Did you write? March 05, 2012
It is that time of the week again. We are in a new month but the week is more important for us. It is a small bite of time that one can look forward to, and it is a deadline that comes up really fast and forces you to react.
The concept of this note is for you to post what is going on in your life and because you are posting anyway, you can also tell about what is going on in your writing even if you don't write.
As to what is writing, it can be anything. We all know that new writing is writing, but editing is also writing. Critiquing is also a form of editing and that also counts. Synopsis, poetry, query letters, world and character creation, blogging, technical writing, writing assignments, are just a short list of what is writing. Bulletin board posts and E-mails can also be writing if they are very wordy and pertains to writing or story. Of course, you may choose not to count many of these as writing. it is strictly up to you. For us, if you have to ask if it is writing, our answer is yes.
As for me, I did write. One thing I did was to remove a whole set of scenes that just did not fit to the way the story is going and did not add to the approaching ending. I did toss it into a file named ORPHANED SCENES. It will likely become the core of a later story. It was originally a key set of scenes but a shift of the story made that go away.
With what I added and what was removed, I basically lost all of the previous week's writing. so in the past two weeks, I added 16 words. Of course, there was a whole bunch of writing, but, you know how word counts are....
On the story idea front, we just finished a 29 day month. I can proudly say that I posted 30 stories, one more than days of the week, for a total of 32 pages and 19048 words. That is pretty good. I am already two ideas ahead for the year. The more the merrier.
Including what I am posting tonight, there are 42 story ideas in my compost pile. Not bad. I posted two story ideas that never got to paper.
During the past week, I have posted two leap-day story ideas. That has become a copper mine of concepts. they both involved with the consequences of being born on a day that only comes once every four years. One idea set up other ideas that I can post later.
I have my art show next weekend. I love to have new stuff on display, especially pieces I made since Christmas. They feel like brand new works.
Last month, it dawned on me that there would be no way to finish my dragon carving or my vase with carved faces done in time. I then went to two simpler projects.
One of them, the dream catcher, is not likely going to get done either. I have all the parts but it will take some time and planning to work at it and writing tends to be more a critical project. I could get it done but doubt it.
I have "finished" my tea pot. I hate the handle and will replace it after the show. I had some assumptions on the design that turned out not to be correct when I finally added the handle. In spite of the ugly handle, it actually looks pretty good. That handle will do until later in the month or next month.
I learned that it is best to practice the set up of the display. I never have enough room for everything so I have to pick and choose what will be on display, what is too damaged to be displayed, and how best to show them off. I then pack them up in a way so that setting up the display will be faster and very little decision making is done at the time of the art show. This weekend, I planned on setting up my display for practice. The tail of that monster that hit the mid west was coming across the state. it was a nothing squall line but since I have to do my display out in the open, not under cover, I had to cut short my practice. I have small stepped racks to lift stuff off the table to give elevation to different works. I did test them out and worked out how to get the most out of my display. That helps. I then packed up and put everything away. The squall line passed about an hour later, lasting an hour. Just a little bit of yellow on the radar and that was it.
AS for me, I can honestly say that
YES, I DID WRITE.
DID YOU WRITE?
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Week 634, Woodworking
Year 12, Week 8, Day One (week 634)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-03-12 Saturday
85 degrees, brisk wind that got stronger as the day wore on. Blue sky with a light haze and sun all day, clouds started building up over the Everglades later in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
During the week, I sanded and varnished at my tea pot parts and dream catcher parts. I now realize neither one will be ready for the art show. Sad, but that is reality.
I broke the handle of my coffee pot. I found out that these CORNING coffee pots were recalled because of handle breakage. I did not know that. I had seen a crack in the handle, but I thought that was part of the tightening method. the two parts move together as it is tightened. The band that has the pour spout was leaking ever so slightly.
I decided to tighten it. I located the screw at the handle and turned the screw about three times. The main part of the handle fell to the counter.
Looking at the handle, I think I could make something like that out of any number of materials. Wood could work if I find the right piece. I had a glance and have a couple pieces that might work. I might have to do extra engineering to make it strong enough. Plastic if I could find the right size plastic block, or metal could also be used. I will give it a thought. Electrically it works perfectly so it is worth saving. For now I located another pot to work with.
YARD SAILING.
Mom's neighbor had to move out. We rescued a nice mirrored medicine cabinet and some odds and ends that we have use for. Mom may give a friend the medicine cabinet. If not, it comes home.
There were some gaming and baseball cards, a couple of hats, and a book in the stuff we rescued. I later rescued a towel rack where the welds of the bottom rung broke.
skate board parts and hats with a bag
medicine cabinet and towel rack
baseball and game cards and a book
At another yard sale for the humane society, I picked up a small paper cutter, a drill bit measuring gauge for three bucks. Also in that three bucks were two doggy brushes. I am thinking they might work as carding combs for taking fiber and straightening it out for spinning. I have a couple projects where that would be an advantage. I also want to make a drop spinner but needed to have a way to card the fiber so I can test the spinning properties.
two doggy brushes, a drill bit gauge, and a paper cutter
I got a Sterno cook stove with two cans of heat. and a folding table at a dollar each. The table had been in the weather and needs some clean up. I glued on one of the edge bands that fell off. I use these tables at home all the time. A couple are where I do my varnishing and sanding to hold my stuff. Others are right now buried beneath stuff. this table will likely be used for dirty work where it might get messy from something or another.
Sterno stove as found in box and set up.
Folding table
SATURDAY
I gathered all my woodworking I had at home, and took them to Mom's house this morning. One hard part was finding a way to replace the pencil cups I had started using recently. I had to "discover" new containers for this.
After the morning was over, I went down to the antique shop and gathered all the pieces in my display. It took three boxes to bring that stuff back. I will bring my stuff back at the end of this month.
Front and side views of the antique shop display that is now taken away
Tomorrow I will, if the weather allows, set up a three foot wide and eight foot table and practice my display of my turnings and carvings. I don't have a table that size so I will have to build it up with boards and other tables.
What I will be doing is to see what arrangement will look best, and what is not in display condition. Then when I put things back, it will be separated to make for the quickest and easiest set up for the display.
I learned over the past couple years that it is much better to make even half the decisions at this time than when setting up at the show. it takes time to set up and deciding what to show adds to that time. There still will be decisions to make, but the less I do the better.
I Need to charge up all my batteries for my battery powered drills. I also need to prepare materials for carving at the show, which I do all the time. I have generally carved pencil heads, but might carve something else. People like to see demonstrations of the work in progress.
I need to print up some more business cards and my ABOUT THE AUTHOR sheets I display. I was having printer problems last time and they did not print well.
Tomorrow will be preparing for next week's art show.
I will see what actually happens tomorrow.
Year 12, Week 8, Day Two (week 634)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-04-12 Sunday
85 degrees, really strong breezes and gusts, blue sky with lots of feathers and plates in the air at ten o'clock. The tail of the monster that attacked the mid-west came through in about an hour and as the last drops fell, the temps were 68 degrees. The wet air and wind and having walked through the wetness a tiny bit made it feel really cold. About an hour later, it went back up to 70 degrees, the breeze died down quite a bit and the sun came out and felt warm. I left at four and it was still 70 degrees light feathers plates, and scattered puffs, light breeze and lots of sun. it is supposed to drop down to 50 tonight. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I knew the monster's tail was coming so I measured my projects accordingly. I first dashed out to the ACE HARDWARE store that is about three blocks away and picked up some epoxy and something to hold screws in plasterboard.
I knew I did not have time to set up all my artwork to see how the display would look, so what I did was to set up a three foot by eight foot table mock-up, which required one of my portable tables to be set up on blocks. I then took some stepped wire racks I use and set them out on the table. With an empty box in the middle, I decided I had a good looking arraignment. I will cover them with some white material and then set art work on top of them so I have pieces raised above the others. I will have to wait until Saturday to actually set up my work to see what the actual arrangement will be.
My brother arrived before noon so we had dinner. That was when the worst of the beast hit. It was over completely a while after we went back outside. I doubt it was longer than an hour total.
My nephew arrived about half an hour after we ate.
My brother scroll sawed a piece for the clock he is making. He does a part here, a part there, and over time, it adds up to a complete project.
I took the acorn I had made last weekend for my dream catcher and fitted a small bit on my dremmel. I pock-marked the cap of the acorn to give it a more textured look. I hit it with a blast of varnish so my pocks would blend in with the cap around them so I could show my nephew that I was not ruining it. He really liked it. I will hit it with sand paper and varnish it more. it did make the cap look better, though there should be a whole lot more holes, no spaces between them.
Finished acorn set in jaws of the vise
I measured as to where the spout and handle will go on my tea pot. I lined them up with the pattern of the wood of the body and drew around them. For the spout, I measured in on the mating surface of the spout itself and drilled a whole bunch of holes. They were supposed to be even and well spaced, but wandering and mis-aiming caused a few problems with alighment. When one looks carefully inside, it looks like a stylized S within the border holes and not a well designed one either.
I sanded around the mating surface of the hole and then applied epoxy to the spout and stuck it on. I had to hold it for a bit before it felt like it would not move.
A bit later, I attached the handle the same way. I did not have to drill holes and I visually lined it up on the spout and held it. At one point, I released it too soon and after a few minutes, it started pulling apart. I held it longer until I was sure it stayed in place.
A bit later, I found that the handle was on a sight angle. My nephew suggested that it was intentional as it tips the hand of a right-handed person away from the steam from the spout when pouring.
It happens that the handle looks really bad. The design is all wrong. For now, I don't have time to replace the handle. It will have to remain as is. I might later make a new handle, cut off the old one and, put the new on STRAIGHT. When I made this handle, I had some limitations of the wood I was using and I was guessing as to how it was actually going to work. I know more so making a new handle will be easier and will look better.
left and right view of the tea pot with spout and handle attached. I just realized it looks like someone practicing martial arts.
We cleaned up the back yard and my brother, nephew, and I went inside to sit and talk for a couple hours. That is something we have not done in a very long time. it was fun.
My original plan for the table was to take out all my pieces, both carvings and turnings, and see how the arrangement would look, what pieces would more likely be on display and what pieces would be more likely kept in the boxes until needed. I did test a concept on the wire rack arrangement which does help some. The wire racks and the box will have a fabric of some kind draped over top them to hide them while holding the pieces higher than those on the table surface itself.
Saturday, I will place the work on the tables so I can see what it is going to look like. I have far more work than can fit on even three tables.
During the week, I will try to finish the tea pot. I have epoxy to clean off, some light sanding and then varnish it. It might well be on the table, however it looks when done. How good it looks will determine the price.
I just noticed that while my art show is Sunday, I have a turning club meeting the following Thursday. A couple projects I wanted to make won't be even started. Darn.
One thing I see is that even if the art show was NEXT month, not this one, I would not have too much more done to show for the extra time. It is surprising how much time has been wasted the past couple months.
I will see what happens next weekend.
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-03-12 Saturday
85 degrees, brisk wind that got stronger as the day wore on. Blue sky with a light haze and sun all day, clouds started building up over the Everglades later in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
During the week, I sanded and varnished at my tea pot parts and dream catcher parts. I now realize neither one will be ready for the art show. Sad, but that is reality.
I broke the handle of my coffee pot. I found out that these CORNING coffee pots were recalled because of handle breakage. I did not know that. I had seen a crack in the handle, but I thought that was part of the tightening method. the two parts move together as it is tightened. The band that has the pour spout was leaking ever so slightly.
I decided to tighten it. I located the screw at the handle and turned the screw about three times. The main part of the handle fell to the counter.
Looking at the handle, I think I could make something like that out of any number of materials. Wood could work if I find the right piece. I had a glance and have a couple pieces that might work. I might have to do extra engineering to make it strong enough. Plastic if I could find the right size plastic block, or metal could also be used. I will give it a thought. Electrically it works perfectly so it is worth saving. For now I located another pot to work with.
YARD SAILING.
Mom's neighbor had to move out. We rescued a nice mirrored medicine cabinet and some odds and ends that we have use for. Mom may give a friend the medicine cabinet. If not, it comes home.
There were some gaming and baseball cards, a couple of hats, and a book in the stuff we rescued. I later rescued a towel rack where the welds of the bottom rung broke.
skate board parts and hats with a bag
medicine cabinet and towel rack
baseball and game cards and a book
At another yard sale for the humane society, I picked up a small paper cutter, a drill bit measuring gauge for three bucks. Also in that three bucks were two doggy brushes. I am thinking they might work as carding combs for taking fiber and straightening it out for spinning. I have a couple projects where that would be an advantage. I also want to make a drop spinner but needed to have a way to card the fiber so I can test the spinning properties.
two doggy brushes, a drill bit gauge, and a paper cutter
I got a Sterno cook stove with two cans of heat. and a folding table at a dollar each. The table had been in the weather and needs some clean up. I glued on one of the edge bands that fell off. I use these tables at home all the time. A couple are where I do my varnishing and sanding to hold my stuff. Others are right now buried beneath stuff. this table will likely be used for dirty work where it might get messy from something or another.
Sterno stove as found in box and set up.
Folding table
SATURDAY
I gathered all my woodworking I had at home, and took them to Mom's house this morning. One hard part was finding a way to replace the pencil cups I had started using recently. I had to "discover" new containers for this.
After the morning was over, I went down to the antique shop and gathered all the pieces in my display. It took three boxes to bring that stuff back. I will bring my stuff back at the end of this month.
Front and side views of the antique shop display that is now taken away
Tomorrow I will, if the weather allows, set up a three foot wide and eight foot table and practice my display of my turnings and carvings. I don't have a table that size so I will have to build it up with boards and other tables.
What I will be doing is to see what arrangement will look best, and what is not in display condition. Then when I put things back, it will be separated to make for the quickest and easiest set up for the display.
I learned over the past couple years that it is much better to make even half the decisions at this time than when setting up at the show. it takes time to set up and deciding what to show adds to that time. There still will be decisions to make, but the less I do the better.
I Need to charge up all my batteries for my battery powered drills. I also need to prepare materials for carving at the show, which I do all the time. I have generally carved pencil heads, but might carve something else. People like to see demonstrations of the work in progress.
I need to print up some more business cards and my ABOUT THE AUTHOR sheets I display. I was having printer problems last time and they did not print well.
Tomorrow will be preparing for next week's art show.
I will see what actually happens tomorrow.
Year 12, Week 8, Day Two (week 634)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-04-12 Sunday
85 degrees, really strong breezes and gusts, blue sky with lots of feathers and plates in the air at ten o'clock. The tail of the monster that attacked the mid-west came through in about an hour and as the last drops fell, the temps were 68 degrees. The wet air and wind and having walked through the wetness a tiny bit made it feel really cold. About an hour later, it went back up to 70 degrees, the breeze died down quite a bit and the sun came out and felt warm. I left at four and it was still 70 degrees light feathers plates, and scattered puffs, light breeze and lots of sun. it is supposed to drop down to 50 tonight. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I knew the monster's tail was coming so I measured my projects accordingly. I first dashed out to the ACE HARDWARE store that is about three blocks away and picked up some epoxy and something to hold screws in plasterboard.
I knew I did not have time to set up all my artwork to see how the display would look, so what I did was to set up a three foot by eight foot table mock-up, which required one of my portable tables to be set up on blocks. I then took some stepped wire racks I use and set them out on the table. With an empty box in the middle, I decided I had a good looking arraignment. I will cover them with some white material and then set art work on top of them so I have pieces raised above the others. I will have to wait until Saturday to actually set up my work to see what the actual arrangement will be.
My brother arrived before noon so we had dinner. That was when the worst of the beast hit. It was over completely a while after we went back outside. I doubt it was longer than an hour total.
My nephew arrived about half an hour after we ate.
My brother scroll sawed a piece for the clock he is making. He does a part here, a part there, and over time, it adds up to a complete project.
I took the acorn I had made last weekend for my dream catcher and fitted a small bit on my dremmel. I pock-marked the cap of the acorn to give it a more textured look. I hit it with a blast of varnish so my pocks would blend in with the cap around them so I could show my nephew that I was not ruining it. He really liked it. I will hit it with sand paper and varnish it more. it did make the cap look better, though there should be a whole lot more holes, no spaces between them.
Finished acorn set in jaws of the vise
I measured as to where the spout and handle will go on my tea pot. I lined them up with the pattern of the wood of the body and drew around them. For the spout, I measured in on the mating surface of the spout itself and drilled a whole bunch of holes. They were supposed to be even and well spaced, but wandering and mis-aiming caused a few problems with alighment. When one looks carefully inside, it looks like a stylized S within the border holes and not a well designed one either.
I sanded around the mating surface of the hole and then applied epoxy to the spout and stuck it on. I had to hold it for a bit before it felt like it would not move.
A bit later, I attached the handle the same way. I did not have to drill holes and I visually lined it up on the spout and held it. At one point, I released it too soon and after a few minutes, it started pulling apart. I held it longer until I was sure it stayed in place.
A bit later, I found that the handle was on a sight angle. My nephew suggested that it was intentional as it tips the hand of a right-handed person away from the steam from the spout when pouring.
It happens that the handle looks really bad. The design is all wrong. For now, I don't have time to replace the handle. It will have to remain as is. I might later make a new handle, cut off the old one and, put the new on STRAIGHT. When I made this handle, I had some limitations of the wood I was using and I was guessing as to how it was actually going to work. I know more so making a new handle will be easier and will look better.
left and right view of the tea pot with spout and handle attached. I just realized it looks like someone practicing martial arts.
We cleaned up the back yard and my brother, nephew, and I went inside to sit and talk for a couple hours. That is something we have not done in a very long time. it was fun.
My original plan for the table was to take out all my pieces, both carvings and turnings, and see how the arrangement would look, what pieces would more likely be on display and what pieces would be more likely kept in the boxes until needed. I did test a concept on the wire rack arrangement which does help some. The wire racks and the box will have a fabric of some kind draped over top them to hide them while holding the pieces higher than those on the table surface itself.
Saturday, I will place the work on the tables so I can see what it is going to look like. I have far more work than can fit on even three tables.
During the week, I will try to finish the tea pot. I have epoxy to clean off, some light sanding and then varnish it. It might well be on the table, however it looks when done. How good it looks will determine the price.
I just noticed that while my art show is Sunday, I have a turning club meeting the following Thursday. A couple projects I wanted to make won't be even started. Darn.
One thing I see is that even if the art show was NEXT month, not this one, I would not have too much more done to show for the extra time. It is surprising how much time has been wasted the past couple months.
I will see what happens next weekend.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Leap week, 02-27-12 Did you Write?
Leap week, 02-27-12 Did you Write?
It is that time of the week again. It is a place to tell about what is going on in your life and in the process, what is going on with your writing. By posting here every week, whether you write or not, hopefully the shame of not writing will get you to open something so you can say you wrote.
As to what is writing, it really can be anything. We know that new writing is writing, but so is editing. Critiquing is also a form of editing so it counts as writing. Poetry, synopsis, query letters, technical writing, blogging, writing assignments, world and character creation are just some of the list of what can be writing. Bulletin board posts and E-mail can also be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to writing or story. If you have to ask, the answer is yes. You might also not consider some of this as writing. It is really up to you.
AS for me, I can honestly say I wrote, but nothing like what I should have done. I did nearly as much today as I did the whole week. Fitting in writing time is a challenge. I am about a third of the way through this story and I really need it done by the end of next month. At this rate, I doubt I will be able to do that. There is a whole bunch of editing to do between THE END and the end of the month.
I can say I got some good ideas to fix some bothersome scenes this time. Some of what I came up with during the week has aimed me at my planned ending. I still have to get there, but I am aiming in the right direction.
The basic way I write is I will develop a series of scenes to hit and then try to work my way between them by adding whatever it takes to hit them.
This week, I did a whole lot of editing, rewriting, and swapping scenes so my 1200 words is actually less than I really wrote. I am happy to say I am getting closer to my next key scene.
On the story idea front, I have 44 stories in my compost pile. I got several new ideas during the week. I also lost several. What I hate is that fleeting thought that would be a good story idea that is gone before you finish the momentary work you were doing. Those have a different disappointment than the ones that are strong, but you cannot write them down in time. Sometimes you can recapture the handle of the strong thought, but never the fleeting one.
Until today, I was an idea ahead for the month. I was looking at actually ending the month with extra posted ideas. I had to pump up my tires today on the way home so that killed any chance to add a new one today.
I went to the Renaissance fair this weekend. I accidentally followed my tenancy of wanting to see everything NOW and walking the place at full bore. My guess is that the grounds have about half a mile of pathway. I have had foot problems for years so my range is not great. walked the entire place, taking pictures of everything. I started the second time around and my camera locked up on me. The image disk was toast so I had to use a new one. I then rushed to retrieve my pictures. I never gave a thought about stopping to watch the programs, RESTING, taking my time. when I finished the second time around, I was hobbling and had to leave. I should have sat and rested even then but did not think of it. The walk out to the car was torture. I did enjoy myself otherwise.
Using the above as a story idea. They say that they have a time machine. He had studied the medieval period and really wanted to see what that period was really like. He went to them with the big fee they said they needed for the trip and made his appointment.
It was several months before they were ready for his trip. He studied more of the time period so he would gain more from his visit. He was taken to a different part of the state and settled into the seat of a really strange machine. they gave him a shot of something they said would make the trip easier to handle. They turned the machine on and it started making all sorts of sounds.
He woke up and he was dressed in period clothing. He slowly got up and a group of men told him that he was to return here before dark. Stay within the walls of the enclosure so he does not get into trouble.
He wandered around and there was food, weapons, artists. Soon there was thousands of people all around. merchants called out about their wares. He ate, examined the work, talked to people, asked questions. Something was really wrong but he did not know what it was.
As dark approached, he got all twisted around. He found himself some place else.
He found a hiding place to wait out the cold night. He woke and it was dawn. He felt better than he did yesterday. he saw civilization and walks in. He finds he is at a fair, not in the past. he enjoys the fair since they had given him plenty of money. He finds he has enough to get home. He never could find the people who ripped him off, but he laughed about it for years later.
As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say
YES I DID WRITE
DID YOU WRITE?
It is that time of the week again. It is a place to tell about what is going on in your life and in the process, what is going on with your writing. By posting here every week, whether you write or not, hopefully the shame of not writing will get you to open something so you can say you wrote.
As to what is writing, it really can be anything. We know that new writing is writing, but so is editing. Critiquing is also a form of editing so it counts as writing. Poetry, synopsis, query letters, technical writing, blogging, writing assignments, world and character creation are just some of the list of what can be writing. Bulletin board posts and E-mail can also be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to writing or story. If you have to ask, the answer is yes. You might also not consider some of this as writing. It is really up to you.
AS for me, I can honestly say I wrote, but nothing like what I should have done. I did nearly as much today as I did the whole week. Fitting in writing time is a challenge. I am about a third of the way through this story and I really need it done by the end of next month. At this rate, I doubt I will be able to do that. There is a whole bunch of editing to do between THE END and the end of the month.
I can say I got some good ideas to fix some bothersome scenes this time. Some of what I came up with during the week has aimed me at my planned ending. I still have to get there, but I am aiming in the right direction.
The basic way I write is I will develop a series of scenes to hit and then try to work my way between them by adding whatever it takes to hit them.
This week, I did a whole lot of editing, rewriting, and swapping scenes so my 1200 words is actually less than I really wrote. I am happy to say I am getting closer to my next key scene.
On the story idea front, I have 44 stories in my compost pile. I got several new ideas during the week. I also lost several. What I hate is that fleeting thought that would be a good story idea that is gone before you finish the momentary work you were doing. Those have a different disappointment than the ones that are strong, but you cannot write them down in time. Sometimes you can recapture the handle of the strong thought, but never the fleeting one.
Until today, I was an idea ahead for the month. I was looking at actually ending the month with extra posted ideas. I had to pump up my tires today on the way home so that killed any chance to add a new one today.
I went to the Renaissance fair this weekend. I accidentally followed my tenancy of wanting to see everything NOW and walking the place at full bore. My guess is that the grounds have about half a mile of pathway. I have had foot problems for years so my range is not great. walked the entire place, taking pictures of everything. I started the second time around and my camera locked up on me. The image disk was toast so I had to use a new one. I then rushed to retrieve my pictures. I never gave a thought about stopping to watch the programs, RESTING, taking my time. when I finished the second time around, I was hobbling and had to leave. I should have sat and rested even then but did not think of it. The walk out to the car was torture. I did enjoy myself otherwise.
Using the above as a story idea. They say that they have a time machine. He had studied the medieval period and really wanted to see what that period was really like. He went to them with the big fee they said they needed for the trip and made his appointment.
It was several months before they were ready for his trip. He studied more of the time period so he would gain more from his visit. He was taken to a different part of the state and settled into the seat of a really strange machine. they gave him a shot of something they said would make the trip easier to handle. They turned the machine on and it started making all sorts of sounds.
He woke up and he was dressed in period clothing. He slowly got up and a group of men told him that he was to return here before dark. Stay within the walls of the enclosure so he does not get into trouble.
He wandered around and there was food, weapons, artists. Soon there was thousands of people all around. merchants called out about their wares. He ate, examined the work, talked to people, asked questions. Something was really wrong but he did not know what it was.
As dark approached, he got all twisted around. He found himself some place else.
He found a hiding place to wait out the cold night. He woke and it was dawn. He felt better than he did yesterday. he saw civilization and walks in. He finds he is at a fair, not in the past. he enjoys the fair since they had given him plenty of money. He finds he has enough to get home. He never could find the people who ripped him off, but he laughed about it for years later.
As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say
YES I DID WRITE
DID YOU WRITE?
Sunday, February 26, 2012
week 833 Wood Working
Year 12, Week 7, Day One (week 633) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-25-12 Saturday
80 degrees, partly cloudy skies, some sun, a moment of weeping cloud, light breeze enough to carry the heat away. This weather report was brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
No woodworking planned for today. I had two projects planned. One was to go yard sailing, and the other was to go to the renaissance fair that is running in my county.
YARD SAILING.
Boy did I go yard sailing. I got a major load of stuff. At one yard sail, I got an electric grill, a little scan radio, and some wooden beads. The grill works and heats up really fast, but the radio's batteries had corroded and I think it did too much damage inside the electronics. At least the battery compartment was trashed. No problem.
Electric Grill.
At another yard sale, I got a whole bunch of pans, a chess game, a Jeopardy game, some kitchen utensils, and a couple of shirts. I stopped at this one twice since it was right across the street of my mom's house.
cooking utensils. In the second picture, there is a spreader with a giraffe head as the handle.
two piece loaf pan sitting in a Ttuppeware tray, and a microwave loaf pan
Chess and Chinese checker set, Jeopardy game.
At a third yard sail, I got some expensive pieces of Tupperware and a couple dragons figurines.
Tupperware brand tray set. These will be a present for someone. I also had some lids for the small cups and the bowls. also two dragon figurines. The one on the right is wrapped around a rock.
More tupperware.
At another yard sail, a guy had a two piece mechanic's tool box with tools for sale. One guy purchased it for forty bucks. He was interested only in the tools. He sold the tool box itself with a few tools in it, for ten bucks. I got my truck and brought it home. It is in excellent condition. Now we have to figure out what to do with it....
RENAISSANCE FAIR
I got to the fair later than I normally do so I had to park a little farther back than normal. I had a good marker for what lane I was parking in.
Map of the fair grounds. Lower right is where you enter. Upper left is the newer section
I had planned to put on a weak imitation of a costume but had mom take a picture of me and it did not look like anything. I gave up on that. I even left my sword in the car. I just looked like another tourist.
I walked the fair grounds twice. It is usually a figure eight arrangement with a tassel off the bigger loop. I start with the small loop which includes the food court, then do the big loop which also has a food court but stretched out a bit farther along.
At the neck of the two loops is the kettle Korn stand. I always gets some of his popcorn first thing when I get to that point, and then get more for going home. I started with their small.
The big loop meets a lake and there was a spur, the tassel, that heads off to the left. I saw the tassel and there was almost nothing there. I felt a tiny bit dejected that the fair was smaller than it normally was. that is usually where they have the jousting. I headed along the lake of the big loop and found the fair was a whole lot bigger. They added two spurs on the other side of the big loop with the jousting area right between the ends. They had the pirate village on the spur along side the lake and they had live cannons sitting there. They would be fired later in the day.
I went by the blacksmith area where it always is, and there is a guy who plays a singled string violin type instrument. He uses a gourd for the body and a stick for the neck. It is pretty music even for a one string violin. He is extremely skilled. He showed me a gourd ukelele he finished this year. It had excellent sound. On my second pass, I purchased one of his CDs.
The artist and his CD picture. He is playing his one string violin
I finished my round of the fairground path, visiting three other vendors I really like.
As I was about to start a second pass around, My camera ran into a problem. My digital camera uses mini CDs to hold the pictures. I took a picture and the camera locked up while saving the image. I wanted to take another picture so I shut the camera off and when I turned it back on, the CD was inaccessible. I lost all the pictures I took of the yard sale finds and of what I photographed up to that point in the festival. I only had 35 shots to go on the CD since I had been taking pictures on it all month. I copy the images to the computer so the only images was taken of that day.
I put a new CD in and took more pictures around the fair. I did not go back to the cannons as my feet were telling me that was not a good idea. I skipped a few other things while I was at it.
Other than the Kettle Korn, I purchased two CDs One from the daughter of an artist I love. His work is fantasy, dragons, very good. I looked at one of the paintings and turned to his daughter and said, "That looks like you!" She told me he painted that for her album cover and had refused to show it to her until it was done. She played a little bit of one of her albums and I ended up buying it. She has a voice as pretty as she is.
Destini and the album cover her father painted of her.
When I made my second pass, my camera's battery was giving out-of-power warnings. I skipped a number of pictures I could have taken.
Of the pictures I lost, I had pictures of some young girls doing the Irish high step. I had several pictures of the "pope" and his entourage. I had pictures of the cannons and of many of the booths as I had gone around.
I had also lost all the pictures I took of my yard sailing, along with one picture of me in my get-up. That one was a loss except it was a picture of me....
Last week, One of the yarns I got was a flat yarn. It was in a mottled tan color. I decided I am going to use some of that for my dream catcher. It has a resemblance of leather thong.
One quick project to do is to turn an acorn. According to the story, bad dreams pass through the dream catcher and there is something in the center to catch the good dreams. It might be a sea shell, a bead, or something else. I am going to make a large acorn to act as my dream catcher, and then have my carved leaves also captured in it. I have the string, the leaves, the ring and just need the acorn to work on finishing that.
I also need to work on my tea pot. I should mount the pot itself on the lathe and touch it up a little. I would like the walls a little thinner in the widest point of the tea pot. The outside comes out to sort of a point, but inside it is a more gentle curve. Once I fix that up, I then can turn the tenon off the bottom. That and of course, a whole lot of sanding too. I have some work on the handle and spout to get them ready to be mounted on the tea pot. I also need to get some epoxy to attach them when they are ready. I figure I will sand and varnish each piece before I put them together.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 12, Week 7, Day Two (week 633) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-26-12 Sunday
74 degrees when I got out back, 78 mid day and stayed there. The clouds were weeping at home, almost like a fog, but I drove out of that within a mile. Interlocked pregnant gray puffs filled the sky, breaking up enough to let some brightness below a couple times in the afternoon. The strong wind moved sawdust around nicely but seemed to ignore wind chimes or twirling things.
`
THE FAIR YESTERDAY -REPRISAL.
I went to the fair yesterday and only after I got home that I realized I handled it all wrong. I rushed to see everything as fast as possible. When I lost my pictures, I then rushed to recreate the pictures and killed off my feet. What I needed to do was to act like I had all day and watch the shows, sit and watch the people in costume, REST and be off my feet for long periods of time. It closes at like six or seven. I got there after ten and left after one. Darn!!!!
My feet bothered me when I went to bed and they were stiff when I got up. I thought I was getting a blister but there is no sign of it now.
When I had rolled the tool box to the back yard, the beast of the back yard disappeared and I never saw him at all. Scar face was there, but not the beast.
SATURDAY
The beast of the back yard was waiting for me. I gave him lots of food and lots of attention. He was gone for an hour and returned when I was getting ready to sit down and just sand. He stayed nearby, actually sleeping at my feet, for a while, something he has not done very often since my mom removed the train set from the side of her yard. I was very hesitant to disturbing him. I was able to do quite a bit of work even so.
My first project was to make an acorn for my dream catcher. I cut some black walnut since it was about the right size. The black walnut was rectangular so I cut a small length and then measured the narrow width and placed a felt tip pen mark on the band saw, and flipped the piece on the side and made my cut at that mark. The mark wiped off with just a swipe of my finger.
I mounted the wood in the lathe and rounded the end. I started rounding the end, bringing it to a point the way an acorn would look. Once I got that to where I wanted, I made a step where the cap started and then shaped the cap down to the stem. My big bowl gouge ended up a bit big for the space I was working, and changed tools several times to get the look I was after. I sanded on the lathe and then parted it off. I still have the waste wood I can use for something else of nearly the same size.
I will sand and varnish the acorn. I might pock-mark the cap with the motor tool, but will decide on that a bit later. I will still have to drill it for the cord to run through it like a bead.
I then decided I had better make a new lid for my tea pot. I took the same piece of wood I cut last week's attempt from, but this time was from the other end. I cut my square, marked the circle and nipped the corners.
I rounded it on the lathe and made a tenon to hold it with the chuck. I then started fitting the part that goes inside the mouth of the tea pot. I got that right by making sort of a cone and placing the tea pot to it to see where the wood would burn. Once I got it just fitting over it and meeting the edge of the rest of the raw disk. I put the pot in place on it with the tail stock holding it in place and was shaping the lid to match it. I turned the gouge wrong and dug into the tea pot a little. I smoothed that out quite a bit, then continued on making the top of the lid. I got another catch and it broke the edge that met the tea pot. it was toast. no way that could be saved.
I cut another disk of wood and tried it again. I decided to make a design change. I started cutting in for the handle kob near the chuck so there was a thick ridge where the pot met the lid. I decided to create a design there so I could make it remain thick and look like it was intended to be thick. That worked. I sanded the results and parted it off. Some hand sanding and having to grind a tiny bit was necessary to make it look good.
I had damaged the surface of the tea pot and planned on re-finishing it anyway. I decided not to touch the inside of the tea pot, leaving it as is rather than correcting the side thickness a little.
I mounted the tea pot in the chuck and got it spinning. I used my bowl gouge like a scraper to even out the slight wobble that you automatically get when you take a piece off the lathe and put it back on. I then worked to remove the worst of the gouges. There was one really bad gouge that I worked some sawdust and glue into, then sanded it until glue that got on the rest of the surface was gone. I stopped the lathe and hand sanded some places several times.
I then turned the vase around. My chuck does not close down enough and I was not in the mood to shape a piece of wood into a jam chuck that goes into the hole to hold the vase in place. I opened my chuck as big as possible and just put the vase against it, and put the tail stock into the tenon which still had the original tail stock point hole. I trued up the bottom, then cut in a ring to hold it up off the surface. It should have been inside a little more but the tool I was using to cut the inside of the ring was a bit wider than needed and that dictated how far from the center the ring would be. When done with the ring all I had was a little stub sticking up that the tail stock was pushing onto.
I removed the tea pot from the lathe, sat down with my dremmel and a grinding bit and removed the post. I then finished the bottom.
I also used a dremmel flap sander to touch up some rough spots, then hand sanded them to remove the flap sander tool marks.
I sanded on the handle and spout. One thing I did for a little bit was to take a strip of emery cloth and stuck one end in the vise and held the other end tight. I then rubbed the handle across the sanding strip, rotating it as I moved it. This rounded some of the corners better and removed some nick and tool marks. I then sat and sanded by hand until I got it looking right.
Acorn for the dream catcher, the finished lid and the unfinished lid I broke.
I took all the pieces for the dream catcher and the tea pot home. I am varnishing everything, giving them a good number of coats until I am satisfied with the finish, then I will prepare to assemble everything.
On the tea pot, I have to determine exactly where the spout will go, and drill a series of holes for the tea to come out. I don't ever plan for this tea pot to be used, but in case it is, it will work.
I had seen some dream catchers at the fair and saw that they did not drill for the strings. They tied the strings around the rim. I will do it that way, using the string tension to hold things in place. I do have to drill holes in the leaves and the acorn for the cords, but that should not be a problem. I figure it will be next weekend before I will be close to being ready to think about assembling the dream catcher.
fair dream catchers
For next week, My Saturday wood working time will be cut short as I have to go to the antique shop where my stuff is on display and pick up my work for the art show. Of course, I will be checking for any yard sales to see if there is anything of interest. that will also cut into my wood working time if there are several. My tea pot and dream catcher are my main projects.
On Sunday, I will have all my stuff from the antique shop, along with anything I bring from home and all the stuff that is kept at Mom's house. I plan to set up a three foot by eight foot table that I will have at the art show and practice setting up my display. That will show me what will make the best display and what will likely stay in the boxes. It will also tell me what needs repair or touch ups.
the following weekend is when I will be having my art show and I will practice my display again. On that weekend, I will sharpen all my knives, get my equipment ready, get my sticks to carve during the show.
For this weekend though, I will have to see what I actually do.
80 degrees, partly cloudy skies, some sun, a moment of weeping cloud, light breeze enough to carry the heat away. This weather report was brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
No woodworking planned for today. I had two projects planned. One was to go yard sailing, and the other was to go to the renaissance fair that is running in my county.
YARD SAILING.
Boy did I go yard sailing. I got a major load of stuff. At one yard sail, I got an electric grill, a little scan radio, and some wooden beads. The grill works and heats up really fast, but the radio's batteries had corroded and I think it did too much damage inside the electronics. At least the battery compartment was trashed. No problem.
Electric Grill.
At another yard sale, I got a whole bunch of pans, a chess game, a Jeopardy game, some kitchen utensils, and a couple of shirts. I stopped at this one twice since it was right across the street of my mom's house.
cooking utensils. In the second picture, there is a spreader with a giraffe head as the handle.
two piece loaf pan sitting in a Ttuppeware tray, and a microwave loaf pan
Chess and Chinese checker set, Jeopardy game.
At a third yard sail, I got some expensive pieces of Tupperware and a couple dragons figurines.
Tupperware brand tray set. These will be a present for someone. I also had some lids for the small cups and the bowls. also two dragon figurines. The one on the right is wrapped around a rock.
More tupperware.
At another yard sail, a guy had a two piece mechanic's tool box with tools for sale. One guy purchased it for forty bucks. He was interested only in the tools. He sold the tool box itself with a few tools in it, for ten bucks. I got my truck and brought it home. It is in excellent condition. Now we have to figure out what to do with it....
RENAISSANCE FAIR
I got to the fair later than I normally do so I had to park a little farther back than normal. I had a good marker for what lane I was parking in.
Map of the fair grounds. Lower right is where you enter. Upper left is the newer section
I had planned to put on a weak imitation of a costume but had mom take a picture of me and it did not look like anything. I gave up on that. I even left my sword in the car. I just looked like another tourist.
I walked the fair grounds twice. It is usually a figure eight arrangement with a tassel off the bigger loop. I start with the small loop which includes the food court, then do the big loop which also has a food court but stretched out a bit farther along.
At the neck of the two loops is the kettle Korn stand. I always gets some of his popcorn first thing when I get to that point, and then get more for going home. I started with their small.
The big loop meets a lake and there was a spur, the tassel, that heads off to the left. I saw the tassel and there was almost nothing there. I felt a tiny bit dejected that the fair was smaller than it normally was. that is usually where they have the jousting. I headed along the lake of the big loop and found the fair was a whole lot bigger. They added two spurs on the other side of the big loop with the jousting area right between the ends. They had the pirate village on the spur along side the lake and they had live cannons sitting there. They would be fired later in the day.
I went by the blacksmith area where it always is, and there is a guy who plays a singled string violin type instrument. He uses a gourd for the body and a stick for the neck. It is pretty music even for a one string violin. He is extremely skilled. He showed me a gourd ukelele he finished this year. It had excellent sound. On my second pass, I purchased one of his CDs.
The artist and his CD picture. He is playing his one string violin
I finished my round of the fairground path, visiting three other vendors I really like.
As I was about to start a second pass around, My camera ran into a problem. My digital camera uses mini CDs to hold the pictures. I took a picture and the camera locked up while saving the image. I wanted to take another picture so I shut the camera off and when I turned it back on, the CD was inaccessible. I lost all the pictures I took of the yard sale finds and of what I photographed up to that point in the festival. I only had 35 shots to go on the CD since I had been taking pictures on it all month. I copy the images to the computer so the only images was taken of that day.
I put a new CD in and took more pictures around the fair. I did not go back to the cannons as my feet were telling me that was not a good idea. I skipped a few other things while I was at it.
Other than the Kettle Korn, I purchased two CDs One from the daughter of an artist I love. His work is fantasy, dragons, very good. I looked at one of the paintings and turned to his daughter and said, "That looks like you!" She told me he painted that for her album cover and had refused to show it to her until it was done. She played a little bit of one of her albums and I ended up buying it. She has a voice as pretty as she is.
Destini and the album cover her father painted of her.
When I made my second pass, my camera's battery was giving out-of-power warnings. I skipped a number of pictures I could have taken.
Of the pictures I lost, I had pictures of some young girls doing the Irish high step. I had several pictures of the "pope" and his entourage. I had pictures of the cannons and of many of the booths as I had gone around.
I had also lost all the pictures I took of my yard sailing, along with one picture of me in my get-up. That one was a loss except it was a picture of me....
Last week, One of the yarns I got was a flat yarn. It was in a mottled tan color. I decided I am going to use some of that for my dream catcher. It has a resemblance of leather thong.
One quick project to do is to turn an acorn. According to the story, bad dreams pass through the dream catcher and there is something in the center to catch the good dreams. It might be a sea shell, a bead, or something else. I am going to make a large acorn to act as my dream catcher, and then have my carved leaves also captured in it. I have the string, the leaves, the ring and just need the acorn to work on finishing that.
I also need to work on my tea pot. I should mount the pot itself on the lathe and touch it up a little. I would like the walls a little thinner in the widest point of the tea pot. The outside comes out to sort of a point, but inside it is a more gentle curve. Once I fix that up, I then can turn the tenon off the bottom. That and of course, a whole lot of sanding too. I have some work on the handle and spout to get them ready to be mounted on the tea pot. I also need to get some epoxy to attach them when they are ready. I figure I will sand and varnish each piece before I put them together.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 12, Week 7, Day Two (week 633) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-26-12 Sunday
74 degrees when I got out back, 78 mid day and stayed there. The clouds were weeping at home, almost like a fog, but I drove out of that within a mile. Interlocked pregnant gray puffs filled the sky, breaking up enough to let some brightness below a couple times in the afternoon. The strong wind moved sawdust around nicely but seemed to ignore wind chimes or twirling things.
`
THE FAIR YESTERDAY -REPRISAL.
I went to the fair yesterday and only after I got home that I realized I handled it all wrong. I rushed to see everything as fast as possible. When I lost my pictures, I then rushed to recreate the pictures and killed off my feet. What I needed to do was to act like I had all day and watch the shows, sit and watch the people in costume, REST and be off my feet for long periods of time. It closes at like six or seven. I got there after ten and left after one. Darn!!!!
My feet bothered me when I went to bed and they were stiff when I got up. I thought I was getting a blister but there is no sign of it now.
When I had rolled the tool box to the back yard, the beast of the back yard disappeared and I never saw him at all. Scar face was there, but not the beast.
SATURDAY
The beast of the back yard was waiting for me. I gave him lots of food and lots of attention. He was gone for an hour and returned when I was getting ready to sit down and just sand. He stayed nearby, actually sleeping at my feet, for a while, something he has not done very often since my mom removed the train set from the side of her yard. I was very hesitant to disturbing him. I was able to do quite a bit of work even so.
My first project was to make an acorn for my dream catcher. I cut some black walnut since it was about the right size. The black walnut was rectangular so I cut a small length and then measured the narrow width and placed a felt tip pen mark on the band saw, and flipped the piece on the side and made my cut at that mark. The mark wiped off with just a swipe of my finger.
I mounted the wood in the lathe and rounded the end. I started rounding the end, bringing it to a point the way an acorn would look. Once I got that to where I wanted, I made a step where the cap started and then shaped the cap down to the stem. My big bowl gouge ended up a bit big for the space I was working, and changed tools several times to get the look I was after. I sanded on the lathe and then parted it off. I still have the waste wood I can use for something else of nearly the same size.
I will sand and varnish the acorn. I might pock-mark the cap with the motor tool, but will decide on that a bit later. I will still have to drill it for the cord to run through it like a bead.
I then decided I had better make a new lid for my tea pot. I took the same piece of wood I cut last week's attempt from, but this time was from the other end. I cut my square, marked the circle and nipped the corners.
I rounded it on the lathe and made a tenon to hold it with the chuck. I then started fitting the part that goes inside the mouth of the tea pot. I got that right by making sort of a cone and placing the tea pot to it to see where the wood would burn. Once I got it just fitting over it and meeting the edge of the rest of the raw disk. I put the pot in place on it with the tail stock holding it in place and was shaping the lid to match it. I turned the gouge wrong and dug into the tea pot a little. I smoothed that out quite a bit, then continued on making the top of the lid. I got another catch and it broke the edge that met the tea pot. it was toast. no way that could be saved.
I cut another disk of wood and tried it again. I decided to make a design change. I started cutting in for the handle kob near the chuck so there was a thick ridge where the pot met the lid. I decided to create a design there so I could make it remain thick and look like it was intended to be thick. That worked. I sanded the results and parted it off. Some hand sanding and having to grind a tiny bit was necessary to make it look good.
I had damaged the surface of the tea pot and planned on re-finishing it anyway. I decided not to touch the inside of the tea pot, leaving it as is rather than correcting the side thickness a little.
I mounted the tea pot in the chuck and got it spinning. I used my bowl gouge like a scraper to even out the slight wobble that you automatically get when you take a piece off the lathe and put it back on. I then worked to remove the worst of the gouges. There was one really bad gouge that I worked some sawdust and glue into, then sanded it until glue that got on the rest of the surface was gone. I stopped the lathe and hand sanded some places several times.
I then turned the vase around. My chuck does not close down enough and I was not in the mood to shape a piece of wood into a jam chuck that goes into the hole to hold the vase in place. I opened my chuck as big as possible and just put the vase against it, and put the tail stock into the tenon which still had the original tail stock point hole. I trued up the bottom, then cut in a ring to hold it up off the surface. It should have been inside a little more but the tool I was using to cut the inside of the ring was a bit wider than needed and that dictated how far from the center the ring would be. When done with the ring all I had was a little stub sticking up that the tail stock was pushing onto.
I removed the tea pot from the lathe, sat down with my dremmel and a grinding bit and removed the post. I then finished the bottom.
I also used a dremmel flap sander to touch up some rough spots, then hand sanded them to remove the flap sander tool marks.
I sanded on the handle and spout. One thing I did for a little bit was to take a strip of emery cloth and stuck one end in the vise and held the other end tight. I then rubbed the handle across the sanding strip, rotating it as I moved it. This rounded some of the corners better and removed some nick and tool marks. I then sat and sanded by hand until I got it looking right.
Acorn for the dream catcher, the finished lid and the unfinished lid I broke.
I took all the pieces for the dream catcher and the tea pot home. I am varnishing everything, giving them a good number of coats until I am satisfied with the finish, then I will prepare to assemble everything.
On the tea pot, I have to determine exactly where the spout will go, and drill a series of holes for the tea to come out. I don't ever plan for this tea pot to be used, but in case it is, it will work.
I had seen some dream catchers at the fair and saw that they did not drill for the strings. They tied the strings around the rim. I will do it that way, using the string tension to hold things in place. I do have to drill holes in the leaves and the acorn for the cords, but that should not be a problem. I figure it will be next weekend before I will be close to being ready to think about assembling the dream catcher.
fair dream catchers
For next week, My Saturday wood working time will be cut short as I have to go to the antique shop where my stuff is on display and pick up my work for the art show. Of course, I will be checking for any yard sales to see if there is anything of interest. that will also cut into my wood working time if there are several. My tea pot and dream catcher are my main projects.
On Sunday, I will have all my stuff from the antique shop, along with anything I bring from home and all the stuff that is kept at Mom's house. I plan to set up a three foot by eight foot table that I will have at the art show and practice setting up my display. That will show me what will make the best display and what will likely stay in the boxes. It will also tell me what needs repair or touch ups.
the following weekend is when I will be having my art show and I will practice my display again. On that weekend, I will sharpen all my knives, get my equipment ready, get my sticks to carve during the show.
For this weekend though, I will have to see what I actually do.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Did you write? 02-20-12
Did you write? 02-20-12
It is that time of the week to report about your life and how it effects your writing. The hope is that if you post here often about not writing, or not meeting your goals, you will be shamed into tackling something just so you can say that you accomplished something. It worked well for me many times.
As to what is writing, we all know new writing is writing. Editing, even if it is the work of others is also writing. Critiquing is a form of writing and therefore counts. Synopsis, query letters, poetry, technical writing, blogging, writing assignments, world and character creation are all writing. Bulletin board and E-mails can also be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to story or writing. If you have to ask, it is writing. Many of these also might not be considered writing. It is strictly up to you.
As for me, I did write. I did a lot of editing of stuff already written on my work in progress. I also swapped a bunch of scenes around to make the story flow better. A few passages were rewritten. I really need to work on new content, mainly pushing on towards the ending. In the end, when all was written and saved, I removed 41 words from my story.
On the story idea front, I had dug into my stack a little this week, but today I came up with four new story ideas. Six total including the weekend. This gives me a total of 45 ideas in my compost pile. A couple of the new ideas really need to be written before they sink too far into the stack.
I decided to stop on what was some rush jobs for my art show. It dawned on me there was no way they would get done in time. I changed to some in progress projects that are not as difficult. Even so, they will be a test of my productivity to get them done. I have only four weekends to get them done, and when you remove all the days that will be aimed to other projects, I really have only two or thee days total to finish them. That is going to be a challenge. Even these really don't have to be done for the show. I would just like a couple more new items to display.
As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say,
YES I DID WRITE
DID YOU WRITE?
It is that time of the week to report about your life and how it effects your writing. The hope is that if you post here often about not writing, or not meeting your goals, you will be shamed into tackling something just so you can say that you accomplished something. It worked well for me many times.
As to what is writing, we all know new writing is writing. Editing, even if it is the work of others is also writing. Critiquing is a form of writing and therefore counts. Synopsis, query letters, poetry, technical writing, blogging, writing assignments, world and character creation are all writing. Bulletin board and E-mails can also be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to story or writing. If you have to ask, it is writing. Many of these also might not be considered writing. It is strictly up to you.
As for me, I did write. I did a lot of editing of stuff already written on my work in progress. I also swapped a bunch of scenes around to make the story flow better. A few passages were rewritten. I really need to work on new content, mainly pushing on towards the ending. In the end, when all was written and saved, I removed 41 words from my story.
On the story idea front, I had dug into my stack a little this week, but today I came up with four new story ideas. Six total including the weekend. This gives me a total of 45 ideas in my compost pile. A couple of the new ideas really need to be written before they sink too far into the stack.
I decided to stop on what was some rush jobs for my art show. It dawned on me there was no way they would get done in time. I changed to some in progress projects that are not as difficult. Even so, they will be a test of my productivity to get them done. I have only four weekends to get them done, and when you remove all the days that will be aimed to other projects, I really have only two or thee days total to finish them. That is going to be a challenge. Even these really don't have to be done for the show. I would just like a couple more new items to display.
As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say,
YES I DID WRITE
DID YOU WRITE?
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Week 632 Wiod Working
Year 12, Week 6, Day One (week 632) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-18-12 Saturday
64 degrees early morning, 80 degrees in the afternoon, blue skies with broken sheets of haze really high up, sunny, light breeze. This was a really nice day. This weather report was brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
THURSDAY
We had the wood turning club meeting. The demonstration was on using a chain saw to prepare some wood for a natural edge bowl. They touched on chain saw safety, a lot of time on how to decide what part of the wood would be best for your edges and the effects of that choice. We went outside and they cut a piece of wood and rounded it into a bowl shape to place on the lathe.
One thing they had was a set of disks that one sets on the surface to get a measurement of the maximum diameter for the bowl and as a guide for cutting. One could use a big band saw for rounding the blank, but since they did not have one, they used the chain saw, just making light cuts along side the line of the circle.
They explained tips such as using a Forsner bit or a chisel to remove some bark where the center of the drive spur will go. the pocket created makes sure the spur is digging into wood, and it also gives it a nest so it won't wander.
The wood they were working with was a three trunk fork. One side had deep indentations while the other was fairly flat. For this project, they chose to use the fairly flat side for their natural edge. the other side would have deep waves in the rim, which might look good too.
I was given a set of wood pieces. I was told there was Manzanita, there was sycamore, Poinsettia, and other woods. A couple pieces that resembled Cypress Knee wood, was highly varnished and appears to have been legs for a table or something that were cut off. There was also a couple gourds.
I really need to just make a whole bunch of stuff. I have the wood for it.
SATURDAY YARD SALES.
We hit several yard sales. at one, I got some yarn and some knitting needles. just as if I needed them. I already had 96 knitting needles and got another 19 of them. I filled in a gap in my needle sequence and added one set that is even bigger than I had.
I was walking through the church yard sale empty handed, not seeing anything I wanted. I as I walked to the door, I found the yarn and needles in the crook of my arm and they wanted some money for it. I told them it was not mine, but they insisted that I pay for them....
My collection from a couple yard sales. To the left is the jar of buttons and a measuring cup in front of it. Next to them are children's plates. IN the very back are bags of yarn, and to the right and on the very front are knitting needles, stitch holders and a few other items.
There was also a slide and negative scanner. I got that cheap and am letting my mom test it out. Hopefully it will be faster than what she had before.
Mom could not get it working. I worked with it and found that not all the USB ports on her laptop are USB-2 ports which this needs. I swapped ports and it worked perfectly.
At another yard sale, I got a nearly full quart jar of buttons. I can see uses for many of them. I am going to have to dig out all my buttons, then sort them according to style and quality.
Later in the day, I stopped at a yard sale and picked up some metal cookie sheets. I really only wanted one but knew I could find uses for the others.
cookie sheets.
I found a yard sale on the way home and picked up a garbage back full of Tupperware and such. I had looked into the top of two bags and the one I purchased had two things I thought I might be able to use. I did find a bunch of useful stuff. The rest may well be gifted or yard sailed later.
Two views of my collection of Tupperware. I don't have a real need for a lot of this stuff, but got some items of good use.
SATURDAY
Mom had a project for me. She needed her palm tree trimmed. I dug out a ladder, a long extension cord, and my SAWS-ALL. I found that I love the saws-all for trimming.
With the chain saw, the blade moves on top and on the bottom of the blade. One can easily get cut on top and on the bottom of the saw blade. It also, by necessity, kind of wide so it cannot get into tight places.
The Saws-all has a narrow cutting blade only on the bottom. I was able to slip it in between things to make the cut I was after. I feel I have better control.
One thing that happened when I started, was that I selected my largest blade. I quickly found it was not cutting very well. I then fell the teeth and they were dull. I got another blade and that one ate wood. That is another thing. Chain saws are harder to sharpen or swap blades when dull.
Before and after trimming the back of the palm tree.
The trimmings from the palm tree
I dug out the piece of Tababulia I had cut and prepared last week and mounted it on the lathe. I first made a tenon on the back to help hold it. I then swapped ends and started hollowing it, leaving a post in the center with the tail stock holding it in place.
I am essentially leaving the bark in place and removing the wood inside it -- a bark bowl. I made one before and people liked it.
Partially hollowed bark bowl. I have to go deeper.
I have made some cutting bits using planer blades. I have a cutting system where there is a bar handle that has a hole in it with set screws to hold bits. I then made some bit holders to fit into the hole, and then made some bits from pieces of planer blades for hollowing the wood.
One of my favorite is a square bit, essentially a rectangle. I cut straight in with it and it scrapes the bottom of the bowls nicely.
I was hollowing with that bit and the end of it snapped off near the screw that holds the bit in place. My guess was that it hung over the holder too far, not supported enough.
I had two other bits made. One was a D shaped bit. I tried working with that but found it would not stay put, it rotated. I realized that the bit has to held straight by butting up against the holder to keep it from turning.
I had one other bit. It hung out way past the end of the holder and came to a V point. I sat down with my dremmel and a cutting disk and cut the blade shorter. I then sharpened it using a grinding bit on the dremmel, then a grinding stone. I did not quite get it sharp enough.
I used the bit a little but found that I could not get the holder held in place well enough because the allen wrench I was using was stripped. I will grind the end tomorrow until I get to sharp edges again.
As I was cutting with the bit, it fell off and dropped to the ground. I ended up having to put my lathe and stuff away before I could find it, hiding in plain sight...
broken bit and newly made bit in bit holder.
Done with the lathe for a while, I dug out the scroll saw. It had been a while since I used it. the scroll saw is easy to use for simple shapes.
I took my ring for my dream catcher and used the scroll saw to remove the inside ring. That ring could have been used to hold a picture such as a picture frame. I decided I wanted something a whole lot thinner for this project.
The scroll saw is designed so you can unhook the blade on top, slip it into a fine hole or, as in this case, inside a frame, and then cut without passing through the outside. To use a bandsaw for this cut, I would have had to cut the ring to get the bandsaw blade inside.
I cut the ring is three steps. I would cut a distance and turn out to free the wood because it was trying to pinch the blade. I then cut more and removed the section, then finished it.
I took out my band sander that is connected to my angle grinder and removed the little bit of wood I missed, and evened out the inside of the ring. I then touched up the outside and the edges to smooth them out. I did some hand sanding but it will need a whole lot more care. If my bark bowl was not still on the lathe, I would have put the disk sander on the lathe and worked it there as the wide radius would even out the ripples inside a bit better.
My dream catcher ring with carved leaves in the middle. I had removed a inset that was inside the ring to make this look lighter and more proportional.
About that time, at about noon, I decided it was time to clean up. I had done something to show for my day, even though it was not really enough.
'
During the week, I realized that I needed more than four weekends to finish the dragon, or the face vase. I decided I would not even try to get them done. there is a lot of finishing to do after they are carved. Four weeks is not going to be enough.
I plan on going to the Renaissance festival next weekend. That is one whole day of no wood working. I plan to go to the antique shop the following weekend to get all my woodworking and hope to do a test of my display to figure out what would be the best way to arrange everything and see what is even worthy of showing off.
The following weekend is the art show. I will test my display again and then pack everything carefully for the art show so Sunday Morning, I can load up the truck and go.
All this means is that very little substantial wood working will be done over the next few weekends. I will have plenty of time after the show to work.
Tomorrow, I should fix the allen wrench so I can tighten the bit holder. I want to finish the turning process on the bark bowl. I want to clean up that ring and then drill it for the webbing.
I want to do some turning on the tea pot and do some more work on the spot and handle. It would be nice to be able to start assembling it. I would have to get some epoxy for attaching the pieces.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 12, Week 6, Day Two (week 632) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-19-12 Sunday
60s in the morning, 86 in the afternoon. blue sky with high spilled milk in the morning, puffs appeared in the afternoon, enough to block the sun the rest of the afternoon. A strong wind with powerful gusts moved sawdust and other things around, knocking empty cups over. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
After petting the beast of the backyard, I trimmed a tree palm tree in mom's front yard. My Saws-all did wonders after I got a sharp blade on it.
I tried to finish the bark bowl. I turned it around with the c chuck inside the mouth to finish the bottom. An after thought was that I should have used the Cole style chucks instead.
I was getting the bottom the way I liked it when it came apart. The bark broke in three pieces I tried to fit them around the remains of the wood and it just would not fit.
I then decided to glue the bark together and make a bottom for it. I got everything just about right, using a wire as a clamp. I am not sure what happened, but there was a movement and the bark came out of alignment and a couple small pieces fell off the edge. I decided there was no way I could make it work so I tossed them.
Broken bark bowl. Piece in front is what is left of the actual wood.
I mounted the sanding disk on the lathe and worked on the ring for my dream catcher. I thing I have it rough sanded enough. I then took a square 12x12 blank I made for a bowl or platter. I ran lines from corner to corner, then drew lines to the centers of the board, I placed my dream catcher ring on it and got it about centered. I transferred the lines of the blank onto the inside of the ring. After measuring, I rotated the ring a quarter of a line, and marked it again. I now have the ring divided into sixteen spaces. I have to do some research but those will be holes for the dream catcher lines to be tied to.
I used the sanding disk to make corrections and round the handle for the tea pot. It is hard when you cannot quite get it in the right position to sand the spot you are after. I will have to use the band sander to clean it up, then loads of hand sanding.
I decided to make a new lid for my tea pot. I dug out a piece of Mahogany and cut a square. I then started turning it round. I had seen there was a crack it in near the face and pried that off with a chisel. There was another crack deeper into the wood but I figured it would not be a problem. I started the top of the lid and made a groove for the chuck to hang onto it. I then put the top into the chuck and started shaping the underside of the lid. I first made an extension, removing wood around it, to fit into the tea pot. I got that right and started working on the rim and the top as much as the chuck would allow me. I ran into a little problem.
You remember that crack I mentioned? It just happened to land on the edge of the lid and a piece broke off. It ended up unsalvageable that went into the garbage.
I will try again next weekend.
I was about done for the day. I slowly packed things up while talking to my brother.
I stopped at ACE HARDWARE to get some small toggle bolts and when I got home, I put up the pot holders I got last week. One bolt ran into the concrete around the window so I had to drill a new hole in the wooden pot rack so it would be held up. The metal pot rack is only held by one toggle bolt. I will have to add something else to help hold it up.
In the process, I broke one toggle, lost one screw, and broke one drill bit. The broken drill bit still drilled well enough.
I got them up and some pots hung. I have changes to make to my arrangement, but it does make for some more room.
Next week, I need to make a lid for the tea pot I want to do a little more turning on the tea pot, making the center of the pot inside a little thinner to remove some weight. I also will have to finish the bottom of the pot which still has a tenon on it. I will also have to do the holes for the tea to go into the spout, and then attach the handle and spout. There is a lot of sanding to be done to everything to make it worthy of looking at and holding. It will get loads of finish to make sure it can take a little water, though it is not really intended for use.
I am also going to the renaissance festival on Saturday so there will be no wood working on Saturday. There will just be enough time after yard sailing to get my act together and head to the fair. I have no idea if I will be going alone or not. If I go alone, I may spend a lot more time there. If my mom goes with me, when she wants to end will make a difference. My main interest at the festival is to see what the vendors have. I also like to spend time watching the artists who work. A blacksmith is always there, a glass blower usually is set up, and a guy who makes little glass figurines using glass rods. They have others at some time or another, depending on the year. I sometimes buy something besides Carmel popcorn when I do the fair.
I will have to see what actual woodworking I get to do next weekend.
64 degrees early morning, 80 degrees in the afternoon, blue skies with broken sheets of haze really high up, sunny, light breeze. This was a really nice day. This weather report was brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
THURSDAY
We had the wood turning club meeting. The demonstration was on using a chain saw to prepare some wood for a natural edge bowl. They touched on chain saw safety, a lot of time on how to decide what part of the wood would be best for your edges and the effects of that choice. We went outside and they cut a piece of wood and rounded it into a bowl shape to place on the lathe.
One thing they had was a set of disks that one sets on the surface to get a measurement of the maximum diameter for the bowl and as a guide for cutting. One could use a big band saw for rounding the blank, but since they did not have one, they used the chain saw, just making light cuts along side the line of the circle.
They explained tips such as using a Forsner bit or a chisel to remove some bark where the center of the drive spur will go. the pocket created makes sure the spur is digging into wood, and it also gives it a nest so it won't wander.
The wood they were working with was a three trunk fork. One side had deep indentations while the other was fairly flat. For this project, they chose to use the fairly flat side for their natural edge. the other side would have deep waves in the rim, which might look good too.
I was given a set of wood pieces. I was told there was Manzanita, there was sycamore, Poinsettia, and other woods. A couple pieces that resembled Cypress Knee wood, was highly varnished and appears to have been legs for a table or something that were cut off. There was also a couple gourds.
I really need to just make a whole bunch of stuff. I have the wood for it.
SATURDAY YARD SALES.
We hit several yard sales. at one, I got some yarn and some knitting needles. just as if I needed them. I already had 96 knitting needles and got another 19 of them. I filled in a gap in my needle sequence and added one set that is even bigger than I had.
I was walking through the church yard sale empty handed, not seeing anything I wanted. I as I walked to the door, I found the yarn and needles in the crook of my arm and they wanted some money for it. I told them it was not mine, but they insisted that I pay for them....
My collection from a couple yard sales. To the left is the jar of buttons and a measuring cup in front of it. Next to them are children's plates. IN the very back are bags of yarn, and to the right and on the very front are knitting needles, stitch holders and a few other items.
There was also a slide and negative scanner. I got that cheap and am letting my mom test it out. Hopefully it will be faster than what she had before.
Mom could not get it working. I worked with it and found that not all the USB ports on her laptop are USB-2 ports which this needs. I swapped ports and it worked perfectly.
At another yard sale, I got a nearly full quart jar of buttons. I can see uses for many of them. I am going to have to dig out all my buttons, then sort them according to style and quality.
Later in the day, I stopped at a yard sale and picked up some metal cookie sheets. I really only wanted one but knew I could find uses for the others.
cookie sheets.
I found a yard sale on the way home and picked up a garbage back full of Tupperware and such. I had looked into the top of two bags and the one I purchased had two things I thought I might be able to use. I did find a bunch of useful stuff. The rest may well be gifted or yard sailed later.
Two views of my collection of Tupperware. I don't have a real need for a lot of this stuff, but got some items of good use.
SATURDAY
Mom had a project for me. She needed her palm tree trimmed. I dug out a ladder, a long extension cord, and my SAWS-ALL. I found that I love the saws-all for trimming.
With the chain saw, the blade moves on top and on the bottom of the blade. One can easily get cut on top and on the bottom of the saw blade. It also, by necessity, kind of wide so it cannot get into tight places.
The Saws-all has a narrow cutting blade only on the bottom. I was able to slip it in between things to make the cut I was after. I feel I have better control.
One thing that happened when I started, was that I selected my largest blade. I quickly found it was not cutting very well. I then fell the teeth and they were dull. I got another blade and that one ate wood. That is another thing. Chain saws are harder to sharpen or swap blades when dull.
Before and after trimming the back of the palm tree.
The trimmings from the palm tree
I dug out the piece of Tababulia I had cut and prepared last week and mounted it on the lathe. I first made a tenon on the back to help hold it. I then swapped ends and started hollowing it, leaving a post in the center with the tail stock holding it in place.
I am essentially leaving the bark in place and removing the wood inside it -- a bark bowl. I made one before and people liked it.
Partially hollowed bark bowl. I have to go deeper.
I have made some cutting bits using planer blades. I have a cutting system where there is a bar handle that has a hole in it with set screws to hold bits. I then made some bit holders to fit into the hole, and then made some bits from pieces of planer blades for hollowing the wood.
One of my favorite is a square bit, essentially a rectangle. I cut straight in with it and it scrapes the bottom of the bowls nicely.
I was hollowing with that bit and the end of it snapped off near the screw that holds the bit in place. My guess was that it hung over the holder too far, not supported enough.
I had two other bits made. One was a D shaped bit. I tried working with that but found it would not stay put, it rotated. I realized that the bit has to held straight by butting up against the holder to keep it from turning.
I had one other bit. It hung out way past the end of the holder and came to a V point. I sat down with my dremmel and a cutting disk and cut the blade shorter. I then sharpened it using a grinding bit on the dremmel, then a grinding stone. I did not quite get it sharp enough.
I used the bit a little but found that I could not get the holder held in place well enough because the allen wrench I was using was stripped. I will grind the end tomorrow until I get to sharp edges again.
As I was cutting with the bit, it fell off and dropped to the ground. I ended up having to put my lathe and stuff away before I could find it, hiding in plain sight...
broken bit and newly made bit in bit holder.
Done with the lathe for a while, I dug out the scroll saw. It had been a while since I used it. the scroll saw is easy to use for simple shapes.
I took my ring for my dream catcher and used the scroll saw to remove the inside ring. That ring could have been used to hold a picture such as a picture frame. I decided I wanted something a whole lot thinner for this project.
The scroll saw is designed so you can unhook the blade on top, slip it into a fine hole or, as in this case, inside a frame, and then cut without passing through the outside. To use a bandsaw for this cut, I would have had to cut the ring to get the bandsaw blade inside.
I cut the ring is three steps. I would cut a distance and turn out to free the wood because it was trying to pinch the blade. I then cut more and removed the section, then finished it.
I took out my band sander that is connected to my angle grinder and removed the little bit of wood I missed, and evened out the inside of the ring. I then touched up the outside and the edges to smooth them out. I did some hand sanding but it will need a whole lot more care. If my bark bowl was not still on the lathe, I would have put the disk sander on the lathe and worked it there as the wide radius would even out the ripples inside a bit better.
My dream catcher ring with carved leaves in the middle. I had removed a inset that was inside the ring to make this look lighter and more proportional.
About that time, at about noon, I decided it was time to clean up. I had done something to show for my day, even though it was not really enough.
'
During the week, I realized that I needed more than four weekends to finish the dragon, or the face vase. I decided I would not even try to get them done. there is a lot of finishing to do after they are carved. Four weeks is not going to be enough.
I plan on going to the Renaissance festival next weekend. That is one whole day of no wood working. I plan to go to the antique shop the following weekend to get all my woodworking and hope to do a test of my display to figure out what would be the best way to arrange everything and see what is even worthy of showing off.
The following weekend is the art show. I will test my display again and then pack everything carefully for the art show so Sunday Morning, I can load up the truck and go.
All this means is that very little substantial wood working will be done over the next few weekends. I will have plenty of time after the show to work.
Tomorrow, I should fix the allen wrench so I can tighten the bit holder. I want to finish the turning process on the bark bowl. I want to clean up that ring and then drill it for the webbing.
I want to do some turning on the tea pot and do some more work on the spot and handle. It would be nice to be able to start assembling it. I would have to get some epoxy for attaching the pieces.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
Year 12, Week 6, Day Two (week 632) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-19-12 Sunday
60s in the morning, 86 in the afternoon. blue sky with high spilled milk in the morning, puffs appeared in the afternoon, enough to block the sun the rest of the afternoon. A strong wind with powerful gusts moved sawdust and other things around, knocking empty cups over. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
After petting the beast of the backyard, I trimmed a tree palm tree in mom's front yard. My Saws-all did wonders after I got a sharp blade on it.
I tried to finish the bark bowl. I turned it around with the c chuck inside the mouth to finish the bottom. An after thought was that I should have used the Cole style chucks instead.
I was getting the bottom the way I liked it when it came apart. The bark broke in three pieces I tried to fit them around the remains of the wood and it just would not fit.
I then decided to glue the bark together and make a bottom for it. I got everything just about right, using a wire as a clamp. I am not sure what happened, but there was a movement and the bark came out of alignment and a couple small pieces fell off the edge. I decided there was no way I could make it work so I tossed them.
Broken bark bowl. Piece in front is what is left of the actual wood.
I mounted the sanding disk on the lathe and worked on the ring for my dream catcher. I thing I have it rough sanded enough. I then took a square 12x12 blank I made for a bowl or platter. I ran lines from corner to corner, then drew lines to the centers of the board, I placed my dream catcher ring on it and got it about centered. I transferred the lines of the blank onto the inside of the ring. After measuring, I rotated the ring a quarter of a line, and marked it again. I now have the ring divided into sixteen spaces. I have to do some research but those will be holes for the dream catcher lines to be tied to.
I used the sanding disk to make corrections and round the handle for the tea pot. It is hard when you cannot quite get it in the right position to sand the spot you are after. I will have to use the band sander to clean it up, then loads of hand sanding.
I decided to make a new lid for my tea pot. I dug out a piece of Mahogany and cut a square. I then started turning it round. I had seen there was a crack it in near the face and pried that off with a chisel. There was another crack deeper into the wood but I figured it would not be a problem. I started the top of the lid and made a groove for the chuck to hang onto it. I then put the top into the chuck and started shaping the underside of the lid. I first made an extension, removing wood around it, to fit into the tea pot. I got that right and started working on the rim and the top as much as the chuck would allow me. I ran into a little problem.
You remember that crack I mentioned? It just happened to land on the edge of the lid and a piece broke off. It ended up unsalvageable that went into the garbage.
I will try again next weekend.
I was about done for the day. I slowly packed things up while talking to my brother.
I stopped at ACE HARDWARE to get some small toggle bolts and when I got home, I put up the pot holders I got last week. One bolt ran into the concrete around the window so I had to drill a new hole in the wooden pot rack so it would be held up. The metal pot rack is only held by one toggle bolt. I will have to add something else to help hold it up.
In the process, I broke one toggle, lost one screw, and broke one drill bit. The broken drill bit still drilled well enough.
I got them up and some pots hung. I have changes to make to my arrangement, but it does make for some more room.
Next week, I need to make a lid for the tea pot I want to do a little more turning on the tea pot, making the center of the pot inside a little thinner to remove some weight. I also will have to finish the bottom of the pot which still has a tenon on it. I will also have to do the holes for the tea to go into the spout, and then attach the handle and spout. There is a lot of sanding to be done to everything to make it worthy of looking at and holding. It will get loads of finish to make sure it can take a little water, though it is not really intended for use.
I am also going to the renaissance festival on Saturday so there will be no wood working on Saturday. There will just be enough time after yard sailing to get my act together and head to the fair. I have no idea if I will be going alone or not. If I go alone, I may spend a lot more time there. If my mom goes with me, when she wants to end will make a difference. My main interest at the festival is to see what the vendors have. I also like to spend time watching the artists who work. A blacksmith is always there, a glass blower usually is set up, and a guy who makes little glass figurines using glass rods. They have others at some time or another, depending on the year. I sometimes buy something besides Carmel popcorn when I do the fair.
I will have to see what actual woodworking I get to do next weekend.
Monday, February 13, 2012
2012 February 13, Did you write?
2012 February 13, Did you write?
Another week has passed and for many of us, another week of coming with reasons (excuses) for not writing. Others of us will have reasons for not writing as much as we should, and then there are those of us who will meet our goals for the week.
Posting here every week gives you a "diary" of sorts of your writing exploits. It is a place where a good number of people will see it.
As to what is writing, we all know new writing is writing. Editing is also writing since many of us write by editing, editing is also writing, even if it is on the work of others. Critiquing is also a form of editing and therefore counts as writing. Poetry. synopsis and query letters,, technical writing, articles, writing assignment, blogging, world and character development are all forms of writing. E-mails and Board posts can also be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to writing or story. In essence, if you have to ask if it is writing, the answer is yes. You might also decide some of these don't count. It is up to you.
As for me, I did not write as much as I wanted to. I had planned on some heavy writing on Saturday and ended up instead beneath my truck with my brother, replacing the starter in a store parking lot. The wonderful design of my truck provided so that the attaching wires were six inches shorter than needed to easily take the thing out. My brother found way to make the next time, which I hope I never have to do, much easier. That killed my planned for heavy writing time.
Even so, I did get to write five pages this week. I am up to page 22. Well, I have a word and page count at the end of the document so I know how I did over the past couple weeks and that is the only thing on page 22. I plan to zap half of what I have later which is my plot line, and the other half will require heavy rewriting. I know where I want to go, but have to explore the situations to get there. I am making headway. adding nearly 2000 words this week is still pretty good considering.
On the story idea front, I am at this second, two story ideas behind as I don't have time to write tonight's story idea and I missed Saturday's story idea. I have 42 story ideas in my compost pile. On Saturday, I remember at least three story ideas fading out of existence as I did not have anything to write them down on, and I remember one on Sunday also. I hate when that happens. I also remember that they were not spectacular. I never "edit" on whether an idea is worthy of posting when I come up with them. My editing is only when I sit and write them, which is why my compost pile as 42 ideas in them.
As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say
YES, I DID WRITE (though not as much as I wanted to)
DID YOU WRITE?
Another week has passed and for many of us, another week of coming with reasons (excuses) for not writing. Others of us will have reasons for not writing as much as we should, and then there are those of us who will meet our goals for the week.
Posting here every week gives you a "diary" of sorts of your writing exploits. It is a place where a good number of people will see it.
As to what is writing, we all know new writing is writing. Editing is also writing since many of us write by editing, editing is also writing, even if it is on the work of others. Critiquing is also a form of editing and therefore counts as writing. Poetry. synopsis and query letters,, technical writing, articles, writing assignment, blogging, world and character development are all forms of writing. E-mails and Board posts can also be writing if they are very wordy and pertain to writing or story. In essence, if you have to ask if it is writing, the answer is yes. You might also decide some of these don't count. It is up to you.
As for me, I did not write as much as I wanted to. I had planned on some heavy writing on Saturday and ended up instead beneath my truck with my brother, replacing the starter in a store parking lot. The wonderful design of my truck provided so that the attaching wires were six inches shorter than needed to easily take the thing out. My brother found way to make the next time, which I hope I never have to do, much easier. That killed my planned for heavy writing time.
Even so, I did get to write five pages this week. I am up to page 22. Well, I have a word and page count at the end of the document so I know how I did over the past couple weeks and that is the only thing on page 22. I plan to zap half of what I have later which is my plot line, and the other half will require heavy rewriting. I know where I want to go, but have to explore the situations to get there. I am making headway. adding nearly 2000 words this week is still pretty good considering.
On the story idea front, I am at this second, two story ideas behind as I don't have time to write tonight's story idea and I missed Saturday's story idea. I have 42 story ideas in my compost pile. On Saturday, I remember at least three story ideas fading out of existence as I did not have anything to write them down on, and I remember one on Sunday also. I hate when that happens. I also remember that they were not spectacular. I never "edit" on whether an idea is worthy of posting when I come up with them. My editing is only when I sit and write them, which is why my compost pile as 42 ideas in them.
As to the question of the week,
I can honestly say
YES, I DID WRITE (though not as much as I wanted to)
DID YOU WRITE?
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