Segmented Stuff!

 As always, click on any photo to enlarge.

Here's what Rudy and I have been up to. Segments! Segmented bowls have captured both of our imaginations, and we are having more fun than is probably legal.

Rudy cuts out the segments on a table saw that he has set aside for this purpose only. He glues each batch of segments into a ring, and then hands the several rings over to me.

Stacking the rings into a bowl must be done on the lathe, so that they are centered with each other. And only one ring can be glued to the next at a time, so this part is very time consuming. Luckily, glue sets up quickly, so I can often glue two or even three rings in a session.

Once the glue has dried completely, it is treated like any other bowl. I turn it, sand it, and finish it. And, as you can imagine, Rudy stays ahead of me by quite a margin.

This little beauty is Ambrosia Maple with a Cocobolo base. Cocobolo is beautiful, but does NOT like to be glued. We won't be doing that again.

Here's a little beauty. Well, not so little, measuring 13 1/2" by 4 1/4". The little black and red thingies are Huayruro Seeds. I brought back a mess of them from our trip to Machu Picchu last year. They are a symbol of good luck in Peru, and you'll find them featured in lots of jewelry. Not being a jeweler, I decided to feature them in a bowl. 

Hat tip to Brendan Stemp, who demonstrated how to set the epoxy resin into the bowl rim. Taking the concept a bit further found me setting the seeds into the rim, the base, and the center.

One of the new territories we are exploring is the making of urns. I made one for our doggie Sydney, and folks liked it so much that more were requested. And so more were made. 

This one is Marblewood and Apple. I'll have another finished in a couple days, and I'll show you!

Annastassia the Unicorn/Pegasus (there are wings)

Katy the Shark

Mitchell as Chewbacca

These three are the grandchildren of a dear friend who was once a student of mine. I've known them since before they were born. They each have been models in my classes, either as the star of the show for infant massage, or center stage along with their mother for pregnancy massage. 

Their mother Amy had sent me a photo of a blanket, asking me to make her that. I charted it, made it, and sent it. And the pattern for her blanket is the bottom-most row on each of the kids' blankets. It can be seen most clearly on Mitchell's blanket. The top-most bit is also the same on each, Celtic hearts. 

Mitchell pointed out that as they had each received the gift of a fleece onesie, they would surely be warm THIS Christmas eve!

Birdhouse Ornaments Revisited

After making some more, a word has appeared to describe my work that I would have never before used. The word is:

Cute

It sort of shocked me, and even frightened me a bit when I first heard that word issue forth. But there it was. Cute. Undeniably cute. What can I say? I like the little rascals. But I refuse to put tiny little birds on the perches!

 

Birdhouse Ornaments: How To

Sam Angelo, AKA Wyoming Woodturner, is a go-to source for instruction and  inspiration. His videos have given me much over time. This little video is what got me going with birdhouse ornaments.


Sam Angelo Birdhouse Ornaments


Watch his video, and then look at what I did:

There seems to be some resemblance here!

The first thing I learned is to coordinate my tools. The top and bottom halves of my birdhouses didn't match up and needed to be sanded into shape. Plus, I didn't have a chuck that would hold the size pieces I was making!

This problem was solved pretty neatly by bringing Rudy's set of Forstner bits to the lathe, and trying various bits with various chuck jaws. Turns out my smallest set of jaws (I use Nova chucks) would both grab a one inch spigot, and expand into a one inch recess. Having the toolage worked out this way saved a lot of time in the changing jaws department.

Here's MY protocol:

I've been using 2" X 2" X whatever" spindle blanks, which makes a pretty good sized ornament; in fact, some people have remarked that they were surprised at how large they are. The problem with using the same size blank for both top and bottom halves of the birdhouse is that so much of the wood for the bottom half needs to be wasted in order to make it smaller in diameter than the top half. The roof of the house needs to overhang the bottom half, otherwise your little imaginary birdies get all wet! So if wasting wood is an issue (if only because of cleaning up extra shavings, not to mention the expense of the wood) try using a smaller diameter blank for the bottom half of the house. Just be sure to coordinate with your Forstner bits.

Cut the blanks into 2"ish long chunks. This does not need to be an exact measurement. You can eyeball them, work around any flaws in the wood, and have them all come out different. Or you can measure the length of your blank, divide by two inches, allow for the kerf (the amount of wood lost to the blade doing the cutting) and make them exact.Suit yourself. But whatever you do, make these cuts as perpendicular to the length of the wood as possible. I have had no luck with my band saw, and with the miter saw the bits of wood are too small for me to safely hold. I've been using the table saw, Very Carefully.

Take the chunks for the house half to the drill press and decide what size hole you want for the entrance of your birdhouse. It is way easier to drill this hole into a square blank than it is to try to hold a rounded one. Find the center, vertical-wise, of your blank. Drill the hole deep enough so that it goes about halfway through the blank.

This brings us to the third bit of wood involved in this endeavor. The perch. Real birdhouses should not have perches. Birdies don't need them, and perches give aid to potential predators. But they are so dang cute! And nothing says "birdhouse" quite like that little stick. So figure out what you want to poke out. I use a 1/8" dowel, and played around until I found a drill bit to make a hole that would hold that dowel securely. 

Change bits and drill the perch hole below the house hole. Get them on center; it looks better. Mass produce them. Do all the house holes, then change bits and come back to do the perch holes. Don't have a drill press? Use whatever you have for hole-drilling, you poor sod. One note: place the house hole not too close to the end of your blank. There must be room for the roof blank tenon to nest into the house blank mortise. And now your house blank has a top and a bottom.

Find and mark the center of each end of your little blanks. Yes, both ends. Do this with the house blanks with their house- and perch- holes, as well as with the roof blanks. You'll thank me later.

To the lathe!

Mount some jaws into a chuck that will hold whatever size blank you are using. With my Nova chuck, this means the step jaws. Into the tail stock, mount your Jacob's chuck. This is a deal breaker - you need that Jacob's chuck. Here's where you use the size Forstner bit you determined would work with what jaws you have. When mounting the house blank into the jaws, make sure the top end of the house is facing the tailstock-Jacob's chuck-Forstner bit assembly. Use the tip of the Forstner bit to help you in centering the blank in the chuck. 

(If you have two chucks, here's where you put your step jaws on one chuck for hollowing, mortising and rounding; and the tiny jaws onto the other chuck for the rest of the carving and finishing.)

With the house blank mounted and centered between the step jaws and the Forstner bit, advance the Forstner bit  to hollow out the house. Hollow down past the house hole. Hollowing past the perch hole is optional. But leave yourself enough blank at the head stock end so that you can carve whatever shapes you are planning for the bottom of your house. 

Then with the Forstner bit INSIDE the mortise, near the top to steady the blank, round off the blank. Keep in mind that the roof needs to overhang the house, so round this blank thinner if needed. Before taking the blank off the lathe, true up the top of the house, or the end of the mortise. This is easier after the blank is rounded and drilled. Remove the blank/house from the lathe and set aside. It will be only halfway rounded. You'll come back to that with a different set of jaws.

Now mount the roof blank the same way as you did the house blank, except that the end facing the head stock is now the top of the house. Once again, bring up the tail stock with that same Forstner bit, use it to center the blank in the chuck, and advance it enough that the tip is seated into the blank, and the drilling portion of the bit is just beginning to touch the end of the blank. With this in place, round as much of the roof blank as you can easily get to. Give a thought to how you want the eaves to look like. 

Make the tenon, using the Forstner bit as a guide. You just drilled a mortise using this exact bit, so carve the tenon to match. I like to get close, then use a scraper for the final touch. Advance the scraper until it touches the (non spinning!) Forstner bit. Stop the lathe, move the tool rest and try on the mortise until the fit is where you want it. Take note of whether the tenon shows through the house hole, and shorten the tenon, if possible. There still needs to be enough meat and potatoes to the tenon that it can be held in your tiny jaws.

Set aside this half rounded piece of wood. Change to your tiny jaws that will both expand into the mortise and hold the tenon.

Let's go back to the house blank. If you trued up the mortise end, it will be pretty easy to seat it onto the tiny jaws. For clarity's sake: the jaws go inside the mortise, in expansion mode. Once again, use the Forstner bit tip to help in centering and steadying. This is why I had you mark the center of both ends of the blank. You may thank me now.

Any time you reverse a piece of wood on the lathe, you find out how well you did at finding the center. Chances are, the blank will need some truing up. True up and move on. Round the rest of the blank and shape it however you like. Some folks like spindles; just take note of how far down the hollowing goes. Others like a flat bottomed approach, so the ornament can stand on a table. Burn lines or whatever embellishment you like, such as color.

Sand it and finish it! Or set it aside for buffing, like I do.

So much for the house end. Now mount the roof end into the jaws, with the jaws in compression mode this time. Use the Forstner bit to guide the centering process. Making a little hole in the center of the roof gives you a starter hole for mounting and hanging hardware later on. Carve your roof into shape, sand, finish, embellish. 

Glue the two halves together. Clamp them if you have clamps that will fit. I like those quick release kind. Buff now if you are buffing. Cut the dowel for the perch. Sturdy scissors will work. Sand both ends of the dowel, jam one end into the perch hole. Mount the hanging hardware (eye screws work nicely) and you are done! Prepare yourself for applause!

Learning Spindle Gouges

Birdhouse Ornaments

Some days my brain works pretty good, and on others, it has no idea. Yesterday was one of THOSE days. An idea for a birdhouse ornament had come along, and all sorts of way to try and make this idea come to fruition were whirling around. How to make the crenelations of the castle? Band saw would be too wobbly since the blade wanders this way and that, fence notwithstanding. Scroll saw? I have little to no experience with that particular machine, but am always willing to give it a try. Before I had a chance to get all bogged down in learning a new machine, along comes Rudy, just in time.

He reminded me of what I already knew but was too brain dead to remember. Table saw! You know, that nasty machine that once bit my finger. So I was content to stand back and watch as Rudy cut the crenelations for me. Then it was back to the lathe to make it all round and pretty.

Making these things is giving me the opportunity to learn some of the turning tools I hardly ever touch. Like spindle gouges. They are tricksy little things, and like to go skating off in the wood blank, leaving a lovely gash behind. But I am keeping at it, and, I think, making progress.

It's The Little Things

When I started woodturning, I wanted to make big humongous bowls. Heroic sized bowls. Bowls you could sleep in. I want to make a Caesar salad bowl worthy of the talents of my chef friend, Ed.  And I still do, but in the meantime I have discovered the joys to be found in the little things.

Black Walnut Bottle Stoppers

Seems to me that bottle stoppers should come in sets of at least two. I mean, what party has only one kind of wine open at a time? Don't you need at least one for white and another for red?

More Ornaments. All roofs elm, houses 3 bubinga, 2 black walnut.

 I whipped out the first batch of ornaments, sold them the next day, then said, Huh! How did I do that? It seems that when I come back to a project after not having done it for a while, much of it has to be reinvented. In this case a couple things needed to be adjusted since parts weren't fitting together as well as I would have liked. And I don't consider myself able to do something well until I can teach it to someone else. And so a protocol has been documented. I can teach this!

Annie's Hands conduct the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra!

Annie's Hands have done a lot of things, but this may be one of the funnest evar!

Labor Day weekend 2014 saw the Hands waving, flailing, and beating furious time for the exceedingly gracious members of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. I still get a thrill watching this, but nothing like actually conducting this orchestra.