Birds of a Feather

The second medium that we worked with in my sculpture class was wire. The assignment sounded easy: using wire, create one sculpture that appears heavy, and one sculpture that appears light. We were to consider our materials, the colour, and the visual weight of our method when creating our sculptures (thin wire appears lighter than thick wire, silver wire appears lighter than black wire, simple lines appear lighter than tightly wound lines).

The first night of class at the beginning of the semester, when the instructor briefly talked about the materials we would be using, I had an instant idea of what I wanted to make out of wire. I was so excited about it that I couldn't get my mind to stop thinking about it when I went to bed, so I finally got up and grabbed my sketchbook and made a lovely scribble of the idea. Then I could sleep. I really wanted to make a bird.

My grandma was a great collector of bird sculptures. By then end of her life, she had (literally) hundreds of bird sculptures and trinkets. The curio cabinet she had commissioned was CRAMMED full of them. They perched on window sills and graced tabletops. They peaked out from behind books, and were gracefully poised on the floor. Now, 5 years after her death, I still have the fleeting "Grandma would like this" thought every time I pass a bird on a shelf. While my grandma's love of birds wasn't really the motivation for the sculpture, I can't help but draw a connection between the two.

So, for the first sculpture (heavy), I took some tie wire (the stuff used to tie rebar together) and wound it into a pear shape--this was the body. I got my Crawford on and cut up some wire hangers. I bent one length in half, and then bent the ends on themselves so they formed a "V" and then inserted it into the larger part of the body for the head. Then I wound more tie wire around the wire hanger to form a ball, with the two "V" shapes still poking out to form the beak. I created the wings using more hanger and bent them in the same manner as the head/beak, and attached them to the side of the body. I then wound more tie wire around them to cover up the hanger--when I got to the tip of the wings, I changed the way I wound the wire from vertical to horizontal, and I pinched the end of the horizontal to form feathers. The tail was formed the same way as the wing (vertical winding around the base, horizontal winding around the end). (I can't describe the process very well, and I didn't take pictures!). I then wove different gauges of jewelry wire and galvanized steel wire (22, 24, 28, 32 gauge) through the tie wire. I wanted the surface to have an almost stitched-together appearance, and weaving the wire achieved that.

For the bases of the two pieces, I wanted to take a stab at creating hypertufa, which I had read about on blogs last spring. It's basically faux stone made out of Portland Cement, Peat Moss, and Vermiculite/Peralite. I followed this recipe, and used the bottom of milk carton for the Heavy sculpture (I made it as square as I could) and the bottom of a small gift box for the Light sculpture. After the hypertufa had set a bit, I stick in more pieces of wire hanger (bent into a "U" shape, with the rounded part above the hypertufa) for the Heavy piece, and a length of welding rod in (bent into an "L" shape with the vertical part above the hypertufa) for the Light piece. After it was completely set, I bent the "U" so it went up vertically from the base, and then bent at a 45 degree angle about two inches up. For the Light base, I bent the rod into a curved shape similar to a shepherd's crook with an upward curve at the end.

After the bases were finished, I took the Heavy base and wound jewelry wire around the entire length of exposed hanger. I took four lengths of tie wire and bent two into a "U" shape, and then bent the ends so they faced down. The other two I kept straight, but I bent the ends down. I then attached a "U" shape and a straight wire to each "leg" of the hanger above the base. These formed the feet of the bird. I wound more jewelry wire around the feet/toes/legs of the bird, until I was satisfied that they looked sufficiently bird-like. Then I attached the body of the bird to the bent "U" of the hanger using tie wire and jewelry wire, and camouflaged the hanger as well as I could.

All in all, I'm EXTREMELY happy with how my Heavy piece turned out. It fits almost exactly what I had visualized when I was thinking of the project, and I think it successfully fit the parameters of the Heavy project. I think I took about 15 hours to make this bird (though at least some of that was because I'd never used wire for anything aside from unlocking doors or pulling trapped chip bags out of vending machines).

Everyone thought it was apropos that it looked like a Raven, considering Halloween is approaching. I think it's beautiful, and I'll happily keep it out year round. I was actually proud enough of it that I SHOWED it to someone at work!

What I did for the Light piece was a bit more of a let down. Basically, I used 18 gauge wire to create the outline of a bird in flight. I used as little wire as I could get away with--3 separate lengths (one for the body/tail, two for each set of wings). It's not my best work, but it fit the parameters of the project.
One of my classmates liked the Light piece a LOT and asked what I was going to do with it. I said I didn't know, and she said that she would love to have it. So it's now cluttering up her room, I presume (or sitting in the trunk of her car, or populating the bottom of a waste bin....).

Click here for more pictures of the project.

Beginning Sculpture: Medium #1 (Continued)

For the final project of Medium #1 (Foam Core Board), I had to create something that was a "walk-through" sculpture. Based on the cryptic description from the hand out the instructor provided us, I thought a walk-through sculpture was one where the viewer interacted with the piece, where they could easily see top and bottom of the piece but would need to move their entire body (not the piece itself) to do so. So I decided to create a mobile--dunno why, it just made sense.

I decided early one I wanted to do something involving a tessellation. I always loved the Escher tessellations, and thought it would be awesome to make one into a mobile. Since it was kind of a theme with the other projects in the medium, I went with a simple leaf pattern. I laboured through one whole class period (6pm-9pm) trying to get the pattern right, where all the angles matched up. I failed and I cried and I thought about mass executions. I then tried to make the tessellation using a graphics program, but the angles didn't match up. I failed and I cried and I thought about mass executions. Finally, I buckled, found the tessellation of a leaf that I liked, printed it out, cut out one of the leaves, blacked it out, enlarged it via photocopy and printed it on a card stock sheet of paper. I then laminated it with packing tape, cut it out, and used it as a template. I cut as many leaves as I could using the left over foam core I had. After I cut them out using a very sharp Xacto knife, I peeled the top layer of poster board from one side of half of the leaves. In the other stack of leaves, I flipped them over and peeled the new top layer of poster board. After that, I used a blunt point to "etch" a vein pattern onto the top and bottom of all the leaves, then strung two together using fishing filament; I used different lengths of filament. After all of them were paired off and strung together, I attached them to a simple T-shaped hanger (two strips of straight-cut foam core glued together). Et Voila! A simple mobile. Here's the piccies:

Click here for more.

Beginning Sculpture: Medium #1

As you might or might not be aware, I'm taking a Beginning Sculpture class at the local CC. Throughout college, I always *meant* to take a sculpture class, because I have it in my mind that I could be very good at sculpture (no false modesty here!). It never worked into my schedule, and I wasn't too enamored with the professor that taught the class. Then when I started taking classes at the CC, all of the art studio classes were taught during the day or on Saturdays, and I couldn't justify taking a 3 hour block out of work M/W mornings for a hobby class. This fall semester was the first time I noticed the sculpture class being offered at night, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and brave the horrible parking situation at the CC and just take the class.

The first night of class, the professor handed out the syllabus and schedule, and a few supplemental sheets of information including a list of the four types of "three dimensionality:" low relief, one-sided, full round, and walk through. He told us our first medium would be foam core board (for those of you unfamiliar with it, it's basically two sheets of poster board glue to either side of a mm thick piece of low-density foam). He preferred we use white board, and if we HAD to use some other colour, we had to justify its use. And if we HAD to use some other paper material, we had to justify its use. Even after paying a $15 materials fee on top of standard registration, we have to provide the VAST majority of our own supplies--something I never had to deal with at the private liberal arts school I went to for college. He talked about low relief sculpture, and used the example of a coin--the image on the coin is considered low relief, and then set us about to work. Unfortunately, I missed the second class sessions because of car issues, and showed up the third class session with a vague idea as to the low relief sculpture I was going to make using my foam core board. At some point during this class session, the professor mentioned we would have to have all four of our sculptures ready for evaluation the following Wednesday (to the utter dismay of everyone in the class, because at no point during the preceding class sessions did he tell anyone that we had to complete a sculpture for each of the four types of three dimensionality). So I got busy this weekend and got three of the four projects done. I have NO idea what I'm going to do for the fourth one...poo.

Low Relief Sculpture. This is the one I created first. Outside the classroom, there's a large free-standing enclosed stair well that connects the lower campus to the upper campus. It rises about three stories. It's cinder block, and at one point, it's very clear that it used to be COVERED in ivy that has since died off. All the remains, clutched to the cinder block, are fragments of dead stems, leaves, and the debris that got caught. For some reason, I find it fascinating, and I decided I would use it as inspiration for my first project. I took the foam core board and laid out a grid of bricks and mortar. I cut through the top layer of poster board and the foam core, and stopped cutting before I completely pierced the back layer of poster board. I carefully dug out the foam core, leaving behind small pieces of foam, and the backside of the back poster board. I then carefully pealed off the very top of the poster board around the bricks, leaving behind the rough paper (to simulate the texture of brick). I used the strips of foam that I had pulled away from the "mortar" to make the stems of the ivy, rolled them in my fingers so they had a slightly tubular shape, and hot-glued them to the bricks and mortar. The slightly larges pieces of foam core that were left over were formed into loose leaf shapes and glued on the board, as well. All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out, though I'm not sure someone would know what it's meant to be by just looking at it. I'm quite happy that I managed to make the entire sculpture out of one piece of foam core and glue :o)

One-Sided Sculpture. Next I tackled the one-sided sculpture. I'm not 100% certain as to what differentiates a one-sided sculpture from a low relief work, as the professor never explained it and the sheet he handed out was a bunch of gibberish, but I took a stab at it anyway. Last week, one of the neighbours' cats killed a bird in my backyard. There were feathers ALL over the place. I quite like birds and I quite like feathers, so I grabbed one of the feathers, washed it with anti-bacterial soap (see, Mom, I did listen at least once during my childhood!), dried it, and set about recreating it in paper. I loosely sketched out a feather on a sheet of white card stock. For the quill/rachis part of the feather, I used a pick to gently mar the surface of the paper, and then cut out the feather shape. I cut tiny, thin strips from the paper to simulate the soft after feathers closest to the quill. Then I cut the barbs along the length of the father, making as tiny, thin strips as I could with scissors. As the paper was cut, it curled gently, which nicely simulated real barbs. After completing all the cuts, I gently molded the marred center quill/rachis so that it was slightly raised, and then mounted the whole feather on the foam core, using strips of foam core to raise the feather from the surface. I *think* it qualifies as a one-sided sculpture!

Full Round Sculpture. Lately, I've been really interested in leafless trees (as evidenced by the large drawing I did for the down stairs bathroom back in March, and the smaller drawings I've been working on since then that I'll eventually frame and post). For this project, I wanted to make a leafless tree sculpture. I cut two similarly sized trunks/large branch pieces from the foam core, cut a slot down the top side of one trunk and along the botton side of the other trunk, so when the were matched together, they would form a standing tree shape. I then cut 4-more quarter trunks (flat side with the opposite side bring the trunk) with more branches sprouting from the top. I used my Xacto knife to bevel the straight edge of each quarter trunk piece so that when I glued them to the free-standing trunk, they would fit nicely. Bleh--it's really hard to describe it, and I didn't think to take pictures of the steps, so I just sketched out what I did here:

I then hot glued the quarter trunk pieces to the free standing trunk, making sure all bottom edges were flat and level.

After the base was formed, I used more card stock and cut random branch shapes. I then cut holes in the branch portion of the foam core tree and inserted the card stock branches into the holes. In most instances, they held quite easily to the foam core--I hot glued a few of them to keep them in place. I then created a 4" x 1" base for the sculpture using more foam core (cut one 4"x4" piece, two 1"x4" and two 1" x 3-5/8" pieces, and hot glued them together. I then put a whole heaping gob of hot glue on the top of the base, and set my tree sculpture on top, wedging it into the glue to ensure proper adhesion.

I didn't want a stark base, so I decided I needed some leaves. To make the leaves, I used more card stock and used by pick to draw a straight line down the length of paper. I then created a chevron pattern on either side of the line, again using the pick. Then I cut the line/chevron strip off the paper, used the line as the center point and folded the strip in half length-wise. I then cut out crescent shapes that, when flattened, formed leaves. I varied the size and shape of the leaves I cut out. Next, I glued the leaves to the base using tacky craft glue, trying to cover the entire base and the hot glue as much as possible. Here's the finished product:

And a close up shot of the leaves/base/trunk. I'm pleased with the leaves, especially.
Since all of the projects were done on white paper/foam core board and I'm not an ace photographer, the pictures didn't turn out spectacularly, so keep that in mind. Click here for more pictures of the projects. As I make more pieces, I'll update the blog/Flickr gallery.

Container Gardening for Dummy

Last spring, several Home Improvement/Decorating blogs were a frenzied with hanging succulent gardens created with Whirly Hanging Candleholders from CB2. Cute, to be sure. I was reminded that during college, I invariably had a hanging fishbowl that I fashioned out of a clear glass replacement light globe I snagged at the local Ace Hardware. I wrapped the lip with wire, and suspended it from the ceiling using a plant hook. It worked wonderfully, and was the happy home to a series of gold fish and betas (after I figured out that gold fish DO NOT do well in tiny enclosed spaces). When I moved to California, I took my suspended fish tank with me, and it hung in the kitchen of the first house I lived in, where it promptly sat neglected and became a happy home for massive amounts of algae. At some point, a rowdy roommate smashed the globe, and that was that.

After seeing the various incarnations of the hanging succulent garden using the Whirly Hanging Candleholders, I figured that my hanging fishbowl idea would work just as well, so I trundled down to my local Ace Hardware store and picked up three clear glass replacement light globes. Then to Home Depot to get some succulents ($1.79 each) and some Miracle Grow Cactus and Succulent Mix potting soil. I also got some polish river rock for aquariums (a bag of small pebbles and a bag of large pebbles).

First, I took some malleable wire and wrapped the lip of the glass globe around 5 times. Before twisting the loose ends together, I took (2) 4" lengths of the same wire and looped it under the wire around the rim--these pieces would later be used to attach the globe to some chain. I twisted the ends around each other as I pulled the wrapped wire as tight around the lip as I could.

After the wire was attached, I placed about 1/2 cup of the small river rock in the bottom of the blog. Then I scooped in about a cup and a half of the Cactus Mix potting soil. After removing the succulent from its retail holder, I loosened the roots and broke away some of the potting soil, and then placed the succulent in the globe. Since the opening for the globe is quite small and my Big German Hands are big, it took quite some maneuvering to get it placed and settled. I really gently mixed some of the potting soil with the small river rock pebbles, to provide for good drainage. After I felt the succulent was sufficiently anchored, I covered the leaves with an inverted plastic soufflé cup (any small cup would work) to protect the leaves as I sprinkled in some larger river rock pebbles along the surface of the soil. Although the larger pebbles are for aesthetics, I think they make it look purty. When all three succulents were planted, I gave them a thorough watering, and cleaned the inside of the visible glass surface.

I wanted to put my succulent garden in the arched south-facing window in the foyer, as it gets excellent light year round, and is visible from the street/parking pad and is a favourite perching spot for the kitties. I found the center of the window and inserted a swivel ceiling hook into the arch frame, and then put two more hooks equal-distance from the center hook. Next, I attached some chain to the globe, using one of the 4" lengths of wire I had inserted into the wrap before twisting the wire tight around the lip of the globe. A few twists and wraps, and it was secured. I then figured out how far I wanted the globe to drop, and cut the chain and secured the other side of the chain. I did this for all three globes. After I was done, I marveled at my cute little garden and vowed I would do my best to keep them alive. Since they're succulents that love light and warmth, and require infrequent watering, there's a good change I might not kill them right away. Keep your fingers crossed!

The hanging garden! The window is double-paned, and there's some spotting between the panes from condensation, so I promise you the inside and outside of the window is nice and clean--it's between the panes that isn't. And there's no way to clean between the panes without breaking one of them. Drat.
This is Crassula Argentea Compacta, or Compact Mini Jade. The neighbour to the left used to have massive jade plants, but for some reason they killed them off over the last year. Tis sad, as I'm sure the plants were at least 50 years old.
This is Echeveria 'Ramillette.' It reminds me of artichokes.

This is Graptoveria 'Moonglow.' As the leaves die, they turn a nice pink-orange (notice that one is already dying. Poo).
Click for more pictures of the succulent garden.

Mountain Landscape

My friend Mickey asked me to make a birthday card for his wife's birthday, and since I'm quite fond of Mickey and Carrie, I immediately agreed (despite having many unfinished projects looming over me, and school starting).

Mickey's only direction was that he and Carrie would be spending the upcoming weekend in the mountains, and since they're both avid back packers, something mountain/wildflower themed would be nice. I waited until inspiration struck, and decided to do a multi-medium piece, using graphite (I'm just getting back into graphite, after not using it for art purposes for nearly 9 years), watercolour, and Prismacolours.

First, I found a photograph of mountains that I liked by searching with Google Images. I sketched it out on a 5x7 piece of card stock with my graphite pencils. I've forgotten how much I enjoy graphite, how easily it blends and erases. I was a bit clumsy to start out, but quickly remembered how easy and forgiving it is to work with. After I was satisfied with the black & white portion of the card, I took a separate sheet of card stock and sketched out the area I would need to cover. Next, I used some masking medium and a paint brush to "dot" the paper randomly, not really caring too much about the shape of the dots and their arrangement. I then used my trust water-soluble watercolour pencils in light green, dark green, light brown, and dark brown to fill in between the dots. A quick wash with a barely moist paint brush later, and I had a nice background for my wildflower field. After the paper dried, I used an eraser to remove the masking medium, which resisted the paint, leaving white dots behind. I then used my Prismacolours to fill in the white dots. Finally, I cut the wildflower field out and glued it to the original 5x7 card.

Beading Frenzy

It's not really related to my house, but I promised my mom I would share with her the pictures of the necklaces/earrings I made this weekend. Carrie came over on Saturday, and we got our Crafty-Geekness on, and made some jewelry. Carrie finished a necklace her sister had asked for long ago, as well as another necklace using some of her beads and some of mine--both turned out lovely, though I didn't think to snap some pictures of them. I made three necklaces/earring sets, and then felt like making more on Sunday.

The first set I made, I used some lovely rose-coloured glass beads, as well as some mirrored clear seed beads and some silver-plated beads, with a gemstone pendant (quartz?) . I really like how it turned out.

Next I decided to finally do something with the jade-coloured stone beads I had picked up several years ago. I mixed in some sea foam coloured glass beads, as well as some more mirrored clear seed beads. I'm not sure if I'll wear it much, but it's a nice addition to my jewelry.

The final necklace I made on Saturday was a mixture of crazed earthenware pieces, black glass round beads, mirrored grey tiny seed beads, and a large quartz pendent. I know I'll get a lot of use out of this set!Albert decided to inspect the goods as I was taking pictures.On Sunday, I was sifting through my larger glass beads, and decided to make something out of these aquamarine faceted glass beads I bought several years ago. I used some pearlized seed beads and some of the left over glass jade coloured beads from the second necklace I made on Saturday. It's kind of Flintstones-esque but I think it's purty.
The second set on Sunday used up the rest of the rose-coloured glass beads from the first necklace on Saturday, as well as a rose-coloured glass pendent. I think it's awefully pretty!
The final piece I made on Sunday used this beautiful raspberry-coloured quartz pendent as its center-piece. While the glass beads aren't an EXACT colour match, they were close enough to not be distracting. I love it, and actually wore it to work today (it's a much lighter colour than it appears in the pictures).

Every six months or so, I get the itch to just bead and bead and bead and bead. And then I lose interest and move onto some other craft. I wonder how long I'll remain on this kick :o) I should make some Christmas gifts while I'm feeling it!

No More Peeping Toms*

The property my house sits on is L-shaped, with neighbours on both sides. Both of the neighours have houses that are set further back than my house, so they have prime-views of the windows on the back side of the house. Before the neighbours to the left moved in, John and I went to look at the place with our realtor to see what they could see, and were happy that they really couldn't see much. The neighbour on the left side, who knows what they can see. Regardless, I never feel quite right leaving windows un-dressed, so as soon as we moved in, I installed blinds and curtains.

The sliding glass door into the back yard presented another problem, because it's really tall (89") and quite narrow (56"). I got some curtains installed, and they were quite delightfully oppressive in their light control. But you know, sometimes, I don't like living in a dark cave.

I installed some Gila Privacy Glass Film to the downstairs bathroom window last year, and had a ton of it left over, so it occurred to me to install some of that on the sliding glass doors. I didn't want to completely obstruct the ability to look outside, though, because then I'd have to OPEN THE DOOR when prowlers were about to verify that prowlers were indeed about, and the kitties would revolt because they could no longer watch the lizards crawl around the rock retaining wall in the backyard. All the windows in the house have a faux panes that divide the windows into several smaller panes. So I decided I would mimic that by cutting eight equally-sized blocks from the film, and applying those to the window, leaving a slight gap between each, creating a "pane." I figured each block should be 11.5" x 21" which would leave around 2/3" between blocks and frame--large enough to see out of when you're standing close to the door, but small enough that the neigbours wouldn't be able to make out much detail when looking through them. This is the first window:
And this is what both windows looked like, finished.
All in all, it was a very simple project, and I think it adds a lot of character. And now I'll be able to keep the curtains open without worrying that the neighbours are watching me do cart wheels in the kitchen (HAH!) AND I don't have to look at the u g l y backyard.

*I'm not saying the neighbours are Peeping Toms. I'm just saying that I felt vulnerable and exposed and paranoid that everyone was watching what I was doing.

It LIIIIIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By and large, the house is severely lacking in storage. In the three bedroom house, there are exactly three closets--that's it. There's no linen closet. There's no utility closet. Instead of making a closet underneath the stairs on the inside of the house, there's a closet on the outside. The vacuum cleaner, broom, carpet cleaner, etc are all "discretely" tucked behind trash containers and corners. In the flurry of house-buying oblivion, we didn't notice the lack of closets. A year later, we lament the lack.
One of the problem areas has been the foyer. We don't have a convenient spot to put keys and mail and incidentals, so they wind up other places and are easily lost. Last November, John and I decided to rectify that by building a console table. This was the original design:

We decided to use the Kreg Pocket Hole Jig that John had picked up previously. We bought some furniture-grade birch plywood, cut it down the dimension with the table saw. We first tested the straightness of the cuts by dry-assembling it with clamps.

Then we set up the jig and got to drilling.

The jig is incredibly easy to use.

We got the top, bottom and sides put together in short order. We cut the back panel. A few weeks prior, we were at Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, and found some pretty nice plain drawers (lacquered plywood with a melamine-coated Masonite bottom). I'm pretty sure they were intended to be kitchen cabinet drawers, but they'd work just fine for the console table. They were marked at $4 each, but were on sale for 50% off, so $4 for drawers was definitely do-able. The only problem was that the drawers were about 5 inches too long and wide, but we figured it'd be easy enough to disassemble them, cut them to size, and reassemble them. We got the first drawer done with no issues--it fit perfectly! The second drawer, I mis-measured, and we cut it the wrong size. Frustrated, we put the project on hold until we could buy a third drawer. A week or so later, we bought a third drawer and set it on top of the frame. And pushed the project off to the side of the garage, where it sat unfinished.

I was working on other projects and kept meaning to finish the console, but the thought of doing it myself was a bit daunting. Finally, I bucked it up in May, and drug the four-sided carcass to the work table. First thing I did was attach the back, which make it ever so much more stable and ever so much more HEAVY. I measured the correctly-sized drawer and cut the third drawer to match. Then I put the drawers into the table, expecting them to fit marvelously well. They didn't. In our measurements, we failed to take into consideration the inset back panel, so the drawers were about an inch too long. So, I disassembled both drawers (marking everything as I went so I wouldn't cut too much again!), made the corrections, reassembled them, and happily rejoiced when they fit.

At about this time, I also decided to attach the pine molding I had purchased for the project. I got it attached to the "top" of the cabinet, only to realize I had actually attached it upside down from what I had intended, and the glue had already set, so there was no way I'd be able to take it off without making a big mess. So what was once the bottom of the table became the top of the table. And I realized I hadn't measured correctly, and wouldn't have enough of the molding to finish the bottom. I took a trip to the lumber yard near my work and asked if they stocked pine molding with a cove edge. Nope. They could order me some alder molding with a cove edge.

After I got the bottom molding attached, I decided to modify my design and put the drawers on the bottom of the table. I also decided to add a little cubby between the drawers.
I used the Kreg jig to attach the two side pieces to the bottom, and also the middle shelf to the entire unit.I had loads of thinly shaved hard maple strips lying around from my brother in law's Christmas present, so I thought I could use those strips as edge-banding to cover the raw plywood edges of the table. I had more hard maple shorts lying around (they were cheap at the lumber yard!) and thought they'd make nice drawer fronts. I got those cut down to size and dry-fitted them.
After I was mostly satisfied with the assembly, I used stainable wood filler to cover brad marks and cracks.

When it was dry, I scraped off the excess.

And started a sanding regime. 80, 100, 150, 200 grit sand paper. Thank goodness for random orbital sanders! After I wiped it down with a wet rag, it was ready to stain.

I turned to my old reliable Red Mahogany stain (since it's what I have!). This is what it looked like after the first coat:

Unfortunately, the "stainable" wood filler wasn't all that stainable on the molding, so it's really obvious where the brads are. At that point, I was tired and flustered, so I decided to put a second coat on, paying special attention to the filled areas. After the second coat, they filler-spots are still there, but they're not as noticeable and my f-it attitude got the best of me, so I decided to just seal the f-er.

I put three coats of poly on the inside, sides, molding, drawer fronts, and legs. For the table top and the top of the shelf, I added three additional poly coats--just for good measure.

This is what the behemoth looks like, fully assembled:

It's HUGE!!!!!! Like, really really really big. I think I'm going to cut the legs down two more inches so it'll stand at counter height, and the ottomans will just fit underneath.

In my haste to get it into the house (by myself! I didn't want to ask John or Josh to help!), I accidentally chipped the molding on the top left hand corner of the piece. The SIX coats of poly were thick enough to keep the piece attached, so I'll have to glue it and then refinish it a bit. I call it my Frankenstein Console Table (hence the title of this post) because it's got birch, maple, alder, pine, and Douglas fur. I'm quite proud of myself for getting this huge thing made, mostly by myself. It was most certainly a learning project for me. I know that I need to make much more detailed plans before I begin a project, I know I need to measure not once twice or three times but four times before cutting, I know I need to make accurate calculations of materials needed before I set about cutting things up. Best of all, I know I can make a pretty nifty piece of furniture, all by myself. My mom tells me my great great grandfather was an expert furniture maker...I guess I've got a bit of that in my blood :o)

Click for more pics.

2009 Family Christmas Ornaments

As I have mentioned, my grandmother made beautiful beaded Christmas ornaments. Each year, all of her grandchildren could pick out a single ornament from her bevy of creations. As a child, this was a fun tradition, and now as I look at my amassed collection as an adult, it makes me feel a bit more connected to my grandparents.


Last October, I decided I would take a stab at making my own ornaments for my family. First, I designed what I wanted them to look like. I used Microsoft Word, so nothings to scale and I made some design tweaks when I actually made them. I decided to use silver sequins of varying size, white pearl beads, seed beads, silver stick pins, and black velvet ribbon.

And copious amounts of GLUE. Now, before I started on the first ornament, I had a healthy appreciation for the beautiful ornaments my grandmother so lovingly created. As my calloused thumb pushed the final pin into the final ornament, I had a healthy appreciation for the dedication and pure insanity of my grandmother. Wowie wow wow. It took me something like three weeks to make all of the ornaments. I figure I worked on them about 2-3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Wowie wow wow. And I'm not even as meticulous as my grandma was! I didn't CARE if there were exactly the same number of pearls on each ornament! She would count beads and measure distances! Sheesh. I also discovered that not many craft/hobby stores carry a decent selection of Styrofoam shapes and sequins. I bought out the entire selection of sequins and push pins at two different Joanns and had to go back two more times. Sheesh!

But, as I pushed the last pin in, I was very proud of the ornaments, and I know my siblings, parents, and aunt and uncle will appreciate them.

The basic design of the ornaments stayed the same; I just changed the colour of the seed bead to reflect the favourite colour of the recipient. My mom said she preferred ruby, emerald, and Sapphire, while my dad preferred emerald.For my maternal uncle and aunt, I used lovely blue seeds.My oldest brother got another blue ornament, and my sister in law got green. My young nephew, who might or might not have a favourite colour, got an ornament with Denver Broncos colours (his ornament was smaller, and I didn't use an velvet on it--just pearls, sequins, and seed beads). My brother Mark said he preferred browns and grays, so his ornament was tone-on-tone silver.
My sister's favourite colour is red, while my brother in law's is dark Trojan red.

John's was in his Broncos colours.I still haven't made my ornament. When I ran out of silver sequins and velvet ribbon, I made a pink (PINK!!!) starburst ornament. I've had those pearlized pink beads for 15 years and never made anything out of them, even though I've always thought they were pretty. So I decided to use them on the ornament. While pink's not my favourite colour, I sure do think it's a pretty ornament. Click for more blurry, out of focus, low light pictures.

Gabe's Christmas Puzzles

As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. My road is *very* well paved.
As you might recall, I had that BRILLIANT idea of doing a home-made Christmas with my family. Here it is, the middle of June, and I've FINALLY gotten all of my Christmas 2009 gifts sent to their respective recipients. When I hatched my BRILLIANT plan of making all of these Christmas presents, the responsibility was being shared with someone else. I got my part of the presents largely done before or slightly after Christmas, while I (im)patiently waited for the other person to do their part. Ish happened, and suddenly I was wholly responsible for getting everything done. So that's why it's taken THIS LONG to get everything done.
So, my young, impossibly adorably cute nephew loves Thomas the Tank Engine, as any sane little child ought to. Because, really, Thomas is awesome (I'll admit to watching some Thomas well past the "appropriate" "intended" age of consumption). I'm also a fan of gifts for kids that don't involve batteries or those that zap the creative imagination of childhood. I remember really really really really really really really loving board puzzles when I was a kid, and I decided that I would make a board puzzle for my impossibly adorably cute nephew.
I took some 1/4" Masonite/hardboard and cut it down to a rough 9"x11" rectangle. I found a nice picture of Thomas, and, using standard craft grade acrylic paint, I transferred the image onto the Masonite. I think I painted two layers of paint, and then an acrylic pen to make an outline of Thomas.

I slathered Thomas with several coats of Modge Podge, and then used my trusty scroll saw to freehand puzzle shapes. By Christmas, the puzzle was ready to ship out.

As the months after Christmas wore on, I started to feel really guilty about sending a single puzzle out. And then I remembered that my favourite board puzzles were those board puzzles that were on an actual board. So I decided I would make a board for my Thomas puzzle.

Using more Masonite, I cut a board about 1/2" larger on all sides than the original puzzle, and then cut 1/2" strips of Masonite. I glued those strips onto the perimeter of the board, and clamped them until everything was dry. After a light sanding, I spray painted the board with a white satin paint. Marvelous!

And then as the months continued to wear on, I decided I should (and could) make a second puzzle. Knowing my sister in law's love of the Denver Broncos, I decided to paint the logo into another board puzzle. I used the same steps as the Thomas puzzle, but instead of Mod Podge, I went over it with some varnish (it'll probably turn the white paint yellow over time, but it's a more permanent solution than Mod Podge).
After the puzzles and the boards were ready, I realized that they might be a bit difficult for a two-almost-three-year-old. So I traced the shape of each puzzle piece on the white board using a permanent marker. This is the Broncos board:

And this is the Thomas board:

And this is Thomas the Tank Engine, assembled on his board.

And this is the Broncos logo, assembled on its board:

All in all, I'm pretty darned proud of how the puzzles turned out. I think I'll make more in the future. Just not for Christmas 2010!

Click for more piccies!