I was asked by Wyatts director if I could make a Victorian style hat stand for a play they are working on. Usually stage props are inexpensively made and not meant to be seen at close distance, but I decided to try to make a real hat stand instead. Like a stage prop, I made mine inexpensively using cheap poplar. Unlike a stage prop, this took me a
lot of time to build!
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| All poplar! |
Poplar is often thought of as a cheap, secondary wood not meant to be the star of the show. But if you take the time to dig through the poplar bin at your home center or lumberyard, you will find pieces of all different colors. The darkest board I used for this project almost looks like walnut.
This project threw me a lot of challenges. Most of them revolved around how to connect the turned sections and the legs. I used sliding dovetail joints to attach the legs and the spindles are joined together with round tenons.
Mostly, now that its all done, I can finally take a deep breath and relax. This one wore me out!
