The White's cradle Handmade by Jon Palmer, Summer 2005

Handmade by Jon Palmer, Summer 2005

A very good friend and his wife were expecting their first child and I wanted to make something that they would really enjoy. My friend was really into Japanese culture, so I started looking for inspiration in that direction. Traditional Japanese furniture doesn't stand out as specifically Japanese unless you are familiar with the styles, but the architecture does so I went that way: The headboard is reminiscent of a Tori gate; the sides follow the lines of Asian coastal trading vessels and the footboard is styled after a temple roofline. The Kanji inside the headboard is the noun which matches the family name.

This is on the bottom of the cradle, so my handwriting doesn't have to show!

Here's a view of the finished cradle as you might view it looking in at young Ridley

Some idea of the effort and mess involved in thicknessing panels for the frame-and-panel pieces

Japanese gouge and the nearly completed carving of the kanji for "White", the family's last name

Finished view of the kanji carving

This is a view of the cradle after just the linseed oil. It's already looking very much like I originally imagined

View of the finished cradle with the toolchest in the background. All the hand tools used on the project live here. The chest isn't big enough to also hold the tablesaw, bandsaw, router table, slot mortiser, belt sanders and random orbital sander also used ;-)

Side view of the cradle all ready to go. Cherry has interesting and subtle grain character which shows up best with certain finishes. This is one good coat of boiled linseed oil followed by two coats of orange shellac (1 lb cut) topcoated with two thick coats of polyurethane (babies leak!)

View of the side without flash, color variations show a little differently here

Back view of the panel with the kanji carving. You might notice that the small pins are cut in long grain on the vertical stiles which makes them weak since cherry grain is fairly splitty. I drilled each of the small pins and superglued lengths of brass rod in them for reinforcement

Sweaty and happy to have the assembly complete. August is hot around these parts, and September is hardly better!

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