76 degrees, still air in the morning with high streaks early morning, 86 degrees with a bit more wind, Mostly clear blue sky and feeling good sun in the afternoon. This weather report is brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
DURING THE WEEK
On Monday evening, I developed a sore throat. It took me about two hours to realize it was the start of the cold. I used zinc lozenges and cough drops to keep it knocked down. It never really developed and by Thursday, it was just a periodic sniffle and on Saturday, it was just a very periodic cough. those zinc lozenges seem to really work since this is my second cold that was almost nothing.
last week, I took out all my turnings and set up a rough display of what I wanted to show at the antique shop. I went over my pricing and re-tagged a few items and lowered the prices of a few others.
My basic pricing is that the better I like it, the higher it is priced. If I keep it, I don't mind. If I sell it at something like the marked price, I won't mind.
I have a bunch of items that are priced cheap such as pencil cups. I then graduate the prices between my favorite items and my cheap items based on how much I like them or how good they are. Over the past year, A few items have become less important to me than they were when I made them so their prices were reduced to more what they should be priced.
THURSDAY
We had a turning club meeting.
One of the projects of the meeting was a tool auction. Members brought tools to the meeting and people could write their bids on them. I saw several tools I should have gotten, but was not quite ready to get them so I ended up not placing any bids. I kind of wished I bid on a couple items now.
We had a turning challenge. Last month, they did a demonstration on natural edged bowls. The challenge was to turn something that had a natural edge, with or without bark. I did not have time to finish my project last week. the display had plenty of imagination and skill, even among those who were just beginning in the hobby.
The key of the challenge is to get people to turn something that they never turned before, or have not turned in ages. to0 make it interesting, they give out gift certificates to the "winners" who are selected randomly. With this system, a rank beginner or old master has an equal chance of winning.
Two images of me holding my tea pot. I ended up selling it to my boss
YARD SAILING.
We hit two yard sales. At one, I picked up four cake molds in the shape of fish. I am about to ship out a package and they will be part of that. The price was right.
cake molds in the shapes of fish.
I also got a tire pump that you plug into your cigarette lighter. I tested it on my tires and it seemed to work. Mom might buy it from me or I have a couple possible projects in mind.
Tire pump and emergency tool
I also got a emergency tool, still in the original package, that you crank to power a light, a radio, has a tool to cut the seat belt and a hammer for breaking windows. It will also take batteries and a charger (not included) I am not sure but I think I cranked it a wrong way and broke it. I will disassemble it and see if it will be fixable. I will test it with batteries first. If it works with batteries, that might be more than enough for my uses.
At another yard sale, a church yard sale that they have several times a year, I missed getting something interesting and ended up without anything. I also saw people leaving with a few items I would have picked up had I seen them. We were a bit late for the really good stuff.
SATURDAY
I petted and fed the beast of the back yard and Scarface. Scarface's new scars are healing. The beast wanted company and attention, and I accidentally found ways of not given him enough. He was very disappointed with me.
I helped mom with a few of her plants. One tree had gone through the bottom of the pot and into the ground. I dug a little dirt from the front off the pot and slipped the handcart under the edge. Pry up, slip in, pry up, slip in, we pulled the plant out. the roots were tiny yet so it will not likely suffer much. Mom des not like her plants in the ground. We lifted it out of the pot, added a whole lot more dirt and set it back in, adding dirt around it. I hauled dirt for her so she could raise the soil level in several pots.
I dug out the fairies that I broke during the art show and repaired them. One fairy is adding nectar to flowers for a butterfly. her wing broke off. I ground out the remains of the old wing stub and then glued the wing back in place. I have some clean up to do but otherwise it is done.
I also glued back together the WHAT IF PEOPLE REALLY EXISTED fairy carving. I glued her back into position on her mushroom. I really need to peg her in place. The base was a slab of naturally shaped wood and one piece broke off. It had a mushroom on it. I glued that piece back on, onto the base so it adds a little bit of interest. I had a mushroom, I am not sure where it came off, that had a screw holding the head to the base. I removed the screw and filled the hole with sawdust and glue. I glued that onto the base also. I have a bunch of clean up on this carving as there is glue build up on the mushroom the fairy is kneeling on. I kept having to move her from side to side, back to front to get her into the right position where she was aiming right and solidly in place.
At about eleven, I laid down for a nap, something needed because of the remains of the cold. I got up at around noon. I could have slept more but had to get ready to go. I packed up my stuff and was ready for my second project of the day.
ANTIQUE SHOP.
I chose this weekend to set up my display at the antique shop. I had several boxes, some part of the display, and a bin for my load. In the area I was to set up, the shop owner had some steamer trunks and chests he just got in. I rearranged the trunks so people could see what he had, yet give me as much room as I could get. I then did my setup.
I had brought a brown folding coffee table and several boxes. I had tissue paper that I draped over the floor, and also over the boxes and table. I then used my pieces to hold the tissue down.
I was after having multiple levels for my work and this did it well. It spread things out too. On each level, I had some commonality of the display, though it was not well done. I did bring some pieces back home so I don't have everything there. If I had about two more feet, I could have.
On displays, there are two trains of thought. One is that items should be separated, alone so people can really see what you have. this is why when you go to an art museum, they really don't have a lot of works on display. You are supposed to have the piece of art fill your whole experience.
the other train of thought is, If it is not on display, you cannot sell it. This means that you have to get as much on display as you can. It is really poor for showing off art as people don't know what to look at first. It is kind of nice as each time people look, there is something new to see, even if it is from a slightly different angle.
In all my display is not really all that much different than last month's display that I picked up.
My display at the antique shop
I need to do some real woodworking tomorrow. What I actually work on will be decided when I get to work. I have a lot of options to work on and what is exciting will get priority. I know what I SHOULD work on, but that is something else.
Year 12, Week 11, Day Two (week 637) (January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.) 03-25-12 Sunday
80 degrees at nine, 87 degrees at one. Brisk wind kept things moving all day long. The clouds were ever changing, high feathers and haze, short towers, translucent puffs, thin shields. Early morning radar showed a band of rain working its way across the state. We never saw any signs of it, though some clouds over the Everglades looked a little grey. It turned out to be a perfect day to work. This weather report was brought to you by the city of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
I stopped at Home depot for a couple items. I intended to use some gift cards I had on me and at the very last moment, I forgot about them and paid cash. Darn.
My first project was to take care of some broken Bungee cords. I have learned from dead bungee cords that the stretch is not critical. It is nice and helps, but in most cases, one can live well without it. they do their job anyway.
One of my home depot purchases was some braided clothes line cord. I tied sections of the clothes line cords over the bungee hooks. I made several sizes and have more cord in case I need to make more. My only concern was on whether my knots will hold. I tied it a bunch of times on each end so they are not going anywhere.
New tie downs from Bungee hooks and braided cords.
I decided to see if I could figure out why the emergency light/radio I got yesterday at a yard sale was not working. I dismantled it step by step very carefully. Even with my care, the wires came off the crank unit. That made figuring out the repair easier, but I did have to have my brother solder the wires in place.
When I finally got the gear box taken apart, I found that they had a really stupid design. they have a metal plate set on top the drive gear. the crank shaft sticks into the metal and the gear to drive it. I guess they decided that the plastic grear was not strong enough to handle the force on the shaft. My guess is that the metal plate was just pressed onto raised plastic.
to repair it, I used SUPER GLUE to lock it in place on the raised plastic. I then reassembled the gear box, my brother soldered the wires and I put it together. It works!!!!. that is not a good design.
disassembled emergency tool. The black thing with the crank on the left is the generator where the problem was. the yellow things in the upper half of the handle are the permanent rechargeable batteries. All these devices have batteries in them.
The repaired and re-assembled tool.
My brother brought his work truck up and we went through several of the "bins" replacing the lidded plastic nut and screw trays, sorting them, and consolidating materials. Mom helped him most of the time, but I helped him some. he thought he was done and found that one bin had to be completely empted before he could put the trays in. He found all sorts of things he forgot he had, or that he purchased more because he did not have them and now have twice as much.
I was examining at the leaves from that broken leaf bowl trying to decide where to cut more leaves for the dream catchers. I then noticed that one broken leaf fit in place on another leaf. I decided to glue that in place because it looked better. I then was looking at the rest of the bowl and figured out how to match up other pieces. Except for a few mis-starts on my gluing, I ended up repairing the leaf bowl rather than cutting it more apart. it is fragile and I am not sure how to make it stronger. After the glue dries a few days, I will do a little clean up and give it a coat of varnish. I had thought to use epoxy for the repair but could not find it so I used white glue which tends to be very good.
leaf bowl while the glue was drying.
Another purchase I made at Home Depot was for some Jute. I needed some cord for my dream catcher. I decided the Jute would look good for the lines through the middle. I had several wraps and found I did not like the look- too heavy. I cut that off.
dream catcher with the Jute string. too heavy for the diameter
I have some flat yarn that when tensioned, will unravel and become thin and longer. I figured it would not be strong enough for this project. If it were not for the unraveling, it would be the perfect material for this project.
Since the jute was not going to work, I decided to use the yarn anyway. I tied the first knot, and decided to run the line continuous all the way around, I would not go directly across but to one side and then to one side of the opposite and keep doing that until I returned to the starting point where I tied the two ends together. I did not quite get it right but it looks pretty good.
I then drilled a hole through the acorn. I tried binding up the center with a red yarn but that was not working the way I wanted. I was not getting the lines at the right crossing for the effect I was after. I then basically tied the acorn in place on the top crossing of the yarn.
To finish this dream catcher, I need to hang feathers or something on the sides as the final decoration. I may well go to the craft store and see if they have something that will work better ripping out all my string and starting over. I don't fully trust the yarn, while it is strong enough as a group.
Finished for the moment dream catcher That is a twelve by twelve stone it is resting on..
My cold is almost nothing. I am where I normally am in a cold after three weeks, rather than one. I did have a coughing fit when I laid down to sleep but otherwise I might have something every few hours and that is very minor. I am really impressed at how well the zinc lozenge works.
I ended yesterday's post with a comment that I would have to see what I worked on, not having any plans. It turned out to be the best plan. I had spent the past couple months working intently on the art show projects and not working on anything in particular was kind of nice. I do plan to start on some real projects again.
I will likely not get much done on Saturday as after yard sailing, I have to do something at home in the early afternoon. That usually does not leave a whole lot of time for wood working.
I will see what I actually do next weekend.
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