My Photo
Blog powered by TypePad

June 01, 2009

More Fun, Part II

As if once wasn't enough....here goes for the second table....in cherry....yum, yum!!!

Jig11
A jig invented by the fine furniture maker himself....see below to see all the ins and outs on the jig.



Table1
Oooooooooooooo - just stained - pretty, pretty!




Table2
Nothing like resting on one's laurels!!!




Table5
One of about many coats of finish.


Table4
The legs and leg headers and various pieces get their stain and finish.


Table5
Look at that grain!


Table6
Just in the office - brand new


Table7
All broken in and looking goooood!


**********************

Now about that jig -

Jig1
Jig2
Jig3
Jig4
Jig5Jig6
Jig7
Jig8
Jig9
Jig10
Jig11

But there's nothing like a movie!!

May 17, 2009

Something Fun

My art spans a lot of different mediums, but this is the first trek into woodworking

Table1
Isn't this beautiful.  Well, I thought it was spectacular, but I had no idea what was ahead of me!!!

OK the truth is that I had very little to do with this except, "hold this," or "stand here", or "put your foot here", or "clean up this mess," or "hold that screw"!!!!  But hey, somebody's got do all that hard work!  So in reality the table couldn't have been made without me, even though I haven't a clue about woodworking!




Table2
I picked out the pieces and we put them together (which is a lot more complicated than I thought), and then rounded the corners with a router bit, which I'd never seen before, but aren't these corners beautiful?  Just what I wanted.



Table3
Next is creating dowels to insert into the leg bases that will then be screwed into the table.  This is for stabilization as one of the things I've requested is that the legs be sturdy so that the table isn't hobbling along the kitchen floor while some quest is sawing through a piece of beef!  Well, the table won't.


Table4
We've sanded the table down, and have applied some stain.  At this point I think the table's pretty neat, but then we apply the stain, and the grain of the wood starts coming out beautifully!



Table5
Backtracking a little.  This is a sample we made up to check a few things to make sure we could get a few things right.  We did, so this is just an added piece that's a new price for my assistant's home now.




Table6
Just after the stain has been wiped off.  This is a photo of the base of the leg which is screwed into the table top.  I thought this was a beautiful touch.  This was done to stabilize the table, but it turned out to be an interesting corner technique that I thought had a valid artistic quality to it.



Table7
Here it is with one coat of finish on it and ready for two more coats.  Then we have to let it cure for 10 days and then apply a wax that will make the polyurethane really pretty - according to the pros at the store.




Table8
Here's another picture of my kitchen table almost finished!

April 29, 2009

Workspace

No matter what sort of artist you are, having a space that is workable, its contents accessible, and organized to the point that the artist can use the contents and move around in the space.  The area should be organized in such a way as to invite the artist and not scare him/her off with voices of: "Do me!  I want your attention here!  No wait, turn here and look at me and fix me!" 

Garage3
Now this doesn't look like something in need of help - just a little work and it's in great shape.  The truth is that this "before" picture wasn't really before.  This is more like an "in-between" picture.  The real truth is that things were much worse than this, and there was very little room to walk around in the garage, and tables were piles on top of piles of stuff.

But with some time and thought the "in-between" mess above evolves into:
Garage4  
Yes this is our famous fish eye lens at it's best, hence the distortion but the ability to catch all of the walls. 
Garage5
Here is another view - what a workroom!  All ready to be used!

And of course what do you do with an organized, working studio?....you make something....that is to follow!

April 14, 2009

My favorite football team

What can I say...I'm Sooner born, bred and will be dead (hopefully after I croak!)

But surfing found this little bit of history which is fascinating:


April 07, 2009

STS-119 Launch 3/15/09

OK - I'm a little late, but I'm a little behind on somethings.

We were in Key Largo doing a little bit of diving (checking out my dive buddy's new camera click here for some of our shots), and were watching the tube when they were announcing a shuttle launch in a couple fo minutes....so I thought - Hey, just 300 miles away - we should be able to see something....

Well something doesn't describe it.

OK - it's not the definitive launch shot - but it was my first launch viewing!!!

April 01, 2009

Studio Gallery and Ideas

I belong to this really fun gallery.  It's called the Studio Gallery, because we use it as a studio and a gallery - we're original thinkers that way ya know!!!

Artgallery0
We have openings twice a year, to show off our new work.  We get ourselves all spiffed up and look really great with all our new art up.

We usually have a guest artist to add something new to our show.
Artgallery5


And then we have classes in our gallery (it is a "studio gallery" after all)

Studiogallery.jgp 

But we also have other classes

Studioclass2 

This was a class for collage

Sg3

We have a wonderful facility for other artists who might be interested in teaching or art workshops in the Oklahoma City area.  You can contact the Studio Gallery here for more information.

March 09, 2009

At Night

My diving buddy has a new camera and we had some fun last night....
Night1
It started right outside the front door....the Bradford Pears are in bloom and with the street light back lighting them it was a gorgeous shot.  This was about the best of the subject matter, so we hoped in the car and took off.

First stop was
Night2
A local church.  I love this cause you can see straight into the sanctuary and the alter.  And the stain glass windows are always beautifully lit.

Night3
An ol favorite in our town.  During the 60's & 70's the kids would hang out here, and it's still popular with a great burger!

Night4
Another shot.  He couldn't resist....

Night5
And still another - it's fun to see what all a great fish-eye lens can do.

Night6
This is a landmark high-rise in the neighborhood with a revolving restaurant on top - too much fun.  The Bradfords in bloom and the lit building make for a great show!

Night7
Another - just of the building - the fish eye at work.

Night8
We couldn't resist this either - now that our capital has a dome, it looks a lot better.

Night11  
The famous Petunia #1 as it was drilled in a Petunia patch.




December 01, 2008

Christmas for babies

When you shop and do Christmas for babies, it's like you've discovered Christmas all anew again.  My friend has a grand daughter who we went shopping for today and I was in charge of wrapping all the gifts which is almost as fun as unwrapping....because of course that's what you think of when you're wrapping!

So here they are - all ready for a Santa delivery:


Christmas2 


Mostly clothes and such, but a few toys to open on Christmas morning


Christmas1 


OK - went over board on this one


Christmas3 


All ready for Grandpa's sig


Isbellangel 


Here's a close-up of the Christmas Angel for Isabella!

November 30, 2008

A long-time dream come true - Spoonflower

This has got to be the coolest thing alive.  Spoonflower is a fabulous place where you can upload your fabric design and they will print it for you.  I've been wanting to do this for years, and am elated to get a place that will do this.  The cool part is that even if your design is a little quirky and something only you would be interested in, they will do it for you!!!!  And it's not all that expensive.

So here's my quirky little idea....as I'm a diver, love stuff that has fish, and that sort of thing on there - so this was my "test" design:
Fish1  
And
Fish2

Now this matched together like this:
My Escher
You can click this for a larger view.

Now lest you think that I'm some sort of genius....I arranged this from an old design by Esher which is this design:
Escher_fish
What I wanted accomplish with my "test" was to see how well Spoonflower would match this design and needed something pretty intricate - I thought this fit the bill

So here's what I submitted to Spoonflower
Fish4
This is a little different than the watercolors above, but I had to do some simplification - after all this was a test.....

So here's the end result:
Spoonflower  
Of course now I have to make it up!!!!

That will be the next blog!

November 28, 2008

IF: Opinion

I always think the topics don't pertain to anything I'm doing, then POW!  Something happens and there it is.

This requires just a tad explanation....but never fail, I'll supply not only the explanation but the cartoon as well.  But basically my opinion is: Beat the h- - - out of OSwho!!!!
Rufneks

Saturday nite the University of Oklahoma Sooners play the Oklahoma State Cowboys in an in-state Bedlam Rivalry.  This year the stakes are higher than just braggin' rights.  If OU wins by a substantial margin (which translates into "show points for the polls") then OU could have the opportunity to play for a national championship.

Apparently the Wronghorns are so worried about the status of their ranking, they have raised enough money to hire a plane to fly over Boone Pickens Stadium to remind the public voters than saxet deserves higher ranking and therefore the opportunity to play in a nat'l championship. 

Enter the Ruf-neks a student Sooner support squad that are the only support group authorized to carry and shoot 12-gage shot guns which go off with every touchdown.  They are trained thoroughly and are in charge of riding/driving and care of the Sooner Schooner during games.  I personally think that the OU vs OSwho game will be a target rich environment - on the ground with the football squad beating the Cowboys, while the Ruf-neks can target the sexat flying plane!

My final opinion....I think a rematch between the Wronghorns and the stellar Sooners would be splendid - it would shut those ol' saxet Wronghorns once and for all!