86 degrees, light breeze, lots of blue sky, some wispy clouds floating by, Very comfortable for wood working. The sun at noon was fairly low on the sky and my lathe was only partly in the sun, when the inside end was in line with the awning on the north side of the building.
This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach department Of Tourism.
Yesterday, I went to the antique shop to check on my stuff. He had a cartoon like butler figurine, about four foot tall, and it needed a plate to hold. He took one of my saucers to stick on it. He sold that, then brought in a second one and took another of my saucers. He paid me for both of them. I told him a lower price than I could, but it is money.
I showed him pictures of the face vase. His first words were "that is one ugly face." I asked him a design question and a planned change won't happen.
I picked ups some Sea Urchin shells. These are those spiny balls. the shell is a hollow ball. I got three, as the price was pretty good.
Mom is visiting that people trap created by a rat so I worked alone today. I got a lot of work done, but little of what I really need to work on.
The cat started a bit irritated but calmed down quite a bit. I ended up giving him a lot less attention than he wanted, and I gave him a lot of attention.
I took the pine wood I got last week, and made some finials for the sea urchin shells I picked up yesterday. I had seen Christmas ornaments made this way and decided to give it a try, since I was right next door to the place I got them.
I am having one of those good times on wood turning. The skew chisel tends to be a tool that either sends wood flying, or digs in and really messes up the surfaces. I was making the finial, which are really long thin pieces of wood, and I grabbed the skew chisel to do the wood removal. I was on my second finial when It dawned on me what I was doing. I do have the advantage and knowledge that I used it on some other projects over the past couple months without digging in once. The skew chisel tends to be a tool that you either can use, or you cannot.
The skew chisel was pealing the thin layers of wood off with each pass while the bowl gouge, which I normally use, was having problems (needs to be sharpened).
When I left Mom's house, I stopped at the Woodcraft shop to ask someone about the finials. while talking, I showed it to a customer and he was impressed by the finials. I will say that I am not. I have seen better. It is refreshing to have a second opinion on the work done.
The finials have to be sanded and varnished and a hook put in. I am not complaining about the results. Of course, now I wish I had purchased more sea shells.
Maybe I can make my own....
I had a square ornament, that originally had a lid on it, but it was rather dumb. I made a finial for it. It is better than it was, but not spectacular. Got to finish it and might donate it to the Fort Lauderdale Museum of art, for the festival of trees. They let people decorate some Christmas trees with donated ornamentation. They then sell the trees and the proceeds fund the museum. The clubs involved in the WoodCrafts store donate wood ornaments to the tree.
I unloaded the worst of my ornaments last year and have not made many this year. I don't have much to donate.
I carved on one of the swan ornaments today. I carve it with a knife, then go to dremmel to finish it off. The knife rough carves and gets it into a condition that the dremmel can finish off.
I have a bunch of blanks made with the band saw, but now have to carve them. I have until the end of November to get twelve of each kind finished up. I have worked on other projects as of late.
Tomorrow, I will be doing more of what I did today. I have one sea shell ornament to finish up. I must carve on my swans and owls. I also need to come up with a fourth type of ornament to make, preferably not birds.
It does take some time to carve each one and I only have a few weekends to work.
For tomorrow, I will work on the Christmas ornaments. I will turn a couple finials for the last shell ornament, and might sand on the face vase, but my main attention is the ornaments.
I will see how tomorrow really goes.
Top View
Bottom view
year 9, Week 42, Day Two (week 512) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 11-01-09 Sunday
88 degrees, blue skies, sporadic breeze, thin puffs here and there, never blocking the sun. A nice, comfortable day to lounge around or work on easy projects. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of tourism.
I have ways to deal with Daylight Savings times. I changed all the clocks in the house except the alarm. I was up and about for a while, napped, and got up at my normal time for Sunday. The idea is that when I go to work Monday, I will still have the early waking habit and not be thrown off by the time change.
When going back to Daylight savings times, I adjust the clock to get up fifteen minutes earlier, several days in a row so the Monday early morning shock is not there. I am ready for it.
Since my Mom was out of town, and I had to feed the cat, I went to a different plan. I did not mess with the computer, but instead headed out like I did yesterday. I went directly to breakfast rather than Mom's house. After that, I went to Mom's house.
The cat started being his normal Grinch when he had his first serving of food, but quickly became so nice and sweet. I was petting him and forgot he has an attitude. He stared at me for a long time before he got up because I was not stopping what I was doing. After five sessions of petting, he actually fell asleep between my feet for a good half hour. If I had a book in my hands, I would have sat for a couple hours easily with him there.
I dug out the lathe first thing and started making a finial for the last of the Sea Urchin shell. I stopped to measure the hole in the top I added yesterday to hide the break. I realized I had it way too thick. I set the shell into water to help loosen the glue. I ran into a small problem with the finial and stopped. I checked the shell. I put just a little bit of energy into seeing if there was any movement in the wood and the shell broke apart. I tossed it.
A bit later, I took out a piece of Slash Pine branch and started turning it. I made the tenon a bit too small and it started spinning in the chuck, which was cranked down to minimum. I broke the far end and it started wobbling around all over the place. I stopped and took that out of the lathe. That was the total of my wood turning.
I sat and carved for a while. I was shaping the swan blanks with my knife. With one, I squeezed too tight while holding the piece for a cut and cracked the neck. I glued that together and set it to the side. I was going good on a second one and cracked the wing. That is also glued.
I did carve two of the swans. They need dremmel work and touch-ups, along with details. They are coming along fairly nice.
It was a very good day overall, slow, relaxing, I got some work done. Nothing I had problems with were permanent. I can continue on them later with a slight change in the setup.
The cat was nice and the weather was perfect. I wish it was like today, every day.
I stopped at the Woodcrafts and talked to a couple of our turning club members that were there. I got a better idea on how to design the finials for the shell ornaments I did. That will help on other pieces I do.
I also got an idea on how to finish the face vase. I need to cut a couple tests pieces to see the proper substances I am after.
The face vase has three faces around it. What I would like to do to make it stand out, is to apply a glue or finish on the faces so they remain the light wood color. I then would darken the rest of the bowl, likely by soaking it in oil. The faces would stand out against the really pretty tones of the Norfolk Island Pine.
Next weekend, I must work on the ornaments some more. I should cut some Norfolk and do some finish tests. I will use white glue, varnish and super glue and see what gets the right effect.
Beyond that, I have a lot of stuff that needs finishing. I should get on that during the week. I will have to see if I do.
Will see what I actually do next week.
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