Rylee's Cradle

[rtermini]

This is a gliding cradle that I just finished for the pending granddaughter of my best friends. It made from canary wood. and the base is mahogany. I bought a plan but made several changes. It called for spindles and plain side and end rails. It also called for a 3/4" base in 3 pieces. I decided on the slats because I like them better and have a domino, which made it a piece of cake to build.

Its' finished with tung oil and General Finishes water bourn urethane.

This is the first major furniture project that I have attempted and would really appreciate any constructive criticism as I would like to learn all I can.

If anyone is interested in the build you can look here: www.gallery.me.com/rtermini

Thank you

Edited April 26, 2011 by Paul-Marcel
Corrected size of pictures

[Vic]

That Canary wood is beautiful. I've never seen it before. Nicely done! To make it easier to view your photos, it's nice to resize them to the longer of the two dimension to be right about 1000 pixels by whatever. I was able to view the cradle on your link, though. I'm still looking into take the green monster plunge.

[rtermini]

Sorry about the pics. My export was too large

[Pete Bennett]

Looks a real solid but, beautiful piece. I've never used Canary wood either. Tell me as you used domino's for the slats did you use them for the rest of the construction or did you go trad and make mortice and tenons? I ask because I do not, and am unlikely to ever, own a domino machine, so for me it would have been mortice and tenons for the main construction and stub tenons for the slats.

Do I see shades of Greene and Greene in the design of those rails, I wonder?

Apart from that I am afraid I cannot really see anything to seriously criticise. We all learn by doing, making cock ups and finding ways to overcome them, and hopefully not make the same mistake again. Believe me I made my first serious piece of furniture at the age of 8 years and almost 56 years later I'm still learning, and, unfortunately still making cock ups! However, if I knew everything, I'd most likely be bored and stop. Thankfully that will never happen.

[rtermini]

I used the domino for all the construction except the bottom and attaching the sides to the ends.They are screwed and plugged

If your interested you can see the build at gallery.me.com/rtermini.

I did intentionally want a Green and Green look, thus the cloud lifts.

[jhigby]

Let me start by saying it's a very nice piece! I love the look of the canary wood!! I've never seen it before but will be on the lookout for it now!!

From a critique perspective I have the following personal observations:

• The mahogany base doesn't quite flow from a color/grain perspective. The canary has a strong grain pattern of browns and creams. The mahogany has the red tint without any grain pattern (as least compared to the canary!). For me I think it's more the colors than the grain pattern. Maybe as the mahogany darkens over time the two color patterns will be contrasting enough to look even better!
  
• The bottom shelf is extremely functional but a bit plain. The pattern you have above is very bold and maybe having some reflection of that on the shelf could really add impact? On the other side of that equation is doing that type of change might have made it look too busy and the shelf less functional? I don't honestly think it's in any way bad/wrong/not right - just something to consider (assuming you hadn't!).
  

Still, a very nice piece and you should be very proud of the work! Clearly it will become a family heirloom for a very lucky person and family!