Jockey Box Cover

This brewery emailed me and asked if I could made some jockey box covers for them.  Huh?  Yes, that's what I said too.  Apparently a jockey box is an ice cooler with taps on the outside and a bunch of coiled pipes that keg beer runs through.  Fill the cooler up with ice and as the beer travels from the keg and round and round the coils inside the box it comes out real cold like.

Jockey Box

The breweries take these to outside events or tastings and as every good marketing person knows you don't want your product coming out of some crappy looking dirty cooler.

The jockey box covers I made are essentially a three sided hinged front with a top that sits on top.  As I was talking with the brewery client I said I should inlay their logo on the front.  I was going to use some heavily figured maple for the inlay, their logo is one large breaking wave with a half moon in the background.  Just as I was about to start the inlay I decided to call down there once more to make sure they were good with the concept.  During the call it all changed to me pounding their logo into a sheet of copper instead.  I ended up sinking the copper below the surface and filling it with self leveling epoxy to keep the copper out of harms way.

Simple project, simple photos.  These were taken on my bench and I got rid of the background to make them more legible.

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Look at Me, Daddy

I don't know if they had a confab about this or not but it seemed a part of my parent's manifesto was to give their children complete freedom to grow up.  They did little finger wagging or rules or sit down talks with us. That's not to say they didn't provide us with a moral compass, quite the opposite, they had strong beliefs and ethics that they modeled constantly for us.

I loved being able to do what I wanted, go where I wanted to go and think what I wanted to think.  So when I had my children I took the same stance.  I think I gave them a strong foundation but did not impose my will or control on them.

When Taylor was sixteen she wanted to move out of the warehouse and across the bay to live in Berkeley...with one of her friends in her parent's house.  I said sure if that's what you want to do.  When Taylor graduated from Berkeley High she got accepted to a University and I moved her in but after three days she said it wasn't for her.  She wanted to take some time away from school, get a job, make some money, have some fun.  I was ok with that, I thought it was a good idea.

She took a year or so off and one day she tells me her and her two friends are going to move down to Santa Barbara and go to school.   I thought it was  great idea.  She didn't have money or a means to it and I didn't give her any. They wanted to live in IV.  Probably the most outlandish little party town you can even imagine.  IV 

She did it up big down there.

After a couple years there she moves back to the bay to finish up here.

Today she graduated....on her own with no financial support from me...and no debt period.  And while since moving out we have talked on the phone several times a day and while I offer my thoughts and feelings on her decisions I try not to force her in any way.  It's her life to live, not mine.

Tonight we're going to dinner and I'm bringing one of my good wines.  It's vintage year is the year she was born...1987.

Out the Door with the Window

Finally getting around to taking a few photos of this.  Antique Korean window was wanting to be adapted to become a table.
Took a couple design elements from the window to incorporate into the base.  The window had had angles planed into the outside face of it which I used in a less steep form for the legs.  Through mortise and tenon used like the window and of course the egg crate slats.

Ebonized walnut.  Flat finish.

Shown without the glass.

This will be out the door by the weekend when they come and pick it up.

Since it was such a simple design and execution just a few photos here.