Stairway to My Heaven

While I was in St. Paul Minnesota last weekend attending the 25th Annual Symposium of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW), the stairway was built to the second floor of my barn.


Even though I moved into the building in May, 2009, it wasn't completely finished; the barn is still a work in progress. But with the help of fellow woodturner and ART member, Mike Green, over Saturday and Sunday, Dave and Mike got THIS project done. And while they were building the stairs, Mike's wife, Sharon kept them well fed, and was the perfect surrogate Mom to my dogs, Eddie and Max.

The deck at the top is 6 ft. by 6 ft. The two side rails are temporary and will be replaced by three drop-in rails, that can be easily removed for hauling oversized pieces straight up and through the doorway.


The entire second floor is for wood storage, and all the noisy equipment. With the exception of the air compressor and sand blasting booth, everything currently up here was carried up a 12 ft. ladder that was leaning against the bottom of the doorway. The small bowls and billetts were carried in an old rucksack over my shoulder. Larger pieces and stickered boards were lifted up by me, to my husband, who pulled them in the rest of the way.







That's Eddie, an English Pointer and one of my shop mates, in the middle of this photo.

Having the stairs will make it soooo much easier to store my blanks and billetts. Looks like Dave will need to build more shelving space very soon!




See all these posts that are flat on top? That's for my contribution. I need to turn finial caps for each of these posts. Hey, I can do that! I'm a woodturner!

Replacing a broken table leg

While the past Memorial Day Weekend was a time for family and fun, the 'Official' start of summer, I spent some of that weekend working in the studio. A woman contacted me about turning a replacement leg for a maple table that had been in her family for about 30-40 years.


As most of you know, I'm primarily a bowl turner. But I do enjoy a challenge, so took on this job as just one more turning. After calculating the materials costs and labor, I came up with a quote. The customer had no problem with that (hmmm... maybe I underquoted?)



Here's the finished table leg, ready for stain. And yes, I underquoted my labor. Lesson learned for next time.

Alan Carter Demonstration and Workshop

I'm hosting Alan Carter in my studio this weekend (May 21/22) for a demonstration and workshop. Alan's background in furniture making shows in his well-known body of current work - suspended vessels.

Alan's work can be seen here, at his recently updated website:

http://alancarterstudio.com/

Here's hoping that he won't need an Ark to get from the Manchester airport to my barn on Friday afternoon. :-)

My Christmas Present

Guess what I'm getting for Christmas? Shoulder surgery! I have a torn rotator cuff, the muscle has separated and pulled back from the tendon and bone, and I have another small muscle fissure at the front of the shoulder.

Just got the news yesterday afternoon from my ortho. I'll be looking at a 12 week recovery, with the first 2 weeks completely immobilized. Won't even be able to write my name (yes, it is my right hand).

I was pretty down yesterday, I imagine that would be expected. But today is a new day, and I will get through this. I believe that things happen for a reason - don't know why this one - but I will make it through this and come out on the other end even better.

Turn and Burn Competition on Woodcentral

Last month I entered a competition for woodturning. The contest was to create a woodturned piece that had pyrography, or woodburning texturing. The competition was judged by three well-known woodturners whose work I've admired for a long time.

As a woodturner and artist, there is always some anxiety when putting your work out there for critique. Yes, your family and friends love your work, tell you how good you are, and make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Remember how much your Mom loved that elbow pasta artwork you made in grade school? That's what friends and family are supposed to do, right? The public doesn't know you, however, and will have no problem telling you if something looks like crap. So when you step outside your comfort circle of friends and family, make sure you're wearing your thickest skin.

Here's a photo of my entry.



On Friday afternoon, the results of the contest were posted. The first notice I received was a congratulations posting on my FaceBook wall from a fellow woodturner and Turn and Burn competitor. (Thanks, Jeff). My piece earned a third place finish in the competition. I was surprised and humbled by the choice, considering all the outstanding work that was submitted.

Here's a link to the competition page, with the winning photos.

http://www.woodcentral.com/contests/turning6/

Even better was the award - a gift certficate to a favorite woodturning store to buy more tools! How cool is that??

Robert Frost Maple Carved Spoons - Part 2

The spoons are sanded, and ready for the pyrography.


I drew a maple leaf free-hand with a pencil, and then go over my outline with a 10-A handpiece using my Eagle Burnmaster. Once the outline is finished, I use a shading handpiece to darken around the leaf edge.






And here's a finished leaf on the handle.


The two spoons, front and back of the handle.



Two spoons, signed and dated on the back of the scoop.



Several coats of a hand-rubbed oil finish, every twenty-four hours, and ready for delivery!

Spoon Commission

I attended my first national woodturning symposium of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) last month, held in Hartford, CT. There I met wooden spoon collector, Norman Stevens, who had a small portion of his vast collection on display. Cheeky me, I introduced myself, sharing that, while I spend most of my time as a woodturner, I have discovered and appreciate the satisfaction of using simple hand tools to carve spoons.

We exchanged business cards, and about 10 days later, I received a request to carve him a spoon. I suggested the spoon be carved from the maple tree harvested at the Robert Frost Farm, in Derry, NH. This tree is said to be the inspiration for many of Frost's poems, including "Tree At My Window". I was there for the harvesting in 2007, documenting the entire day with photographs. Mr. Stevens was thrilled with the proposal, since he is originally from Nashua, NH.






I started working on the Frost Maple spoon today. But before I touched that valuable wood, I first carved a prototype from a lilac branch, which appears in the upper left corner of the photo. I often make prototypes which help me work out design ideas, form and proportions. And for this project, I'm carving two identical spoons. There's simply too much riding on this commission to risk making a mistake, especially near the very end.



I'll document this project, too, and post my progress on this Blog. I think it's fitting, that the tool I'm using in the bottom photo, with the curved blade, was hand-made by Del Stubbs, a former woodturner. I'm using this tool to carve out the concave scoop portion.