Year 21, Week 11, Day one (week 1105)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-27-21 Saturday
The day was 75 as the low early morning to 83 as the high mid day. The sky was varying between clear skies and a few clouds. Sunny all day long. There was a steady breeze with some strong wind gusts now and then. Because I was sheltered by the house, I had to run the fan to remain comfortable. With the fan it was really nice. You really need to get someone who loves football so they can be a fan for you on hot days... This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I started carving the bowl. I had to decide what was going to be high, and what would go underneath, and be low. I realized after I started I made one mistake that would have made this project easier. I went with my mistake. I am going to get the weaving of the leaves first the way I want it, and then will carve the wood to look like leaves. It won’t be great but it will be nice anyway. I bet no botanist will be able to identify the species of leaves when I am done. I stopped working on the bowl when I began to think I was about to make a mistake.
I learned long ago that when working on a complex project, and you feel like you are starting to mess up. STOP! Put it away for now, and pull it out and get back to work some other day. You avoid a lot of errors that way.
I have done several relief carvings that had either scales or feathers. They were really complex and drawn out. I found that when I was feeling like I was about to start making mistakes, or became unsure of what I was doing. I stopped and put it away. I might work on another project, but I did not destroy the project because I went with the upcoming error. If it is going to take many days of work anyway, it is better to let it set until you are fresh, rather than have some error that is going to take time and effort to correct.
On the bowl, I decided to stop and let it sit for safety.
I made one daffodil today after destroying several on the lathe. I then did some work on the one I roughed out last week. When I painted them, which hides all sorts of sins, the color of the cup was darker than I intended. I had mixed the paint and added too much orange. I saw it was too much when I first poured the orange into the tray, but went with it anyway. I will make more daffodils and do every step differently.
With the ones I made, I could later touch these up or correct the color. No rush on that. They came out better than I was afraid they would be. I should have had three more daffodils but they came apart while I was creating them on the lathe.
I have a magazine where the guy made daffodils by carving away the wood. He was using chisels and he added detail in the cup of the daffodil.
What I am doing is I am roughing them out, removing the worst of the wood on the lathe, then carve it the rest of the way. The lathe is so much faster, but I turn like Godzilla so mistakes happen. A little wrong twist and wood goes flying. I am not using the highest quality wood. The daffodils I finished today were from Clarodendron wood. Not the best wood.
When it came time to add a stem to the flowers, I was looking at the remains of silk flower stems I had saved and found that they were not going to do it. I looked for green coated wire but did not see any of that either. I then remembered I can use a skewer. I might later paint the skewer green, but they are good enough for now. If I decide to correct these two flowers, I will probably wait until I have several of the flowers to correct.
Using the saw-bit in the dremel, I nicked my finger again. This time on the other side of the finger from two weeks ago. It bled nicely. I got a band-aid on it. There are a few more nerves on that side of the finger so it bothered me for about half an hour. It happens.
While working under the awning, at about four, the sun started coming beneath it and by half past, my work area was all sun. that was my clue that it was time to pack up.
Mom had a computer problem and we took it to the shop yesterday. We got two messages when we dropped it off. One is that it would be done in an hour, and the other was that they would call us. They did not call and I had waited at mom’s till eight last night. Today, after we both got our act together we went for her computer at noon. It turned out we could have gone back an hour later last night and gotten it. He pointed out that the number for windows was on a sticker on the side of the computer with the windows code. I never gave that a thought. I could have solved the problem in about ten minutes, but forgot they put the sticker on the computer. Oh well. She is back up and running.
I worked on a dish cloth today. The field which was dark double crochet and a light, different yarn that was single crochet alternating the entire length. I had finished this part of it a while ago. I had started edging it the last time I handled it and decided to remove my edging, and put ribbing down the center of the rows. Since the last time I tried to do ribbing, I saw how it was supposed to be done which was much easier than what I tried to do. What I did was to place burgundy yarn ribbing as a single crochet on top each double crochet on one side, then did it on the other side of the double crochet so there are ribs sticking out both sides. When I stopped I had started edging it. The edging will go twice around.
Year 21, Week 11, Day two (week 1105)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
03-28-21 Sunday
76 as the low 83 as the high. a steady wind with occasional gusts. Some scattered clouds in the morning, but clear nearly all day long. The sun never blinked from the clouds. Because the wind was blocked by the house, I had to use the fan under the awning. It worked great. I was out in the sun for short times while using the lathe, but the humidity in the 70% did not make it feel hot. Wait till summer when we get 1000% humidity. Then it will feel hot.
This weather report is brought to you by The City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
I started by trying to turn more daffodils. I ended up destroying four of them. One of them was very close to come off the lathe. I decided to make a little correction inside the cup, where I had left some wood as a support post. The tool tipped wrong and the cup was gone, broken in several pieces. I could have picked the pieces up and tried to glue them together, but that seldom works in real life. I had two pieces of wood prove to be bad on the inside. Unusable. They got tossed. I ended up with two more daffodils.
I carved them got them to where I wanted them, and then painted them. I had two yellow paints. They were not as different as I had hoped. The paint I was really after was in the bottom row of the two row cookie can I use to hold my paint bottles. If I paint the first two I made, I will correct these two also. They came out pretty good. One was from the clarodenden, but the other was from the mystery wood I had gotten from work two years ago. That is pretty good wood.
I picked up the bowl and used a sanding drum in the dremmel to clean up the shaped parts of the bowl that I have done so far. I also removed most of the marker lines in those areas. It looks better. Once I get the whole outside of the bowl roughed out, some of the holes enlarged or added, I will rough out the inside so it matches what is happening outside. I have some stuff happening near the rim that needs a lot more thought put into it to make it work the way I want. I am in essence basket weaving the leaves. Once I get the basket weave done the way I like it, I will then create the leaves. The ribs of the leaves will be facing the outside. All I can say is that they will say LEAVES. Any species will be up to your imagination. I really wanted to do maple leaves but that was not going to work right. Maybe the next bowl I make will have identifiable leaves.
After my brother left, which was when I was finishing the painting the daffodils, I took a disk of mystery wood that was laying around, and shaped it with petals tipping up, slightly conical. I then sat and carved the petals of it. I painted it with two tints of white. The petals tipping down were painted with an “eggshell” white while the upper ones were painted bright white. I did that on both sides. It was something I figured would add to the look, giving it a tiny bit more noticeable detail.
What I have been doing with all my flowers is having one petal tipping up and the other tipping down. On the small daffodil I made today, I made a mistake and messed up the sequence of the petals. They are supposed to be every other one is in one direction. I ended up having to fudge a couple petals by having one side tip down, opposite the up tipped petal next to it, and the other side of it tipping up opposite the down petal on that side. No one will care enough to mention the way I am doing it. I am getting an effect. I do want to make more. I would like several bouquets of them.
I finished the dishcloth I worked on yesterday and gave it to mom. She loves them. The big thing I love about dishcloths is that you can experiment with a stitch or technique without committing to a major project. The ones I made might be six inches square, usually a little less. You can see how a stitch or technique is going to work and be done with it.
Many years ago, before I got a tablet with games on it, I was doing a whole lot of crochet. A couple years there, I would be making or dishcloths all year long, and at Christmas, I would give them as presents to the women I was associated with, Several said they put them on display rather than use them. I explored all sorts of stitches and colors during those periods. Other years, I made scarves and gave them out. They were appreciated too. Surprising what games do to your time.
I have loads of projects for next week. I should start making the car ornaments, and start thinking about other ornaments to make this year. Now is the best time to start as Christmas arrives fast if you are trying to get something done in time.
I want to make some more flowers of various kinds. Of course, daffodils especially. I have that puppy bouquet to try again. The materials are just sitting there right now. The thought crossed my mind to carve an animal or a person, also that egg I made on the lathe is needing to be hatched into something.
I should empty out the shed and see what I have in there and the condition of everything. One needs to be periodically reminded of what you have so you don’t go buy another one....
I was given some mahogany boards from a bed that was broke. I thought I should try making a set of saucers or plates out of them. Square plates would be really nice, but I do not know if I am up to it. It takes a little extra skill to not kill the corners of the wood.
By the way, the bandsaw is behaving. I see that when one really cranks the tension up hard, it will cause the wheel to tip and the blade to come off. I had reduced the tension and it is doing well. Something to know and hopefully remember.
I will have to see what I do next weekend.
2228
The finished flowers for this weekend.
daffodils and a white flower.
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