(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
07-04-20 Saturday
Temps in the 90s, afternoon showers, nice breeze picks up as the showers approach.
This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
There have been some changes since my last post. My health problems faded out but time is still tight.
I’ve been working on Christmas Ornaments the past few months. In January, I tried to make a few boats but did not like what I had. I decided to try it again, correcting all the mistakes I made at first. I made two kinds of ships. Galleys and simple sail ships.
First off, In the New Year attempts, I had the angle of the ship going from the water line to the deck of the ship. They are not made that way. This time I had half the hull straight side and half the hull on an angle. I decided to have flat bottoms so they can sit straight on the shelf for display.
I also decided that there needed to be a rail around the ships so there is more interest. With the Galleys, I had the center of the ship step down so there was a forecastle and hind-castle (don’t know what that is called). The simple sailing ships were single level and about half the height. The simple sailing ships had one mast and two triangle sails. The galleys had two masts and square sails.
I am using two by two whitewood from the hardware store for these. Nearly all the carving is done with a dremel and various bits along with a disk sander, not to mention the band saw. While most Ornaments I do are supposed to be knife carved, I am not a purist. I will use whatever works. In this case, I would use the knife to mark the lines for grinding and then dig in with the dremel .
The Mast is a bamboo skewer and the sails are a high quality paper that I coated in oil spray paint, then touched up with acrylic white paint. Other than signing the bottom as I usually do with the ornaments, I have done no markings on them.
I am experimenting with various other ornaments. Drums, bugles, birds guitars and banjos, pianos. I have a few more ideas. None of these are perfect for ornaments but I have time to experiment. I had tried birds last year and they were too difficult. I figured out this time that I was trying to carve them with a knife and that was just not working. The dremmel makes it easier. The first birds I made were too small. Today I made blanks for larger ones.
I made some drums from the two by two and tried decorating the sides and don’t like any of the attempts. I got a slightly larger wood, from a branch from a tree taken down from at work. I turned it round and cut blanks. I have done some shaping on a few but have much more work on all of them to do. My plan was to put two of the small drums together. I might turn new of them and try again with a different mind-set on making them. I got some suggestions from mom.
The bugles are really simple, yet really tough. I had to throw three blanks away because I was carving the angles all wrong. These are made as a single pipe that starts at the mouth piece, bends completely around in a elongated oval and ends with the bell at the other end. It is a simple angle but I messed it up nicely. I have one roughly done and it seems so light.
It is surprising how you know what something looks like until you have to replicate it. I made a few guitars. I made a few cute little mistakes. Where do you put the hole? How big is it? Where do the strings end? How far does the fret go down the neck? Just to say, what I made are recognizable, but anybody who actually seen one will know it is wrong.
I made some Banjo blanks and stopped as I needed to find out what they look like. I looked on line and already forgot what I saw. When I finally dig into them again (making new guitars), I will look at pictures again.
I made some upright pianos and they are not bad. I can do better but these came out nice. I will make more. Someone liked them so much I let one of the five pianos go. I had carved the keys and had carved a “book” on the front. The keys do not have to be carved. I painted that area white and then used a sharpie to mark the keys. That is the best way for the keys. Most of the piano was made with the bandsaw. I won’t do a grand piano as the legs would be too breaky.
I have considered making a saxophone or a dolphin, but will have to explore what they will have to look like and figure out how to make them.
I am mainly doing small things as of yet. The only turning I’ve done is on the drums. My lathe mainly has acted like a disk sander. I had turned a wood disk the size of a sanding disk (6") and glued a strip of emery cloth around the edge of it. I’ve been using this to do my sanding as the motor of the dedicated disk sander had been acting up really bad.
I have used the little machine lathe a tiny bit. I took an aluminum gutter nail and made it into a pair of crochet hook rods. I have to do a lot of filing and sanding before I can do the hook on them as the finish is really rough at this moment. Since I worked mostly on what excites me of the moment, I have mainly worked on the ornaments.
I will see what I do next week.
I usually don't like to show ornaments until Christmas time but decided to show what I am working on.
Gallys
sailing ships
ships together
Pianos
birds. the carved ones are flat the blanks for the new ones are standing up
Banjoes on left. Bugles in back. guitars on left front, small drums and big drums
closeup of guitars, note the holes are in the wrong place.
Some eggs I turned from some rescued wood.
On the one on right has spalting. the fully carved one on right. I followed the spalting line for the opening of the hatching dragon. the second from the right is going to be a hatching duckling.
A close up of the hatching dragon.
