Tonight I want to share a couple photos of an early piece of my work. This elm and walnut chest of drawers was my first piece to be made with hand-cut dovetails. The walnut frame was held together with through-wedged mortise and tenon joints, and the doors, back and sides were made with floating panels held in bridle jointed frames. At the time, I was busy in my woodworking exploring the use of various traditional woodworking joints. In this design, there are two additional drawers and a shelf hidden behind the doors.

I had promised to do this piece for a customer, but we had no agreed delivery date. He showed up at my shop one day to inform me that he was moving from Arkansas to Prescott, Arizona in one week and he wanted me to get it finished ASAP. Fortunately it was far enough along that I was able to get it done in time for him to take it with him on his move, but I had reservations about sending my work to Arizona with the dry conditions I had heard could wreck havoc on hardwood furniture.

One night, months later, my customer called to tell me that in the middle of the night he awakened to what sounded like a gunshot in his bedroom. "Don't worry," he assured me. "It wasn't your piece." He had commissioned another chest of drawers from another craftsman. The solid wood sides were rigidly glued to the drawer guides, and in the dry conditions had exploded with one half inch wide cracks on each side.

My elm and walnut chest of drawers survived its time in Prescott, came back to Eureka Springs for a season or two, spent two winters in Colorado, and is now in places unknown. As far as I know it still survives, not as a testament to my craftsmanship, but to the kinds of traditional techniques that are being ignored and forgotten.