Design aid | What Would You Like to See on the Website? | Forum

I don't know if another forum category would be the best way to offer more examples of interesting design. The Gallery is an obvious venue for accomplishing the graphic part of what I'm trying to envision, but there is not much way to communicate the inevitable problems you run into as you plan and work through a project.
The tutorial entries are great (I'd like to see more) but here is my recent experience, and I go through pretty much the same thing every time. I've been trying to design a table base. I have some favorite smiths in terms of design. I look at their work and decide which elements might fit best in my project. Then I start drawing, but it doesn't automatically work out, so I branch out to pieces I've never seen by smiths I've never heard of. This is where it gets time consuming. Computer search, library search, wait until I travel somewhere inspirational or I can attend the next conference.
Back to the table base. A Google image search found this beautiful base by a smith who was new to me.
I like everything about it, but I only need the split tenon for part of the joinery. I get out all of the old copies of The Hot Iron News and stumble across a great table base by Russell Jaqua Spring 2005. This is a piece that didn't turn up on my Google search and I had forgotten about. It's a great design, but all I need is the part where the horizontal braces log cabin in the center and tenon through each other to form a diamond. The design still might not work out the way I see it in my head, but it feels good and I'm ready to start drawing and figuring.
I got to this place pretty easily this time, but often it's a more difficult journey, one that would be made easier by having a collection of images available in one place, all of which have been inspiring and helpful to other folks who try to scratch their itch by making cool stuff out of steel.