Mural at 20th and Valencia

That's one use for a panel saw.  Artist Ulrike Palmbach puts
finishing touches on a mural leaned against our panel saw.

It's nice to see something in the shop that doesn't have a straight line.  I suppose the exception is the canvas on which the mural is painted, which we provided.  Seidman Woodworks provided the substrate for the mural but left the painting to San Francisco artist Ulrike Palmbach, at left.

The mural will live in the recently completed Val 20 building, at the corner of Valencia and 20th streets in San Francisco.  It depicts the original topography of San Francisco, with a faint overlay of the current street grid.  The mural will reside near what once was the shore of Laguna  Dolores.

Welcome Nik Patel, Summer Intern!

 We are pleased to have Nik Patel working with us this summer.  Nik is an incoming senior at John O'Connell High School in San Francisco.  He's at our shop due to collaboration between John O'Connel, his woodworking instructor there, Chris Woods, the SFUSD and Jewish Vocational Service.

In our shop, Nik has gained experience operating and programming our CNC router, has spent lots of time with his hands on work in our finishing department, has visited job sites and been present at problem-solving discussions with clients.  He hopes to spend time assembling and installing cabinets, to begin his development of these skill sets.

Nik is interested in studying architecture or design after graduating from John O'Connel next year.  He has a great attitude and is a welcome addition to Seidman Woodworks.

Fun cnc project for Masjid al Nur mosque in Richmond

It's all in a good day's trade.  Joe Di Maio repaired a burst coolant line on our cnc router and in return requested some time on the machine.  Today, he made a prototype pattern for Saleh Aboutaleb, who hopes to use the pattern to improve his mosque.  If the pattern is accepted, we will hopefully be cutting over 20 of these.  Based on this and the last post, I see a definite pattern (sorry about the pun) emerging.

Saleh Aboutaleb and Joseph DiMaio cut out this pattern on our CNC

Saleh Aboutaleb demonstrates how the proposed pattern will
wrap the pulpit at Mashid al Nur mosque in Richmond

Or Shalom Torah Reading Table

We have the privilege of fabricating a torah-reading table for Or Shalom.  The proposed design picks up on the architecture of the place of worship Or Shalom shares with Beth Israel Judea in San Francisco --tall vertical cherry panels behind the bima, but softening it with an oval shape.  The technical challenge of the piece will be to get the wood to curve in two planes.  Trees grow that way-- but milled wood does not like to be bent that way.

Here are the plans:

And here are a few images of a preliminary form for bending the cherry into shape:

The design is still in progress.  Or Shalom and Beth Israel Judea need to give their final approval and we need to determine that we can in fact get our wood to bend in two planes,  (The ribs shown are not part of the actual table but will instead be used as a form against which we will mold the cherry.)