Author: bluthin

Hey, my name is Brad Luthin. Let me tell you a little about myself. I currently live in South Florida and hold BA in Art from SDSU. My two passions in life are painting and woodworking. On Painting: My biggest influence as an artist is Édouard Manet. He once quoted: "A painter can say all he wants to with fruits or flowers, or even clouds. You know, I would like to be the Saint Francis of still life." I too believe you can express everything in your life through objects we see everyday. My hope is that people who see my paintings will begin to look and appreciate the little things in life. The works are painted with a thick application of paint along with a balance of expressive and controlled brush strokes. Along with Manet, I have also learned a great deal from the old dutch masters, such as Vermeer and Rembrandt. I take their techniques and mix with my own. I add a lighter palette of colors that reflect my life here in South Florida.
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Modern Wood Desk with Laptop Riser

Semi Modern Reclaimed Wood Desk bradluthin-reclaimed-wood-desk-pullout-shelve

A simple clean modern desk with a sliding platform for keyboard as well as a separate wooden riser for a laptop. This desk was made from discarded 1/2″ plywood and non-discarded lumber from a big box home improvement store. The finish is a semi-gloss oil based polyurethane. The legs of the chair are large  4 inch by 4 inch pine timbers because I tend to over build things and if I bump into the desk it won’t get damaged or fall over and then also get damaged. I have painfully stubbed my toe on it but the desk didn’t move an inch. The wood desk has a sliding platform that, you guessed it, slides out. It is now holding a USB Midi Keyboard. I rarely, if ever, play the keyboard. But having it there gives me yet another reminder that I often fail to reach the lofty goals I set for myself. However, the desk did get built. And I was even able to blog about it, which I am doing now. I put a simple wood moulding around the top edges and the roll out shelf. The pine moulding hides the sides of the plywood. It serves as a handle for the shelf. It also keeps pencils from rolling off the top of the desk. Who could ask for more. The design of the desk lies somewhere between a Frank Lloyd Wright ‘Prarie Style’ home and an offshore oil rig. Above the recycled, reclaimed or re-purposed wood desk, I made a laptop riser stand so it is easier to see the computer and you can also place some letters, pens and such to clutter up the area. The riser stand is made from 1 by 4 inch pine. I hope you have enjoyed yet another woodworking blog post on my woodworking, art, etc. blog page. Tags: woodworking, wood, modern, rustic, decor, recycled, reclaimed, laptop, computer, desk, cool, wonderful, delicatessen

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Contour Wood Chair, Cabinet / Table and Light Fixture

Contour Reclaimed Wood Chair, Cabinet and Light Fixture

Here is a wood chair, cabinet and light made from wood collected from various neighbors. As the saying goes “One man’s discarded wood in good to fair condition becomes another man’s patio furniture”. The relatively un-rustic chair, table / cabinet and lamp were designed for drawing, working or reading outside. Everything was primered and then painted with two coats of white latex paint to hide the good to fair to poor condition of the wood. The wood chair, cabinet and light were all made from recycled or reclaimed materials. I still haven’t figured out the difference between something being recycled or reclaimed. I think I will ‘Google’ it. (after a brief intermission) I just tried “Google-ing” the terms ‘recycled vs. reclaimed’ because it would be great if I and someone reading this blog post might actually learn something together. Getting back to the Google search. I was reading the first result from the google search which was written by a self described ‘Eco-Patriot’. He described at great length the differences between recycled and reclaimed. He also added the word ‘recovering’. After reading, well actually skimming, well actually reading the first sentence then quickly losing interest. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to read the other 455,000 other results that came up, therefore, I have not learned anything. However, now I can throw in the word ‘recovered’ when talking about things that are ‘recycled’ or ‘reclaimed’. If I run out of things to say then I’ll ‘recycle’ the article by cutting and pasting it into this here blog post. The danger of doing this, besides recieving a ‘ cease and desist’ letter, is that if it is easy for you to understand the article, then I will look like a complete idiot for not understanding it myself. So let’s just say the article was so poorly written that it was totally incomprehesable to either you or I. So, we can all agree that it is not my fault. The white painted recycled chair was patterned after a porch swing, I found in a book with woodworking plans. The reclaimed wood chair was made so your arms have room to move and is tilted slightly forward so it is easier to stay alert and work on your project. The recovered wood chair is also a little higher so your legs are able to stretch and circulate. The cabinet next to it was made from reclaimed plywood and has three shelves to store some stuff and things. The wooden cabinet has knobs made from tree branches. You can’t see them in the photo, so you’ll just have to imagine how awesome they are. The cabinet opens on both sides. I guess for convenience. I can’t really remembered why I made it that way. The hinges for the cabinet where bought at the ‘Habitat Restore’ which sells hardware that were apparently left over and/or not good enough for a ‘Habitat for Humanity’ Habitat, that I can only assume was being made for humanity. The lamp was made from a work light and two pieces of wood. It allows you to work or read at night. Lights are very useful in the dark. You might want to make a note of that for future reference. See you did learn something.

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Acrylic Paintings at the Anne Kolb Nature Center

anne kolb gallery painting artanne kolb gallery painting artanne kolb gallery paintings artart gallery paintings bradluthin

 

I have a few paintings being shown at the Anne Kolb Nature Center as part of the “Creativity Shared” art exhibit will be at the Anne Kolb Nature Center exhibit hall from April 29 to May 29, 2016.  We will be having a reception on Friday, May 6, from 5pm to 7pm. The address is at 751 Sheridan St., Hollywood, FL 33019.

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Wooden Patio Chair

Reclaimed Wood Garden Patio Chair

This patio chair was made from two reclaimed wooden pallets. One with plainsawn pine on top and the other with a particle, OSB, strandboard, or a bunch of mulch glued together. I’m not exactly sure what you call it but it does add some contrast to the chair. It is assembled with exterior screws and wood glue. I then added a red cedar weatherproof outdoor finish. Unfortunately, they don’t make a pallet wood finish. Then I sanded the chair to make it more ‘rustic’ or ‘worn in’ or something to that effect or affect. Furniture and accessories made from reclaimed wood pallets have become all the rage. It is a great idea to reuse discarded wood from an environmental perspective. That of course sounds better than saying you are too lazy or cheap to make that fun trip to Home Depot or Lowes. Where you wander around aimlessly looking for an employee to help you. Then that employee is talking to someone else who is asking an endless stream of questions. Then when the employee finishes and immediately starts to briskly walk away, you are able to stop them and ask them where to find the things you need. However, they have no idea what you are talking about because that is not their department. That is when they instruct you to head ‘that way’ and look for another employee. And so the cycle continues. Then usually on your own, you find what you need. Then you walk a few more miles pushing a big pile of lumber on a poorly designed and maintained metal cart. But, I digress, the design of this reclaimed wood patio chair is based on the ‘Limbert’ chair made during the Arts & Crafts Movement. If you would like to learn more about the Arts & Crafts Movement, you could ‘google’ it (after reading this find blog post) or perhaps hire a ‘history detective’ who will then ‘google’ it for you for a nominal charge. The chair was designed to fit the size and shape of a 19-century European. Therefore it has little use in 21-century America. Unless of course, you happen to be a pre-teen (or to be more politcally correct a “tween”). I don’t see the point in writing anymore about this chair, since I’m sure both of us have more interesting things to do.

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Wooden Beach Folding Chair

rustic wood folding chair

This Rustic wood folding chair is made for the beach. It has never actually been to the beach. It has heard about the beach and even seen pictures, but it has never been. The folding chair has basically been on the front porch watching the cars going by. This wood chair has also seen the occasional Jehovas Witness as well as traveling salesmen selling landscaping services, magazine subsriptions and automobile windshields. Yes, a man once offered to examine my windshield for free to see if I needed a new one and lo and behold he found a problem. It was some kind of blemish, perhaps a nick or scratch of some sort. This man had the eyes of an eagle. Anyway, I passed on his windshield replacement or repair services. But I did keep the free window inspection. The chair and I where both bewildered. Anyway, getting back to the subject at hand. It was made from a discarded wooden shipping container. That perhaps was used to ship something somewhat large. The wood container was disassembled (obviously) and then hand planed by hand. The slats where then rounded with a drawknife and then but together with exterior grade wood screws. I can’t remember what type of finish I used because it was made about ten or so years ago. The reclaimed wood chair has a weathered look, mainly due to the weather. This folding beach chair has seen better days and I have seen better chairs. There are actually two of these wooden chairs. The other one looks exactly like the other. So just hit the ‘refresh’ button on your web browser and it will be just like seeing the other one. If you are interested in some other rustic woodcrafts I have made go to the gallery page at this website or click on the Etsy link to go to my store “BradLuthinWoodcrafts”. Thank you for your time.

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Outdoor Garden Bench

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Here is a outdoor rustic woodland bench made from reclaimed wood. Ok the wood is not reclaimed. It was claimed from Home Depot. Of course Home Depot claimed in from a tree so in that case I was reclaiming it from them. And why I’m correcting my previous statements the wood bench is not really in the ‘woodland’ style. Although there are no hard and fast rules about what constitutes the ‘woodland style’. I just like saying the word woodland. It is all the rage in the mom groups all across the suburban landscape. The rustic wood bench is based on a plain by black and decker. It has a scalloped back and rounded arm rests. This gives it the look and feel of garden log furniture. This rustic bench fits in with any garden decor. Including the red hot new woodland gardens. Whatever a woodland garden looks like. Even if someone had a fairy garden and those fairies (not the one with the garden) but the fairies for whom the garden is for, had their own garden for humans or some type of ‘human like’ form, then the bench could be used for them. That was a really long run on sentence. Was it not? Moving on. This rustic bench was made to replace a worn out adirondack bench made from reclaimed plywood. That is really irrelevant, but then again most of this post is so not relevant. This garden bench is very sturdy. And can support many a persons. It is as strong as a ship. If that ship happens to be made of pressure treated two by fours. Then is also finished with a waterproof stain/varnish for plenty of outdoor use. This rustic bench is also slightly more comfortable that it looks. Which is to say it is a little bit less comfortable. It would go great with other rustic furniture, such as, but not limited to log tables, wood Adirondack chairs, plants, planters, plant stands, things made with tree branches and many other garden, rustic, woodland and wooden decor.

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Glass Tile Bench

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A clean simple wood bench made from reclaimed 2×4’s. They are screwed and glued together. Then primed and painted white. The top of the bench was made from reclaimed glass tile samples. The bench goes fairly well in any decor. It’s the opposite of the usual garden decor and woodland decor to be found on bradluthin.com. It’s one of those furniture pieces that somehow got lost on the way to a particular body of work or portfolio. There are times when the wood bench will fit it. However, at the same time seems to be wildly out of place. This semi-whimsical wood and tile bench is minimalistic which is such a big fancy word. Actually I don’t think it is a real word since it comes up as misspelled and everyone knows that spell check is never wrong. Anyway, I’m suppose to write at least 300 words in each blog post for some reason. Therefore no one in their right mind would read all of this. But you’ve gotten this far, so you might as well finish. Getting back to the bench in question. I don’t remember making this semi-fine but fairly basic piece of furniture. The bench is about as comfortable as it looks, which is to say, not very much. The mosaic glass tile bench can and is often, if not all the time, being used as a table. Not so much a rustic tile bench but a not very sophisticated mosaic tile bench either. This interesting tile bench would be at home in any decor or no decor. It might make for a conversational piece. You can start and perhaps maintain a conversation with friends, relatives or perhaps a wandering Jehovah Witness. It might not make for a great conversation but an interesting one nonetheless. Then the conversation might turn into yet another conversation about other pieces of furniture. Whether they be of the minimal, maximal or rustic variety. The glass tile bench is painted white to go with any decor or perhaps an all white office like that of a newly purchased condo or perhaps a fashionable workplace. I have some rustic woodland furniture and accessories that I will post soon.