Sunday, September 28, 2014

Year 15, Week 36, Day One (week 732)

Year 15, Week 36, Day One (week 732)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-27-14 Saturday
   
    90 degrees, strong breeze, lots of patchy clouds heavy humidity. One momentary shower early morning that was just enough to wet the ground while the sun was shining bright, then it and everything else was gone for the rest of the day.    This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
   
    LAST WEEK
   
    I got really sick with what turned out to be an infection. I basically stood and looked at what I wanted to do rather than do it. I mostly napped and accomplished nothing. Antibiotics prescribed Monday have been working to get rid of the problem.
   
    A story I wrote, FINDING WAXY, has hit the presses, available at http://www.amazon.com/
and
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
search either for FINDING WAXY or Roger Stegman.
   
    

My copy of the FINDING WAXY book I wrote.

    SATURDAY.
   
    We hit a couple yard sales but there was nothing at them that was of use.
   
    I napped several times during the day. I did go out and start rough carving some ornaments. I broke the ears off a couple mice I was carving and had to set them to dry. I spent my time rough carving the socks and mittens.
    One problem I am having with my carving is for some reason, I am hitting the thumb holding the knife. That usually does not happen. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.
    I learned years ago, it is easiest to rough carve the blanks first, removing the corners and getting the basic details in. Once they are all carved, one can then go and do finished carving and adding final details and get the surface you are after. The mind-set and technique for each stage is different. Horsing off excess wood does not require care or patience.
    In the afternoon, I had completely cleaned up and laid down to nap. It bothered me that I only had four mittens. I finally got up and went to the band saw and after drawing a quick shape on some pieces of four inch long two-by-two I had already cut, I band-
    Once I had them band-sawed out, I was able to lay back down and nap for the afternoon.
   
    I plan to work on the ornament blanks I have cut out and see how far I can get the others to a finished level.
   
    I will have to see what I do tomorrow.
   
   
   
   
Year 15, Week 36, Day Two (week 732)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
09-29-14 Sunday

    92 degrees, strong breeze, patchy clouds, light humidity some good sun. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I got out back as soon as I arrived at Mom’s house before Noon. I dumped out my Christmas Ornament blanks and settled down to carving on the mitten blanks I made yesterday. I had to glue an ear back on one of the mouse blanks as it came off with the jostling in the project bag.
   
    One of the pieces of wood had a nice knot in it, and that knot spread to all four mittens that came out of that block of wood. Knots are “fun” to carve. They are harder than regular wood and the wood around it tends to be tough to cut in one direction, and splits easy in another.
    I rough carved several mittens when the knife slipped and hit the thumb of my carving hand AGAIN. This was a bit deeper than a nick, and I dashed off and put a Band-Aid on it to keep the blood from getting onto the work, which was a problem I was having yesterday from the various nicks I had.
    I may have worked three or four mitten blanks. I have more to do, but once the blanks I have are done, I will have a full dozen of mittens. I have close to the number of socks I need also. The mice will require a bunch more blanks made.
    Now that I have mittens and socks roughed out, I will be satisfied with them as ornaments. I have not fully decided on the mice and need at least one more design.
    I will need at least one more design for ornaments for this year. Luckily, I am ahead of schedule on my ornaments, which is nice.
    Both the mittens and the socks will have presents put into them. I have kept the trimmings from the ornaments as I band-sawed them. I will cut them into tiny sizes, paint them and then glue them into a hollow I have to add to all these ornaments.
   
    I was doing well when I turned wrong and messed up a muscle in my back. It was about the time my brother was going to check to see if he can figure out where the leak in my radiator was. It turned out to be a hose on the very top. It easy to get, except you have to move a bunch of things to get to it.
    It is surprising how a little thing can mess you up nicely. Between the thumb and the side, I decided it was more than enough work for the day.
   
    Next weekend, a lot will depend on the weather. Mom is talking about having yard sales in the next couple weeks. I have more ornament blanks to work on and should make more mice blanks. There are a LARGE number of projects I have partly done or partly started that I really need to dig into.
    What I work on will pretty much have to be seen.
   
    I will see what I actually work on next weekend.
   
   
   
       


 SATURDAY ornament blanks and the work I did on them.


sawed out some new mitten blanks. I wanted them as big as possible so I made the thumbs smaller than on my first four blanks.

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