(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-17-10 Saturday
94 degrees, hazy blue sky from dust from Africa. The dust crosses the Atlantic. The Bahamas catch the dust destined for Fort Lauderdale, but in the northern part of the county and north, the dust and sand reach the shores and build up high sand dunes along the beach. Fort Lauderdale beaches are flat in comparison to, say, Hillsboro Beach sand dunes, which can be forty or fifty feet tall.
Lots of irregular shaped clouds, high streaks, nice wind, lots of sun. this weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
Monday:
I had put the face vase into linseed oil on Saturday, and the plastic bags I used, leaked. I had put it into one zipper bag and that leaked. I then put one bag into another and refilled it. I walked away and it fell to the floor and spilled. I refilled it and then found both baggies leaked and stuck it into a bucket. I took it out Monday.
Linseed oil smells nice initially, but after a while, it is bothersome.
The face vase has air dried for a week and still smells. They say one should let it air dry for a month. I will start finishing it this week.
Thursday:
The turning club meeting was as good as it has been.
The quality of the work displayed in the club is well above what it was when I first joined in 2004. Once beginners are now skilled and the variety of techniques and styles the people are doing is so vastly improved. Everybody learns from everybody.
The variety of the works on display this month was fantastic. The craftsmanship is impressive. As an example, as good as my face vase was, I felt it was insignificant in comparison. I have to step up my quality.
The demonstration was a Saturn bowl. This bowl resembles Saturn with the sphere, the planet, with a ring around it. The ring can be rotated on the sphere. What the demonstration showed was really simple technique, but by his demonstration, it is but not all that easy. He either parted off the same piece of wood, or found a piece of wood with similar grain to each other. He made the base that would hold the ring, shaping the outside. with the still attached ring. the ring has to have parallel faces and be fairly thin. He hollowed it, and parted the ring from the body of the bowl by cutting a V into the body, through the ring, cutting in from each side. The demonstrator messed up and accidentally cut through the bowl while trying to part the ring so it would turn. He was then to make the matching lid that had a close but not tight fit, and make the sphere even all the way around.
I expect to have disasters worse than that when I do my demonstration next month. It is something to look forward to.
Face vase three views after soaking in linseed oil.
Saturday:
I did some yard-sailing and ended up with a palm pilot with a folding keyboard. I have to figure out how to use it and what it is used for. It does work, though.
The city of Pompano was giving out free trees. It is usually two weekends each year, and is intended to get native trees into the landscaping, fill the city with trees.
This was the first weekend of the give-a-way. One has to show you are a resident of the city to get them. My mom is, but I am not.
Mom got her two trees, a Fox-Tail Palm tree. the frond ends look torn up with this tree. She also got a red maple tree. These are saplings.
I see that my interest in trees have an ulterior motive. It has something to do with woodworking... grow a tree to use later.
I left the oak dress-vase at home so I went to other projects. It turned out to be one of THOSE days.
At the yarn shop, they have metal crochet needles with wood handles on them, essentially dowels, looks like it might be some kind of palm, to make gripping the smaller hooks easier.
I decided to make some handles for the crochet hooks I made last week. My wood hooks are shorter than they are supposed to be because of the stock I grabbed at the moment, so the addition of the handle brings them closer to preferred lengths.
I had a Norfolk Island Pine vase that was way too thick. It was in my "junk" box, which is filled with pieces that are ugly, unfinished, poorly made, basically useless unless "rebuilt."
I had a Norfolk Island Pine vase that had a poor outer shape and the inside did not follow the outside.
I mounted it on the lathe using the double sided tape and reshaped the outside, getting rid of a little bit of wobble. I turned to the inside and immediately had a breakout. When I corrected that, a knot broke out. Once I got that leveled out again, the tape decided not to hold any more and the piece started wobbling. when I started, the inside had little wobble. by the time I got to working the inside to cut it to follow the shape outside, it was wobbling too bad. I stopped.
Since it was not going well, I may use "manual" methods to finish it.
The cat wanted attention and company. I sat and crocheted while he napped at my feet at one point. I had to rip out several lines of the crochet to get rid of a mistake, and then worked a couple lines back on. I then decided to get up and do some more woodworking. My plan was not to bother the cat. The problem was that I forgot about the yarn that was dangling down beside the chair. I had the ball and the fabric in my hand and the dangling yarn slid over the cat. It leaped up in shock, then stood there and looked at me like he was calling me a bigger idiot than cats usually consider people to be.
My clutch is acting up on my truck. It started Friday when I was near home. It was kind of good at first this morning, but got worse when I neared Mom's house.
On the way home, I had to force the truck out of gear at the lights and then struggle to get it back into gear to move. I drove in a lower gear just to avoid having to change gears. I went home, then to my brother's house, relearning how to shift without the clutch, though I always pushed it in. I am not good at it, getting it right about a quarter of the time.
he had me dig out the book and we learned that there is no cable adjustment for the throw of the clutch peddle. the problem is that I need a new clutch.
I went to a birthday party and over-ate and I kept it small and cheap. I got an appetizer sampler and with bits I got from others, it was far more than I normally eat.
I talked to my brother more about the truck, and to family of my niece about all sorts of other things.
I decided during the party that I was going to stay home on Sunday. I will use the time to apply a finish to pieces rather than going to Mom's house and make sawdust.
Next week I will most likely I will be under my truck with my brother to lower the transmission so we can replace the clutch.
I will try to bring the dress vase with me to work on, to finish.
I have lots of projects I really need to work on. I have a fairy blank I need to finish. the hard part is to come up with a surrounding scene that is different than the sister of that blank is in. I had made two blanks of this fairy, on the idea of working on two pieces at a time like my dad was doing at the time. He would keep the best one and try to sell the lesser piece. I started both of these, then realized I did not have the time or gumption to work on two of everything so this blank went into my junk box.
I need to start on my Christmas ornaments. I have several good ideas for this year's ornaments but really need to get to carving them.
I need to, but doubt I can do so, pick up some wood for next month's demonstration on the 19th, and get it all set up with work at different stages of finish. I will try to do one from start to finish during the club meeting, but if I run into problems, I want to have several at successive stages that I can grab and continue to work with. I should practice some between now and then also.
I would like to carve some more pixies, carve another baby dragon, and have some relief carving ideas I would like to do. I should also start another face vase.
This does not count all the different turning projects I would like to do such as the Saturn vase or making a vase to pierce. I have a bowl I want to carve.
Of course, I don't have time for all my projects so most will never actually be made.
I will see what I actually do next week.
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