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Shaker sewing steps

comments (2) April 6th, 2009 in Reader's Gallery

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I come from a family of knitters, so a few Christmases ago I made these sewing steps. Very small (8"h, 8 1/4"w, 8"d), they're for resting your feet, not for standing on. The stock is just 5/16" thick. I was tempted to go to 1/4" but chickened out. I made four of walnut, one of tiger maple and one of birdseye. (A good way to use small pieces of scrap.) The original is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I followed a picture from the Whitney exhibition catalog (1986). They're simple to look at, but a bit tricky to assemble. The steps and sides are joined by sliding dovetails, and the back is fitted by blind rabbets on three sides. This means that the back's side rabbets must be engaged before the steps can be slid over the dovetails. But it also means that the back's upper rabbet can't be engaged until the top step is fully in place. So your have to glue quickly, then slide the back upwards into top step's rabbet slot only after the top step has been slid into place. Sort of like a Chinese interlocking puzzle. Not sure how my knitters use them. Probably to hold house plants.

Design or Plan used: Traditional Shaker

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posted in: Reader's Gallery, , shaker, accessory, walnut, maple, oil

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