We’re running a little late on the newsletter this month because the most significant news was almost, almost ready.
If you recall, the art adoption cabinet I’ve been working on for almost a year, the take-one-leave-one, 6ft tall piece of civic infrastructure…well in July we were at the nearly last moment when the furniture team asked, “What color do you want it to be?” My easy answer was ‘American Walnut’ but then doubt crept in. Would it look the same on the solid maple doors as it did on the red oak sample the stain company uses? No, of course not. Would it match the faux leather sign material I anticipated using? Uncertain.
Well, these things could be debated, and there would be no going back on an expensive cabinet designed to last at least a decade, so like a good little engineer I decided to do an experiment. I went and bought two pieces of wood, birch ply for the body and solid maple for the doors, divided them into three parts with painter’s tape, and then got the three most likely stain candidates and applied them.
The original stain I had chosen was water-based. While you could see the grain through it, it looked like I painted the wood with mud. Nope. The second close candidate in the walnut family, this year’s featured color ‘Special Walnut’ was an oil based stain, but was too light. Maple has a tight grain and it absorbs stain unevenly. I could do a second coat to darken, but then it would be hard to reproduce evenly and it might end up blotchy. The third stain was ‘English Chestnut’ and came out with the slightly warmer tone I was seeking without going into orange territory.
Here’s a preview of the color selection:
But, it didn’t match the brown of the leatherette sign material at all. I don’t want to get into the difficulty of getting a sample of the sign material into my hot hands. Now the planned sign material was out. I ordered from a trophy company a wide array of metals used for plaques and settled on the regular brass. But brass comes in several finishes and half a dozen thicknesses, so right now I have 10 different pieces of brass sitting on the table while I decide which will ultimately become the sign material for the cabinet.
While the sign material for the doors doesn’t have to be settled this week, I’m just pulling back the curtain a little bit on the lengthy process of designing bespoke, durable furniture meant to last for at least a quarter million interactions before needing repair. The link at the beginning of this newsletter will take you all the rest of the details about the art adoption network if you didn’t read it before.
But the thing you’ve been waiting for in this edition, the rough rendering of the Kairos Kabinet door(s), just don’t have the whole thing due to some software issue with the CNC plotter. What I can do without holding up the newsletter further is show you an example of how we’re treating the carving:
We anticipate installation of Charter #1 towards the end September at the Avon Public Library in Massachusetts. Probably in October’s newsletter, you will see the cabinet in-place and filled with artworks.
In other news, a few quick bullets. You can always ask if you want more detail:
Invited to participate in the jury for the Pembroke Arts Festival for 2027
Published the Maker’s Field Guide and Patron’s Field Guide to art festivals
Published the Breakeven Event Fallacy article
Ongoing advocacy for agile municipal infrastructure and place-making for artists
Advisory for a local artists ‘block party’ event happening in September