John Bell's Woodworking Portfolio ( Click on any icon to get a full size view )

Furniture Woodturning Small / Misc Construction

Furniture This walnut coffee table was made from a single wide board of highly figured walnut, and includes a number of ( hidden ) drawers. Click on the thumbnail to see more images. This winerack is made from red oak and walnut. It holds 30 bottles of wine, and required no metal for it's construction. The bottom supports are fastened with wedged through tenons. This game cabinet started out as a prototype for a china cupboard that I intended to make from good wood once I had practiced a bit. The wood for the frame and panel doors was scrounged from pallets taken from a hot-tub store. The pallet wood wasn't long enough for the rest, which is cheap pine. The only metal is in the drawer and door handles and door hinges, and the cabinet frame tenons are cross-lapped inside the corner posts. This bookshelf was made for a friend at a time when my "workshop" consisted of a storage closet in the basement of the house in which I rented a room. When it was completed the friend decided it was too much for her needs, so I kept it. When I was in high school I wanted a bookshelf within arms reach of my bed, but I had to have a table there to hold the reading lamp. So I designed this table with a central revolving bookcase section. A friend's father who owned a furniture store offered to buy it, but I didn't have the tools to make another one, so I turned down the offer. ( Made in high school shop. ) I call this my "Norm table" because Norm always finishes his projects in an hour, and that's about how long it took me to make this table. the wood is oak scrap left over from making the wine rack shown above. The table was sized specifically to go next to the chair in the picture. Our upstairs bathroom has no counter space, and only a small space between the sink and the wall. This table was designed to fit the space and to match the decor of the room. ( A variation of the Norm table, with tapered legs and a second shelf. )

Woodturning This combination candle / potpourri holder was designed as a gift for someone very special. It is made from a single piece of cherry wood, includes a cherry scented candle, and was delivered with a bag of cherry scented potpourri.    These three vases were made in a single day, from apple wood, juniper, and redbud, ( from left to right. ) The central vase incorporates a "bell" into the design, for my sister who has a bell collection. This 12 inch diameter cherry bowl holds miscellaneous junque on my dresser. The worm tracks make an interesting touch. This 12 inch diameter oak flower pot was the first large turning I did. The wood came from the local golf course's free firewood pile. These were the first two bowls I ever turned, as part of a night course I took at the University of Wisconsin wood shop. They were actually made from two halves of the same log, whose species I can't recall at the moment. This magnifying glass was a stocking stuffer for a scientist. The wood was left over from making the picture frame shown below. These six keychains were made of juniper, during the same afternoon as the three vases shown above. They make handy gifts for visiting children of all ages.

Small and Miscellaneous Projects These wooden screw clamps are made from walnut and birds-eye maple. At one time I travelled a lot on business. The only woodworking I could do in the hotel rooms was hand carving, which was when these items were made. The interlocked spirals were carved from a single piece of wood. This picture frame was made of a beautiful reddish brown exotic wood that I can no longer recall the name of. ( Not padouk, which is more orange, or purpleheart. ) There is no stain or other coloring applied, just a clear finish. A cherry knife rack as a gift.

Construction Projects Flower trellis This wood storage rack holds branches that have been cut from our property, as well as some other wood I have collected here and there. They are drying for eventual use in woodworking projects. Included here are cherry logs ( for bowls ), oak logs ( ditto ), juniper ( a beautiful red and white relative of cedar ), apple, pear, elm, more cherry, and mock orange. The stump on the ground to the left side is actually three intertwined mock orange root balls, that I think will make an interesting piece one day. This workbench was drastically overdesigned, but it served its purpose.