36 lap joints later, the trellis is finished. Its paired boards echo the fence lattice.

The hardest part about completing the trellis was managing the slope of the patio. I began construction by laying out the notches for the joinery on 5/4 x 4 cedar boards, then began cutting the notches–36 in all. I took that effort in stages, beginning with the horizontal boards. I began by defining each edge of the notch with my dozuki, then making a couple of additional cuts across the notch, then popping the waste free with a chisel and paring the joint relatively even. Cedar is easy to work by hand, so this went fairly quickly, but I was ready to try the router when it came time to notch the vertical members. Continue reading →

Sketch for a trellis to complement the porch.

I am, perhaps, too enamored of shoji, but I find the potential for the arrangement of kumiko intriguing. So I immediately thought of shoji when tasked with building a trellis for the climbing hydrangea growing at one corner of our porch. I’d originally planned to reproduce the design of my fence lattice, but the 1″ width seemed a little insubstantial for the space. I changed the width to 1.5″ and echoed the double strips separated by a strip width in the fence lattice. Then it was a matter of playing with the arrangement until I found a silhouette I liked.