Year 20, Week 48, Day one (week 1091)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-19-20 Saturday
70 degrees, light breeze, no humidity. Blue-sky rimmed clouds meandering across the sky, with only an occasional glimpse of sunshine. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.
I finished my cards. Today was all pen work. I outlined the sails, skipping where the dots of color of the Christmas lights were in the way. I also outlined the ship above the waterline. This all made things stand out more.
I then signed the back of the cards with my card logo and “Another Card Painted by Roger Stegman.” Finally, I wrote on the inside of the cards.
There was one card I had accidentally swapped the colors of the water and the sky. When I painted the cards, I never noticed the card in the stack. I did skip adding the lights to one card for some reason. Well when I was lettering the cards, I found that the one I messed up on the colors, was the one that did not get the lights. I chose not to letter the inside as I might send it to someone who does not celebrate Christmas. This is the first Christmas where I was not painting cards on Christmas eve.
In normal years, I only have room to set out 20 cards at a time for them to dry. I was always painting the cards in the evening so I could only do a few colors at a time and then have to let them dry, so it might take a week to finish one set of the cards. It always takes time to come up with a card design, so I usually only have like two, maybe three weeks to get them done. I get the first batch of cards done at the time I have to hand them out, but I need more cards for everybody else. I then have to paint another batch of cards, sometimes changing the image slightly for better effect or to simplify the image for speed of paint. I am usually finishing them the day they have to be given out to family.
During the week, I did a list of names of people I have to give cards out to. I came up with 32 people. It might end up more, or it might end up less, depending on some conditions on who I see or don’t see. I don’t think I ever really figured out how many cards I really needed. I always knew I had to do about 40 or 50 cards. There are some people I will not see this year that I gave cards to, so I don’t need 50 cards for sure.
Partway through the day, Mom had me take some books to the Salvation Army. Mom has been whittling down her book collections. She used to teach painting and had all sorts of landscape and travel books that students could use as a guide for their paintings. She has not been teaching because of covid, and before that, really only had 3 or 4 students. She decided to pass off her books to either the library or the Salvation Army, rather than tossing them. I am a book fan and would love to have a vast library. The only problem is that I don’t have, and never will have, the room for all the books I want. I seldom dig into them anyway. I am just happy they are not being thrown away (in my sight anyway) and possibly be used by others.
Tomorrow I plan to work on foil roses as a present. I have no idea if I will have results. I have now seen about six methods of making them and have a few more ideas. Now to see if they will actually work.
Will see what happens tomorrow.
Year 20, Week 48, Day one (week 1091)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-19-20 Saturday
67 low, 79 high mostly and partly cloudy. Nice breeze, periodic visions of sunshine, with a few periods with lots of sun. Tuesday and Thursday, the temps will edge into the 50s again. This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Department Of Tourism.
I started the morning with gassing up and then stopping at an ALDI'S store. I got carried away both in time and money.
I finally got out back at about ten thirty, and then spent time trying to copy something from an email into the web page address window on my tablet. I failed. Later my niece showed me to hold my finger in the dress window and a paste button appears and I can hit that and it pastes. That is nice to learn new stuff.
I started making foil flowers. None of the methods worked great, but I did get one nice looking small rose. I tried to make some using regular aluminum foil, some with foil seals from coffee cans. With the latter, I tried pieces, and cutting them so they will coil. What I found is one has to glue them, especially to the stems. Some could possibly be fixed, but I will simply make more and the bad ones will magically disappear.
After I cleaned up, I spent most of my time talking to my brother about videos we saw, ones about making things, and we spent a lot of time talking about welding. I understand all he talks about, but have not done it so I have no muscle memory nor experience to be effective at it. Typical for me, head knowledge, but no experience.
My Christmas cards are done. I will start handing them out tomorrow. I will also package up and send out some of my ornaments. I have to stop and get some gift cards for the adults of our family. I learned that we may all meet after all. Will see when the final time arrives.
Next weekend, I do intend to try some more foil flowers. I have some small projects to work on such as a tea pot, and some parts for the lathe.
There are some ornaments I might re-make. It had been a long time since I made them. Then I got an idea for a new ornament design. It will require some detail carving, the general shape just won’t do.
I will see what I actually do next weekend.
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