(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-03-12 Saturday
85 degrees, brisk wind that got stronger as the day wore on. Blue sky with a light haze and sun all day, clouds started building up over the Everglades later in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
During the week, I sanded and varnished at my tea pot parts and dream catcher parts. I now realize neither one will be ready for the art show. Sad, but that is reality.
I broke the handle of my coffee pot. I found out that these CORNING coffee pots were recalled because of handle breakage. I did not know that. I had seen a crack in the handle, but I thought that was part of the tightening method. the two parts move together as it is tightened. The band that has the pour spout was leaking ever so slightly.
I decided to tighten it. I located the screw at the handle and turned the screw about three times. The main part of the handle fell to the counter.
Looking at the handle, I think I could make something like that out of any number of materials. Wood could work if I find the right piece. I had a glance and have a couple pieces that might work. I might have to do extra engineering to make it strong enough. Plastic if I could find the right size plastic block, or metal could also be used. I will give it a thought. Electrically it works perfectly so it is worth saving. For now I located another pot to work with.
YARD SAILING.
Mom's neighbor had to move out. We rescued a nice mirrored medicine cabinet and some odds and ends that we have use for. Mom may give a friend the medicine cabinet. If not, it comes home.
There were some gaming and baseball cards, a couple of hats, and a book in the stuff we rescued. I later rescued a towel rack where the welds of the bottom rung broke.
skate board parts and hats with a bag
medicine cabinet and towel rack
baseball and game cards and a book
At another yard sale for the humane society, I picked up a small paper cutter, a drill bit measuring gauge for three bucks. Also in that three bucks were two doggy brushes. I am thinking they might work as carding combs for taking fiber and straightening it out for spinning. I have a couple projects where that would be an advantage. I also want to make a drop spinner but needed to have a way to card the fiber so I can test the spinning properties.
two doggy brushes, a drill bit gauge, and a paper cutter
I got a Sterno cook stove with two cans of heat. and a folding table at a dollar each. The table had been in the weather and needs some clean up. I glued on one of the edge bands that fell off. I use these tables at home all the time. A couple are where I do my varnishing and sanding to hold my stuff. Others are right now buried beneath stuff. this table will likely be used for dirty work where it might get messy from something or another.
Sterno stove as found in box and set up.
Folding table
SATURDAY
I gathered all my woodworking I had at home, and took them to Mom's house this morning. One hard part was finding a way to replace the pencil cups I had started using recently. I had to "discover" new containers for this.
After the morning was over, I went down to the antique shop and gathered all the pieces in my display. It took three boxes to bring that stuff back. I will bring my stuff back at the end of this month.
Front and side views of the antique shop display that is now taken away
Tomorrow I will, if the weather allows, set up a three foot wide and eight foot table and practice my display of my turnings and carvings. I don't have a table that size so I will have to build it up with boards and other tables.
What I will be doing is to see what arrangement will look best, and what is not in display condition. Then when I put things back, it will be separated to make for the quickest and easiest set up for the display.
I learned over the past couple years that it is much better to make even half the decisions at this time than when setting up at the show. it takes time to set up and deciding what to show adds to that time. There still will be decisions to make, but the less I do the better.
I Need to charge up all my batteries for my battery powered drills. I also need to prepare materials for carving at the show, which I do all the time. I have generally carved pencil heads, but might carve something else. People like to see demonstrations of the work in progress.
I need to print up some more business cards and my ABOUT THE AUTHOR sheets I display. I was having printer problems last time and they did not print well.
Tomorrow will be preparing for next week's art show.
I will see what actually happens tomorrow.
Year 12, Week 8, Day Two (week 634)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-04-12 Sunday
85 degrees, really strong breezes and gusts, blue sky with lots of feathers and plates in the air at ten o'clock. The tail of the monster that attacked the mid-west came through in about an hour and as the last drops fell, the temps were 68 degrees. The wet air and wind and having walked through the wetness a tiny bit made it feel really cold. About an hour later, it went back up to 70 degrees, the breeze died down quite a bit and the sun came out and felt warm. I left at four and it was still 70 degrees light feathers plates, and scattered puffs, light breeze and lots of sun. it is supposed to drop down to 50 tonight. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I knew the monster's tail was coming so I measured my projects accordingly. I first dashed out to the ACE HARDWARE store that is about three blocks away and picked up some epoxy and something to hold screws in plasterboard.
I knew I did not have time to set up all my artwork to see how the display would look, so what I did was to set up a three foot by eight foot table mock-up, which required one of my portable tables to be set up on blocks. I then took some stepped wire racks I use and set them out on the table. With an empty box in the middle, I decided I had a good looking arraignment. I will cover them with some white material and then set art work on top of them so I have pieces raised above the others. I will have to wait until Saturday to actually set up my work to see what the actual arrangement will be.
My brother arrived before noon so we had dinner. That was when the worst of the beast hit. It was over completely a while after we went back outside. I doubt it was longer than an hour total.
My nephew arrived about half an hour after we ate.
My brother scroll sawed a piece for the clock he is making. He does a part here, a part there, and over time, it adds up to a complete project.
I took the acorn I had made last weekend for my dream catcher and fitted a small bit on my dremmel. I pock-marked the cap of the acorn to give it a more textured look. I hit it with a blast of varnish so my pocks would blend in with the cap around them so I could show my nephew that I was not ruining it. He really liked it. I will hit it with sand paper and varnish it more. it did make the cap look better, though there should be a whole lot more holes, no spaces between them.
Finished acorn set in jaws of the vise
I measured as to where the spout and handle will go on my tea pot. I lined them up with the pattern of the wood of the body and drew around them. For the spout, I measured in on the mating surface of the spout itself and drilled a whole bunch of holes. They were supposed to be even and well spaced, but wandering and mis-aiming caused a few problems with alighment. When one looks carefully inside, it looks like a stylized S within the border holes and not a well designed one either.
I sanded around the mating surface of the hole and then applied epoxy to the spout and stuck it on. I had to hold it for a bit before it felt like it would not move.
A bit later, I attached the handle the same way. I did not have to drill holes and I visually lined it up on the spout and held it. At one point, I released it too soon and after a few minutes, it started pulling apart. I held it longer until I was sure it stayed in place.
A bit later, I found that the handle was on a sight angle. My nephew suggested that it was intentional as it tips the hand of a right-handed person away from the steam from the spout when pouring.
It happens that the handle looks really bad. The design is all wrong. For now, I don't have time to replace the handle. It will have to remain as is. I might later make a new handle, cut off the old one and, put the new on STRAIGHT. When I made this handle, I had some limitations of the wood I was using and I was guessing as to how it was actually going to work. I know more so making a new handle will be easier and will look better.
left and right view of the tea pot with spout and handle attached. I just realized it looks like someone practicing martial arts.
We cleaned up the back yard and my brother, nephew, and I went inside to sit and talk for a couple hours. That is something we have not done in a very long time. it was fun.
My original plan for the table was to take out all my pieces, both carvings and turnings, and see how the arrangement would look, what pieces would more likely be on display and what pieces would be more likely kept in the boxes until needed. I did test a concept on the wire rack arrangement which does help some. The wire racks and the box will have a fabric of some kind draped over top them to hide them while holding the pieces higher than those on the table surface itself.
Saturday, I will place the work on the tables so I can see what it is going to look like. I have far more work than can fit on even three tables.
During the week, I will try to finish the tea pot. I have epoxy to clean off, some light sanding and then varnish it. It might well be on the table, however it looks when done. How good it looks will determine the price.
I just noticed that while my art show is Sunday, I have a turning club meeting the following Thursday. A couple projects I wanted to make won't be even started. Darn.
One thing I see is that even if the art show was NEXT month, not this one, I would not have too much more done to show for the extra time. It is surprising how much time has been wasted the past couple months.
I will see what happens next weekend.
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