In My "Spare" Time: Year 18, Week 47, Day One (week 985)

Year 18, Week 47, Day One (week 985)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-01-18 Saturday

Broken clouds early morning. They repaired them later in the afternoon. 75 degrees early morning, 82 late afternoon. A strong breeze made sure one put something on top a bag or it would be floating away. Early in the week we got down to 49 degrees two days in a row. This is far below the 56 degree frost temperatures here in South Florida. Cars were spinning out on ice on the highways. I avoided them by driving on the solidly frozen canals. I did have to drive to the beach because the Glacier that forms off the tallest natural land point in Broward county, had rushed across the landscape and was threatening to put icebergs into the ocean. It was only because of the “parrot heads” (the people at the bars on the beach) were chipping ice off the front of the glacier for their drinks, that the glacier did not reach the ocean on the second cold day. I hate it when it gets this cold. This weather report was brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach department Of Tourism.

I went to Joanne’s Cloth World which is half crafts and half fabric related items. I had a list of things I needed, which included greeting card stock, paint, glue. Somehow, I through the store twice and did not come out with anything I didn’t have on my list. They had to mop the floor in the yarn isles after I drooled my way through there. Somehow the yarn were not leaping into basket.
I should note that Santa said I could have the contents of one of those chain craft stores if I was a good boy. I sure hope He has not heard about all those little incidents........

During the week, I painted my ornaments. It was fun. I knew where my paints were, but could not find my brushes. I searched, and dug and hunted. I knew I had gathered them together in one place, but I could not remember where they went. When I found them, in a little drawer in a unit next to my desk, I THEN remembered why I could not find them. I had originally stuck them in the cookie tin that holds my paints at one point, and then moved them into the drawer. I only remembered the tin and could not find the one I put it in...... the reason it was no longer in any tin.
I painted the tea pots several bright colors, like the ceramic coating they put on them. I painted the lid knob on top and the handles black. The gingerbread houses were painted a dark brown, and then dabbed with white on the roof to sort of look like dots of snow on the shingles. I left the windows raw wood as that was like the warm color of a light inside. I showed them to my mom and she said paint the doors red. This weekend after she saw the results, she said to paint a wreath at the front door.

After breakfast, we checked a nearby area for yard sales and there were none, so we went directly home and the first thing was to finish the painting of some of the ornaments. I then went out back to work. A coffee pot I made, as my first ornament, ended up getting three coats of paint. I first painted it white to represent metal. It looked horrible. I mixed some black and white paint for a grey and painted it. After it dried, there were spots that I missed, and because I mixed the grey color, rather than out of a bottle, it could not be replicated. I ended up painting it a light blue, figuring it would be close enough to a metal color. I plan to keep that coffee pot for my personal collection.
I dug into the shed and pulled out a hand-held belt sander. I needed to sand the bottoms of the ornaments so I can sign them on clean wood. Some of the bottoms where scorched from dull sandpaper on the disk sander. I plugged the sander in and turned it on, and it worked.
The problem was the sandpaper belt had broke. I saw there was another one in the box so I took that out and had to re-learn how to work the sander for swapping sandpapers. I moved the lever which pulled the wheels together, which made it easy to slip the new sandpaper on. I then released the lever and the sandpaper broke. On both of them, the glue holding them together deteriorated. I will have to glue them together again so I can use this sander later. Instead, I laid a sheet of sandpaper down on the workbench and sanded the bottoms that way.
When given a chance, I would rather use a machine where time and effort warrants it. The sandpaper sheet and some outdated elbow grease worked.
I had to dash to Ace hardware (actually now a TRU-VALUE but will always be ACE to me. The owner of the place has several of each type of store), which is in our neighborhood and picked up a bunch of tiny eye hooks. They were mean to me, in that they relocated them and I missed them entirely, and had to ask where they were. When you know where things are, as you browse, you might not look too closely in some isles, and carefully examine in other isles. They were in an isle I did not look carefully at.
Last week, I found some ornament blanks I had made years ago. I found two thread spools I turned for carving it was already painted red so a wood colored face was to look nice. The first one ended up having bug holes where I decided to carve. I tossed that, then carved an old-man face into the second one. It looks good, not spectacular, but good. I am really surprised I have not lost any of my touch when it comes to carving. I can still picture what it is supposed to look like and can guide the knife to do most of what I want to do. I did not quite get the kind of face I was after on this spool, but it was a good face.

Year 18, Week 47, Day Two (week 985)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-02-18 Sunday

75 degrees early morning, 82 late afternoon. A light breeze made it nice. We were supposed to have a wet Sunday. The Board of Tourism and the Board of Store owners demanded the wetness be delayed until later in the week. This weather report was brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach department Of Tourism.

Last night, I went to a Christmas Party for the Gold Coast Wood Turning club that I am a member of. The location was out where the meeting was last month, and then a mile or two south by the way the roads curved. We were again at the edge of civilization. I used the tracker to get home. I have now learned that not only do you listen to the voice, you must also watch the screen. I took the wrong road three times, but it got me where I recognized where I was. The highway system down here is not designed for people who don’t use the roads often, and especially not for tourists. That is the only problem with Florida being a vacation spot.
The food was good, Italian. We had a “Bring a gift, leave with a gift.” gift exchange. I put two ornaments, a santa I had turned, then carved, and an angel. Into a gift bag, and threw a red-white-blue lei in just for fun. The guy who got that, called out, “I don’t know who gave the ornaments, but I really like them.” I confessed...
The gift I selected had a large Florida Mahogany Vase. Normal, or Indonesian Mahogany is a solid dark color. Florida Mahogany has a light heart wood and a not so dark brown sap wood. The two tones makes it popular in wood turnings.
Some people gave turning tools. One guy carried on a very old joke. Along with a real gift, he gave a card with two, two inch stones attached to it. On the back, it said, “two grit sand paper.” I called out that “I never start that fine.”
There was a lot of talk at each table, and I think there was like 26 people there. They also had a raffle for items given by companies. There were gift certificates and some items useable in the hobby selected by raffle tickets. I did not do a great job, but I shot 52 pictures for the club. No one seemed disappointed with the gathering or party.

SUNDAY

My nephew came with his daughter. She was a bundle of cute. She acted as we think a child should act. He made a good choice on children........ I wonder which store he got her....

I took a stick of wood two by two wood and started carving. The wood fell off quickly and the end result was a steam engine. Not well done, but it is recognizable. Well, actually, that was my third attempt. My first attempt was in a bad piece of wood, bug holes in it, I tossed it quickly. My second attempt, which I likely should have kept, had the wheels where they would be for a real steam engine, under the boiler (the bit round tube in front) and the cab was solid wood and it tipped backwards. The third one was what I ended up with. It looks good, but I am already seeing where I can make it right. I might take a drill and hallow out the cab a little. Will have to see what my mood will be in next weekend. I see the design is doable and can be done fairly quickly.

The past few weeks of carving has been easy on my hands. Today, though, I developed some blisters on my right hand where the knife rubs as I work. They were small and did not hurt. I guess I was a lot more aggressive with the knife this time. The steam engine did take more work to carve, more wood to remove. I might find places where I can use the bandsaw to remove some excess wood to make the carving easier. White pine comes in hard and soft varieties. The soft is almost pure white. The harder has stronger rings showing on the end. The pine I am using right now have good strong growth rings and is hard. It is still softer than yellow pine.

I hope to start my Christmas cards this week. I have a design, I have the paint and a place to work. Now I just need to find the time.

I will take my ornaments to work to show off. I always get some oohs and aahhs.

I need to work more on ornaments

I will see what I accomplish this weekend.

1888