 

http://www.inthemusicroom.com/songs2/good%20loving%20is%20hard%20to%20find.wma 

That is a mild one for him but "Good love is hard to find" and it sort of fits this blog post theme.  He is a regular at Fuel Coffee House here in Llano and while most of the time I am a work widow (he can't help it it's his passion!), if Mr. Brooks is singing I can usually get a "date nite" full of wonderful live music, friends and foot stomping! Danny Brooks WILL get you up out of your seat.


You can also hear a passion for ALL things Mesquite anytime you talk to Joe and Amie Prest of  The Mesquite Company in the United Kingdom.  They are responsible for this interesting bit of press on Lou Quallenberg in the UK:

June 6th, 2011 

Lou Quallenberg: Life on the Edge

By dukemedia_uk
The world of contemporary furniture design is replete with many great artists; those whose work is informed by abstract concepts, their designs honed by the elite design schools of Europe and America’s costal Universities. While the fruits of these designers are often spectacular, and the rewards of finance and recognition similarly so, few possess the passion to eschew this glamour to pursue the path of a genuinely traditional craftsman.

Lou Quallenberg, however, is one such man who distinguishes himself profoundly- in his life as well as his work- from this urban culture, and subverts egotism to allow nature to shape and inspire his designs. Quallenberg did not come to furniture design through the now more customary college route and was a relatively late convert to the craft, having begun his career in photography.

The New Jersey born designer was brought up in an artistic household, and his parent’s home doubled as a photographic studio. Quallenberg quickly became interested in the medium and, it was assumed that he would ultimately follow in his family’s footsteps. However, even as a teenager he displayed the need and ability to express himself in a more physical medium and, at just 15, began building and modifying chopper bikes years before the “American Chopper” television series made the practise so celebrated and lucrative.

As expected, Quallenberg began his professional artistic career in photography, shooting for premium advertisers but, as with many artists, it was love that most profoundly moved and shaped his actions rather than finance- a characteristic that would one day be expressed directly through his art. The young artist met Catherine Walker, whom he would later marry, and so enthralled by her passion for her home state of Texas, moved to Llano where the couple set up a gallery. But with a recently discovered love of and gift for woodwork, Quallenberg came under the tutelage of his father-in-law, Steven Walker, who guided his nascent abilities until he was able to find his own means for expression as a designer and a carpenter.

Keen to display his love for his adopted state of Texas, he became excited by the native Mesquite trees and their distinctive pattern and properties that made them ideal for radical furniture designs. Rather than dictating the shape of his designs in the manner of conventionally schooled designers, Quallenberg became excited by the possibilities of “Live Edge” design. Live Edge is neo-rustic style in which the designer allows the natural shape and pattern of wood to dictate the piece, creating truly individual pieces of work that elucidate an ongoing relationship between the artist and nature, between man and his environment, the results of which can be spectacular.

Echoing man’s earliest attempts to conquer his environment and bend it to his will, this primitivist approach to furniture design has become highly sought after as it is so distinct from the cold, abstract designs comprised of leather, plastic and metal that remain so popular amongst more fashionable, metropolitan designers. The concept of Live Edge as a paradigm was first contrived by Japanese-American George Nakashima in the 1940s. Nakashima was interned during the Second World War and his eyes were opened to traditional design and craft practices when taught how to use rural Japanese hand-tools by a fellow internee named Gentauro Hikogawa. Upon his release, Nakashima employed his newly learned skills shaping locally sourced wood and incorporating blemishes, knots and nooks into the designs as features of the each piece. In 1946- less than 12 months after the end of World War Two- the Japanese American won the Architects’ Gold Craftsmanship Medal, and his work went on to earn him a near legendary status that saw multiple awards and recognition in the United States and abroad, his former studio in Pennsylvania is now even on the US National register of Historical Places.

Given the historical import of the style, Quallenberg’s work has an impressive legacy to live up to which his output achieves quite spectacularly. Using the local Mesquite, the designer fashions a truly unique range of tables, beds, wardrobes and other custom items unlike any others on the market. The wood is unusually strong and dry- making it an ideal tool for the imaginative craftsman, and the beautiful colour and variance of tones provide artistic inspiration, including a convention of inserting turquoise stones into crevices to stunning visual effect. Likewise, the unusual and varied curves characteristic of the timber gives rise to highly unusual shapes that are both natural and striking in a manner that could easily grace the most contemporary and abstract displays.

There can be little doubt that Lou Quallenberg challenges many of the assumptions regarding innovative modern furniture design, but his passion is clear and the product sometimes exquisite. In both life and in art he is an iconoclast and a worthy reminder that exciting design is not confined to elite metropolitan centres, boutiques and display rooms, and that in striving for the future, artists should be wary in neglecting the richness of the past.

Lou’s website is located at http://www.louqart.com

His official UK suppliers may be found at http://www.themesquitecompany.com/

The writer got my name wrong but Lou said he had the new Princess Catherine on the brain and besides I am his "Princess".  Awww! Things like that help make 16 years fly by. The story with photos can be found online here: http://my.telegraph.co.uk/dukemedia/dukemedia_uk/81/lou-quallenberg-life-on-the-edge/

TASTED

Eva's Holtzer House Cafe & Old World Catering

Passion can be tasted especially in the food of our dear friend, and "Mesquite Muse" Eva Broad.  She had a restaurant here in town “Eva’s Holtzer House Café” serving Swiss-German Style Food. Schnitzels, Certified Black Angus Rib Eye, Salmon, Leg of Lamb, Quail and more. All prepared with Fresh Handmade Sauces.  Her food creates music in your mouth touching spots you never knew you had.  Lou has a certificate from her for "Hamburgers for Life" and you can bet he likes to collect on that when he can.

Since Eva's Holzer House Cafe is gone now and you won’t likely get a chance to taste her passion for food,  I’ll tell you about another one....

Fleur de Blé  a real French bakery in Marble Falls. Owned and operated by Jean Claude and Beatrice Walter from Lyon, France. It must be passion for them to get up every morning at 1 or 2 am to start the days baking.  Their bread is incredible and oh so fresh and don't get me started on the pastry my teeth are sweet - all of them and their baking is pure magic!   Huge THANKS go out to Marta Stafford at Riverbend Fine Art (a passionate art advocate / art lover / art collector / art gallery director) for pointing us in their direction and for being such a joy to work with!

SMELT

Treehouse Lab's Tung 50 Orange 

I'm sure you can smell the passion in the two above mentioned in TASTED because many argue that you cannot taste without smell.  I won't get into that argument, but I do want to take the opportunity to mention the wonderful smell of oranges the shop takes on when Lou is applying his finish.  

Lou Quallenberg currently uses a natural plant based finish, Tung 50 Orange as his standard hand rubbed finish.  It is made right here in the United States by Treehouse Lab.  It smells like oranges so no obnoxious overwhelming fumes. It is  a natural  product so it is better for him and the environment and that makes it Win/Win!

FELT

New Ad Design.What do you think?

Passion can be touched and felt in the finish of Lou Quallenberg’s Mesquite Furniture.  Well it can probably be touched, seen, smelled and heard in most of his pieces also.  Heard you ask?  Well  yes, heard "calling out" for you to touch it.

The pieces do vibrate with  his creative energy and love. But seriously we have clients that say they cannot walk by their piece without touching it.

And of course passion can be felt in the heart.  We have found ours and we hope that you have found something in your life that you feel passionate about.  If not what are you waiting for? 

Making an Entrance: Mesquite Entry Table

Live Edge Mesquite Entry Table with Turquoise Inlay by Lou Quallenberg more at: www.LouQart.com

After looking into our delivery options: Fredericksburg Shipping and Custom Delivery Service (both companies are really great at what they do!) we delivered this latest piece to Houston ourselves. Lou did not want to take the time off to run to Houston but he likes seeing where his babies will reside and getting a little taste of city life.  I'm up for travel anytime I can get him out of the shop!  

Slab for Mesquite Table Top

Slab Top on old style legs

This commissioned mesquite entry table was ordered as an anniversary gift for the clients. I think she mentioned that it was this table or a trip to Hawaii.  WOW! Now that is a compliment. They contacted us while they were visiting Fredericksburg.  They had seen Lou's work on the internet and wanted to see it in person and meet him.  We were low on mesquite inventory at the time so I did not think he would have much to show them but I told them to come on to Llano and we could show them some of his work, the shop and get an idea of what they were looking for.  I did not know that Lou had squirreled away a special slab of mesquite for an entry table.  He does this sometimes with special pieces and then he has to make sure the client is worthy of the slab or slabs in the case of the Dancing Trees.  These two clients  were VERY special and he showed them the mesquite slab right away.  It fit their length and width requirements and practically sold itself.  We even had several new clients that wanted to buy the slab away from them once Lou had started the table.

They left the shop that day knowing they would have a sculpted, live edge, mesquite, entry table made by Lou Quallenberg for their anniversary. They also knew that due to the schedule it would not be finished until several months after their anniversary - but that it would probably be worth waiting for.

Sketch of Mesquite Entry Table

The sketch was emailed later that week and Lou began working it into the already full schedule.  He was excited to get it started because he wanted to use the new more curved leg design. The clients had agreed to use the new design for the legs.

New Leg Design Pattern

New Leg taped out & ready to cut

New Leg Design Pattern

Lou made a pattern of the new leg to be sure he liked the curve and shape of the new design. Then he taped it out and then cut the legs from sturdy chunks.  I always think he is crazy when he goes changing up the design style but he seems to know what he is doing because it never fails, I always prefer the new style of whatever he does.

Slab Mesquite Table Top and Base Curves

New Legs put together

New Legs and Front Curve

Next its all pieces and parts kind of like a large 3D puzzle. It is always exciting to see it go together for the first time and to finally stand on its own four legs!  The laminated compound curved stretchers are usually the last part to be made. Each one is carefully created custom to the curve of the slab top.  While this curve is a distinctive design element in his work it does actually serve a purpose.  Lou's work is stable it does not wobble.  This curve and the base curves provide an added measure of strength to the tables.  The l/8th inch laminated pieces of mesquite once glued up are actually stronger than a piece of  uncut mesquite of the same size. 

Ready for some turquoise

It stands on its own

Matching curves in need of final stretcher

Adding the turquoise is the final step before the labor intensive two week hand rubbed oil finish.  The turquoise inlay process is not a rushed step. Careful thought is put into adding just the right touch of turquoise.  Each tiny piece of gem quality turquoise is added to the epoxied crack by hand with a pair of tweezers.  Lou looks at the placement as an art form in itself and you can see the difference in his work compared to others.

Mesquite with Turquoise inlay

Turquoise Inlay

We have seen some craftsmen use cheap turquoise powder or even colored aquarium rocks as a filling for the cracks.  Lou Quallenberg takes pride in his work and he treats each piece as a work of art. We abide by the saying: 

"There are no short cuts to anyplace worth going."

Lou Quallenberg and Lou Quallenberg Studios stands for quality and we will not rush a project or compromise on quality. While our materials may cost more and the work may take longer, in the end it is worth it. We hope that the value is evident but there are some folks that just don't "get it." He has a few wood working friends that don't understand why he tortures himself with the compound curves, laminated curves and the extreme sanding and finishing.  They don't understand that he is pouring his heart and soul into the piece and that when he is finished a part of him will be fused forever with the piece in a concept the Japanese call "takumi" (also meaning artisan or hand made.)  These same folks also don't understand why he bothers to finish off the bottom of the piece as completely as the top and they REALLY don't understand how he can charge what he charges for a piece. Again they just don't "get it", but we do and we know our clients and future clients do as well.....

Lou Quallenberg's Live Edge Mesquite Entry Table with Turquoise Inlay

What an ENTRANCE! Mesquite Entry Table with Turquoise Inlay ready for Delivery.

Lou Quallenberg's Finished Mesquite Entry Table with Turquoise Inlay

Summer, Social Media, Shows & Sculpture

SUMMER

As the summer heat gathers and begins to bear down on us.... (okay! okay! I know technically it is spring and summer is a month away) but seriously this IS Texas - and it is already in the 100's around these parts.  We are trying to figure out how to keep the shop cool enough for Lou  (& Barney) to actually WANT to go to work in it.  I vote for a swimming pool but we would need one serious filter to keep that mesquite sawdust and English mastiff  hair from clogging up the system.  Lou wants an air conditioner but I know he would take one look at the first month's bill and never turn it on again. So I guess we will suffer through another Hill Country summer. We are all ears if you have a suggestion for an inexpensive, efficient way to cool a mesquite furniture making, wood shop in the heat of a Texas summer.

"Curves" Mesquite Coffee Table by Lou Quallenberg

SOCIAL MEDIA & SUCH

Does anyone else feel like the world is on hyper warp speed?  Trying to keep up with marketing and social media it is a non stop learning curve. We are currently on facebook, twitter, Linked in, and blogger, we email, snail mail, we have land lines and cell phones and it is all almost too much to keep track of. Oh and did I mention a website in bad need of a face-lift? I am thankful  that it is already a pretty mobile friendly website or that project would be marked "UBER" urgent.  

This QR code takes the reader to our website.

Our latest marketing effort is directed specifically at mobile users. We are incorporating QR codes into our marketing materials. What? You don't know what a QR code is? QR is short for quick response and a QR code has the ability to take a mobile user  with a smart phone directly to your website, video, message or phone number or information that you have embedded into the QR code. The QR code looks like a small square stamp-like bar code. Very popular in Japan since inception in 1994, they are finally starting to show up everywhere in the US. The only downside I can see is Microsoft's version Microsoft Tag, AT&T's version Mobile Barcode Services and the French company mobiletag watering down the use of QR codes making it confusing for consumers to know how to use them. It is frustrating enough when you can't get the darn thing to work as it is and adding three other tags to the mix means multiple code readers are needed. Yuck! I can't wait until they get the photo technology and image recognition precise enough to just take a photo to of the product to get more info about it. Yikes! That is really on its way folks! Check it out here: http://www.geosyncglobal.com/Kooaba.html  and http://www.pongr.com 

SHOWS

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately (because we are blessed to have the work) again due to a backlog of work and another October deadline this year, we will be unable to attend the Western Design Conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We always look forward to this juried show, the wonderful artists it attracts and the chance to get out of the horrendous Texas heat. We may or may not make the Texas Mesquite Festival October7th-9th in Fredericksburg this year. It is an outdoor show and we just hate to do that to our furniture. The weather can be tricky in October. We do plan to make it to the 12th Annual Texas Furniture Makers Show  November 10th - December 10th at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center.  Lou has been honored to receive the Best Texas Style Award for the past three years in a row at this juried show that puts about 50 Texas Furniture Makers on display for a full month in a beautiful gallery setting.

Who really knows what artists want from a show? The artists of course!

Several of our extremely talented artist friends recently exhibited at a very expensive but poorly publicized and poorly attended show. This was very expensive show representing top notch artists from all over the country.  We had seriously considered putting Lou's work in this show but could not find time to make it work. We are so thankful now that we did not have the time and did not spend the money to attend this disastrous show. It did however get a group of us talking about putting together our own show or shows. Who really knows what artists want from a show? The artists of course! and the answer really is simple we just want buyers. Well maybe buyers and exposure, but mainly buyers!

If you have never been, you really owe it to yourself to attend the 40th Annual The Texas Arts & Craft Fair with over 200 artists and artisans is an amazing place to discover an artist or unique gift item. It is an outdoor show and really not an outlet for our work, but we love to attend, buy gifts and be inspired.  If you make it to Kerrville on Memorial Weekend you should also check out The 8th Annual Texas Masters of Fine Art and Craft Invitational Exhibition at the YO Ranch Resort and Hotel.  We stumbled on this show several years ago and are happy to see it is still going strong, representing the best of Texas Art and artists. We shouldn't be surprised since the show is organized and run by artists!

SCULPTURE

Lou Quallenberg's Sculptural Mesquite Furniture

Lou Quallenberg's mesquite furniture has always had a sculptural feel to it but ever since the Dancing Trees his work is taking on more and more of a sculptural feeling.  This was made really evident to us as we finally found some time to photograph the "Curves Table".  

Sculptural side view of "Curves"

Lou Quallenberg's work has always had a sculptural feel to it but ever since the Dancing Trees his work is taking on more and more of a sculptural feeling.

Lou Quallenberg's Sculptural Mesquite Furniture

Our Sell Sheet layout for "Curves"

This table was Lou's first attempt at adding a glass top.  The glass is a beautiful, clear, large, piece of Starphire® glass. It was also a new design look and leg style.  He turned the mesquite slab  upside down from the way he normally uses it.  Isn't it interesting that sometimes when we turn things upside down  we discover that they are more beautiful than they were right side up? Perspective ALWAYS changes things.   The dimensions of the table are 96”Lx 20”Wx 18”H.  

Maybe you have space in a special place for this beautiful award winning show piece?

A Mesquite Dining Table : Dinner is Served

The Sketch: Mesquite Dining Table

I just noticed that in all these blog postings we have not ever shown a mesquite project complete from start to finish. Since the mesquite dining table was recently delivered in time for Easter Dinner and we happen to have all the photos of the project from start to finish handy on the desktop of my computer a mesquite dining room table will be our first project shown from beginning to end.

Most of Lou's mesquite furniture projects start with a sketch.  The sketch is a way to make sure he is on the same page as the client.  This project started defined as as a mesquite dining table.  The client  knew he wanted Lou Quallenberg to design a mesquite dining table for his second home that would seat eight comfortably.  We had photos and dimensions of the room but no decision on the shape of the table: rectangle, square or round.  In order to help the client make a decision Lou made scale model versions of a square mesquite dining table and a rectangle mesquite dining table. He had enjoyed making the tiny scale models of "The Dancing Trees", the chapel and benches so this was inevitable. Several clients have expressed interest in the tiny model versions but I doubt it could ever be a profitable business model and talk about a niche, niche market. Not just mesquite furniture but mesquite dollhouse furniture!  We are however looking at smaller versions of some products as a product line but more on that in a future blog post......

Square Mesquite Table Model

Square  Mesquite Table Model

Rectangle Mesquite Table Model

Rectangle Mesquite Table Model

After the client decided on a rectangle the approximate sized book matched mesquite slabs were found but once Lou started working with them the question became whether there would be enough space on the table to be comfortable. Lou recommended adding a five inch similar piece of mesquite down the middle to give a bit more elbow room and space on the table and the client agreed.

Two mesquite slabs too small?

Center strip added for size.

Brent Catterton's Shop

Rough mesquite dining table with tiny model.

 Once the three pieces were joined the top required some evening up and major sanding. Since Lou does not have a wide belt sander but an artist friend that makes beautiful doors has one, Lou Quallenberg asked Brent Catterton of Catterton Woodworks in Boerne, Texas if he could give him a hand and run it through his machine - a step that would literally shave some time off the project. In this solitary workshop life sometimes it is really nice to visit with and share ideas and information with another artist.  Lou drooled over the sander and the rest of Brent's shop and set up, a scene that has played out in reversed roles many times before.

Seeing the pieces all fit together roughly for the first time is always kinda magical.  The table still required hours of sculpting and shaping but visually it was well on it's way at this point. Looking more and more like the tiny model version.  

Black epoxy fills the hole.

A mesquite knothole inlay.

Knothole inlay?

The sculpting of the mesquite tables edge revealed that the one dip was going to be deeper and larger than Lou had originally thought.  The table was to have a sprinkling of turquoise inlay throughout  but this was a large spot. Lou filled it in with black epoxy and then tried to come up with a better solution than a large sunken black spot or turquoise spot. My brother, Shawn's idea was to use a knothole as an inlay to fill in the dip. Lou agreed and thought maybe it would add a bit of interest and camouflage.  The client also preferred the look of the knothole so Lou went for it with his usual attention to detail. Another wood artist friend has already told Lou he would be stealing this technique for one of his special projects.  That's the thing about artists they are always taking each others ideas and making them their own.  It is flat out copying that we frown on, but can also see the flattery in.

Attaching legs to the base.

Pouring the Waterlox Tung Oil

Bob Pheil sprays a layer of the Waterlox finish.

The legs were attached to the base and final sanded for Lou's hand rubbed oil and wax finish.  The mesquite top being used for a dining room table in a family with young children would require a more durable finish than Lou normally uses. Lou had brushed on the more durable Waterlox Original Satin tung oil finish in the past but artist friend and neighbor Bob Pheil of Pheil Forges had recently had success spraying the finish onto one of his pieces and offered to spray Lou's top.  Lou stood by and wiped any drips as the eight day process built up a beautiful, layered, durable finish. 

Lou Quallenberg wiping up drips.

Delivery is always an exciting day as the client gets their first look at their much anticipated new piece. It can also be a day of creative solutions as sometimes the homes have extensive landscapes, interesting entrances, and objects and animal that must be navigated through.  This delivery was relatively easy compared to a few in the past.

Delivering can be a tricky process.

Top and base ready to be joined in their new home

Placing the mesquite top on the base.

We had our artist friend, helper and deliveryman Karl Rhodes and his lovely wife Mary along for the ride.  It was a beautiful day to be out and about in the Texas Hill Country. Because we were in the area  we ended up taking in a demonstration by Wimberley glass artist Tim deJong of Wimberley Glassworks. Lou would love to collaborate with him one day.

Saying goodbye as a new owner finds her spot.

Lou Quallenberg always has a hard time saying goodbye to each piece, as he has released a part of his spirit to be left with it. 

I had fun watching as the children on this delivery picked their favorite special spots on the table.  I hope that mom agreed with their choices because they seemed pretty determined that their choices would be their spots for the many future meals they would enjoy on it. I am confident it will become a treasured family piece either way.