Year 14, Week 49, Day One (week 695)

Year 14, Week 49, Day One (week 695)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-28-13 Saturday
   
    80 degrees at ten, 84 degrees at noon, 81 degrees at three. The morning started out looking like it might give some weather, but after ab

out ten, the heavy stuff moved out and left high plates and feathers overhead for most of the day. Around two, heavy stuff started showing up in the area of the sun and the temps dropped once the sun was behind them. The breeze was good and strong, but the house blocked the worst of it where I was working. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department Of Tourism.
   
    I had work off on Thursday so I spent most of the day packing up a gift to be mailed to a friend, trying to figure out why my main computer would not start, and my secondary and laptop refused to talk to the modem.
    One thing was I had borrowed a scarf from the package I was mailing, so I had to concentrate on finishing another scarf before I could mail it out. It looks good.
    I also rearranged the lower part of my fridge. That is hard as I did not have anything low enough to sit down on to work properly.
   
   
    SATURDAY
   

    We saw signs for three yard sales, but only found one. It did not have a lot of stuff I don't have, but I did find a little folding seat. That is perfect for the fridge project I worked on. It was cheep enough.
  






 FOLDED STOOL




OPENED STOOL
  










  Last weekend, I gifted a pair of drum sticks I made a few weeks ago. I decided I wanted to make a couple more of them. I dug into my "Mahogany bin". Years ago, I got hold of a whole bunch of Mahogany cuttings someone got from a furniture shop. There is other wood in there but much of it is Mahogany. A friend asked me to make a wooden ladle. I had two projects to look for acceptable wood for. While digging, I ended up finding plenty of wood for both projects. I decided to make more than one set of drum sticks.
   
    The piece of wood for the ladle was long enough to where I was able to also get two drum stick blanks from where I trimmed the excess wood from the sides of the handle. Two other board were split in half to make pairs of blanks for drum sticks.

LADLE BLANK

   
    I saw a WOODWRIGHT SHOP program where he had someone who made spoons and ladles and he showed his carving methods. I got some good ideas from the program.

DRUM STICKS

   
    I marked the ends of two drum stick blanks, and then used my carving knife and techniques from the show to remove the worst of the corners of the wood. I then dragged out the lathe and started working. I was careful to work lightly with the wood since I broke some oak last weekend. I removed the remains of the corners, got the stick round, and then carefully started shaping the stick. I really need to sharpen my tools. I should be able to get a surface so clean it really does not need to be sanded. That is not what I was getting. I was getting a lot of vibration which added ribbing to the surface. I got out some 32 grit sandpaper and cut down the surface so it was clean, and then went to finer sand paper to clean up the surface till it was smooth.
    The second one went faster, but since I was trying to make them the same, I had to work with a bit more care to get the diameter right, the taper to the end right, and the ball on the end right. I was not measuring diameters, angles or distances, but going by the look of it. It is close, but not absolutely perfect.
    I used the disk sander to clean up the ends, added a little bit of hand sanding, and then used spray varnish with light sanding between coats. The sanding after the first coat was heavy, but after that it was more to just clean up the surface.
    They look good. These are lighter than normal drum sticks and I doubt the wood is as hard. At the meeting I go to, our drummer is gentle with the sticks and drums, but the drummer next morning breaks sticks and has damaged a cymbal. These would not last more than half a session with him.
   
    I finished my turning put everything away as my legs were wore out. I tend to stop work when my legs are tired, and then there is the project of putting everything away. That wears me out. I went inside to rest and watched the second of a two DVD set I gifted to my mom's husband. it was very good. While that was going on, I crocheted three rows on a six foot long scarf.
   
    Later in the day, I headed back outside to feed and pet the cat. I decided to work on my ladle project. I looked around, but could not find my SCORP kit. A scorp is basically a chisel that works side to side rather than down the end. I saw it a few weeks ago, but cannot find it. I decided to use regular chisels. There are a whole bunch of them in the garage, but a whole lot of stuff has to be moved to get to them. I have made it a point to NOT learn how to use chisels till now. I figured it was a lot of work to learn which chisel to use when. I have used knives or power tools except for just a couple projects.
    I do have two chisels in my carving basket, one is a straight blade and another is a curved blade. I started with the straight bladed chisel. It is not for what I was using it for as ut us a thick blade, sharp angle and not really sharp, but it mostly got things started, breaking the surface. It has a wide flat end for being hit by a hammer so that was why I started with it. As I got wood away, I shifted to the curved bladed chisel. This one can be pushed by the hand, but I used the hammer gently on it to dig into the wood and start gaining depth. I had made good depth and pushed it by hand along the surfaces to clean the shape. I made for good depth on the bowl
    The outside has remained square which allowed the vice to hold it. I won't touch the outside in any way until I get the inside of the bowl exactly the way I want it. Then I will shape the outside to match the inside.
    I had to stop after about an hour because my left wrist did not like how it was being used on holding the tools at various angles and the pounding. My legs were just starting to complain also.
    I was happy to get some work done on the ladle.

CARVING OF BOWL STARTED

   
BOWL MAKING HEADWAY

LADLE WITH PARTIALLY CARVED BOWL

    I tested out the drum sticks at a meeting and they worked nicely. Being a little lighter than the oak sticks I used before. They worked better for me. I am more tapping that really drumming so they will last a long time.
   
    I brought the cards I made over the years and photographed them. These are samples I kept for myself so I could see what I had done before. None of them are high quality but most are not too bad. I do always intend to have better pictures but I am always rushed to get them done.
   
    Tomorrow I hope to work on the ladle some more.

    I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
   
   
   
   
   
Year 14, Week 49, Day Two (week 695)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-29-13 Sunday
   
    84 degrees, brisk wind, lots of clouds. Radar showed a blob of weather coming from the west coast so I had to try to get some work done before the weather turned. This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
    I got a real late start as I was updating my secondary computer to work comfortably. I had to add links I usually use and sites I visit but did not have since I last used this computer regularly.
   
    I stopped at a yard sale on the way to Mom's. These people have had yard sales before and it is all tools. I ended up getting a set of router bits, a Stanley plane, a medium sized metal square, a small pipe cutter and a clamp. The router bits are for wood, but will work with aluminum. they will fit in my UniMat metal working  lathe when set up like a milling machine. I do have several routers and will work with them too. With the rest of the stuff, I really don't need them but got them anyway since they were available.
   


    I arrived quite late compared to when I normally get to Mom's. We went out to CRACKER BARREL restaurant. That was a cool place. In the store part of the place, the ceiling is hung with all sorts of antique tools and parts. We were identifying all sorts of things up there, and discussing their use. There were a few things we were not quite sure of. Several of the things I would love to have. I really don't need them or would use them but they would be cool to have. One was to remove dried corn from the cobs. It was simple in design but looked quite effective.

ALL THE CARDS i HAVE DONE SO FAR SINCE i STARTED MAKING THEM, EXCEPT MY VERY FIRST SET.

   
    I had brought up my 1949 cook book and was handed a FOOD TIPS AND COOKING TRICKS book. I just went through a couple pages. It is cool.
   
    I finally got outside and after petting the kitty for a while, I got to work on the ladle. This piece of wood is a over two inches deep. I was only about half the depth I was after. Using the curved chisel, I dug into the middle of the bowl to nearly double the depth and worked my way out.  I did get the sides with my knife, cleaning the shape, and rough smoothed the bottom. Other than some fine smoothing, the inside of the ladle is about right. I really need to find the scorp set so I an finish the inside properly.
   

NEARLY FINISHED INSIDE BOWL OF LADLE

    It dawned on me that I had a Wednesday gathering with some friends before Christmas and did not have any cards even close to being finished at the time. It dawned on me that I only have two cards left from this year to give out and there are like eight of them! I have started painting another ten cards. I will use the same image, with little corrections. Since we are not meeting this Wednesday as it is the first, I have time to get the cards finished.
Our waitress is really special and it dawned on me that she should have gotten a gift. I have started a scarf yesterday and have time, especially since I have a day or so off this week, to get the scarf finished really nice.
   
    I will finish the scarf and the cards, and hope to find my Scorp set so I can finish the ladle, and will see what else I might accomplish next weekend.
   
   
   

Year 14, Week 48, Day One (week 694)

 First batch of Christmas cards.

yard sailed  yarn and case

 My completed collection of scarves

 Crochet and knitting books

 My newest scarf.

The colors of my newest scarf



Year 14, Week 48, Day One (week 694)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-21-13 Saturday
   
    84 degrees, strong southerly wind with some gusts, clouds racing North over the Everglades, blue sky above. What clouds there were in the morning past noon were too thin to effect the sunshine. I did see some clouds to the north of me heading west, riding the off-shore winds into the Everglades northerly train. By about three, the Everglades clouds got heavier, and moved East and started blocking the sun. This weather report is brought to you by the City of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
   
   
    I've painted some of my Christmas Cards. I planned on painting 48 cards at once. I found I only had flat space to allow 40 cards to dry. After 2 colors, which gave me the tree on the card, I realized that my legs and my time would not allow me to do all 40 cards, so I set twenty to the side and painted on only half the cards.
    I finished the artwork Friday night and then rushed to letter the backs of the cards before I went to bed.
    In the morning, I picked out five cards and lettered the inside. I figured out that while I have a couple hundred envelopes, I did not remember to bring them with me. Later in the day, I lettered the inside of the rest of the cards. I ended up with only a few cards left when the evening was over. People seemed to like the cards.
   
    We did two sessions of yard sailing. With one session, we stopped at one yard sale and I ended up with a handle-less suit case with some yarn in it. The good thing was that the yarn had some wool in it. I love wool. Those might be used for my "stuffies." I hope to make this next year. Stuffies are stuffed animals, stuffed ornaments, dolls and so on.
    I headed out later in the morning and hit another yard sale that netted me some good crochet and knitting books.
   
        I took an oak slat and prepared it for turning, squaring it slightly cutting it in half, finding and marking the centers, and mounting them on the lathe with the intention of making drum sticks.
    This is old oak. It was originally a wine or beer barrel and was cut in half and sold as planters. Mom had a bucket inside it and had it part of a wishing well. When the metal bands rusted through and broke, I got the slats to work with. Being old and weathered, there is a lot of surface checks in the wood.
    Both pieces I tried to turn, split in half before I got them completely round. I decided to pack up and let discretion be the better part of valor.
   
    I brought all the scarves I had and with Mom, I picked out who would get what scarves this year. Later in the evening, I gave away two scarves at a fellowship I go to. Both women loved them. One wore hers all night long and the other just happened to have a shirt on of the same color I gave her.
   
    I spent much of the day finishing a scarf. It was close to being done, but just had a little more to do. I brought the wrong yarn for the tassels that dangle off the ends. it was the right color but too much lighter than needed. It happens that the yarn I purchased had something that was very close to the right color, just a dye lot off and I used that. The scarf came out perfect. I will eventually gift it, but for now, I have it hanging next to me so I can enjoy the color shades I developed in it.
   
    I spent a lot of time petting the momma kitty. I put her on my lap and she would melt into my hands as I gave her the attention she loves. All three times I had to put her on the ground, she looked at me with a very disappointed expression. She is not quite ready to sleep on my lap yet. The rest of the day, she was right nearby sleeping on the ground.
   
    Tomorrow, I won't be going to Mom's house to work wood. I have a bunch of projects to get done. I don't want to be doing them Christmas eve or really early Monday morning before I head off to work.
   
    I will see what I actually do tomorrow.
   
   
   
Year 14, Week 48, Day Two (week 694)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-22-13 Sunday
   
    I really have no idea what the weather is like as I have not been outside. I do know it is sunny out and warm.
    This weather report is brought to you by the City Of Sunrise Department of Tourism.
   
    Besides catching up on sleep, my main project was to finish the rest of my cards. As of the time I am writing this, the painting is still in process. There is one really good advantage of doing the cards in batches rather than all at once. One can correct for "mistakes" in the first batch, doing things a little different.
    Little design changes can improve the looks of the picture and one usually does not see them until the first batch is done, so the second batch, by nature, is always a little better.
    Of course, I will likely be up late tonight lettering the cards to give out tomorrow.
   
    I started some bread dough today. Again, I used some frozen dough as my starter, breaking it into small pieces after it had thawed, and mixed it in with the liquids before I added the flour. it is rising nicely right now. I really don't need to bake it until Tuesday so I might let it rise over night, work it in the morning, let it rise all day long and then let it rise over night again. I learned previously that while letting it only double is quick, it does not hurt the dough to let it rise longer.
   
    I dug out some items that will be gifted. These items I got FOR ME over the past year and have decided someone else will enjoy or use them as much as or a lot more than I do. Those are really fun gifts to give.
       
    A couple months ago, I had knocked my stand mixer on the floor. It seemed all right then. I found that there was damage, but I am not sure how it got damage at the base of the handle rather than at the top. That spot is protected. Of course, I don't use the stand mixer at all. It is more a shelf ornament. If I had a break hook attachment, it would be better. I tried a different beater style, which I was not sure what it was used for. It did not work well as a bread hook. The hook releases the dough and throws it around. This one caught on the dough and spun the dough around. not useful. I went back to kneading by hand. The mixer does work well. It is one of those things where I had seen another of these mixers at a yard sale a couple months ago and did not get it. At this second, it would be nice to have the second one.
   
    I've done some other cooking projects while I was at it. I am ready for some sales on meat so I can pack my freezer again.
   
    I don't plan to do any woodworking until the weekend, even though I have days off between now and then.
    I will see what I actually do next weekend.
   

Year 14, Week 47, Day One (week 693)

Fresh risen dough at full rising.




 fresh dough after I punched it down, showing how much the dough rose.

Hot pads


 Alaskan chopper



 charger and stuffy dog given to me..

Cornucopia and turkey ornament that needed to be painted.



Finished cornucopia and turkey ornaments. Pixy/Elf figure now ready to paint.


Dress vase I reparied

barrel slat to become drum sticks.

Broken and two completed drum sticks.

Year 14, Week 47, Day One (week 693)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-14-13 Saturday
   
    82 degrees, breezy, mostly sunny, mostly blue skies with fast moving large puffs. The puffs were thick and heavy in the morning, and became lighter, and a bit more sparse as the day wore on. This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.
       
    During the week, I baked some bread. The bread came out to be the best I have made to date. I used a frozen batch of dough as the yeast starter, adding the yeast to the new batch. It came together easily and I did not over bake it this time. I also made what was supposed to be cinnamon rolls. I made two mistakes that should have totally ruined them but the results were not all that bad even so. I know what I did wrong and the next batch SHOULD be right.
    It will be a bit before I make bread again as I have a full loaf in the freezer waiting me to make sandwiches out of the slices. I have a few experiments in bread making to do yet. I want to make some of my own flour from the many grains I have and make bread with that.

    I have to make Christmas cards. I dug through my stock of card supplies. I came to a big surprise. All I have is envelopes, with a few cards that are unusable because they are designed to hold photos. I was all up and ready to start painting images and could not start.
    Friday, I was out and about, so I stopped and picked up a couple packs of 48 cards. This time I made sure they were cards, not envelopes like I got last time and just learned about... it took some doing but I finally came up with a card design. Now it is all a matter of painting them. I paint my cards production style. I paint one color on all the cards, then the next color, and keep doing that until the final image is done. I usually let them sit and dry between coats. It is a lot of work but I can do a whole lot of cards quickly. I don't want to be painting cards on Christmas Eve like I have done the past three years I pained cards so I must start on them now.
   
    We hit some yard sales today. I kept my spending down quite a bit. I ended up with a set of five hot pads for 35 cents and an Alaskan cutting knife for two bucks.
    Mom was in the market for a two shelf shelving unit. A woman had a three piece set. One piece was the two shelf unit, then there was a three shelf corner unit, and then a unit with a door and drawer. She picked them up cheep and once she stacked them, took all her husband's books and then some. He emptied all but one box of stuff and that had very little left in it.
    From him, I got a little stuffy dog and a couple chargers that fit my phone.

    I finally got to work on some projects. I wanted to make some drum sticks and since I have some slats of oak from an old whine barrel that was used as part of a fake wishing well for years. I picked a good one, trimmed the edges so they were square, then after a bit of time on the disk sander to clean it up and get rid of a tiny bit of the curve, I cut the slat in half length ways.
    I mounted the piece of slat on the lathe, and started rounding. I figured out quickly that when I "centered it" I should have moved the center closer to the edge that the slat curved out from. I rounded the piece first, then started shaping it like the cracked drum stick I was given to copy. This old oak does not cut nicely. I am way out of practice so my technique is not great, and I really need to sit and sharpen all my tools properly as I have not done that in a while. Sharpening is one of those things one should do every time you start working, and it is usually something that one avoids like it comes out of your allowance. I do have a time allowance and did not want to spend it sharpening.....
    The second drum stick broke in half while working it. Since it was half of the slat I made the first stick from, I have no idea why it broke. I took a narrow slat (The slats are different widths) and after preparing it, cutting a thin piece off to get my width. That one became rounded nicely. I shaped it also, but the surface was really rough. I swapped sticks and corrected the shapes a little, and sanded them. I finally decided they were done enough for tonight as my legs were bothering me from being on them so long. I gave them a spray coat of varnish.
    I tried them out and found I did not like the shape or the balance between them. I will correct them some other time.

    While trying to let my legs rest, I painted two ornaments I found while looking for Christmas Cards. I found a Pixy/elf figure I made from some tree mom had trimmed. it had some long shrinkage cracks. I filled the cracks with white glue, since it was available. I gave it a coat of varnish after it had dried a while to seal the glue. It is now ready to paint.

    Tomorrow, I doubt I will have a chance to do any woodworking. Some of Mom's painting students are in an art show in a park so we will be going there tomorrow.

    I will see what I do tomorrow.






Year 14, Week 47, Day Two (week 693)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
12-15-13 Sunday
   
    85 degrees, breezy, mostly cloudy and getting heavier as a squall line was crossing the state, heading this way. The clouds became solid later in the afternoon. It is supposed to get COLD tonight, like in the 60s.  This weather report was brought to you by the City Of Pompano Beach Department of Tourism.

    The Elevator in my Condo building is not working. That means I have to walk up stairs to get to my fourth floor apartment. I was always told not to stare..... This morning, my legs let me know they did not like all the standing and walking, along with stairs, that I did yesterday. It was not until I was really getting going that they quieted enough to ignore for a bit.

    I got to Mom's house earlier than I thought I would. After petting and feeding the Momma kitty, I took out some of my ornaments and did a few little repairs.
    Some of my toy soldiers had little flaws in their faces. I fixed the face, adding a nose on a couple, carved off the eyes and placing them where they were supposed to be, removing some paint that was not where they were supposed to be.
    One of my leaping fish looked more like Jimmy Durante than a sword fish or Marlin. I trimmed down the "Beak" quite a bit and repainted it.
    Finally, I gave these ornaments a coat of varnish, which someone had mentioned that they did not like that they were dull looking. I am calling all of them done.

    After Lunch, we headed out to the art show. It was quite a bit of fun. The popular art they were showing was three dimensional paintings. They would build up some of the surface in relief, and then do the painting. One painting Liked had a courtyard scene. Pots were actually partly there, some of the building was raised up from the surface. She then painted it with bright colors.
    Another artist made resin figures and applied them to a background. Excellent!
    There was cloth art, dresses, lots of jewelry, regular painters.
    There was a necklace I really liked. I could have purchased it but it is not something I would wear. It was a bunch of leaves and flowers in an arc that a chain would have when dangling on a chest. He had several colors, but I really loved the blue one. I forced myself to walk away.
   
    I had walked a block to and from the art show, then walked around the art show itself which was two loops. Along with all I did yesterday on my feet, and the walking and standing I did today, plus going up the stairs, when I got home my legs complained loudly. It took several hours of resting to get the legs to quiet down.
    Because of the condition of my legs, I gave up on even trying to work on the Christmas cards, which will take a whole lot of standing.
   
    During this week, I have made headway on my scarves. One scarf is a carry-scarf. That one is about a foot from finishing the yarn. it is sort of a race to see if the yarn or the row will end first. I am sure the row will end first. There won't be very much yarn left. I decided that this scarf will remain narrow.
    I had started a scarf at home. This one started with bright orange yarn. It lasted one and a half rows. I ripped out the half row and changed colors. I used a medium red on both sides of the orange. it looks good. I finished two rows of red on each side and just started a Burgundy yarn which will be two rows outside the red on each side. This may well be my favorite scarf.
    These two scarves are being made where I decided the length and am choosing the width by how many rows I do.. I refer to this as working end to end.
    In the truck, I am working on a scarf where I decided the width, and the length will be decided when I end it. On this scarf, I already have like 18 inches in length. Some is done at traffic lights, some is done while waiting for the office to open in the morning. Unless something changes, I doubt this scarf will be done by Christmas.
   
    During this week, I will be painting Christmas cards. I figure I will be doing two batches. The first batch will be mailed out or handed out. The second batch will be more for family. I've got to start packing up ornaments and cards to mail out to various people.
    I am not sure what I will do next weekend. I might fix the drum sticks, make new ones, or someone gave me a ladle project and I think I have the right wood for that.
   
    I will see what I do next weekend.