Another one done

[brenda]

Several years ago, I found a fun antique footstool base on eBay. No one else bid on it, and I got it for something like $27. Hubby says he thinks it's walnut, and the burls in the oval insets are definitely walnut, full boards, not veneers.

For fun, I designed a top for it that played up to the hexagonal shape, and included some old time blousey roses on it, too. That got hooked several years ago, too. As in the prior thread on Peter Rabbit, this little project stymied me until just this fall. It's not a perfect installation, but by golly, it's done.

Hubby repaired a couple loose pieces on the wooden stool, and I did the rest. He noted that is was made with square nails, which confirms it has some age. It might well be older than our 1900 home. The footstool base started the project, and now I get to enjoy the results.

Each one of these little projects provides an opportunity to learn more upholstery skills, and this one involved getting the stuffing high enough and full enough. It's nicely filled for resting the tootsies. Installing the top on an unusually shaped base was also a challenge.

If you have any idea as to the age of the wood footstool base, please speak up. It's really the highlight of this stool, and I'm very glad I happened to find it onine before anyone else did.

[Larry]

The burl inserts are bookmatched Carpathian elm veneer. That's a good thing, by the way.

[Mik]

Quite beautiful!

[brenda]

@Larry
Thanks, Larry! Tell me more if you have time, and will also look up more about this. I'll also share this information with hubby. I don't know if he has ever heard of this type of burl.

[brenda]

@Mik said in Another one done:

Quite beautiful!

It's a stunner in person, Mik. Whoever made the footstool base was very talented. Just the oval trims are amazing, and then there's the burl inset, too. It's built very heavy, which is nice for a footstool.

[Larry]

Ok. The only thing I see that might be walnut is the trim ring around each insert. The flat sides look to be poplar, burnt I can't be sure without seeing it in person. But poplar is a very frequently used wood when building pieces like that because it's a smooth hardwood that can easily be stained to match a variety of different species.. walnut, cherry, oak, whatever. But the Burwood is definitely bookmatched Carpathian elm.

[brenda]

Thank you, Larry!

[George K]

That's just lovely, Brenda.

I love stuff like that.

[Jolly]

Just giving the kids something else to fight over.

Better put that one in the will...

[brenda]

@Jolly

Only have one kid, so that's easy.

[brenda]

@George-K said in Another one done:

That's just lovely, Brenda.

I love stuff like that.

The wood base is the best part by far. I will look around on the internet for examples from various time periods to try to estimate its age. I wouldn't be surprised if it's far older than our 1900 house. I would like to know who made it, too. It's a real charmer.

[jodi]

Really nice!

[Rainman]

Really is a beautiful piece of antique wood-art, Brenda. It all goes together aesthetically as a period piece, perfect affect visually and would match all the other woods you have in the room. The top you made looks like it couldn't belong anywhere else, rich colors, soft and inviting.

I would enjoy putting my feet up (no shoes, of course), a cup of hot buttered rum, fire in the fireplace, dog laying nearby, sound asleep.

[Rainman]

forgot to add:
and then I'd get drunk from the rum, get up and puke all over the carpet, the dog (with rabies) would attack and bite me in the throat, I'd stagger outside and fall into a pile of snow, face down, pass out. I'd get frostbite, they'd amputate my arms and legs, I'd end up being a door stop for your bathroom, or a bookend.

There. Reestablished my reputation. Came dangerously close to being sentimental, had to fix it.

[brenda]

@jodi Thanks, Jodi!

[brenda]

@aRainman
Thank you! The hooked piece is meant to look period and be in keeping with the likely age of the wood base. This is a whole segment of the rug hooking world, and it can be a little hard for others to understand. The colors overall tend to be within a tighter range of shades, and the design is intentionally more rustic. The background color will include a variety of shades, in this case some dark grays amongst the black.

Early period designs were always hand drawn, and not usually very perfect. Some of the most charming designs were very roughly drawn, using the charred tip of a tree branch to draw on burlap from an old seed bag. You'd save a used burlap bag, get the tip of a stick into the fire to create some char, wait for the char to cool enough to draw with it, and make a pattern for your rug. That's the level of design that many rug hookers recreate with their pieces.

I like to do many different styles, but this piece called for something closer to that described above, hence a more rustic and homey look. Your description was quite astute, Rainman. Are you sure you aren't a hooker?

[jon-nyc]

That’s really cool, Brenda. Great find, great project, great work.

[brenda]

@jon-nyc said in Another one done:

That’s really cool, Brenda. Great find, great project, great work.

Awwww, thanks, Jon! This piece is definitely not one to appeal to a broad audience. As noted above, it's a niche even within the rug hooking world. You and Rainman are either hookers yourselves, or you've hung around some in the past and learned about this.

[jon-nyc]

Hookers can indeed be teachers, we even had a thread on that recently.