Using Origami to buy lunch!

I have been leaving some origami bugs made out of the wrappers of the local Arbies lately, and tonight the employees bought us LUNCH! I thought they were just throwing them away each night, but I guess they have been collecting them. Anyhow, I didn't do anything in the woodcarving shop tonight, instead helping Cheryl with her line sheet for her Allenbrite LLC. And trying to prefect the origami Koi I posted about earlier. There are a couple of folds in there that you have to "eyeball" so it's difficult to get them to look exactly alike each time. as you can probably See from my pics. Anyway, after adding a little color, I hope they now look a little more like Koi and less like sharks!

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!

When wood replaces plastic

Tonight I had a request from the neighbor to make a replacement arm for his chair. As you can see the plastic one could not handle the stresses over time. Even my chair has had it's base replaced when one of the plastic legs broke. Anyway, I thought it would be a nice project for the night so I gave it a go. After cutting the pieces, I made a series of lap joints held with glue and screws. He didn't mind much about the cosmetics of it, but I wanted it to at least look presentable. After that I cut a box joint for the arm and cleaned it up with a chisels. I had to recess the holes for the bolts so they would fit inside the extra thick wood. I took it over to him and everything lined up and fit pretty good! ( I'm impressed!) It looks a little lop sided for the moment. if the other one breaks, then perhaps we can make a matching one. I also worked a little on some new box ideas. I don't have pics yet, but perhaps tomorrow.... Till then, have a great one!

Water lillies, Beer batter candy bar? and Fish...Hmmm fish!

Just a quick post tonight on a few experiments in the kitchen. Cheryl read somewhere that the Brits take candy bars and deep fry them. So she has been bugging me to try this for years. The opportunity came yesterday when we had fish for dinner. It's surprisingly pretty good! Taste like a doughnut with a candy center. As for the fish...we are going to try to make it a weekend tradition since we have not been eating as much fish as we used to ( back in the "eth works at a fish hatchery" days. As for Origami, I have been working on a koi but still have to master it. But in the mean time....I have found a water Lilly that I like. Hope everyone has a great week this week!

Finished boxes. Yes! Totally finished!

So tonight I finally finished the boxes and now they will be ready for pictures and posting in my Etsy shop. IT took a while to get here, but who ever said learning was easy? Especially when you are teaching yourself and your teacher doesn't know anything! Looking back, the hinges were a challenge. And still have a few issues that need to be solved. The first two I used Ebony stain. I thought they looked better with a dark "royal" color. Unfortunately, the contrasting wood on the hinge does not show up much when everything is black. After staining, I used a simple furniture wax as the ultimate finish. ( not polyurethane this time) I love the luster that the wax gives the wood. Kind of an antique look. After spending three years in the Army, I got pretty good at polishing boots. Polishing books is like sharpening chisels: everyone has their own way of doing things that they think is the best. For me, A good boot brush can give you a pretty good shine and does not take long to do. For the next several boxes though, I tried natural stain. Cheryl likes this the best, and I though it was the best way to show off the spalding in the maple. It also allows for the oak hinge to be shown off a bit more. So there you have it. You can't get much easier than stain with a light furniture wax finish, Cheryl says they feel like the "exotic" woods at Woodcraft. ( they dip them in wax to avoid them from cracking) Hopefully I can sell a few and work on some more this coming week. Hope you're having a great weekend!

My new focus. in origami that is....

Is an origami koi! Here's a little video of how it is done. Enjoy the video ( no it is not mine) and here are some ideas on what to do with them when you folds a bazillion!

Finished carvings and an Origami Grasshopper

It's one of those days where I actually accomplished everything I set out to do for one day! I finished the carvings, installed the hinges, ( complete with the routering that was required) And even stained up the previous boxes with Ebony stain. I must say, even though the bugs are kinda cool to look at, they are rather challenging to get looking the way they should. Meaning, it's difficult to carve those little legs and antennae with what few chisels I have. All in all though, I think they turned out pretty good! Tomorrow I'll have to resharpen my chisels, and possibly regrind a couple ( grr) I should also have some pics of the finished stained boxes. Oh! And I saw this really cool bug made from Origami last night...so I thought I would give it a go and see how close to it I could get. Now...Granted...I did not have the pattern to this bug, so I just had to make up my own. I might try it again some time as there are possibly a few tricks I did not try on this flying grasshopper. Hope everyone is having a great week so far! Friday is coming fast!

Some new Carving.. FINALLY!

This IS a carving blog after all! Yes tonight after finishing the hinge and taking it out for a spin, I was able to get going on my next carving projects. Nothing really fancy, just a couple of new boxes. I'm exploring the insect Realm for a change. Bugs are just way cool! I only hope other people find them as much fun as I do. I did throw in a mouse and frog. I ran out of daylight, so to speak, so I'll have to finish the rest up tomorrow. And resharpen a few of my finer chisels. Oh! Just to keep those Anime fans interested, We have been watching Black Cat again ( we own the video set) But they have posted the complete series on Funimation.com so you can check it out for free. Cheryl loves it so much she also has the entire Manga collection. Enjoy the opening!

Finished installed hinge. Not too bad!

Just finished the glue up of the hinge. It's set up pretty good! Of coarse you could break it if you tried, but it seems quite durable for the moment. I wanted to round it over a bit because it will stick out no matter what and I want it to seem like it is intentional. Now I'm off to do the moth and then perhaps even get to some carving tonight!