Year 20, Week 15, Day One (week 1059) 05-02-20 Saturday
Year 20, Week 15, Day One (week 1059)
(January 17, 2000 was my first carving day.)
05-02-20 Saturday
80s, blue skies, light breeze, a perfect day to do something outside. I was indoors most of the day. This winter is the wettest I have ever seen down here. For most of the winter, we were getting rain every weekend. It is hard to do wood working in the rain, especially with electrical equipment. We are in what is more normal for us, a dry period that might last a week or so. Our normal winter is where in April, they start talking about water rationing. It is usually dry and sunny with only a random front passing through from month to month. Water rationing is not even in their vocabulary this year. In June is when our wet period starts and July is when the humidity really amps up.
It has been a while since I have been able to write. A changed schedule eliminated my writing time. I also am still exploring some interesting health situations.
I had a friend’s birthday coming up so I cut some wood from a large block Dad had left me years ago. I think it was basswood. I was able to get two pieces from the cut I made, and made two eggs. One slightly bigger than the other. Neither one was really good as eggs. I then cut the top like it had cracked off, and then carved the outside in a spirals to create scales using a dremel. I then carved heads of dragons. One was to be Waxy dragon and the other to be Laslo dragons from our Companion Dragon book series.
I painted both eggs black, then applied color to them. Laslo’s egg was green with yellow upper edges on the scales. Waxy’s egg was a lot of different colors. Many colors did not show well against the black. I also did yellow on the upper edges.
Looking at the eggs, I decided I needed to make the scales smaller and carved grooves through many of the scales, then repainted them. It was an improvement. I gave them a couple coats of clear gloss when done.
Another project I took on was something I came up with years ago, and last year did the very first steps for doing it but never got any farther. I wanted to make a bouquet of flour. The joke is the guy leaves his mothers house covered in a white powder. He said he gave his mother a bouquet of flour and she threw them at him.
I had located all sorts of brands of flour labels and printed them at the size I wanted them to be. I gave the paper a bunch of coats of varnish on both sides to seal the ink in place. I had made a few wooden blanks to fit them onto, but never went farther than that last year.
This year, I dug them out and made a bunch more wooden bag blanks for them. Some were out of a 2x2 I had shaved down and sanded to a rough shape. Some were from a 3/4 x 2 molding I have used for a few projects. I cut them to size and did light shaping on them too.
Finally, I dug out my glue and scissors and cut the labels off, with lots of paper around them, and glued them to the wood. I folded the edges over onto the sides, top and bottom. Mom suggested I do both sides so I cut more, that matched so the labels were on both sides. My cutting and folding job was not spectacular and a little rough, but it makes them look more like the bags of flour in the folded paper. I drilled holes and added a skewer so they could be stuck in a vase. The results came out much better than I expected.
I brought out the metal lathe and have made a few items to use in my wood lathe. It is a learning experience. My brother made a tool holder that I can rotate and can move in and out. I found out that the movement is not spectacular. My little lathe has the ability to rotate the head to different angles as the motor is mounted on the head. I found an angle of the head, the angle of the tool to get the shapes I was after.
One project was to make a drive spur from a bolt. I learned a couple things in the process. Stainless Steel bolts are harder than my tools can cut. That is not good. But I learned that I can sharpen my tools again. That is good.
With the drive spurs, I intended to cove out the inside, possibly have several rings, and then cut teeth into them to dig into the wood and force it to spin. What I am going to have to do is to take out my saws-all and cut into the head and create just a set of teeth by cutting straight down, then cutting on the angle for digging in (hopefully get the right angle). Not what I planned.
I also made points for the tail stock. I purchased a tail stock that came with six points. I have lost a couple and am making a few more. Mostly cones or points are used, but sometimes tubes or inserts can be used also.
After Christmas, I tried to make some sailing ship Christmas ornaments. My attempts were not good. I am in the process of exploring some other designs. I run bamboo rods in as masts and use card paper as sails. I am trying to find a good size and shape for the hull of the ship. Some ideas solved some problems, such as cutting a corner off the square stock for the deck, but the results were not good. I am exploring using the square stock and using a band saw and disk sander for shaping. I seem to be getting better results but have a ways to go to be sure. Once I get it right, I will work on making more. I need to come up with more Christmas ornament ideas for this year. Now is a good time to get started on them. I ALWAYS think I have enough time to get them done, then am struggling to finish them on time.
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