Awesome, thank you for the examples. I took a step away for a bit and while talking with my niece it suddenly occurred to me that I was thinking of the BlockState json in totally the wrong way.
This is what I have now. and though I'm changing the model in the wrong directions it is working, and that's a simple fix.
[EDIT] had my left and right backwards
{
"forge_marker": 1,
"defaults": {
"model": "titancraft:shelf_single_oak"
},
"variants": {
"connections": {
"1": {
"model": "titancraft:shelf_right_oak"
},
"2": {
"model": "titancraft:shelf_left_oak"
},
"3": {
"model": "titancraft:shelf_center_oak"
},
"4": {
"model": "titancraft:shelf_single_oak"
}
},
"facing": {
"north": {
},
"east": {
"y": 90
},
"south": {
"y": 180
},
"west": {
"y": 270
}
}
}
}