Peter Follansbee, joiner's notes

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on this blog – many of you know, but some might not – that most of my writing goes to a blog on substack. A subscription blog, but free subscribers there see truncated versions of the posts – and occasional full posts. https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/ (usually the posts include about 10-12 photos; the truncated versions about half of those…and thus half the text…)

Spring has been off & on here in southeastern Massachusetts, warm enough one day, cool the next. I spent as much time birding as I could this month – it had its moments, but even a poor outing birding is still a nice long walk in the early morning woods. Here’s two ovenbirds I saw one morning

ovenbirds (Seiurus aurocapilla)

In the shop I’ve been breaking down a few logs, making stock for this summer’s work. Red oak, white oak and a little walnut. And carving, first boxes like this:

PF “strapwork” box, 2025

And this –

Both of those are for sale – the carved lid box is $2,400 and the other $1,600. If interested, email me at PeterFollansbee7@gmail.com

I’ve also been carving panels like this – and have a waiting list for these. If you’d like to get on that list, same email. Prices range from $450-600.

carved panel, red oak, with iron oxide paint

Over the years, many of you have been supportive of my wife Maureen’s fiber arts – and we both appreciate it very much. She’s just started a (free) substack blog – you might like to have a look at it, or know someone who might like it. Her recent post is about work she does with our daughter Rose – https://maureenerichard.substack.com/p/something-to-do

After a couple of months of making mostly parts, next month I’ll start in connecting them into furniture. Should be fun…

soon to be a table…

My newest carving video – “Carving 17th-century Strapwork Patterns” is now available on vimeo-on-demand. “Strapwork” is a name given to designs that include narrow vertical and horizontal bands or “straps” connecting different elements of the design – round “rosettes”, fleur-de-lis, leafy clusters, etc. The particular strapwork patterns presented in this series stem from the Ipswich, Massachusetts shop of Thomas Dennis and from Devon in England, specifically around the city of Exeter. The time period spans the whole 17th century.

Its running time is just over 3 hours, broken into six videos – after discussing the layout and the tools, the videos show how I carved 3 different versions of this pattern. All related, but each distinct. Between the three box fronts, you’ll see a full range of the vocabulary of strapwork patterns.

• Introduction & a look at the gouges used
• Incising the layout
• Background removal & details (those two videos contain the first full pattern, a box front from Thomas Dennis’s shop)
• A second Ipswich/Thomas Dennis box front
• A version of strapwork from Exeter, Devon
• A slideshow about the historic examples and the research (starting in 1892!) concerning this group of furniture, specifically this pattern.

Here’s a bit of a trailer –

The price for the series is $65.00 – the link is here https://vimeo.com/ondemand/follansbeestrapwork

If you are a paid subscriber to my substack blog you can get a 20% discount – there’s a promo code in a post sent to them… the link to that blog is here https://peterfollansbeejoinerswork.substack.com/