Robert Ortiz Studios Blog

It seems to me that the Achilles Heel of most furniture is the horizontal surface.  This is especially true for dining and coffee tables.   Over the years I have tried many different finishes: oils, lacquers, poly-urethanes, high tech and low tech.  I have wiped, brushed, sprayed, padded, pleaded and prayed.  All have their advantages and disadvantages.  I’d have to say that a good deal of the durability depended on the user and how he or she intended to use the table.  Everyone uses horizontal surfaces differently.  Some treat them reverently and carefully.  Others use and abuse them.  And they show EVERTHING.  This is because horizontal surfaces reflect light much more than vertical surfaces.  As a result every flaw, scratch and every bit of surface dirt becomes visible.  Additionally some finishes can be compromised by water and alcohol.

I like a finish that does not feel or look like plastic.  Given the wood that I use to make my furniture, I want the beauty to be seen.  The problem is striking a balance between protecting the wood and protecting the finish.

A few years ago I discovered “Tried and True” a linseed oil varnish and found it to be a finish that looked beautiful, gave a good amount of protection,  and though it required a good deal of time and rubbing to apply,  it was fairly easy to achieve good results.  Its main drawback is that because it contains no toxic driers etc., it dries very slowly.  One coat can take 2 weeks or more to dry and for a table top you might want to apply 6 coats…you do the math.   The photo below is of a Koa Dining Table that has such a finish.  I finished making it in October.  It’s last coat was applied three weeks ago and it is leaving my shop next week, February 7th.  Under normal circumstances this is not a practical finish.  Luckily, I had the space, the client was willing to pay in advance and was not in a rush because the house would not be finished until February.  The table measures 98 by 48 wide at the widest end.  The base is mahogany with a light ebony stain.

Koa Slab Top Dining Table

I am now trying a variation on the above finish.  I have mixed Tried and True Linseed Oil Varnish with Man-O-War Spar Varnish in a 1 to 1 proportion and added a “dash” of mineral spirits to slightly thin it so that I can brush it on like an oil finish.   My hope is that by adding the spar varnish this will help the mix dry overnight or at least within 24 hours.  Additonally, I hope that it will be easier to apply and provide better moisture resistance.

I am now using this mixture on the base of a walnut slab top coffee table that I am making. If I like the results, I will use it on the top.   I have prepared the surface sanding to 22o grit.  On half the surface I am applying the spar varnish/Tried and True mix with a rag and wiping off.  On the other half I am filling the pores with shellac – 3 coats – and then sanding the top again from 120 to 220 so that the shellac stays only in the pores. Beginning tomorrow, I will apply the varnish oil mix and we’ll see what the results are.  I am curious whether there will be a difference in durability and “look” between the shellac pore filled side and the non shellac, non pore filled side.   I will take photos as I go along and report what I find.

Fall is here! – Take a day trip to Chestertown

Dear Friends,

My hope is that this first day of fall finds each of you and your families well and in good health.  After all these years I still like the academic cycle with its new year in September and I’m more keenly aware of this than ever before.  This year my daughter, Sofia began High School here in Kent County and my son, Daniel (10) now travels with my wife, Pam to Annapolis for school.  The new schedule allows me to get into the shop by 7:30.  This is very exciting for me as I have always thought of the early morning as my most productive and “clearest thinking” time with the fewest distractions.  I’ve never been able to be at the shop at that hour in the 14 years that I have lived in Chestertown!

Needless to say the hours when I can be found at the shop have changed…Monday to Friday 7:30 until 3:30 and most Saturdays 9:30 until 2:30.  As always, if you are coming to see me, please call or e-mail so that I’m sure to be in and not running an errand or making a delivery. .

Chestertown, in the Fall, on a Saturday, is a lovely day trip.  Come and visit, say hello and see what’s new.  For additional events check out www.chestertown.com

The photo below is a new piece.  This one was made to store cameras and equipment, with a drawer and several battery recharging stations.  But it could just as well keep books, media equipment etc.  This piece measured 40” tall by 28 Wide by 14 deep.  It is made of African mahogany, wenge and curly birch.  If you’d like more information or would like to see more photos of this line, including computer sideboard and bookcase, please let me know

Studio notes

• I will be participating in the Academy Art Museum fall Craft Show in Easton on Friday night (preview party), Saturday and Sunday Oct. 9, 10 and 11.  I have shown at this event about 6 times.  It is always a nice show, wonderful setting and about 50 other first class artists and crafts persons. More details below…
• Maryland Life Magazine is featuring an initiative to expose more people to great locations, towns and things to do on the Eastern Shore…it’s called, Eat, Drink, Buy Art. (www.eatdrinkbuyart.com ).  There’s even a contest and much to my surprise - I’m the answer to one of the questions in the contest!!! Who knew?
• On Saturday November 14, Chestertown is hosting it’s first annual writer’s/book fair weekend.  This year there will be about 20 different Eastern Shore authors lecturing, reading, signing etc. throughout town.  I have been invited to participate as the author of “Creating A Fine Art Entry Table” published by Schiffer Books.  More on this as the date approaches.

Academy Art Museum – Craft Show

Saturday and Sunday – October 10 – 11, 2009 – 10 AM to 5 PM

South & Harrison Streets ▼ Easton, Md. ▼ academyartmuseum.com

My cousin, once removed, i.e. my first cousin’s son, Orion, came to spend a week with my family and work with me.   I asked him to write about his experience before he left.  His unedited words follow…

Many of you who read this may have encountered situations in which you must use a chainsaw to cut through a felled tree. This happens to me a lot every winter, helping my father keep the quarter mile length of our driveway an open path from the otherwise untouched Appalachian forest that surrounds it and our home. I began thinking if only I knew more to make use of these hardwoods then saw and chop them as firewood for the woodstove. My father operates a contracting business and my experiences with manipulating wood have been with him, using 2×4s, plywood, and metal fasteners. But I was in constant reminder of better technique for when my father built our home when I was a toddler, he made a timber frame out of oak, a superstructure held together by its mortises and tenons and wooden pegs. The integrity of our house appealed to me, and when I thought of how I’d like to use wood, I thought of those methods. My father and I knew of a woodworker who had been working in such a vein for decades, but even more than that, an artist, a master craftsman, our cousin Roberto Ortiz.

Lucky I am to have such relatives that would welcome me into shop and home so warmly. I had not dared think that I would be given a chance to learn this much in a week’s time. Not only Roberto, but his assistant Steve, are both very articulate about their craft, making it understandable to a novice such as myself. And not only were techniques and woods related to me and compared to skills I was already familiar with, such as cooking, but I was afforded the chance to learn by doing.

This, particularly, was a surprise to me, and what I am most grateful for, a chance to get just a little experience. I have been familiar with Roberto’s work as I grew up, with all my family’s visits with his, and knew the value of his work. I thought my time in Ortiz Studios would have been like a week long museum tour, where I could look on but not touch. But I was wrong, and there were many times I was given a test piece or a raw board where there was a margin for error to try my hand at. Through this, I performed rips and cross-cuts, I shaped, joined, and planed…I had an opportunity to use almost every piece of machinery in the shop.

Roberto showed me not only how to use my hands, but my other senses in the work. How to listen to the sounds a machine makes, to make sure you’re using it correctly. How it sounds different if you’re ripping a board too fast and creating chatter or going too slow and burning the cut. How the wood starts to smell burned but not show any mark yet if you’re taking off too much, too fast with a wide-belt sander. You can also tell that by how hot the surface is with your hands.

Roberto tells me that if I were to be a full-time apprentice, much if not most of my time would be taken by sanding, and I did some of that too. You might be surprised but I think I liked the sanding best. I liked the feeling that I was finally revealing the beauty hidden within a board, of a tree, at long last. It fascinated me that I could sand a surface completely smooth as far as my fingertips were concerned, and yet angle the board into the light and find imperfections still. Still places where light did not reflect. Then I would sand more and switch to yet a finer grit. Finally, I could angle a board and watch light dance from one side of a board to another, making every curve of the grain shine.

In a week’s time, I developed a liking for one wood in particular. I was exposed to many exotic woods, from places such as West Africa or Hawaii, and perhaps those of you who read this have those as your favorites but I was stuck most by a wood that I might have found blocking my driveway. What excited me so much is that maybe, just maybe there was as fine a specimen of maple in the woods outside my door as Roberto was making two drawers out of this week. Curly spalted maple it was, and it was a wonder.

I did not even know what curl existed before this week in Ortiz Studios. I still don’t understand exactly what it is but I love the look of it. Ripples exactly like waves, and they change when you move a light across them!…And then the spalting, who knew that worms could help create beauty in wood?

This week gave me but a glimpse into the range and depth of my cousin’s skill but it whetted my appetite to learn more of woodworking. I’d like to learn more of the steps between the forest and the furniture, the harvesting and the milling and the curing. One day I’d like to be able to walk up to a tree in the forest beyond my back door, perhaps a maple tree of which I could see hints of curling, and realize the possibilities within.