Sunday, February 18, 2018

I Have Been Doing!

Sometimes you think about doing something. Sometimes you write about it. This past week I have been doing it. I have five projects in five different disciplines in progress and it feels GREAT! I also continue working weekly in a sixth discipline with a steady stream of projects coming from it. No, I haven't put my tax stuff together for our accountant yet. No, I haven't worked on my website or inventoried my extra glass studio materials preparatory to putting them up for sale online. No, I haven't done more than spot cleaning on the house in, oh, forever. But I am creating! This post is a celebratory drive-by of the creative fruits of my... fingers.

It's Sunday night, the wind is howling outside and the wind chimes practically have a symphony going on. Dave and Jessie have both gone to bed, and I'm sitting on the couch, rubbing my hands together and chortling at all the piles of creation nestled throughout the house (and car--all my wood lives in the minivan between Saturday woodworking classes).

The oldest continuously worked project is my spinning mash-up. In addition to the three bobbins on the table and the two spinning wheels with half-plus filled bobbins, I also have a good amount of plied yarn that I began knitting into a sweater earlier in the winter. I'm going to tink (unknit or knit backwards) the sweater and skein the yarn back up till I find the project I want to make with it. I still haven't found one that matched the yarn perfectly so I just keep on spinning.

Moving on through the fiber projects, I have finally finished warping the little table loom I got at spin-in (and correcting mistakes in it, and correcting again, and again...) and I have begun weaving dishtowels. I don't know why, but I am completely taken with cotton dishtowels right now, and as Mimi is an eight-harness loom, I am able to do several complicated pinwheel patterns all from the same warp. The first one has brown and white bands in the warp and the weft that make up the pinwheel pattern. As is the nature of weaving, all the dishtowels from this warp will have brown and white pattern stripes vertically, but I'm planning to swap out the brown for seven other colors for the rest. The dishcloths will measure about 16" wide by 18" long when they're finished.

The last of the fiber projects is a five ft by five-and-a-half ft fuzzy blanket I am making on a knitting board for Jessie. This project, like spinning, is a great in-front-of-the-tv activity. I started it last night while we were watching the Incredibles, and I worked on it for about another half hour this evening. Jessie picked the colors and is really looking forward to having it. I knitted her a similar one a year or so ago with traditional knitting needles... or maybe I crocheted it. I don't remember. Anyhoo, that one had a wide-open lacy pattern and this one--per Jessie's request--will be pretty solid.

Last week I also started back on the silver locket from the intermediate silversmithing class I took, and I tube set my first stone (the topaz--Jessie's birthstone). This week I hope to finish it by riveting the little silver stamped plaque inside, and tube setting the last two stones--sapphires from Montana. One of them is one I mined, and it's going to go into the remaining large tube (sapphire is Dave's birthstone). The other one is a tiny stone that will go into the little tube on the front of the locket. The blackish rainbow color of the metal is from liver of sulphur. I dipped it last week during open studio, and I'm still trying to decide if I like it.

Finally, I took a big step towards finishing the gaming table yesterday. It was a long, laborious, tiring activity, but I used the bandsaw to cut all the channels for the bridle joints at the top corners of the table, and dry-fitted them together. Next weekend is the glue-up for the top, and finishing the legs so I can do the mortises and tenons for the table apron. These pictures all show the curly pecan top rails of the table. Two of them show the bridle joints in the corners when they're together, and the other one shows the channels I cut for the joint. Right now they all protrude a quarter of an inch from each side and have sharp edges. The edges will be rounded down and maybe even shortened a bit when it's finished.

The final discipline is ceramics, and I swear my wheel-throwing is just improving by leaps and bounds! This past class I threw a pot similar to the leftmost one in the photo. Then I made two fitted lids for it. Jennifer, our instructor, recommends always throwing two lids in case one doesn't work out. When the vessel is bisque-fired, it'll have the lid in it to help prevent warping and uneven shrinking between the parts. Also new in my repertoire is the drinking glass in the middle of the photo. It's not huge, but it's the tallest cylinder I've thrown to date. Looking forward to trying a teapot this week.

Now off to join my dulcetly snoring spouse. Tomorrow, taxes. And feeding the bees. And working out. And weaving, and knitting, and spinning...









Tuesday, February 13, 2018

The Same Day Over and Over Again

It's cold, it's grey, and it's been a long time since I've posted so I'm staying tucked under the down comforter for awhile blogging until the house warms up. We watched Groundhog Day last weekend and it just occurred to me that the day Phil Connors had to live over and over again for more than eight years was a day just like today ... I would have gone mad. Everything I do is based on time and continuity and almost nothing is completed in a day. Think about it. If everything starts over each day, projects would reset and couldn't be continued. Whatever I put into the kiln would be gone. If I got the loom warped, it would be empty the next day. Even if I did manage to finish something, it would be back in its original pieces the next day. Gah! What a horrible thought! Well, except for ceramics. I'd become a lot better throwing clay if I just practiced and wasn't focused on a finished piece. Of course I'd never learn anything about glazing at all since I'd never get tp see a piece come out of the kiln.

There is nothing to do in the garden in February--and even if there were, how depressing would it be to weed the beds and find all the weeds back the next day! Any renovations to the house would also disappear by the next day. I'd have to change everything I love to do. On the plus side, the house would never get dirtier (or course it wouldn't get any cleaner either). I'd know exactly where Baxter was going to pee at any given time and be able to get him outside first so I'd never have to clean that up again.

So if I had one day to live over and over again, how would I spend it? Could I work out and get completely into shape? Considering that Phil destroyed his body several times and it came back undamaged and unchanged the next day, probably not. He was able to learn the piano though, which requires building muscle memory. Hmmm. That piece of continuity is a little bit squiffy. And at the end of eight years for me it would only be a day for everyone else so I'd have to look physically the same. So what _would_ I do?

Well, I could read a lot of books and watch a lot of movies. I could become fluent again in French. I could learn Japanese and Arabic and renew my relationship with Russian. Oooh, I could start saxophone and zoom ahead in piano! I could master making bread! That's it! Eight years of the same day over and over again is all about practice. It's about infinite resources and do overs. It's not about completing anything. Instead, it's about the journey.

So what makes it different, really, from eight years of real life? Don't some people say life is about the journey, not the destination? Well for one thing, in life there are consequences to your choices in the journey--just like there are endings to the projects. I skipped over all the doing-stupid-stuff-for-fun-because-there-are-no-consequences things because while they might be entertaining for a little while, they'd get boring fast. In life there isn't infinite time: Any things you choose to do mean things you don't get to choose. Life is a lot of this OR that, not this AND that. In life there are chores, all the pesky little things like housework, taxes, doctor's appointments, and such that keep you from spending all your time learning and practicing.

And real life has now intruded on my musings requiring me to get out from under the warm covers and go work out. Japanese, Arabic, and saxophone are going to have to wait.

Sunday, February 04, 2018

Days, a Week, and Energy

I love Sunday night. The previous week has ended and everything gets to start anew Monday morning. I don't really have a concept of weekend vs. weekday anymore. I realize that for Dave and Jessie there is a clear distinction between the two, but all days have the same potential for amazing fun and adventure for me. The time segment of a week still exists, and individual days mean different things: Monday and Wednesday are workout days, Wednesday also has a piano lesson, Thursday has ceramics class, now Saturday has an informal furniture-making/woodworking class, and Sunday night is time to bask in the plans for a new week, but weekday and weekend not so much.

I used to hate Sunday nights. When we first moved to Austin in '98, I was working as a software engineer for Business Objects and I traveled every week to client sites. I flew out Monday morning, flew home Friday evening, and cried every Sunday afternoon in dread of the upcoming week. Now it's Jessie's turn. I watch her withdraw and get blue starting Sunday afternoon/evening. I wish there were something I could do for her to make it better, but this is one of those things she's going to have to figure out on her own.

This week I have noticed something else about Sunday: it's the day when my energy is the lowest in the week. Last Monday I did my first B12 injection myself and it was an incredible day. Tuesday and Wednesday I felt like I had more energy than usual, and Thursday I was back to normal. Friday, however,  I started falling asleep whenever I sat for any length of time, and today I got up late, took a nap in the car, and another one later in the afternoon. I have no doubt that I'll go right to sleep tonight. I wish the B12 was more time release--or that I took injections more often!

I mentioned above that I'm taking an informal furniture-making/woodworking class on Saturday. Yesterday was my first one, and I prepared for it by finishing my games table design Thursday night and then going down to purchase wood at Berdoll Sawmill on Friday afternoon. Last summer I went to Dupuis Lumber in Polson for the blue pine slabs and rough sawn lumber for a bed and desk. I loved it there and never thought I would find anything like it in Austin, and then I found Berdoll! They specialize in sustainable native Texas hardwood natural edge slabs. The picture of their staff at right was taken next to a set of walnut slabs from one tree.

For the games table, I chose an 8" wide 8/4 board of curly pecan, another 8/4 pecan board for the legs, and some 8/4 mesquite for the apron and accents for the legs. I'll use maple plywood for the top and the bottom. While I was there I lusted after the mesquite slab at the top left of this post. It's 93" tall and 63" wide, and I think it would make the most incredible corner desk! There was a desk in their office that was also made from a slab and I was impressed by the artistry of the edges. In one place there should have been a cut edge, but instead it looked like it had been wind and water sculpted. I asked about it and was told it had been carved to look like that. Maybe if they still have the mesquite slab I like when I finish the games table, the liquor cabinet/bar, and the bed...