Sunday, February 28, 2010

Week 259 Wood Working

year 10, Week 7, Day One (week 529)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-27-10 Saturday

49 degrees when I woke at four, 60 degrees when I got outside to work at eight, 72 degrees as a high by noon. High ripples and blue sky early morning, and they thickened as the day went on, followed by heavier lower clouds in the afternoon. A light mist happened around lunch time when I was packing up. showered from a front arrived at about three, after I had gotten home.
Cold again, in the high 40s, tonight again. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

The beast acted like a tame cat today, well as tame as he is ever going to be. He faked nipping me when he did not like what I was doing, but let me continue doing it anyway. I gave him a lot of time, but not as much time as he really wanted. he was in the mood where I should have just sat and read while petting him. Instead, I needed to do some work.

I put my hands on some boxes of stuff that I need to go through for the upcoming art show. one bag had a platter in it, so I set that out to take with me today, without even looking in it. The platter was really the only thing I needed. I was out to see what all I had.
The platter was as bad as I expected it to be. When I made it, I was lazy and did not sand the platter well, not going through the proper sanding grits. It was full of scratches from course sand paper.
I sat and sanded on it, knocking down a lot of the scratches on the bottom. I have a whole lot more corrective work to do just where I did my sanding before I apply myself to bringing it up to a good finish. I still have the center of the back, and then the whole inside of the platter. I will use it for my fruit plate.

Since it was cool, I decided to do some wood turning first. I am on my feet, moving around so I am less likely to get cold. I cut a piece if oak I got from the club and mounted it in the lathe. I turned two small pears with it. They are smaller than I liked so I then hunted for another piece of wood.
I had planned on shaping multiple pears, then parting them off, but instead I made the two pears, one at a time, remounting the wood on the lathe after I had removed the pear. oak has a great look, with rays and veins all on display.

I cut, then rejected a piece of orange a couple times. This piece was rippled, not round. There was a shrinkage crack in it. I took it back to the band saw that I cut the piece off with, and cut the ripples off length wise so I would not have to turn that wood off the piece. One has to be careful when cutting a log length wise in the band saw. If the log is round, it will want to roll. There was some problems with the shape of this piece, and because this is really hard wood, the blade talked to me a bit about how hard it was. I cut the worst of the pleats off the trunk.
I then mounted it on the lathe between centers and round the entire piece. While I was doing this, I let the gouge slip off the end of the tool rest, it caught on the wood and thwacked the end of my little finger. Very slight purpleness, a very slight more puffy than the other little finger, and a bit more tender. Not bad otherwise. Little moments of distraction like that can result in some serious injuries.
Citrus is hard wood. I should have sharpened my bowl gouge but did not. The wood came off the gouge, following the flute of the gouge, and was hitting the top of my index finger painfully. Also bigger chunks came off and hit my finger when I was first removing the remaining corners from the cuts. Quite bothersome. I changed how I was using the gouge, scraping rather than cutting and that solved that problem.
I made a tenon on one end and then mounted it in the chuck. that made working with the wood a whole lot easier.

I started rounding the end of the wood. I quickly determined that this first piece of the orange wood, wanted to be an apple. I made the apple, sanding it while it was still on the lathe. I then parted it off.
I then made a pear the same way I made the apple. Because of the crack in the wood. I cleaned up the crack which I later filled with wood filler with close to the right color.

One of the first things I did with the pears and apples, was to drill for the stem and blossom. I will carve a stem out of scrap wood, and use a clove, popping the bulb, for the blossom on the bottom of the fruit. I needed the holes to attach them to the wooden fruit.
I then did some clean up on the fruit with the disk sander and the dremmel.
With the apple, the two ends are set below the top and above the bottom of the fruit. I had cut in for the top of the apple, but it still had a nub that the tail stock held it in place with. The bottom was rough cut straight across. I used the dremmel to clean up and shape the top and bottom so they look a bit more real.
The pear ends are not set in so I just cleaned up the ends on the disk sander.

I took my four bananas to the disk sander. I had eight sides to the bananas. I decided six would look better. That meant that I needed to change the angle of the top and bottom shoulders to eliminate the side. I have some touch ups on these. I will use the strip sander to clean them up and then will have some hand sanding to do to bring the bananas up to a finished level.

I have several colors of filler. Of course, I never have the exact color. Last week, I tossed out a filler color I really needed because it went hard on me, dried out. I took walnut colored filler and filled in some nail holes and bad spots on some cedar apples I made previously. I had used "natural" filler to fill the cracks in the apple and pear made from the Orange trunk. I had done some sanding, but had to add more filler to fill in where I had left some gaps caused by not shoving enough filler into the crack.

I did a little bit of hand sanding on the flower vase, but no one would ever notice it. I had intended to do some carving, but when I packed up for lunch, putting everything away just in case of rain I never went back out to work.

Tomorrow I plan to do some carving and also some sanding. If I apply myself, I can get a lot of work done. I don't need to do any new projects.

Will see what I actually do tomorrow.


year 10, Week 7, Day Two (week 529)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-28-10 Sunday

46 degrees this morning before sunrise, 56 when I arrived at Mom's house at nine, 68 degrees as the high. Pure blue sky all day long, horizon to horizon, from dawn to dusk. breeze from the north cooled things down a little in the morning but ignorable completely later in the day. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I think someone swapped the backyard beast for a cat. I hope they like what they got. Beggar was, for him, a sweet little kitty and soaked up all the attention I gave him. When I did something he did not like, he simply gnashed his teeth at me, slowly, and I took the message. Otherwise, he accepted whatever I did to him.

We went to a yard sale that a guy was setting up. He was 82 years old and going back home to Argentina to retire. All he had to sell was tools and parts. We picked up a bunch of stuff from him at a really good price. A bit later, I helped him set up, moving stuff out. I left with a bunch more stuff. Later in the evening, I took my brother with me and we came home with even more stuff.
My brother and I sorted all the tools and stuff we got. In the process, I ended up emptying the back of the cub cab of my truck, going through all the tools for the truck I had, then putting all the stuff back in. I ended up with finding a bunch of stuff I had lost or forgot about. I re-packed the back of the truck but have more stuff to take out of the truck Monday.

On the wood working front, I did not get anywhere near as much as I hoped I would do. I actually wanted to sit out in the sun and sleep, but chose not to.

I advanced on the light house plate. It is fighting me tooth and nail. I am considering removing every sign of the carving and painting the lighthouse on. I have time to make that choice so I will continue carving it to see if I can save it. I hate projects like that.

I also worked on the flower vase, undercutting the leaves and getting closer to undercut the stems. the flowers is where I really need to concentrate, to make them look right, as they are the hardest part. I went around the vase about twice, working on various points that needed it, but have a lot to do. I sort of got tired and frustrated on that project.

I took the strip sander and sanded on the bananas. I cleaned up the six sides I have, that was once eight. They look better. Now they need to be sanded to a fine finish. Once I have a good finish on them, I will add the black marks of a real banana that is not green, and that will make them look real.
I also hand sanded a tiny bit, not much, on the apples and pears. I still have a lot of work to do to bring them up to a finished level. I see that the apple and pear made of orange wood is going to be tough. It is a really hard wood that resists my clean up of tool marks.

I sanded a lot more on the platter I started sanding yesterday. I still have a long ways to go. The worst part is that I have a good number of pieces that need the same kind of sanding. It is strictly time consuming and labor intensive.

The better your work is when you take it off the machine, the less effort it will take to bring it to a presentable level. I had always been sloppy and even now, my work is not good. I depend heavily on hand work to finish a piece. It is a habit I need to get out of. Part of the problem is that I am working outside. Also I only work on weekends. I cannot let a piece sit on the lathe or on the bench for my next session. Everything has to be put away so they don't get damaged by the weather.
My work time is limited so getting pieces made is more important than getting them finished. Because of this, I have to spend time with sand paper, and other tools, at a later date to make a piece right.

I spent more time playing with our yard sale purchases than wood working. Some of the tools will help my wood working later.

During this week, I have two quick projects to finish, then I will start my sanding and varnishing my collected work. I will pick out what pieces are well designed and well executed and see what needs the most work of them, and work my way up until I get everything a step higher in quality than they are. this week will be the start and I will go up to time to pack for the art show.

Next Friday, I will be going to the antique shop to see how my stuff had done there, and to collect them for the art show. I will be checking over the finish of all those pieces and upgrading them if needed. I know I can do better than I have, so I just need to do it.

Next week, I must get farther along on the light house carving, and get the flower vase closer to being finished. I would like to be able to spend several weeks sanding and finishing it so it will be worthy of the effort I am adding to it.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Spring In The Depths Of Winter

Recently I got a chance to go to the Rhode Island Flower Show, which ran from Thursday February 18th, through Sunday February 21st at the RI Convention Center in Providence, about a 40 minute drive from here. We are actually within driving distance of three flower shows in the area, as Connecticut and Boston also have their own. Connecticut ran their show the same weekend as Rhode Island, but I decided I wanted to see the RI one again after visiting the CT show for several years. Boston is doing their's in March this year, so one can hope... Frank is the one that volunteered to take me this time, but I seriously doubt I can get him to go to yet another one. He gets bored at these things. If the slideshow works, you will see him staring at some very lofty bamboo poles and wondering why our bamboo is so scruffy and puny. He's the short, gray haired guy in the light gray flannel shirt.

The theme of this year's RI show was TIMELESS GARDENS and there were some creative, interesting and nostalgic interpretations of that. I brought my camera of course and took 255 pictures that day. You will love the VW peace dove van, and the sand sculpture was amazing. There was a quirky setup with lots of junky music things and birds too. Unfortunately the lighting was not the greatest and so some of the pictures are a bit off as far as the color. I tried editing a few of them with mixed results, and sometimes I cropped out all but the subject I wanted. Still it is quite a selection of pics, and I am SO glad I brought that camera. Most years I forgot it.

If I have done everything right, I made a slideshow of all my best pics and crops. It was hard to choose between them. I am going to try and upload it here:

Now I am not the world's greatest photographer, nor have I ever put together a slideshow before. So this is a bit rough and out of order with no subtitles and some repeats, and so you might wonder what the heck you are looking at. It's my first attempt at something this complex, so hey, give me a break! So much better than trying to pick the best 10 shots to upload. And of course there are pictures of strangers all through this thing, so if you are or know one of these folks, and someone object to having a picture on my blog, I apologize. Tell me what you want me to do to make it right, and I'll do my best. Post a comment, or hit our blogmail at magicdragonverse@gmail.com and I will get back to you ASAP. If no one squawks, I'm going to assume everything is A-OK and just let her run. *w*

I did do some shopping at the flower show, and some thrifting later on, when we got a wee bit lost on the way back and while driving through Scituate (pronounced SIT-yoo-et) and passed a kewl-looking consignment shop. We turned around in a strip mall down the road, that just happened to have a pizza place that had hung out a banner saying they had fish & chips. That sounded awfully good, and it was, because we decided to stop in there first and have a late lunch. Lots of carbs, but I left 1/3 of the chips and the roll behind. That fish was sooooo goooood!

We backtracked over to the consignment shop, which also had antiques, and spent a happy hour or so browsing. Frank and I don't have a lot of common interests, but antiquing and thrifting are one of them. Had a blast, and we managed to get through the entire day without killing each other. LOL

Some pics of things I bought at the show:

Seeds! One can never have enough seeds. I picked through several racks, but got these all at one vendor. Blue Lake pole beans are a longtime favorite, they produce well in colder, wetter weather than any others. I like both Thumbelina and Cupid zinnias for their small but colorful flowers on sturdy, upright plants with plenty of bright green leaves to set them off. Like jewels studding the tops. I have a thing for sunflowers after all the pretty ones I grew last year, and have been buying them all over the place. Red really stands out against all the yellow ones. Frank and I went to Lancaster County PA a couple years ago for our anniversary in October, and those crookneck pumpkin/squashes were in all the produce sections. I will be starting them early and no doubt they'll be jumping the fence like my birdhouse gourds and pumpkins did. The Chenopodium (Strawberry Spinach) is something I've been wanting to try. I have read up on it since and it is supposedly invasive... Oh-oh! Can't be any worse than the horseradish I planted in the garden once and it took me 10 years to eradicate it from there. Or the comfrey I am still battling in the flower bed, or the mint in my so-called lawn... Yeah, I like to experiment. I'm trying broom corn this year too, but got that mailorder. Gonna custom design my own besom for Hallowe'en. LOL



Some lovely seed potatoes came from the same vendor. The D. Landreth seed company is the oldest seed house in America, been in business since 1784. They have a website http://www.landrethseeds.com/ and specialize in heirloom and classic seeds. The seed potatoes were not cheap, but even at $7.50 a lb, I can get a small crop and save some seed stock for next year. Oh yeah, I have grown potatoes before, but not these pretty babies. These are Austrian Crescent, a lovely big fingerling potato and not something you can get down at the corner big box store or most local nurseries. I can't wait to see them growing.

Can't wait to cook and eat these puppies either. I don't eat many potatoes anymore, trying to stick to mostly lowcarb after losing over 60 lbs in the last year. But I'll make an exception for these. *w* Fingerlings make great potato salad or pot roast potatoes because they hold their shape. Great fried too. There's no wrong way to eat them.

The book seller was upstairs, and I didn't bother taking any pictures of that. I was exhausted after almost 4 hours of walking on a cement floor, and I was dragging a leg. I don't buy many gardening-type books anymore as I have so many on various subjects, but this one spoke to me. The fellow at the counter said it debuted at the show last year. All color pictures, and enough info to identify the plant, as well as traditional uses for them, or info about growth, distribution, invasiveness, and whether they are considered native or were introduced.
Being a gardener makes me one of those curious people who likes to know what is growing all around me. I am proud of the fact that I can look at my pathetically weedy lawn and not just see green stuff, but plants I can name.

Let's see, that one is Sally, this one's Bob, the one over there is Jake, and there's Melvin...

No seriously, I do like knowing what is growing out there, what to expect in each season, what might be edible or medicinal in dire circumstances. This book will likely make it out to the garden with me. You can already see one of my bookmarks happily inside. BTW, that is Jewelweed on the cover, and if you make a tincture of the leaves, it relieves some of the itch of poison ivy. Hummingbirds love the flowers, and the ripe seedpods explode and toss their seeds around. See? You already learned something. *s*


If the slideshow above works for you, you will see a dealer of concrete items that was just a short way past the escalator we came up to get to the showroom. They had the best selection of garden statuary I've ever seen, lots of kewl fantasy things. They were doing a brisk business. I could have stayed there all day looking. I finally decided on two small plaques, about the size of bakery chocolate chip cookies. The first one is a green goddess, and she strikes me as a patroness of gardens and cultivated plants. I am an incurable romantic, so I had to find her a consort.

Below is my woodland god, who will join his lady somewhere out by the garden. I have an idea that we might still have an old cedar fence post around that is weathered and a bit rotted. I'd like to set that in some post set, mount a birdhouse on top, affix my lord and lady to the post, and perhaps grow a clematis or miniature climbing rose up it. My own little garden shrine. It's a thought... I don't mind the minor imperfections, I expect them in time to get all green and mossy.

I love all the little details though. He has Roger's nose, and maybe he won't give it back... Smiles just like Roger too.

Below are all from the consignment shop, my thrifty finds for the day.

The two CDs are the kind of music I listen to when I am writing. The New Age one is computer music, it's OK; but the one with the loons is quite lovely. Music overlaid with wild loon calls. The cookie molds (they can be used with paper molding too) were a find, looks like they were never used. The Warren Kimble greeting cards are not complete, but there are enough of both that I felt I had to have them. Might gift those to a friend, I haven't decided yet.

Yeah, more tins. Could you have resisted those? Both are very pretty. I wind up using them for storage that doesn't have to be hidden because it looks nice. I am getting quite a collection of them.



All in all, it was a pretty full day. I was exhausted when I got home. I just finished going through my pictures tonight, resizing and sharpening the ones I could, and making that video slide show that I HOPE actually works. All told it was a great day that I really enjoyed, a grand way to celebrate my one year weightloss anniversary. I got a lot of exercise and was able to get around fine the next day, not bad for a gimp with moderately severe arthritis and a bad back. A definite improvement on where I was at that time last year.

See? You can have hobbies that actually get you out and about and exercising. You just have to be creative and think in terms of what kind of experience you want to have so that the focus isn't just exercise but is about seeing things and learning stuff. Of course, getting off the 'puter now and then helps too. *w* Flower shows are fun even if you really don't have a green thumb. Nothing says spring like looking at flowers and all sorts of green things growing.

Next blog entry I do will be about seed starting, because I already have plants coming up in the cellar. No, it's not too early, those babies have a long way to go, and I started some of them before I went to the show. It's magic because you put a dry little seed in the soil, give it some water and some heat and light, and it grows up to be food. So see, I am a witch, a greenwitch to be precise. Now if I could just get the local fairies to help out...

If you've read some of our story blog:
you'll have some idea of what I am talking about, as my namesake in the stories has all kinds of magic in her life, including fairies that tend her garden for her. I could use a few of those.

Now go make some magic of your own. *s*

Monday, February 22, 2010

February 22, Did You Write?

February 22, Did You Write?

I just now noticed I had the wrong date for last week's did you write. Oops, sorry...

"Another Day, Another Dollar. A million days, A hundred dollars after taxes and expenses."
We are blessed with another Monday Prompt to get some of us slackers like myself, to sit down and write. Many here don't need a prompt and write every day. this note is for those who find it hard to write within a month, let alone to write something within a week.
How much that one writes is not important. The right word might be enough. We are not critical about what kind of writing one might do. I post suggestions all the time as to what can be writing. The list is not exhaustive nor will everybody agree with all that is on my list. it is simply giving you permission to say it is writing.
Of course, any new writing, is writing. Editing, even if it is someone else's work, is writing too. So is critiquing. Blogging technical writing, writing assignments, poetry, newsletters, world or character creation. Even E-mails can be considered writing if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. Others may be writing if you choose to say it is.

As for me, I can say, yes, I did write. I did it today before I started this note. See, this note works!!!!
My writing partners and I are discussing how a central point in our story world is going to look. This is a form of world and character building. Today, I wrote a scene that got onto page 2 with 693 words, showing my vision of the scene. If it is acceptable to my writing partners, I can then paste that into the story I am actually writing.
We expended a whole lot of words on E-mail about details of the stories, both what we are working on now, and what will be coming into the future. I have a file for saving these notes and it is getting longer and longer, and harder to find specific detail information, but it is there.

On the story idea front, I am a bit behind right now. Today is the twenty second and tonight I am posting story idea number twenty. I can catch up with little problems.
I have entered into a period where story ideas are coming in fast. Including what I am posting tonight, I have 49 story ideas to dig into. I picked up a FAR SIDE book this weekend and see all sorts of story ideas in them. I won't count them unless I actually dig one out to use. I already used one cartoon in a story idea so I know they are good. Gary Larson's mind is very much on a level of my mind. I am still waiting for the nice young men in nice white coats to come and take me away..........

On the woodworking front, I am making headway on some projects I am working on. My flower vase, where I am carving the flowers in relief on the sides of the vase, are coming out very good. It is looking like something. I have a lot to do but it has come along nicely.
One thing I do is some fruit plates. I had three wooden apples and just now made roughed out wooden bananas. I will tell you that these are high fiber fruit. I still have to make some pears to make the minimum fruit plate complete.
I do have to dig out a plate or bowl to go with them.

To use the above for a story, He is a prisoner who is fed gruel for every meal. he knows he needs something extra to remain healthy should he earn the chance to leave the prisoner.
On his way to exercise, he sees a table in a rom that has the most perfect fruits and vegetables. He only sees a glance at them as he is marched from one place to another.
His mind becomes totally preoccupied with getting to the fruits and vegetables. he studies the doors, the bars, the system around the room, trying to see some clue as to how to get to them.
A couple years go by and he really wants to get to the fruit. He knows they get used because every time he goes by, they look different. someone has to be replacing them each day.
One day, he is marched along. He sees that the lock to the door is turned. someone left it open.
There are no guards escorting him. The doors open and close around him and they use electrical discharges to shove him along.
he comes to the door on the way in. It is still unlocked. He lunges forward and pulls on the door. the discharges miss him because he moved unexpectedly. He slips into the room and runs to the fruit. he grabs an apple and bites down. He nearly breaks his teeth. It is rock hard. he grabs a banana and quickly realizes that they are all solid, not food. He stares at the fruit bowl for along moment, then realizes that the entire table is rotating.
He looks it over carefully and sees that the reason it looked like people had been swapping the fruit was that he had seen them at a different angle each time he came by. The room was like a kitchen. He searched all the drawers, all the cupboards, the fridge, the oven. any food are fake, made of wood.
He is there for about three hours, then finally gives up and goes back to his room. A couple days later, he slips back in there and cleans up his mess, making it look perfect again. He consigns himself to the gruel he eats every meal.

AS to the question of the day,

YES, I DID WRITE


DID YOU WRITE?

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Week 528 Woodworking

year 10, Week 6, Day One (week 528) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-20-10 Saturday

56 degrees early morning, 64 degrees when I arrived at Mom's house, and 73 degrees when I left at around three. the sky was mostly high jigsaw puzzle with most of the pieces missing. It was mostly sunny all day long. I had sat in the sun for a while when I first set up to work, but quickly decided it was not needed, and more than warm enough to not have to be in the sun.

Thursday was the Turning club meeting. It was another demonstration on adding inlay to our work. this time was on applying it to the sides of a work, rather than on the top. It is done a little at a time. they showed several ways of turning the stones you get, into pieces small enough to inlay. they basically use metal pipes with caps.
I picked up a tap. This is a device to add threads into holes. This tap is one known as a 1"x8 tap. It is for a one inch hole with eight threads to the inch, which is standard for the lathe mounts. With this tap, I can drill a hole into a piece of wood, and mount it directly on the lathe, without having to use a metal face plate and screws, or a chuck. One can make wooden face plates or attach whole chunks of raw wood directly onto the lathe.

Saturday:
I got all my junk laid out, I spent most of my day working on the flower vase. I dug out the sanding drum for the dremmel and smoothed things out.
I was shown the kind of flower I am doing. I now cannot find the E-mail to tell what the name of it is. I had a good look at the pictures and now know what I am doing. It is nice where one designs something, then finds there is something real to resemble it.
I am at the point where I wish I could wave my hand over the piece and it be done. I have a lot more to do.

Flower vase, if you look very carefully, you will see a spot in the background that is a slight tan color. That was where I started to break through.


I did a little bit of work on the light house platter I am doing. the big thing I did was to use a pencil to mark where the support members of the light house is located. I have to cut the spaces between the members.

light house platter, with pencil lines for light house structure, and the back ground ground back to allow the light house to stand out.


I want to do some new projects, but need to concentrate on projects already started. I have that tap I want to try out. I also have some Christmas ornament blanks I need to finish up

I will see what I will do tomorrow.


year 10, Week 6, Day Two (week 528) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-21-10 Sunday

72 degrees when I arrived at Mom's house, and it got up to 80 degrees. A cloud bank zipped by and the temps dropped down to 78 and stayed there. The sky was mostly blue sky, with high ripples, plates, feathers and ripples. Other than the cloud bank that zipped by, it was sunny all day long. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

Yesterday I had done some yard sailing. I picked up a wire rack, a FAR SIDE book, and a sweater.


Sweater I got at a yard sale

On the way home, I stopped at Home Depot and picked up some Boiled Linseed oil which is a finish, some acetone, a thinner, and a drill chuck for my battery powered drill. The chuck on my Harbor Freight drill had died, jammed up. This gets that drill back to operating again.

Harbor Freight drill with new chuck mounted on it.

I told Mom today that someone must of swapped beggar out again. today he was actually acting like a cat. I wished I could have spent a whole lot more time with him. He did get a whole lot of attention.

I got to work. Yesterday, when working with the pin that holds the lid of the beer stein on and able to swing up, I broke a piece out. Today, I re-drilled the hole, twice, to get it where it works. I then filled the old holes in and a broken spot on the top. Two of my fillers had become solid so I had to toss them. One was the right color I needed. I cut the tube open and got a bit of useable filler, since I really only needed a pinch.
I have to work out the exact system I will use for the hinge pin. The wire can work only if I can hide the ends. I won't pin the lid on permanently until I get the finish on.

Beer stein, opened and closed,


I looked at the three apples I have, and decided that I needed some bananas for a fruit bowl. I still have to make some pears to complete the minimum fruit plate.
The bananas are made from a Whitewood 2x4. I got two within the four inch width of the board. I made four bananas, approximately 7 inches long. Note that Bananas are not round. They are actually faceted, with some rounding on the faces. I was surprised to learn that they have five sides. My wooden bananas are generally eight sides, though six tends to be better. I was lazy, so these are eight. I used the band saw to get the basic shape (good to trace around a real banana for the first ones) the disk sander to do the angles.

Bananas individually and as a hand.

I did not do too much with the flower vase, mostly looked it over and figured out what I need to do next. I need to start under cutting the flowers and leaves. Get just enough to make them really stand out I will then need to make the background look the even depth, and get it to a fine finish. Once I get everything sanded to a good polish, I will then cut in the veins of the leaves.
I have decided that after the art show, I will daylight the background, leaving just the flowers themselves as the vase. For now, I will leave the vase solid.

I sat with my brother and carved some wise owl ornaments. I have to do the eyes on them, then I can paint them and finish them. I have some touch ups on them but they are close to be done.
I also carved on some of the swan blanks I have. when I cut them out, I have some pieces of wood that was not sliced off the blank by the band saw. I sat and cut off the excess wood, but did no more carving of the wood.

I did a tiny bit of hand sanding on the light house platter, but not much. I need stronger sand paper and likely some good power to smooth out the rough background, and I have some grinding to correct some errors, before I start actually carving the light house.

Next weekend, I need to concentrate on projects I have started. I also need to cut down on some projects in my home, and start re-finishing many of my completed pieces. Some of them rally need to be sanded down to bare wood, and then refinish. I can do better than I did in the past, and have to spend time on it. while I am looking at them, I will consider what pieces should be carved to make them interesting.

Will see what I actually do next weekend.

Monday, February 15, 2010

02-08-10 Did You Write?

02-08-10 Did You Write?

that is the question. Did you write at any time this week? I hope you have been productive and actually opened up some work in progress, whatever it was, and put some words down. It does not have to be much, as long as you produced something. do this every week and a finished product will develop.
As to what is writing, is not important. that you wrote, is. New writing always writing, but so is editing, even if it is the work of others. Critiquing is also writing, along with poetry, blogging, technical writing, writing assignments, world or character building. Even E-mails can be writing, if they are wordy and pertain to story or writing. the real key is if YOU can decide it is writing, no matter how much is written. Any little bit of writing that is done in this week, is that much less writing for the next week.

I wrote. I wrote 383 on one piece, and then 1122 words in another. the fun part was I opened the 383 added word piece and had 23 pages. I knew I did not write that much. It turned out that I made a little mistake. I write in NOTEPAD and then use my Wordperfect for spell checking and word count I accidentally double saved the file. It took a few minutes to work out what had happened.
I am essentially character and world building right now. It is one thing to create it by yourself, but I am working with a couple writing partners and we have to agree with the creations I come up with. We expended many thousands of words between us about the creations I am doing. What I am writing involves the world we are creating so I am actually trying to write it. It has changed about three times so far and may change drastically soon.
This is fun writing. even the editing I have done is new writing. I have scenes and situations I am looking to deal with, but everything else is up in the air. In many ways, I am guessing as to what I am doing.

I am falling behind on my story ideas because of activities that is going on. any time I get home really late, it messes up my writing time. I have a turning club meeting this week so will fall behind another day. I do have time to catch up and will get serious about it soon.

I am making headway on my woodworking. I am concentrating on two pieces, a vase that the surface is carved to look like flowers in a flower pot, and a platter with an art show logo carved onto it. I would be done by now but things get in the way of my work.

This weekend is the start of the local Renaissance festival (Ren-Fest). Mom and I went to it and I stayed far longer than I had ever stayed at a fair before I had foot problems over the years and received a solution last year. It is not perfect, but I was on my feet for four hours. I remember times where I dreamed my feet at their best, felt like what they did when I left.

I have used Ren-Fests in many story ideas. One type is where one actually ends up in the time period of the festival. until you leave the park. Another I like is where they are having a Ren-fest and it turns out that they are doing today, and of course, they get it wrong.
I also had one where the world was going to end, and everybody dressed up in the time period they wanted to go to. at the right time, they are actually sent to that time period. What happens if someone appears in the clothing of the style that is going to end?
I also had one where one stepped into another world, not in the past, but lived with that life style. It could be an escape to a magical place or a place that is of that time, but the desire for money has opened up a portal where tourists can come and visit and have fun.

As to the question of the day,

YES, I DID WRITE

DID YOU WRITE?


Sunday, February 14, 2010

Wood Working Week 527

year 10, Week 5, Day One (week 527)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
02-13-10 Sunday

Saturday:
45 degrees in the morning, got up to 64 in the afternoon, heavy breezes. A front shot through last night with really strong winds and a shockwave of rain. Everything was dry by morning, though the wind sucked the heat right out of a person. Even people from up north were bundled up and shivering. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Department Of tourism.

I did no woodworking, but instead went to the Renaissance fair. This fair will continue until March 14th. I have no idea if I can go back there again.
I learned years ago, that if I tell about my woodworking, the people give me that "Oh, sure you do," type of look. To solve that, I started carrying my woodworking with me to show off, to prove I know what I am talking about.
This time I brought with me a male and female pixy, a hatching rabbit, an owl, and a few other finished pieces. I also brought with me my partially carved flower vase.
I got some comments at how good the flower vase was. That was nice.

I purchased a couple prints, ate well and had a good time. I walked around the fair grounds twice, taking four hours, checking in on vendors all the way around. Many of them remember me and are happy to see me. There were new vendors there to meet, some old ones missing.
The only time I really sat down was to eat dinner and the rest of the time I was on my feet. The Orthotics I got last year really helped. I have not been exercising, walking as much as I should have been, but I sure did well on my feet.

We did go to a couple yard sales in the morning. I got a box with some corner clamps and a saw. Mom picked up and gave me a slow cooker. I also got a gold leafing kit. I came out pretty good. Not only that, I DID NOT pick up a plush lion cub that had caught my eye....
I had learned a little bit about gold leafing back in the 80s and know of some opportunities to do some more leafing.

Slow cooker and clamp set.

Sunday:
40 degrees in the Morning. 56 degrees when I got to Mom's house and it got up to 62 degrees when I went inside. Blue sky with a little bit of cloud here and there, light breeze. This Weather Report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.

I petted that thing we call a cat. He actually acted like a cat today, I petted him quite a bit and he swatted at me only once, no claws extended. Moments later, I was petting him again. he really is doing well.

I set up at the shed at the back of the yard, where I could sit in the sun. Of course, I pulled out the long extension cord as I was using a drill and dremmel.

On the platter I made last week, I needed to set the light house carving up above the surrounding surface. What I did was to grind the wood down around the light house. I then feathered the wood, sloping it back up to the original surface a good distance away. Later in the day, My brother mentioned about how I made it stick out. It works. I have to do some heavy sanding on the surfaces to remove plenty of tool marks. I should do that before I really get into carving as I may add some scenery stuff there or some lettering. I have to reprint my picture so I can get the design right. The light house is a frame style structure and I am thinking I want the cross braces to be raised. I will be cutting the background a bit deep. I will need the picture to make sure it is right.

Light house raised up above background

I then turned my attention to my flower vase. I worked on the background in a few places, and then worked on the flowers. It is finally feeling like it will work.
One of the fun things I did was to add more movement in the leaves, sending some behind others and behind the stem. There was one. where I had not formed the end that went under the stem, so I roughed in the shape on the background, then went by a bit later and ground that off, so I had to re-form it again so the background around it is even deeper. That is all right, It adds more depth to it. Everybody I showed it to was impressed with what I have.

Flowers coming along in flower vase


Next week, I really need to get production out of both days, not just one day, and only half of that.
I intend to work on the flower vase and the light house platter.

I will see what I actually do next week.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Model Railroading Diary (02-12-10)

It has been a while since I reported my activities on the room my model railroad is in. I have not been as busy as I should be, mainly because my brother has not had space in his schedule to visit. I have been working on the railroad... in his absence.

I have not looked back at other reports to see where I left off, so some of these may repeat what was covered before.

I actually sorted through boxes that was once in the train room, seeing what can be disposed of, what can be concentrated, and what can go elsewhere. I got rid of two trash bags worth of papers that were dumped into boxes and stowed away, to get them out of sight. In the process, I have emptied a whole bunch of boxes that won't have to go back into the train room closet. None of the boxes were completely full
I have gotten to the point where I am digging through the bins and boxes of train stuff. Consolidating is making a difference in being able to find materials later.
I have come to the conclusion that I might not have to purchase anything else again for the railroad. Well, I might need some trees, but they can be made from scratch with little problems and actually look like trees. I have a library of train magazines that tell all about how that can be done using different materials for different kinds of trees.

One thing we needed were momentary switches for the Atlas Snap Action turnouts we use. The yard extension turnouts are all operated manually right now, reaching over the cars and moving the lever on the switch motor. Atlas Snap track switch motors have that great option of moving them manually.
I had purchased a couple of the momentary switches and they were more expensive than I wanted to spend. I was not sure if I wanted to buy any more. These buttons are designed that, you slide the button over to the other position, then push down and it sends the signal for the turnout to move in that direction. These can be used with other devices that call for momentary application of power. While digging through my stuff, I found a bunch of them, wi
th wires and screws. We may need a couple more, but won't worry about that now. I will know when we get to that point. It was fun to find those.

I have gathered some empty coffee containers from at work. I emptied a bin in my sorting, and filled several of those containers with little lost parts details. None of them are full yet, but I have enough people for the layout. I have some little soldiers that I can modify and paint if needed, plus some civilians in various poses. I also have chickens, horses and cows, among my collection.

I have loads of trucks and quite a few scale sized cars. I had found out that with various toys, whether it be animals, or vehicles, They tend to make them with the same amount of material. It is like they are made by weight. One simply has to measure the animals of a set to find the ones that are of the right scale. Elephants, cows and dogs are the same size, so one simply measures them. For one project, the elephant would be the right size, for another project, the dog might be. One simply measure to see what fits. Of course, I am working at 1/8th inch equals a foot, scale, so toy animals are not going to fit my railroad unless they are made for it.

With Hot wheels, Match Box and other similar car toys, I had found that they essentially use the same wheel base and same sized tires. It turned out that their big trucks are roughly the right size for what I am doing. They won't survive someone with a scale rule, but they are close enough to pass muster at a glance, and a hell of a lot cheaper than actual scale vehicles available at hobby stores.
Many Die-Cast cars are the right size too. I had gotten some actual scale cars, just the body shell with the wheels, and then got some Die-cast cars that were also the same style and they were very acceptable in size.

I am not a purist and am quite satisfied with ACCEPTABLE, and not worry about perfect. Of course, the modelers among us can take these cars, and make interiors, add details, paint them, and make them look even closer to real, and they are still cheaper than the scale stuff since many of those modelers would modify the commercial pieces anyway. That was another aspect of the hobby I was aiming for when I had started building structures. I was not skilled enough at that time to actually take the plunge.
I have a couple boxes of regular, well-worn non-scale cars. I guess I will store them until my grandnephew is old enough to play with them. I had accumulated them in my search for the right scale trucks, and got them from my brother’s kids when they went on to other interests.

I have run across a whole lot of tools and parts. I am concentrating them in one general area. That brings me up to something I do not remember if I reported.

Previously I had brought into the train room, two small two-drawer units to hold spare train stuff, mostly broken or retired railroad cars. A few weeks back, I got an idea. I dragged out a dresser out of my bed room, that I was not using. It had some water damage from a leak and I just ignored it.
I got that in place in the train room, moved the contents of the other two units into it. The two bottom drawers are holding what the two other units held and there is plenty more room if I stack things. I still have two more drawers to fill. I have not decided what would be best in there, so I have held off.

I could not put the dresser against the wall, because of a wing wall of the closet and the leg of the railroad layout. I also could not put it underneath the railroad as we are really trying to keep that clear for some work we have planned.
Years ago, I got hold of some material called GATERFOAM, which is foam with wood fiber veneer sandwiching it. It is used in the graphics industry, such as for court cases, as backing for pictures.
I took some of the GATERFOAM and screwed the sheets to the top of the dresser so it spans back to the wall. this gives me sort of a work bench along with the storage below. I have some plastic sheeting somewhere but have not found the roll. I will attach that over the top, to protect against spills.

In the dresser, there was a section with a side swinging door. I think it was for holding pants or something like that. I filled that with almost all the barges we have made for the layout.
The barges are simply two by sixes, with wood along the top edge to act like rails, two tracks down the center, and blocks at one end that was to have couplers on them to help hold the cars in place when the barges are moved.
Our plan was to rotate the barges so we can have a good mix of cars, none of the cars would sit in storage, or sit on the layout forever, and give us another operation, loading and unloading barges.

I stacked the barges, up on end, into the space in the dresser and they all fit, except for two extra long barges my brother had made.
This gets them out of sight, out of the way, and still easily accessible.
BTW, the two drawer sets are in my bedroom and being used now. Great decision.

In sorting through stuff, I have found detail parts my brother purchased to add to engines, rolling stock, around the layout. I have found many building structure kits, a few have not been built yet. I have enough bridge piers to do most of my layout raised up (I hate hills on the railroad so I will never use them). I have one set still in the box. I then have what looks like three more sets I stacked together in a small box. They are all together now. I am also finding pieces here and there in my digging through other boxes and adding them to the set when I can.

I still have more boxes to dig through. and check out some other bins to see what they have and what might be consolidated. I am making headway.

One problem with this project is that things I think we will need in the near future, gets stacked on top the railroad. it is now a mess. Eventually, I will have everything where they belong. I might not be able to put my hands directly on something I need, I will have a better chance of finding them, or knowing quickly that I don't have them.

I have purchased some items for the railroad over the past two months. I had gone to a model railroad swap meet and picked up some left hand and right hand switch motors for the atlas switches. A set of five each. Mom had purchased a big roll of flux core electrical solder at a yard sale and my brother had me make a spool out of wood, something quick and rough, and we wound about fifteen feet of the solder onto my spool so we can now solder wire on the layout. The soldier I had, needed a flux as it was solid core, and I have not run across the bottle of liquid flux my brother was using. I also got some speaker wire at a yard sale, along with purchasing a small spool of wire. These are to connect the switches to the turnouts.

I drew the control panel for the switch yard, with the momentary buttons drawn to scale. I gave the pictures to my brother and he was going to make it out of sheet metal.
I do drawings for a living and have a similar version of the program at home. The drawing part is easy for me.

Switch-yard control panel graphic
with the Atlas Snap Action switches drawn to scale. t

All of this adds up to getting a step closer to having the railroad operating. The big thing is to get things sorted, collated, and in place. It takes time.
Because of all this, I have, been working on the railroad.



Monday, February 8, 2010

Did You write? Feb 08, 2010

Did You write? Feb 08, 2010

One moment, you are sitting, enjoying your life, The next moment you realize that it is almost Monday and you have not written yet. You have a decision to make. Report that you did not achieve your potential, or sit down for a few minutes and write SOMETHING on your present work in progress? One might start on some vague idea that you have no intention developing so you just have something written. If you write, then this note will have done its job. It got you to put something on paper and one step closer to having developed a habit to write.
'What is written, how much is written, is unimportant here. Others might not even consider it writing. As long as you DECIDE to call it writing, it counts. Along with any new writing, and any editing (since few of us can write perfectly the first time, and can be someone else's work), poetry, blogging, article writing, technical writing, world and character development, writing assignments, and even E-mails (as long as it is wordy and pertains to story or writing) can all be writing. Critiquing and other assistance to other writers, also count. It really is what you decide to be writing, counts.

As for me, I did write. I added two pages, which is 1459 words. I expended a lot of words with my writing partners on the story too, and also sat with my drafting program and drew up the area the story is happening, and the bottom floor of the building it happens in. The drawings have problems, but it gives me something to work from.
I am in an excited mode about the story and am already seeing a third new story in the series to get in all that needs to be handled before I get to rewriting the rest of the series. This is a fun stage of writing.

In my story ideas, I am in an idea creation stage. I am coming up with two and three ideas on many days this week. I love that. ON the posting front, I am a day behind. I got home late last night. That does not matter as I still have the whole month to catch up on.
Counting what I am posting today, I have 44 story ideas on the compost pile. Just about all the top ten in the stack is worth writing soon.

I am in a period where I am trying to get ready for an art show at the end of next month. My problem is that there is all sorts of things getting in the way of my spending my weekends working wood. I am going to a renaissance fair next weekend. Another day of not working wood.
I am getting results though. It dawned on me that when I start on a "real" carving, (not little hand held ornament sized figurines), I start out very gingerly, not exactly sure what I am doing. There comes a point where I have gotten far enough to where I can really dig in with gusto as I know what I am doing, at least for a while. Later, I will get into detailing and work gingerly again.
I am working on several projects at once, and this weekend, I made big headway on three projects. I am carving a flower vase where the base has the shape of a flower pot and there are a series of knots around the top that are the centers of the flowers. Last weekend, I fought with the leaf shapes.
This weekend, it actually looks impressive, even if it is barely started. the stems, flowers, and leaves are now raised above the background and really looks like something.
I had to remake a system for making platters easily and figured out a new trick that actually will make it easier to do. I made a platter and did not have to fight it the way I used to, I then printed a picture with a design I needed and have started carving the design on the plate,
I also attached the handle on beer stein I am making and redesigned the mechanism for lifting the lid. the lid is not attached yet, but I solved a design problem I had. My sister in law saw it and said she wanted a set of them. All I can say is that making one has been a trial. I am not likely to make a set...

A friend told about where when he was working in front of the customer, he worked slowly. When the customer left, he would kick into overdrive and get a whole lot of work done while they were gone. it helped keep the customer from watching him work.
For all the above as a story idea,
The watchers insisted that workers work with approved methods on the job. No short cuts, no applying one's self, no making use of natural talent. One is not to make anybody else feel bad because they are not as good.
She was given the job to get a project done for an official festival. She saw she had plenty of time. A month before the festival, the watchers started preparations for the festival and the workers were required to go to meetings, do training work on other one-time projects in preparation. they had less or no time to work on Saturday Workers were expected to work on Sunday, but there were no watchers, which was a day off for them.
She needs to get the work done, along with her normal work, so she decides that, since there are no watchers, no one important is going to complain if she goes against the rules on Sundays.
She comes in early and leaves late(against the rules). Instead of making each part one at a time, she instead stacks them and makes them in batches (also against the rules). She takes other short cuts and she applies herself at the best of her ability, and she is much better than anybody else in her department.
There are complaints by a few other workers about her, but since the watchers never saw her do it, they cannot do anything about it.
When the festival comes up, Everybody is taking advantage of the Sunday with no watchers, having friendly competitions on who can make the parts faster, at a higher quality, and get their other work done besides.
Their division is the only one that was fully ready for the festival. the watchers are really proud of the displays and the division leaders among the watchers all get accolades for their work.
The workers back down on Sundays, taking things easy, but will work at full skills if they have to catch up. That division never had a late project again.

As to the question of the week, I can proudly say

YES, I DID WRITE!!!!

DID YOU WRITE?

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Week 526 Woodworking

year 10, Week 4, Day One (week 526) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-06-10 Saturday

78 degrees. fairly clear skies at dawn, some heavy cloud cover mid morning, then blue skies with lots of puffs in the afternoon. Stiff breeze and plenty of sun shine most of the day. it is supposed to get below freezing, at around 50 degrees tonight and tomorrow night. I have to move to a warmer climate. This weather report is brought to you by the Fort Lauderdale Department Of tourism.

I checked in on my stuff at the antique shop. He has not sold any of my stuff. They have been in there a year. So far, he has purchased a few of my cheep items, two saucers and a pear, to make something of his complete. Even so, it is on display. That is good enough.
Next month, I will be bringing my stuff home so I can refinish the pieces that are below my finishing skills.

We went yard sailing again. I ended up with some books, some kitchen stuff, and a bag of plumbing and electrical stuff for my brother.
Mom and emptied the canvas bag that had the plumbing and electrical stuff, and we sorted through it, separating them out in quart zipper bags. We figure there must have been a good hundred dollars worth of stuff in the bag. we took out the screws and fender washers, and still there was loads of stuff in there.
One thing I did was to keep a few fittings to use for ferules for some tools. They are about the right size.

I did get to do some woodworking after lunch. I needed to change the thumb piece on the beer stein. I needed more wood for the hinge itself. I did something stupid. I tried to pry off the piece I glued on, rather than cutting it off and sanding off the remains. It broke off. I then tried cutting that little piece off, and the saw found it so it was unusable. I cut the gap square, then cut a piece of wood to fit in there and glued it in place. Since it is where the thumb lever is going, it won't be a problem. It sticks out from the edge of the lid, so I will have to cut it to size and do some surface sanding. Luckily, it won't matter if it is seen.

I also applied myself to the duckling bowls. They have a saucer like piece around the base to be the feet. I chose which part of the bowl would be the front, and cut the saucer off the back. I then shaped that to match the shape of the bowl. None of them are perfect. They will come out good anyway. I have a lot of work to do on them, inside and out.

While I did not get too much done, I did get something done. That is one step closer to being finished.

Last month, I had taken everything out of my spare bedroom where I have a permanent model railroad layout. All the boxes got stacked in front of my finished woodworking. I have filtered through a good number of the boxes and most of it turned out to be papers to toss out. I can now access my finished woodworking. I now need to take those pieces out to sand and refinish to the level I can now do it. I still have more stuff to sort through and put away, so I am not sure when I will actually get to work on finishes. It has to be soon as I have a whole lot of pieces that need to be improved. I also have new pieces coming up that will need loads of work.

I want to finish adding the lid on the beer stein, which I might be able to do tomorrow. I also have to glue on the lid. Then I can work on the finish of that piece.
I need to do some strip sanding and dremmel grinding on the duckling bowls and finish up the duck heads I made. I need to work on the flower vase, digging in deep to make the flowers and leaves to stand out.
I have decided to hold off some projects until after the art show, but there are some that really needs to be done.
I do need to make some finials for the sea urchin shells. I also need to make a few platters. Whether I will actually have time to make them and get them finished, will be something else. The platters will have to be carved which will take even more time.

I will see what I actually do tomorrow.



year 10, Week 4, Day Two (week 526) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 02-07-10 Sunday

Below 60 degrees strong wind with stronger gusts with wispy puffs, against a blue sky, in the morning. 64 degrees with a weaker wind, great sunshine in the afternoon.
What a difference from the beginning of the winter. When the cold first arrived, we were walking around, bundled in coats, at 70 degrees. Today, I was working outside for a while, noting that it was sharp, but quite tolerable, when I saw the temperature at 58 degrees. that was one shocking surprise. When I was ready to carve, I sat out in the open, soaking in the sun, the wind slightly blocked to make the weather warmth stick with me more. Of course, on the way home, I cranked up the heat in my truck and had the hot air blowing on me all the way home.
This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of tourism.

Mom had a yard sale this morning. I arrived early and went out back to get to work. After dragging out my equipment, fully planning to carve all day, The urge to turn wood came over me and I had a project that would need to be carved anyway.
I dragged out the lathe, after petting the cat twice, and mounted a platter I had started a while back. I had a few mis-steps on centering it, but got it figured out and got it pretty much right. I used some thin double sided tape to attach it to the wooden face plate that was held in the chuck. I also used, at times, double sided tape for the wooden face plate I used to hold the plate in place.
The design of my system is to have one face plate act as a template for cutting out the rim of the base. That rim is then just big enough to fit around the other face plate, automatically centering it.
I made a little mistake on this piece. I forgot about the matching size of the inset of the base. I made it bigger than it was supposed to be. Centering it was out of the question the way I planned. I then got a great idea. Since it was still centered by the face plate held in the chuck. I added double sided tape to the tail stock face plate, centered it and applied pressure with the tail stock. I spun it to make sure it was centered. I then was able to turn the piece around, pry off the opposite face plate and hollow out the inside of the plate. I will have to remember that technique.

rear of light house platter

After I made the platter and cleaned up, I brought an electrical cord out by the shed at the back of the lot. I got a chair, and something to act like a table. I printed a flyer for the art show and cut the light house out. I then glued it to the platter. I traced the line with a Dremmel bit called an engraver. It has a super tiny cutting bit. I got the impression of the light house of the flyer. I cut back the background slightly, around the drawing. It shows a little better what it is going to be, but I will have a whole lot more work to do on it to make this work. I could have worked more, but chose to work on something else.

Light house I am copying


Light house platter with start of carving.
Knot and inclusion is the ground of the light house

I attacked the flower vase. Now that I have a good idea where the flowers and leaves are I dug in deep, sending the backgrounds farther back, and sending some leaves farther into the background so they go under others. This made a big difference in how the vase looks.
I admitted to my Mom that I had no idea how I was doing it, but somehow, it was appearing out of the wood.

flower vase with deeper carvings.

My brother came and he was excited about the stuff we picked up at the yard sales. He was drooling. A whole bunch of the stuff was stuff he was about to buy or would soon be buying.
Mom had gotten him a hundred foot long roll of solder and he had me make a spool so we could have some for my model railroad layout. I took a two by two, rounded the center to about an inch in diameter, and we simply wound the solder on it while it was on the lathe. we tried using the motor to wind it on, but the solder had some weak spots and broke, so we started the end again and I wound it by hand. Got a good length of the solder. That is known as quick and dirty tool making.

Beer stein with handle attached
Lid just sitting in place

For today, I had the best woodworking day in many months. I am proud of my accomplishments. if every woodworking day was as good as this one, I would be in heaven.

Next week, I will be working on more of the same projects. the problem is that we will be going to a Renaissance fair on Saturday. I do not know if I will be able to go to it twice this year. I will have to see. We usually have no time to do anything else after the fair.
I expect any production I do, will be on Sunday.

Will see what I actually do next week.

Monday, February 1, 2010

February 01, 2010 - Did You write?

February 01, 2010 - Did You write?

A new month have arrived. A new Monday has arrived. It is time to report your writing activities. Knowing this note is coming should get you to sit down and write something, anything, of any length, on some project so you can report you have written.
This is for those of us who will go months without writing, then write a bunch of stuff for a few weeks, then go another couple months without writing. The idea is that you develop the habit of writing even a little bit each week so you can report that you accomplished something. Do this each and every week, and you end up with some visible production by the end of the year.
The amount of words that you write, is not important. What you write, is not really important. While new writing is thought of as writing, Editing, world and character creation, poetry blogging, article writing, writing assignments, are all writing. there are others that also can be writing if that is something you are willing to accept as writing. The object is to develop a habit of placing words onto "paper."

As for me, I barely wrote. On one piece, I added a total of 40 words. On another I added a hundred words. Neither production is much, but that is a hundred and forty words I won't have to write the next time I open the files to work.

I finished the month with 31 story ideas posted. That ended up as 55 pages at 33272 words. that is not too bad for about an hour, hour and a half of writing drivel.
For those couple of you who are interested, you can see my story ideas at http://www.xprodigy.net/board/index.php and Go down to Writer's Roost. While you are there, if you click on page 6, you will find the beginning of the board and you will see the Waxy Dragon stories I have posted. Spread through the rest of the board, there are some 60 Waxy stories posted.
I did a count of my compost pile and including the story idea I don't have time to post tonight (I started writing it but have run out of time to finish it) I have 41 concepts to post. The top six are still good ones to post. Will have to see about the ones lower in the pile. It is called a compost pile since the worst ideas tend to sink to the bottom.

I can say,
YES, I WROTE!!! (even if it was a pittance)

DID YOU WRITE?