This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
Sometimes I think about the amount of time and energy I’ve put into the Solstice Wall project. That goes for Sachi, too. I’ve taken the lead, but she’s been a part of every decision, and the endless brainstorming and problem-solving. Now that the project is days from completion, I’m both excited and a little sad.
As I’ve written many times in this newsletter, I believe happiness lives in anticipation. Since June of 2021, I’ve been anticipating the completion of this project and it will soon be behind me. Then what? I have plenty of things to look forward to, like warm weather and the garden coming back to life. But those require little creative effort.
This project has taught me that I get real satisfaction from taking on big creative projects that require learning and experimentation. I want ideas to brainstorm and problems to solve. I want to try and fail and try again. I want to learn about tools and materials and how to be more detailed and diligent.
Since early December, the work on the Solstice Wall happened in our garage. At the end of the work day, I looked forward to heading in there, putting on a podcast, and pushing the project forward. Whatever is next, that’s where the work will get done.
Current Status
Right now, the plywood panels that will hold the rays are mounted on the wall of our great room. Getting to this point was a relief because everything was built on the floor of our garage. I worried that I’d missed a detail or flubbed a measurement. I imagined the panels, which contain 79 holes for holding the rays, would not match up as expected. Then what?
The moment of truth was installing one of the longest rays, which stretches across three panels. Thankfully, the holes in the plywood matched the dowels in the ray and everything came together as expected. Phew!
I severely underestimated what would be required to complete this project. This, as Sachi will tell you, is not a surprise. My optimism gets the best of me. Here’s an example…
The rays will be held onto the plywood panels with 79 metal dowels. The dowels hold the rays off the surface and will be visible. Each one will also cast a shadow. It occurred to me that the placement of the dowels shouldn’t be willy-nilly. To be elegant, they needed to be carefully organized and aligned into neat rows. It sounds pretty simple, but it wasn’t.
The challenge had multiple variables. The rays relate to one another, their locations on the plywood panels, and now the dowels. To get the dowels to line up, I placed the rays on the plywood panels in the final form. Then I had to ensure the rays didn’t move while I measured and made 79 marks indicating dowel locations.
It was one of the most taxing parts of the project because, well, I’m clumsy. The chances were high that I’d knock something out of whack and not notice. For that reason, I put weights on the rays as I worked from one side to the other.
When it was all said and done, it was close. A few dowels were way off. A few were imperfect. Most were close enough. And is always the case, I needed to learn something new. This time, it was how to use wood filler and make it strong.
Next Steps
The plywood panels were attached to the wall with countersunk screws. All those holes have now been filled with spackle and need to be sanded down and hopefully disappear.
After a bit more cleanup, the panels will be painted our wall color. Once that is complete, the rays will be installed and we’ll be done! More on that soon.
I’m sharing this process on social media. Follow along!
This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
We chose to use Baltic birch plywood for the rays because the built-in cabinets and benches at Flattop are Baltic birch. We both love seeing the plies and plywood is exceptionally stable.
For the Solstice wall, we wanted to make the plies even more obvious, so I started experimenting with stains. I found that the stain we used for our western red cedar ceilings and soffits worked well.
After more experimenting, I developed a simple process that created consistency in every ray. I applied the stain and then immediately wiped it off.
The results were startling to me and exactly what I hoped to see. The stain soaked into and darkened the wood pleid, while keeping the laminated strips nice and light.
As a friend said online, the plies look like a cookie.
Here’s a short video on the process of staining the rays:
This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
In planning the Solstice Wall, I experimented with the tools I’d need to make it work. I don’t own table saws or drill presses, so I set out to find what would work. This introduced me to a variety of woodworking gadgets that I now consider essential.
One of the design ideas is using metal dowels to hold the rays off the wall so that they would cast more interesting shadows.
To make this work, I’d need a way to drill consistent holes in each dowel. The holes needed to be centered on the rays and at a specific depth. Freehanding it was possible, but I needed real consistency.
One of the early discoveries was a self-centering jig. This is a metal contraption that pinches a strip of wood and provides centered holes for drilling. It seemed like the perfect solution.
The next issue was hole depth, which also needed to be consistent. There are 79 dowels that all need to be the same length once placed in the rays. For this, I used a collar for a drill bit. With a simple set screw, you can place the collar on the bit at the exact location where the hole should stop.
It was the combination of these tools that got the project rolling. I used them to drill all the holes for the dowels, and holes in the plywood panels.
We set out to make the outcome as perfect as possible and an invaluable tool was a laser level. We didn’t need it to make things level as much as straight. We pointed it at the wall and the plywood panels on the floor to mark the shadow lines. It was exactly what we needed.
Another tool that impressed me was a track saw setup (Thanks, Jim!) A track saw makes it possible to cut perfect lines on long lengths with a circular saw. You attach a “sled” to the circular saw and the sled fits into a track that is placed on the plywood. The track guides the saw across the panels in perfect lines. We used it to cut the angled lines that make the plywood panels match our sloped ceiling.
Here’s a short video of the self-centering jig and bit collar in action:
This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
The design of the Solstice Wall involves two 6′ circles. The circles will be made of strips of plywood, what I call “rays”. Sachi and I had a number of discussions about how to manipulate the rays to be more circular. She had the idea of shaping the end of each ray to reflect the flow of the circle’s curve.
This direction meant that each ray needed to be cut to have a unique curve. After some experiments, I used the same chalk and thread to draw the curved lines on each ray.
The lines looked great. I was ready to start cutting.
I’m pretty good with a miter saw, but this project tested my ingenuity. The problem was the flat angles that the saw didn’t make easy. I built little jigs and used clamps to keep the wood in place while cutting (not pictured).
Once it was all done, I placed the rays on the panels and experienced the circles with a more elegant look. Sachi was right.
These lines created coordinates for the shadow’s location over a single evening: the summer solstice.
With these lines documented, we could think about using them to create an art installation on the wall. This set off months of debate and experiments about design, materials, etc. We decided that the lines, or “rays” needed to be three-dimensional and held off the wall. This made the project more complicated but could create a unique look. I built multiple proof-of-concept models.
Over time, these lines represented the final design in two dimensions. Just recently, the lines were used as guides producing the rays in the form of strips of Baltic birch plywood.
I recently planned, documented, labeled, and cut each ray to a rough length and placed them on the panels. It was the first I experienced an early version of the three-dimensional final product.
A lot of work remains, but it’s so exciting to see the vision of the project come to life.
This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
So. Much. Tape. I didn’t expect for tape to be such a useful part of the process. It has been helpful in getting an overall sense of the design before we start doing more permanent things like cutting wood and drilling holes.
In this case, I wanted to see how the future rays would look in the context of the chalk circles I drew.
The white tape then served as a guide for planning the rays.
This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
One design idea has stood the test of time. I always liked the idea of using circles that balance the linear lines and also symbolize the sun. Late in the process we agreed on the final design and I continue to feel it’s right. Here’s a sketch I made while planning.
Adding circles increased the difficulty factor. We now needed to map perfect circles within the radiating lines of the rays. This includes cutting each ray to match the curve of the circle’s line.
To make it work, I needed to think about the size of the circles and then draw them on the panels on the floor. The easiest way to create the circles is using a string and chalk. I tied the string to a thumbtack and placed it in the center of the circle. Then I stretched the string out the edge of the circle and drew the circumference of the circle.
When I was a kid, my brother David taught me this method for making skateboard ramps. The curve created by the string creates a nice transition between horizontal and vertical. Here’s a photo of David and friends building a ramp in the 70s.
This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
Lately, I’ve been sharing a lot about building the Solstice Wall. Behind the scenes, we are always working on the design and what we think it should look like on the wall.
One way we’ve found to think about the design is by using lines on a photo of the wall. This creates a close-enough view of the size, shape, and feel of the rays on the wall.
This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
One of the fascinating parts of this project, to me, is that there is no playbook. I can’t find any helpful resources for how to make the Solstice Wall work. I’m sure people have done similar things, but their process and problem-solving seem to be unattainable. I take this as a challenge. We will experiment our way through.
One of the most productive experiments to date is a proof of concept model I created to test the materials and be sure that they will work as expected.
The Solstice Wall is made from a variety of materials:
Lumber in the wall (existing)
Drywall on the lumber (existing)
Plywood on the drywall
Paint on the plywood
Metal dowels in the painted plywood
Plywood strips on the dowels
Stain on the strips
This list gives me a bit of anxiety. All these layers have to work properly across a wall-sized installation.
To soothe my feelings, I made a model:
This proof of concept helped me experiment and test the layers and how they interact. More than that, it gave me confidence that our design would work.
Here’s a short video with more:
I’m sharing this process on social media. Follow along!
This article was published as an issue of my newsletter Ready for Rain
I always assumed the rays of the Solstice Wall would be mounted directly onto the drywall. Over time and lot of experiments, it became clear this would not work well. I tried installing versions of the rays and found that the drywall was not a sturdy or reliable base. The rays felt loose.
We considered using epoxy or drywall anchors, but nothing seemed to make sense. The anchors would be secure, but the installation needed to be highly precise, minimally visible, and easy to repair.
This prompted us to think about more secure ways to mount them. The obvious choice was mounting plywood panels on the wall and then mounting the rays on the plywood.
This idea had an added benefit: we could move the entire operation to the floor, design and build everything, and then install it all at once.
The Puzzle
The plan seemed almost perfect, but there was one snag. The coordinates of each ray existed in only one form: thumbtacks on the wall. How could we translate the thumbtack coordinates from the wall to the panels on the floor?
The answer was to place boards on the edges of the wall and use a laser level to establish the lines on the boards.
This way, we could place the boards on the floor by the panels and map the lines.
The idea worked and our work moved to the garage floor, where we could continue to design and build the rays before installation
Here’s a brief video about this process:
I’m sharing this process on social media. Follow along!
I write books and run a company called Common Craft. I recently moved from Seattle to a rural island. Here, I write about online business, book publishing, modern home construction, and occasionally, dumb jokes.
I write books and run a company called Common Craft. I recently moved from Seattle to a rural island. Here, I write about online business, book publishing, modern home construction, and occasionally, dumb jokes. 
