Kevin Ludlow is a 45-year-old accomplished software developer, business manager, writer, musician, photographer, world traveler, and serial entrepreneur from Austin, Texas. He is also a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.
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After watching a handful of Instagram and TikTok videos on custom-made art easels, I was asked if I might be able to make a similar one. The ones that I saw, while functional, were ultimately pretty basic. Since I generally like to try and build my projects as nuanced as I can, I decided it would be best to come up with my own plans. Granted, I did use the basic structural idea of the ones I'd seen, but the design elements were entirely my own.
The easel was crafted from Peruvian Walnut, Ambrosia Maple, and a single piece of Curly Maple (for the easel tray itself). It also has a number of hardware adaptations all of which use black oxide finishing. I think the design decisions ultimately turned out a pretty nice looking easel and it made a great gift.
Dimensionally speaking, the easel stands at 72" tall. It has 1-5/8" (40mm) square legs, a 31" wide easel tray, and as noted above, all of the hardware is finished with black oxide. The main structural pivot bolt is 3/8" at 6-1/2" long. The easel tray bolts are 1/4" at 5-1/2" inches long and compress against the front two legs to lock the tray into place. All of the bolts are lined with black oxide steel washers of varying thicknesses and each outer washer has an outermost neoprene washer included to protect the wood.
