(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-15-18 Saturday
68 degrees early morning 79 late afternoon, mostly sunny, with clouds building as the day wore on. We did get showers in the late afternoon for a short time as the remains of a front passed through. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I knew about a yard sale a friend of a friend was having. I went there as it was in my general area and drooled over everything and left without a purchase. I did take my money out for something, and he walked to the other side of the circular driveway to help a customer so I had time to talk myself out of the purchase.
I then went to have my truck serviced. There was something pointed out to watch for so they had to take extra time to check it. They had a problem with a hidden key on the truck, tapping against the metal, but they found that nothing is really needing to be cared for, for a while.
I had a dish cloth I had started before. It is the zig zag stitch where you create hills and valleys as you work. I had already tried to solve a problem with it and as I added a few rows, I realize it really had problems that could not be solved at this stage. I ripped out about half the dishcloth to about where I thought I saw where the problem started and then added a couple rows. It still had problems so I ripped it out more, then added some before I realized that I had an initial design error. I will tell about that farther down.
I ripped it all to the first two rows and wound the yarn in the center pull ball I always do and restarted the zig zag stitch. After about the second new row, the yarn stopped pulling out of the center of the ball.
I made a small mistake when I wound the ball, yarn to bind. It would not come out any more without breaking it. I’ve had a few commercial yarns that has done this to me also, so I don’t feel too bad.. I ripped out what I had, balled it up and stuck it into the hole in the center of the ball, and then restarted, pulling from the outside. By the forth row I saw I had a new mistake and ripped it out again.
I then decided to go with a ribbed dish cloth as it was easier. This is where you grab the post of the stitch below, rather than the top. Ridges form and with dishcloths, that works well for scrubbing.
I found are three major causes of problems I was having with the zig zag stitch. One is if you skip a stitch, usually in a valley. That flattens out that area.
Being sloppy where you do your skip-three stitch for the valley or triple stitch for the peaks as they will wander side to side and you might merge the valley and the peak. If you have 15 or 20 stitches between each valley and peak, it is easy to see where you are working. If you have only 5 or 6 stitches between them like this dishcloth, then a slight wander to the left or right will cause the straight stitches between the peak and valleys to shrink causing them to merge.
The number of ups and downs straights have to be the same number. If you start the row with an up, you need to end your row with a down. The reason for this is that you take away from one side, but add to another. Compared to the straight edge, the actual sides of the piece are on a slight angle to the rows you are working.
I had all three of these problems in this dish cloth.
Year 18, Week 49, Day Two (week 987)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-16-18 Saturday
Mostly sunny, 65 degrees which is cool, in the morning, 79 in the afternoon, nice light breeze. This weather report is brought to you by The Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I stopped by the yard sale I saw yesterday and I am now a proud owner of a push mower. I tested it out. It is a bit harder to push than the electric and the electric does pull the grass up taller before it cuts it, but it is kind of nice to have. We had one when I was a kid and it was hard for me to push so I never really got into using it, but as an adult, I have SORT OF wanted one for years. Never sure why. I have one now. My brother said that what I need to do is to show it to the kids during Christmas and they will end up mowing the lawn for me because it will be fun to push. That I will have to see.
As I said, it is slightly more difficult to push than the electric mower, but you don’t have to deal with the cord or starting a gas motor. I noticed it is a bit easier to manoeuver than the electric but it only mows one direction. I consider it a toy to try out once in a while.
I made it a slightly lazy day. I carved a steam engine and touched one of the others. They are still not coming out the way I want them, but they do look like steam engines so I am not complaining too much. I figure the last one will be exactly what I am after.
During the week, I’ve worked on my Christmas cards. I had finished the background during last week, with full knowledge that very little of it wold show when done. I then started painting the steam engines on it. I used a dark purple with the idea I could go black, for shadows and lighter for highlights. The engines I painted were cartoonish, every single one, I accepted that and would work with it. On Monday I sat down to add additional color to the steam engines. I figured they would be green boilers and red cabs. I added the green to the very first one. ARGH!!!
It was so horrible, I stopped and did not touch the cards for the rest of the week. Talk about an idea that would not work. Saturday, I decided to go with grey and just paint the highlights. That started looking fairly good. Today I added a yellow splotch for the number board and for a name on the cab and some black for touch-up.
To write on this acrylic paint with a pen, one needs to wait a day or two. Tomorrow I plan to paint Christmas lights on the tree. Then I can start with pen work on the picture and on the back and inside. I hope to be able to hand these out in the next day or so. I might rush a few so I can give them out early in the week.
The moment I finish this batch of cards, I have another batch to paint. You don’t realize how many people you know until you start painting your own cards.
Christmas is next weekend. I will have a multi day weekend. I have loads of wood to turn into chips and sawdust, I mean finished pieces. I have presents to gather and wrap (I would rather country or rock them, but everybody says they should be rapped.....)
It is surprising how I was way ahead last week and this week I am way behind.
I used to buy a box of cards and just use them to identify who was getting a present and who from. I never gave any thought about the cards.
A lot of years ago (2003), I had gotten a teddy bear stamp. I decided I would use the stamp to make some Christmas cards. I then realized that the stamp was going to be a harder than it looked. I really did not know anything about stamping. It is one thing to pad the stamp in ink and touch it to the paper. It is another to have a nice scene to go with it.
Since I had the paint and had some painting instruction, I decided I would paint my cards, figuring that would be easier. I ended up painting just six cards. The only record of them I have are some slightly out of focus pictures I have. They were not too bad looking, viewing them now.
I skipped a year and then started painting cards. First for just the family, then for others. It has been something I have done most years ever since.
Some people choose a card just for the person, with the right picture and saying. Others choose a box of cards that has the right message for the year, and then write something inside that is meaningful.
I found that I get a lot of satisfaction out of painting my own cards. I have put a lot of my time and effort (putting in a lot of myself) into the cards. I know people who have every single painted card I have ever given. It means more to everyone than a card just picked out.
I have copies of most of my cards over the year and none are really what I would call artistic. They are done fast, using the wrong brushes, not really planning out what I am doing and I am “splashing” color on a bunch of them at the same time. If I painted each one start to finish, one at a time, the results would be different. I see commercial cards now sort of in my style looseness of the picture...
What many artists will do is paint one card, possibly in a larger format, and then scan them in and print them. That is good, they are original works, but getting something actually painted, where you can see the mistakes, feel the lumps of paint, and the splotches on the backs of the cards (I don’t clean paint mess on the backsides simply because the results of the corrections are worse than the mess) and if you happen to see someone else’s card, you can see they are not exactly the same, but quite similar.
It happens that I am the only one I know paints them individually.
Next weekend, I have planned a lot of wood working, getting stuff ready to box up and ship out (after Christmas, which is typical) and to get things ready for Christmas. I have to start painting a new batch of cards the instant I pick up the first batch for lettering
I will see what actually happens during the week and this weekend..
1848
a closeup of the first cards I painted.
one set of the six cards I had painted the first time.
second set of the six cards I had painted the first time.
My steam engines
some of the cards from the first batch this year.
I had already passed out some of them before I remembered to take pictures.
I show the back and inside of a couple cards.
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