January, 2008
During Christmas, we added one of Jessica Ulm's photgraphs
of the Cambria Depot to
the front pages of the Dorsett Publications and the Cambria Depot
websites. You can see more of Jessica's
photographs online. Jessica took the time lapse photograph a couple
of weeks before Christmas. It is the depot's first photograph since
the new paint job was completed (walls and trim during the summer
and the roof in early November).
The Cambria Depot has been home to Dorsett Publications
and The Scale Cabinetmaker since 1983 and was home to Helen and Jim
Dorsett from 1989 until their deaths in 1990 and 2005. On cool mornings
and in the late afternoons in spring and fall, it was not unusual
to see my father sitting on the rear side steps of the freight room
(actually the kitchen in the apartment), sipping coffee, and watching
a train pass on the mainline tracks of the Norfolk Southern, fifteen
feet away. Because of the building's construction-- a melding of railroad
tressles and timber frame-- the building rarely shakes with the passing
of the long lines of coal cars. On the other hand, if you want to
have a conversation on the phone, you have to go into their apartment
at the rear of the building or in one of the waiting rooms in front.
Indeed, many of the phone conversations over the past quarter of a
century have been punctuated with "hold on while I close the
door..."
The fate of the Cambria Depot and The Scale Cabinetmaker
are inextricably woven together, so it seemed fitting to give both
a face lift in preparation for the 25th anniversary of the Depot's
restoration.
Watch for TSC Volumes 2 through 5 to be released over
the next nine months. In addition, we will be releaseing a least one
new volume in the Best of TSC series: The Beginner's Workbench and
Notebook. At a reader's suggestion, we are also looking at developing
a new Cabinetmaker's Guide for furniture from the 1940's and 1950's,
although it will probably be released in 2009.
August, 2007
With the launching of this website and the reintroduction
of The Scale Cabinetmaker to a new readership, "In the
Interim" is also being resurrected. Every issue of The Scale
Cabinetmaker included a column titled "In the Interim."
It was Jim Dorsett's quartely diary of the journey he and Helen made
during the 20 years TSC was in print. He was an enthusiastic essayist,
and the Interim column gave him a chance to write short essays on
the month to month happenings at Dorsett Publications and at the depot.
TSC readers followed, from issue to issue, the progress of restoring
the depot, of exploring new ways of approaching old problems in miniatures,
and the changing circumstances at Dorsett Publications and in their
lives. In a sense, it was Jim's "What's new?" column, although
he probably wouldn't have used a contraction in the title.
Resurrecting "In the Interim," is the starting
point for finishing (or continuing) what my parents left unfinished
with their deaths in 1990 and in 2005. For the last three years of
his life, Jim Dorsett tried to navigate the unchartered waters of
online publishing and cd production. He wanted TSC re-released
because he felt there was still a need for the materials and whole
new generations to entice into the world of making miniatures. He
wanted a website for Dorsett Publications so that he could create
an educational tool for the modeler and have a place the essays he
couldn't afford to print in TSC. Some of the essays had to do with
miniatures; most did not. We will periodically be adding some of his
"not related" essays to the website, and, keeping with tradition.
In the meantime, welcome back to Dorsett Publications.
In addition to The Scale Cabinetmaker, we also publish the
10 volumes in the Cabinetmaker's Guide series and six volumes in the
Best of TSC series. We invite you to explore our website, including
the original "In the Interim"
columns. We will add new materials to the site as time allows. Check
here for news and a guide to what has been added. (mhd 8/112/07)
Existing Publications: Currently, there are ten volumes in
the Cabinetmaker's Guide series
and six volumes in the Best of TSC
series. In addition, there are still a number of issues of The
Scale Cabinetmaker still in stock. You can peruse the catalogs
of available titles online.. All publications, unless otherwise noted,
are printed in a workbench friendly, looseleaf format and can be stored,
when not in use, in a three-ring binder.
New Publications: In 1976, Jim and Helen Dorsett published
the first issue of The Scale
Cabinetmaker.
Thirty years later, we are re-releasing The Scale Cabinetmaker
on CD. The first volume will be available in Summer 2007. Each cd
include a full year of TSC (four issues), additional construction
and workbench notes, the history of Dorsett Publications and The
Scale Cabinetmaker for the year of production, a list of suppliers
and other resources for the modeler, and a cumulative index, all in
pdf format. Dorsett Publications expects to release two to three volumes
of The Scale Cabinetmaker per year.
The Scale Cabinetmaker, Volume 1 (October 1976-July 1977). The
cd-rom version of TSC, Volume 1 includes the four issues in the first
volume, additional workbench notes and sketches from the archive,
and the introduction to the cumulative index.
The Best of TSC (Volume 7): The Stanley Whitman House. The
plans and instructions for the model were originally published in
the first volume of TSC (TSC 1:1-1:4). The prototype model, built
by Jim and Helen Dorsett in 1976, was based on a post-and-beam house
in Farmington, Connecticut and now resides, on permanent display,
in the American Colonial Museum in Bath, England. (October, 2007)
The Best of TSC (Volume 8): The Beginner's Workbench. The
Beginner's Workbench was a series of articles, published during the
20 year span of TSC, that taught beginners basic tool use and modeling
techniques. The articles used a photo-text format and step-by-step
instructions that walked the beginning modeler through introductory
modeling processes. The publication will be a must have for the beginning
modeler. (November, 2007)
Ordering from Dorsett Publications
After going ten rounds with various online options (all of which
cost Dorsett Publications and our custormers a small fortune and required
far more programming capability than any of us exhibit), we decided
to take the simpler and more direct approach. Download the retail
order form (pdf file), fill it in, and either email, mail, fax,
or phone in your order. We can process credit card purchases onsite
and it removes the possibility of online theft of credit information.
Please see second page of the retail order
form for more information. Due to problems with currency exchange
(we are located in the non-population end of Virginia), we ask that
all payments be in US funds only. Thank you to those customers who
have been patient with our trial and error. (mhd)
In
the Interim
