And Then there were Boxes!

OK since I'm all over the place after the toilet seat, I decided to once gain list my boxes on Etsy. I did manage to sell a few of them before. but it took a long time and I guess I lost faith. But Cheryl says they have to move out and they make us nothing sitting on the shelf. I agree! It was a wonderful learning experience, but it is doubtful I will ever make these again for profit. Cheryl says I have been a bum since I have not had a "LARGE" project to keep me busy. It's funny because whe I was totally immersed in the wood elf, she complained that she never saw me! In other news, We found a couple more White Morals in our "secret' spot. it's been pretty dry and it still is rather early for them. A few more and We will have enough for that Puff Pastry Cheryl has been eager to try out. MMMmm Mmm!

Making Ink from Oak

I've read about this in my favorite book about oak. That you can make INK from it's bark! I'm not sure about the chemistry behind it, but when I started this latest project, Oak chips were flying all over and landed in the cooling water I use to cool my chisels during sharpening. Well, several weeks later....I have this lovely blue/purple dye in my water. It's not strong enough yet to make much of a mark on paper, so I decided to add a little more of the ingredient's. We'll give it a little time and see if I can make it more potent. As for carving...I Worked on the hair tonight. Not much to show really, but it is taking shape and she is now light enough to pick up by myself.

The Joy of Carving End Grain

So tonight I worked on a new project idea. Basically slicing a maple log and making a box similar to the previous ones. I figured it would be a bit of a challenge, and I'm sure there are still some surprises that I will have to discover. But the real challenge is working with the end grain of the wood. The chisels slice through it easy enough, but when I am cutting any other way other than towards the middle, the ends split! So it is challenging to get a good undercut of the carving. No matter, I just have to choose simpler carvings to do. The maple leaf turned out pretty good. Even Cheryl was impressed. I still have to figure out just how deep I want to route out the bottom, And I still have to install the hinges. All this and hope that it won't split or warp. I guess there is just no way to figure it out until you build one!

Carving Candle stands

Cheryl has been bugging me to carve her up a couple of Candle stands, threatening to buy some from the store if I don't get my act together. So tonight, I worked on a couple. Prototypes really, as I had no definite designs in mind. I tried to stick with just chisels, however, I am not completely thrilled with the results. One is the time, they seem to take a long time to complete. The second is the rough look of them. I don't know if it is my chisels or my impatient, but getting into those little cracks is a pain! Oh! and the wonderful mini files I bought at woodcraft did not help as much as I had hoped. The maple clogs the file rather quickly. So basically, I'm still working it out. I gave up for the night after these two. I didn't work on the tree carving tonight because it rained all day today again! perhaps tomorrow will be a little dryer

Kindel Furniture

Kindel Furniture is the pinnacle of classic furniture design. Wouldn't I be so lucky to find out that they are right here in Grand Rapids, just a stones throw away! They specialize in what I always thought they "furniture of Royalty" should be. Furniture with wonderfully detailed and decorative carvings, deep rich finishes, and superior craftsmanship and design. Of all the places in the world for a woodcarver, this looks like it would be as close to heaven as you can find. I found out that even my grandfather ( the one who's chisels I currently have) worked there for a certain time. ( He didn't go into specifics, but I'm impressed dad even knew about the place. I always thought Grandpa worked at Stow Davis) It's possible, since Kindel furniture has been around for 100 years. With a little luck, I may just add my name to that long list of craftsmen. It's almost a shame to show off the finished Eye I was working on yesterday next to these beauties. But here it is outside in the light. Now i'll have to carve a matching one so I can scare away the door to door salesmen!

The BIG MOVE! Fin!

So tonight we both finished up with out shops. I think it took me longer to get all my stuff set up, I would guess I had more "stuff" than Cheryl. Anyway I think it turned out pretty good. The cats approve! I will probably do some minor adjusting with the wiring and light placement later, but for now, at least all of the stuff is not all cluttered up. I'm happy that I managed to find a place to put stuff when I took my dust table apart. It held a lot of cluttered crap. There are a couple of shows this weekend where Cheryl and I are thinking about attending. We need a little seed money to help her fill out some orders she has lined up for her Wristlets. My new shop allows me to gaze upon some of my previous work. YEAH! For tonight's anime. We'll continue with School Rumble. Cheryl and I just finished season one. She now wants to move on to season two. Enjoy the closing theme of Season one!

One seat before the Holiday

We found out that the shipping place will not be open on Friday. So all carvings had to be done tonight up to this point. Then our supplier had not replenished their stock. YEAH! So it';s a typical SNAFU that we only had one seat to carve up. The other two will just have to wait. With the seats having priority, I did not carve much on my big experiment. But I did get a little ways into it while the poly was drying. And! Another Origami Beetle. Slightly different, But still looks a lot like other beetles from previous posts. It goes to show that there is more than one way to fold a design. And one last thing. The NEW full metal alchemist Opening. To be honest. So far, it's like they are trying to cram the last 54 episodes into the first 16 of the new series. But Cheryl says it should pick up soon as it did in the manga. To all those Anime fans ...enjoy!