96 degrees, light wind that barely moved leaves, Early morning humidity faded by late morning. Towers of clouds early morning all over, but big mass over the everglades moving north. We did get a sprinkle, not hard enough or long enough to react to, rain shadow from one of the towers. Otherwise, sunny with blue sky where it mattered most. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
Thursday
I had a turning club meeting on Thursday. I had sanded my square bowl and my crochet hooks to where they did not drag on the yarn. they were not as slick as the metal, but quite usable. I later learned that originally, all crochet hooks were wood.
I forgot that I had won the Bring Back prize last month, so I ended up giving my square bowl as the prize. I then only had to showoff my hooks. I had my crochet, and the original metal hook that I copied along with it.
I also picked up a couple ball so yarn to make wash cloths and to play around with. They were not what I was after but I see they actually are helping me learn the craft.
My first project is getting closer to the end of the string. The ball looks a whole lot smaller, I can actually imagine me getting to the very end of the project in the near future. I used my ball of string and crochet as a backdrop for the wooden hooks.
was not what I wanted to work on today.
After breakfast and yard sailing (spent two bucks), I went out and petted and fed both cats. I actually spent most of the day petting the beast of the back yard. He was so much like a cat that I forgot myself several times. He mainly opens his mouth, as if to bite, to show his displeasure but there is no energy in it. We are slowly learning a language which we can communicate. I am glad he has gotten out of swatting with his claws bared.
I started the morning cutting some orange for some crochet needles. I got a bunch of blanks cut, but decided that
I am planning to get with one of the people in the club to help me on making platters, and later do a demonstration. I will show him what I am doing. He will then show me how to improve my methods, then I will demonstrate what we come up with.
I took the remains of my two by twelve yellow pine board and cut it into square pieces, marked the center by running lines between corners and where they crossed was center. I did this on both sides of the board.
I then used a children's compass to draw a circle as big as will fit on the board. I finally took them to the band saw and cut the corners off outside the circle lines.
I usually keep the corners for carved faces, usually bearded or long haired, but chose to toss them today.
I took my wooden face plates and the blanks I made and wiped them with mineral spirits to clean them. double sided tape does not stick to dust.
I mounted a blank in the lathe with the double sided tape and started rounding it. I had it close, but the tool caught on the wood and it came off the face plate. When I looked at it, there was some tape residue on the wood, which tells me that the mineral spirits had not evaporated fully and reacted with the tape's glue. I will clean that off tomorrow, possibly, and get back to work later.
Whenever I went in side to refill my cup with something cold, I tended to dwell inside for quite a while, even if I had no intention of doing it. Mom had the AC cranked up and it felt good to sit and watch some TV a little bit.
I ended up getting less done than I even considered.
Tomorrow, I need to carve on the face vase, which I never got to, today. I really got to do more work on it. I saw some carved pieces by a master and see I have a lot of work to do on the eyes.
I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
year 10, Week 23, Day Two (week 545) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 06-20-10 Sunday
96 degrees, very light breeze, high swipes of clouds, lower puffs, small towers building in the afternoon. Lots of sun with short periods of cloudy. I had the fan running under the awning and would turn wood for a while, get into the fan for a short time, then go back out to turn wood in the sun. Humidity is still low so the day was not the thick air one gets in the height of summer. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of tourism.
I started by petting and feeding the cats. Scar-face/Tom ate his fill and wandered off. Beggar/the beast of the back yard, hung around. Every so often, he would come out and give me that look of "What, I have to wait for my attention?" He got quite a few sessions, most of them he had enough and went to sleep under the work bench next to the fence.
Mom gave me a little project. She had a cigar box that she wanted to be used for collections. I first cut a slot in the top where she had it marked. I then used the disk sander to hit several of the sides, then used a sanding disk on my drill to do where the latches and stuff were in the way. I did not realize that the varnish already on it had built up as little nobs on my little sanding disks until I had already added a coat of varnish to it. That was when I saw it was so rough. As I was about to leave then, I had no time to fix it.
I sat and carved on my face vase, concentrating on the eyes. I am at one of those stages where you sit and do a whole lot of work and it does not look like I have done much. Every project gets a period like this, carving is worse on this than many other projects. I am mainly defining the design of the faces, working in small details as I go.
I found a piece of wood that I cut off a different project. This was Florida Mahogany. I decided to make a hat for he face vase. the first thing I did after mounting it, was to flatten the surface, then measure where the diameter of the face vase landed on the hat piece. I marked that and then started hollowing. I created the brim, and started shaping the top of the hat.
I got everything near where I wanted it. I then took it off the lathe, put the face vase back on, and then put the hat on the top of the face vase head and, running the lathe slowly, made some adjustments to the top of the hat, without damaging the tenon that the chuck hangs onto.
When I stopped, I took the hat and face vase off and looked at them together. Yuck!!! I doubt I will use the hat, though I might figure out how to make it look good. Will have to see.
face vases three views of faces while checking hat.
Next week I need to work more on the face vase. I still have a long ways to go on it. It is not following my imagination, which usually happens. My skills are not up to where they really need to be.
I need to make arrangements, either this next weekend, or the following weekend, to get with one of the club members to work with me on making platters.
I will see what I actually do next week.
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