WOW Visitor # 5000 !!!

Well, folks, Visitor # 5000 just came by today, and I was happy. Visitor #5000, from Taree, New South Wales, I just want to thank you for being that special #5000! You only stayed a scant 20 seconds, but hey, that's ok, everybody has choices to make, and if speediness or brevity was yours, well, my blog does not lend easily to it. You are forgiven. In Fact, you are HERALDED, because of course, you are #5000! Happy Day, #5000, may the blogging authorities that be overlook your whims and grace you with blogging ease!
A Moment of Silence.......
.......
...
.
Go in peace, O #5000
Go....
into the blogging world afar~
drift not into My Space Spheres
Be at peace with your Google Account~
Use search often
& remember,
~*YOU*~
were once heralded as the great
#5000



A special smile from me, to you.
May you ~#5000~ have a lovely day.
Always remember who you are.
You are #5000~
;-D

Foray Into The Woodshop * Carved Headboard *

Carved Headboard

Today our little ~ foray ~ will be a funky new headboard design. well, sorta funky, ok,ok, so it really isn't so FUNKY at all, really it's more like a traditional meets southwest and has a carving offspring. Hmm. you know, I don't think that label is gonna work on the catalogue, what do you think? Maybe I will just stick with FUNKY NEW HEADBOARD DESIGN. Hehehehehe.

All RIGHT already, I'll get ON with it..... in a sec. :-D

As you know, if you've read through other projects, Tony is a stickler for maintaining his equipment, and that's what he is doing here. Also, note the knee panel saw turn-off. This is the safest design I've ever seen, (Tony made it himself, not hard to do, but wise) and we both recommend it. After-all, I am Madame Paranoid, & am constantly concerned about safety, and have often let him know that I LIKE his fingers & hands, don't want them removed suddenly by any forceful, accidental or stupid means, and as Tony always says " I like all my fingers too."




At any rate, that knee panel shut-off is key, he can easily use his knee or even foot to bump the saw off quickly & safely.







Here we have measurements for the arch & such going on. This piece will be constructed of alder & agathis, (Not sure of that wood name, but it's what the lumber yard called it, and it seemed to match grain pattern with alder somewhat closely) with black walnut pins.





Clamping the legs, this is a dry fit, to check for tolerances, etc.


Ahhhh, the unlovely, unloved, and largely thankless task of sanding. And yet, without it, no project is complete. In fact, sanding is almost half the labor time of any job, and cannot be cheated on. It helps make the difference between fishy & professional.





More sanding & clamping, you can see the walnut pins in the sides. Tony always prefers to use wooden pins & dowels, dovetails, & mortise & tenon joinery to screws & nails. Not only does it distinguish the piece, but it also provides a nice tight fit that won't rip out, get sheared or joggled loose.





Close-up of the walnut pins. These are funky shaped, (aHAH ~ see, there IS some FUNK in this headboard! :-P)







Here is the layout for the carving. It will be a very simple wheat sheaf, which will go nicely with the overall design of the client's bedroom.





Carving with a GRINDER? Yep, not only does it save time, but it also provides a burn accent which really picks up quite nicely when finished. Tony still always cleans up all carving with chisels, however, as there really is no substitute for it.






And VOILA! Here we have the finished headboard! Now this client did not want a footboard or rails, as they did not have a lot of extra leg room around the bed. This is the beauty of custom-made, if you only have 1 extra inch between your bed and your nightstands, & yet you want a headboard, you can still have one!!




This is a composite view, & the bottom pic is a close-up of the carving. It is a very simple carving, & yet, it will accent the client's decor perfectly.




I hope you have enjoyed this ~ Foray Into the Woodshop ~.

Foray Into the Woodshop HOLY COW! a NEW POST! & fish stream table ;-D

For those of you who may have linked to this because of the table, please skip my little diatribe, unless you have a minute or two, & just scroll down to the pics. :-P (wussies! :-D)

Well I finally have an afternoon off to breathe a sec & I decided ~What the Heck, I haven't blogged in ........ well, such a LOOOONNNGGG time that really I am a titch embarrassed about the whole dealio. I mean, here I am, a confirmed bloggerette, and I seem to have a severe lack of *blogginess* to show for it in the last many many moons.

So, I just know everyone is waiting with ~ BAITED BREATH ~ to get to the current topic du jour (are yah blue yet, go onnn..... breeeeeeaaaatthhe, it's gonna take me a while to work up to that ~ :-D).


The truth of the matter is, I seem to have been sucked into the vortex of ~ business ownership reality ~ and as it happens, that vortex has a very strong time resistance pull, making time both stretch & recess at the most in-opportune moments. In layman's terms, you never seem to have enough time to get organized enough to make life easier when in the midst of a deadline crunch AND YET there are moments when you feel as though you might have to, in one simultaneously painful yank, dehair your head to a shining pate of glistening baldness for lack of work, and ~OH MY GOSH~ HOW are we gonna pay the bills...... WHEWWWW, they paid the invoices, so we have fundage again, BUT DANNNGGG, it's busy around here.


See, from this one little example we can clearly determine that neither technical jargon NOR layman's terms can be relied upon in times of true mental expression.


Ok ~ I think I have now shaken off most of my non-blogginess-cobwebs, and FINALLY ( oh hallelujah!) am ready to GET ON WITH IT!

So, This post ACTUALLY is about another project Tony has recently finished. This is a fish stream table, which is very cool. I should say the table is cool, my camera & I are not. HOWEVER, I am MOST pleased to announce the arrival of a brand new NICE camera onto the scene, which will GREATLY improve all parameters! No more nasty GRAIN issues, or lack of pixels, or low-light problems! YEAH! Now our catalogue can look decent and a ~little~ more professional ( I am still doing the photography, so .. you know, there ARE limits, but HEY, the CAMERA is good!) Guess what camera it is? Guess ~ guess.... gggguueeesss... ok, give up? it's a nice little Canon powershot SD550 Digital ELPH! YEAH! Hallelujah!!! ok, ok, so it's no MLR, but I ain't that good yet, sooo, this works. Sadly, this lot of pics ISN'T taken with the new cam, BUT, when we cover the headboard project, they WILL BE. wooo-double -hoo, eh? :-D I know, I know, I am rejoicing HERE too!

Are ya sick of my blabbing yet? (It's ok to say yes at this point, I know I am!)
















Here we have the basic set-up, Tony made this out of knotty alder. This piece was commissioned by an insurance salesman (Jason Dahl, great guy!) who has his entire office done in knotty alder.



Here are some fish that Tony carved to go into the *stream*.


The idea for this table originally came from Mr. Dahl himself, who had seen a table in Jackson Hole, WY, and asked Tony if he could do something similar. Well, Tony had not seen the table, and Mr. Dahl had no pics, but he described what he could, and Tony took it from there, to be something far more awesome than the one in Jackson. (This is because Tony is a perfectionist. Now if you asked Tony, he would say, "I don't want it perfect, I just want it RIGHT". hmpph ~ sounds a tad perfectionist to me, :-D.)




Here are some rocks Tony carved to go into the *stream* as well. He used butternut, walnut, redwood, alder, & pine for variations in rock color.

I have them up on pins to finish them, makes it easier to get around the entire piece. (Yes, I get to do the finishing. I am SOO not a finisher, even though I love it, we are leaning towards hiring out the finishing for the next few projects, just because I don't have the time to run the business, do marketing & web mastering AND be the finisher. Ain't working!)



Here is the dry set-up. We do this to make certain everything ~looks right~. (But it's not perfection, don't BE for calling it perfection! :-D)


Full on view of dry set up.



This is a close-up of the finished product. Glass is in, finishing is finished, & we deliver it in the morning. One of a kind, only one like it in existence. (And if you want one, it won't ever look EXACTLY like this one, because these are hand-carved, made one piece at a time, specially for that specific customer. We don't mass produce, we create masterpieces. :-D)



Here is the producto finito, just before we delivered it in the morning. Hope you all have enjoyed this little ~ Foray Into The Woodshop ~. Any questions, comments or complaints, go for it, use the commentary...... but if you're spammin', I'm gonna wipe ya! :-P

This just in:

I was able to take the new cam over to Mr Dahl's office today & get a few shots of the table. I think you will all agree there is a MASSIVE difference in quality with this new cam!





Here he has placed a nice elk sculpture on the bottom shelf.



Here is a much better close-up of the intereior *stream*.
If you double click the pics, they will enlarge even more, WITH the new enhanced awesomeness.



Other side of the stream, you can see a submerged log in there, rocks on the bottom of the stream, and 3 fishies.



And here we have a little dude fishing off the log, which I absolutely LOVE, he is so cute on there, like it was meant to be!