For about 10 months from 2017 into the middle of 2018, I stepped back from my regular job and worked as the carpenter at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. In the end, it all came crashing down as I got burnt out working two jobs in two cities, and ended up in the ER with a still-undiagnosed infection that caused a fever of 104 and spots. My suspicions lead me to believe it was related to digging into the composted sewage that the front lawn's soil is made of. But I'm not positive and I'm not accusing anyone of anything. I'm just glad I have a little spare time again these days. Here's what I did in that short time at the Witte...
For the Gathering at the Waters exhibit, the designer wanted curved walls and pedestals. So we made them. We couldn't mess up the oiled oak floor, as the walls were temporary, so instead of notching metal plates, we made a giant compass and cut curved plywood plates. It turned out pretty well.
We used the same process for the pedestal and railing here. The intermediate sticks weren't perfect. In retrospect, I would've suggested dowels through the posts.
The corners of the railings are all half-lapped, as well.
Those half-lapped corners. The curved ones were a wee bit stressful to do, since they were custom milled by yours truly. Always make spares...
There was another exhibit of Fiesta dresses (Fiesta is a spring festival that I've only ever seen in San Antonio. Well, in Austin when I was younger, but they stopped for some reason). The fixtures we made for that were kinda cool:
There was the octagonal pedestal and railing that went in the octagonal room
And then there was the Jewel Box/Storefront Window that was pretty fun to do:
I had to scribe notches around the moulding there. I think it turned out alright.
I got to make some regular pedestals and a little bit of furniture as well. The job definitely had some fun moments.
But in the end it wasn't the best fit. C'est la vie. Next is the continued construction post for late 2018/early 2019...
For the Gathering at the Waters exhibit, the designer wanted curved walls and pedestals. So we made them. We couldn't mess up the oiled oak floor, as the walls were temporary, so instead of notching metal plates, we made a giant compass and cut curved plywood plates. It turned out pretty well.
We used the same process for the pedestal and railing here. The intermediate sticks weren't perfect. In retrospect, I would've suggested dowels through the posts.
The corners of the railings are all half-lapped, as well.
The pedestal here is one piece, as you can see below. It didn't really need to be, but it was lighter that way. It was still by no means light.
There was the octagonal pedestal and railing that went in the octagonal room
And then there was the Jewel Box/Storefront Window that was pretty fun to do:
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