Challenge04 #1: Noah's Ark Book Case

Based on the fact that there is no way I have yet developed the skills to create the kind of furniture I see posted here daily, I wanted to go with something a little more whimsical in the hopes that my skills as an artist would compensate for limited experience as a craftsman.

I had this idea for an Noah’s Ark Book Shelf that is at is’t base just a plain rectangular book shelf with a few extras that (I think) make it much more fun. I tried my hand at sketchup and have come to the conclusion that I would rather stick pointy things in my eyes than spend anymore time trying to make it do the things I want it to do. In all likelyhood, the stubborn side of me will revisit it in the future and learn how to better use what I will admitt seems to be a valuable tool. I will just need better safety glasses. I am going to have to ask you to imagine the finished project because I couldn’t get to happen without risking personal injury.

In The photo below you can see the shell. I imagine it made out of softwood to keep it light and allow for the bulk needed on the side rails to accomodate the bow and stern finials It would be 12 inches deep, 3 feet long and 30 inches high. The shelves sit in slots, (what do you call those things?) in the sides. The roof would be finished with faux scalloped edge shingles.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh230/robneves/NoahsArkBookShelf2JPG.jpg

What I couldn’t incorporate into the design was the shelf supports. The shelf supports would be directly under the top floor cabin and would feature animal sillouttes peeking out. The silloutes would be scroll sawed out of Baltic Birch and stained in a dark mahogany stain to highlight the contours of the animal shapes

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh230/robneves/arkbookshelfanimaldividers.jpg

I imagined 2 elephants on the bottom, two zebras in the middle, two lions on the top and two giraffes incorporated into the cabin sides.

Just a note of caution in picking out the sillouttes that have sharp or pointy edges (rhinos, moose, deer) exposed past the face of the book shelf is a visit to the emergency room waiting to happen. In my version the elephant would have tusks that didn’t protrude as far.

I have tried embedding the pics right into the blog, but they seem to be too large and my computer too slow to edit them in photo bucket. Looks like a huge piece of humble pie for me today… LOL
This is a crude drawing of what I imagine the finished project looking like. I look forward to your feedback.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh230/robneves/NoahsArkBookShelf3.jpg

God Bless
rob

-- www.robneves.com