Rtgleck-RiTTiK

Last Night was interesting

2009-08-10T08:58:00.001-07:00

It was an interesting night. Finally found a softball team in the area that is a rec team and not overly competitive. They actually have practice though so that should be interesting. In the 9 or so years I've been playing I think we've had practice maybe like 2-3 times. :-)

Tammy will hate me for putting this; but we headed out to practice last night and evidentally the Hockey Rink we had seen down Kingston pike towards downtown was not the Hockey rink they were referencing. So.. Not only can we be amazed that there's hockey in the South East, but there's more than 1 rink. :-D Good thing for the Garmin though. After driving 10 miles into town to find the place, we decided it might not be right and learned it was 5 miles in the other direction from the house. It wasn't a bad little 25 mile detour, but probably not the same route We'll take weekly to the games and practice. Not a bad group of guys, most seemed pretty laid back and cool. Coach seems interesting, kinda high strung but seems like he can be okay. We'll see, cause it also seems like he could be a reall a$$ if he wants. It is cool though, they want to get together outside of softball to hang out, and we are sponsered by a local Mexican food place so they are planning on trying to meet up there occasionally.

The other part of the evening was not so great. We got home from softball around 9:30 or so. Got the kids squared away and in bed and I went out to check on Yeager. She had got in trouble earlier in the evening for ' leaving her mark' inside again. We're not sure if she's marking from the cats that used to live here, or just throwing a temper since we haven't been taking her as much, but we are working with her. As I went outside I noticed that the gate had been left open and she was nowhere in sight. I checked all over the yard, drove around all the streets and neighborhoods close and had no luck finding her. About Midnight I decided I was having no luck and reluctantly gave up. I decided to leave the gate and garage door open so that if she came back she could still get in. Fortunatley around 12:30-1:00 she decided she'd had enough adventuring and came back home. I was a little stressed over that one.

So All ended well.. just was an interesting one.

It's been a while

2009-08-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, so thought I'd at least post something while I'm waiting for some reports to run for work.

Things are going good in our new digs. Still haven't been out much as we've been working most weekends on packing or entertaining. Gennie and Logan made it down for a week to help Tammy with how she wanted to decorate or place things in the room so we could work on unpacking more. That appears to have gone well and things are moving along slowly to getting unpacked and finding homes.
I'm still working on unpacking the shop so I can get back to some woodworking and wood turning. Hoping that will come sometime before the end of the Year :-) I'm waiting on the 2nd estimate to wire the garage for electricity. The previous owners actually only used it as a garage and I think there is 2 110 Outlets and 2 overhead lights. Nothing that will work when I turn on more than 1 tool in the shop. :-) I've been working the last couple nights on getting the air hose lines figured out and run. Figure they will help with the assembly of my new work benches and with everything towards the middle of the shop in boxes, makes it easier to install the lines now.
I'll take some pics of the house and Shop when I get time.. until then, hope it's not another 3 months before I update here again.

What a start to the day..

2009-02-28T10:09:00.000-08:00

For the past couple months or so a friend of mine has been bugging me to display some of my wood turnings in the booth she has out at a local Collectibles market. I finally got up the courage and confidence to put together some this past weekend and send them out with her. Bunch of Pens, Bottle stoppers, Keychains, Screwdrivers, along with a couple bowls and vases.

Well, this morning She called and told me she had someone there wanting to buy quite a few of the items I had sent with her. The Screwdrivers, Wine stoppers and a few other things. Not a bad way to start the day. I guess I better get back out in the garage and work on some more stuff to send.

:-D

A couple of the pieces I mentioned

2008-12-03T23:24:00.001-08:00

Below is a couple of the pieces I've turned lately. I've been kinda shocked at how well they turned out. The first piece is a Lacewood piece that I turned and carved. For the first time putting a twist and tail on a turning I thought it turned out well. The piece is about 4 inches long and maybe an inch or two wide.

This is a side shot showing the shape and tail.

Another view showing a better angle of the tail

And then a Front view showing the hollowing and flow of it.

The second pieces is another of the Bruce Perry shapes I like to mess with. I'm doing an online Secret Santa exchange and turned the below piece for my recipient. Hope he enjoys it. This chunk of maple had some great curly grain to it and really turned out nice.

My wife pointed out that this one does look better standing on edge..
A side view for a better look at the vessel and wave profile.

Mild Vent

2008-12-03T00:05:00.000-08:00

So I've been out working in my shop tonight and I just need to vent a little. You ever have one of those times when so many things are working out just right for you, and some of the simplest things just wont? For the past week or so I've been doing some really cool turnings (Pics to follow later). I've done 3d Flowers, Lady Bugs, Wave vase bowls (see Bruce Perry piece below) and even managed to make a vase with a tail (for lack of a better word) tonight. And I'm really really proud of that last one, again pics to follow later.

But something simple, like a hollowed out sphere for a Christmas ornament party?!?!?! NOO freaking way... can't seem to do it. I enlarge the front hole, or the back one. Hollow it too deep so that I end up with a larger inside than out (yea think about that, it doesn't work). Just nothing is working right on that.. and I mean really, it's not that hard of a concept. Okay, done venting for the night. Going to go to bed now, think about it some more and give it another shot tomorrow night.

Thanksgiving fun

2008-12-02T08:20:00.001-08:00

For thanksgiving, as we do most years, we went up to the Cabin to spend with my parents. Tammy was excited because we finally got to see some snow. (something we haven't hardly seen any of this year). It allowed the kids (Big and Small) to play on their 4 wheelers, eat good food and hang out with the Family. Tammy and Grandma got some reading in and Grandpa and I spent some time laying out wood spirit's to carve.

Grandma and the kids playing a game of Candyland.

Just enough snow for some sledding behind the 4 wheeler, I think Kayti enjoyed this more than Troy. She had some much fun she didn't want to come in, even when she was really cold. :-)

And catching up on some pictures from the Summer

2008-11-19T21:45:00.000-08:00

Calisthenics for the 5 and 3 year old.
Now it's time to do some riding.... and hold on for dear life if you don't have the helmet.

Aren't they cute together?
Rock on, and No pictures please :-)
My two darlings playing in the water.
And the ornery one looks up at me
They all get in on the fun.

Isn't Fall great

2008-11-19T21:34:00.000-08:00

Ya know, here we are in November. It's still in the 70's. And I had another chance to pick up all the leaves around the yard, and had two wonderful helpers around to help me. Man I love fall in Colorado.

A little Kayti Bug Leaf compactor.

So we have to have a Cool Dude Troy compactor here too.

That's a big pile of leaves... wait it moved?!?!?

Umm, yea, to many options on this one huh? :-)

Getting ready to jump, if Daddy would just let us.

2008 Loveland Wood Turning Symposium

2008-09-21T16:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the way overdue write up on this year's Loveland Woodturning symposium. It's amazing how time gets away from you.

This year's Symposium had a great lineup of Demonstrators. Some of the Demonstrators included Mike Mahoney, Stuart Batty, Clay Foster, Molly Winton, Pete Holtus, Lee Carter, Steve Gotchall and Phil Lackey. The Event lasted 2 days, September 13th and 14th with a Dinner/Banquet and Auction Saturday evening.

One of the great features of this years Symposium was the Hands on Room was not only open to everyone, but it had a project going on during each of the rotations. This allowed participants to try and usually complete a project during a rotation that they were able to leave with. Some of the projects were Turning Talc, making Spurtles and Spatulas, Globes for Christmas Ornaments, Tops, and a Slim line pen. I thought this was a great idea and really gave everyone who wanted the opportunity to try their hand at turning during this 2 day event.

For the First rotation I chose to watch Molly Winton's "JMaking and use of home-made brands and Commercial Pyrography Pens" I ended up with the best seat in the house as we needed a camera operator for the room. Molly gave a great demo on how she designs the various wood burning tips, uses them and make custom handles for them as well. She also discussed the commerical brand burners and hand pieces avaible for wood turning

Here Molly is starting off, showing the woodburner she uses for demo's as well as her kit for woodburning.

She also brought several of her outstanding pieces along to show as examples of the various styles and designs she uses on her turnings.

For the Next Rotation, I sat in on a local instructor's demo - Doug Schneiter. Doug does alot of hollw form's that have natural voids in them and walked through the steps of doing so for his rotation. Below is him roughing out the piece on a Jet mini.

A close up shot after he had formed and hollowed the piece, still on the lathe.

The third rotation I watched was by Phil Lackey on adding interest to a piece. He explained his influences of bird carving and decorating and that flow into his turnings. During the demo he laid out a spiral pattern on a hollow form and showed how he did the piercing design. He discussed how he tries to vary where and how he's piercing to ensure variety and why he settled on the style of carver he did. Below are some of the pieces he brought to show.

The final rotation of the day I got to sit in on a demo by Clay Foster. I've been in awe of Clay's design, flow and creativity in his woodturning so I was very excited at the opportunity to get to see his demonstration. For this demonstration he showed and explained how he uses egg shells, printers ink or mud and map gas for creating different sytles or patterns in his work.
Below Clay is holding one of his turnins that he covered with egg shells to give it what I'd call a ceramic look. Behind him is the map he used to point out Crum, Texas, where he's from.

Here he's showing how he lays out a pattern in mud, then uses the torch to burn in the design
and the mud protects and then falls off of the form.

Applying the mud
The end result.

Sunday Morning, Molly and Clay did a critique of many of the pieces in the instant gallery. Below they discuss the design and flow of a Bruce Perry turning.

And for the Last demo I managed to catch the rotation with Mike Mahoney showing the Mcnaughton coring techniques. He discussed the value of this system, especially for him as it enables him to get the most wood usage from a single, very expensive, piece of wood.

And for the Final Closing words, our organizers - Allen Jensen and Trent Bosch.

(Posted on 11/19)

2008 Loveland Wood Turning Symposium - Instant Gallery

2008-09-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

Honestly I took way to many pics to have out here in a blog, both you and I would get bored. So if you really want to see more, take a look at my Flickr galleries for more pictures

Symposium pictures

Instant Gallery pics.

I have included below some of the pieces that stood out to me in the Instant Gallery.

First is a Piece by Stuart Batty. It's made of blackwood and as the natural edge as well as the winged square shape with the bowl turned in it... It's all 1 piece and just amazing looking in the thinness of the piece and quality of the finish and wood.

This was my favorite piece in the show. Done by Paul Stafford who's known for his turnings that incorporate a shape and zipper to look as if it's being zipped open or shut. Below he did something entirely different and I loved it. He turned, carved and then painted an aspen grove. There are multiple layers to this piece and amazing piercing and painting details to make it really look like he's captured the aspen grove. He also has it mounted on a revolving base so that you can admire it from all directions.

Another turning I enjoyed was one by David Nittman, He's very well known for his basket illusions he makes in his turnings, and I really enjoyed the natural edge bottom to this piece.
Here is 4 bowls by Dan Bailey. He plated the bottom of them with brass and gave a really great look to the 4 different shapes and styles.

A really neat Viking ?!? Sailing ship wood turning by Bruce Perry. Very original.

Some Recent work

2008-09-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

I hadn't had the chance to post any of my work recently, so thought I'd share some recent woodturning pics from my shop.

Below is my first 3 attempts at making scoops. The White one (sorry for the bad pic) is maple and the other two are from walnut I had laying around. Each scoop is about 4-5"'s long and around a Teaspoon to Table spoon size.

Next is a walnut bowl that I'm very proud of. My Friend Chris and his Dad had this wood sitting around and gave to me for some turning wood. It's a very Hefty looking bowl which I think works with the wood. Approx 14" across.
Another shot from the side, sitting on the drying stand

This is some pics of a Honey Locust bowl I had turned. I had turned this bowl green (wet/just cut) then left it to dry. When I went back a few months later to check that it was dry it had developed a bad crack in the side. Not wanting to give up on the piece, I cut it (below) and made a Walnut Band for it. I think it turned out well.
Finished bowl... the walnut band sits proud of the shape, but follows the same lines.
Side view.

This is a piece I started making and while still on the lathe (about 1/3 done) my Father in Law claimed it. The natural Edge and carved feet all worked really well together on this piece. Made from Elm.
Better view of the feet that were carved into the bottom.
Another side view with better color/lighting

Below is another Elm piece where I was trying something new. Instead of a cut band around the bowl, I went for a recessed one and burned in dark. I think my execution on that aspect could have been better, but I liked the overall form. Approx 8" wide , 5" high.
Side view, showing the recess. I'm thinking the band should have followed the same line as the outside edge?!?!
This is a very nice Pueblo shaped Vessel out of elm that I turned. I like the look and feel of it, it has just enough heft to match the look of the vase and it turned out very very smooth. Approx 12" high, 7" across
Top View from opposite side
Side view, for shape.

Tammy's new dedicated Blog.

2008-09-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

With Tammy getting more and more into her cakes, she's starting her own blog. I'll post in on my links on the side too, but as a post, here is where you'll find her future cakes.

TJ's Happy Cakes

June 08 Cake Challenge - Comcast

2008-06-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is the challenge I went to watch yesterday. It was Mystery Client, Triplets 18th birthday coming up. The competitors only get 5 minutes to interview the triplets to come up with a design so some of them got it spot on, some missed the mark. The only thing the triplets have in common is a love for the movie business, one wants to be an actor, one a director and the only girl wants to be a screenwriter. They usually do a murder mystery dinner for their birthdays but that wasn’t information they shared with all of the teams really.

While the teams were sketching theirs I sketched mine too and I think someone ought to have used mine… J

Here are the finished cakes, Normans won. The white curls are shaved chocolate and the cake had the 3 of them made in little characters on it with their interests beside them.

Bronwen’s cake was a little too bright for the triplets tastes, although it had some very cool aspects, like the circle cakes around it, moved, they all spun around the rest of the cake. The stripes on the bottom cake represented the directors megaphone, film strip, etc.

Jason’s cake had each tier divided equally into 3 parts so that each of the triplets got their very own equal section, but they separated some and didn’t stay together. There wasn’t much representation of their interests on the cake.

This was Cindy’s first cake challenge and she did really well overall, didn’t bite off more than she could complete and played it pretty safe. She could have done more to represent each of the triplets interests, and should have covered her cake board. But she did blown sugar globes which was very cool.

As always, I had a great time, networked with other decorators, and learned a lot. Found out I can call myself a Sugar Artist/Cake Artist/Cake Designer/Cake Decorator without having the Pastry Art or Pastry Chef degree.

Father's Day weekend - Crystal Lakes

2008-06-16T10:48:00.000-07:00

For Father's day weekend we went up to the cabin to see my Parents, play around in the mountains and get in some fishing we'd been promising the kids. The sat we got up there we went down to one of the public lakes to show the kids how to fish. Unfortunately being father's day weekend, and a public lake, it was packed. It seemed like there were people every 10 feet or so. But since this was all about the kids, we weren't actually worried about catching much, just letting the kids try their hand at it.

Amazingly we caught several fish... a couple keepers, mostly let them all go. (Rainbow Trout in case your asking). Kayti and Daddy throwing out the line...

Sitting waiting for those darn fish to do something.

Hey Troy, look what we caught.
Hey wait, these worms are fun to play with too...
As I said, both kids caught fish... Here's Troy pulling in his. With a little help from Daddy.

They both wanted to touch the fish, and then proceeded to scream about it. :-D
Very Proud fisherman here.

Oh yea, the other big event was that Papa and Granma bought Troy a battery powered 4 wheeler. He jumped on this thing like he'd been riding it his whole life and that he planned on staying on it until we told him he had to get off.

The kids also did some rock climbing with Grandma
And Ventured down to a patch of rocks called Elf lane as people have been hiding Ceramic Elf statues all over the rocks. Here's a row of little angels'.

Back to the Fishing Adventure. While we were standing around waiting for the next fish, we all heard a commotion behind us. Turned around and about 20 feet from us was a Huge Cow moose. We all startled, the moose turned and tried to find an opening to swim across the lake.

You should have seen Tammy yelling at us to be careful, then realizing she had the Camera in Hand and should take a picture... Hence the picture of it Running away. :-D

Fortunately it found a spot to swim across and eventually found a spot to get out as well.

Some Fun with the Kids too

2008-06-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

So I haven't posted much about the kids, figured I should change that. Last weekend we all went out to the Garage sales going on. At one of the sales we found a Hockey Chest protector for a much bigger kid, but it Fit Troy for something fun. So we picked it up and here is Troy showing off his new protective gear.

Hang Loose man!!!! :-D

We evidently found a couple of Jackalope's as well.

And Kayti had to show that she is working on being one of the best pouters in the world.

Some of Tammy's Cakes from the last week

2008-05-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

The first cake is a creation after a Christmas ornament for some friends of ours. Each year the daughter get's to pick a new Christmas ornament for the tree. The Parents and Daughter liked this years ornament so much they decided to have her Birthday cake made to look like it. It's a Curious George coming out of a present. Everything but the lid is edible, and you can see the actual ornament in the first pic. The main present is all cake, and George is molded out of Rice Crispies.

Next is a cake made for some friends this weekend. Very big Scooby fan so Tammy made it look like Scooby was coming out of the cake. You can see pieces of the frosting breaking open or on his face to add to the effect.

And the final one was for a Baby shower done this weekend as well. Another great looking cake by Tammy with a little baby sleeping on the shape of the moon. They were very pleased with this cake.

Dale Nish Collection - Open House April 2008

2008-05-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in a prior post, during the Craft Supplies class the class had the opportunity to attend an open house at Dale Nish's to see his collection of turnings he's collected over the years. To say this collection was impressive would not do it justice. I'm posting a small amount of the pictures I took just to give you an idea of the quantity and quality on display, but there is many more pictures I took that I just couldn't fit in the post.

In Dale's living room there was 2 good sized display cases of turnings. Some shots below of one of the cases. (I imagine the display cases are a requirement to cut down on the dusting) :-)

A collection of smaller turnings. Most of these are 3-4" tall.

There were also some pieces more prominently on display. Below is a great platter with a beautiful feather inlay.
A very impressive piece from Ray Allen on display. This was a segmented piece approx 2' wide
One of the Signature Puzzle pieces by a gentleman who's name escapes me right now. The bird is not part of the piece but in the background.

One of Dale Nish's unmistakable pieces. It's amazing how he makes a wood platter look so much like basket weave.
A fantastic Segmented piece that was as impressive on the inside as it was from the outside.
A Northfolk pine piece with amazing translucence.

Dale also had an Office full of turned pieces that were simply amazing. Below is a walnut hollow form that I really really like.

I believe this may be one of Rex Burningham's pieces. I really enjoy these natural edge burl cap pieces. The color and shape of them is great.

This is a great segmented piece that was done during a class there at Craft Supplies. After the demo was done, they evidentially decided not to part if from the face plate and just leave it as it. A great looking piece like this.
I really liked the embelishment put on this piece. The black portion is a carved wavy 'crack'? that really added to the design of the piece.

I believe this is one of Johannes Michelsen's turned cowboy hats.. these are amazing turned and shaped hats. And weigh less than one from Felt.

I really liked the natural edge top to this hollow form.

Can you see the spider?
Some turned fruit, and mushrooms.
The piece in the bottom right corner is a natural edge rim with a parted away center ball. The amazing part is that the ball is parted from the rim, but still contained in it so that it spins freely but will not separate from the rim.

A very impressive wall hanging segmented piecee. Each color variation is a different piece of wood.
Dale pointed out to us that he and his son's built this house he and his wife lives in. This is a picture of the Front door that they made.
And pictures of the collection would not be complete without some of Dales wonderful Birdhouses
and a Shot of Eric holding one of Dale's signature pieces.

Some Thursday Humor

2008-05-01T08:36:00.000-07:00

A backward poet writes inverse.
In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
A chicken crossing the road; poultry in motion.
If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.
A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France, resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
Local Area Network in Australia; The LAN down under.
He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
A calendar's days are numbered.
A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.
A boiled egg is hard to beat.
He had a photographic memory, which was never developed.
A plateau is a high form of flattery.
If you jump off a Paris bridge, you are in Seine.
When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she'd dye.
Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
Acupuncture: a jab well done.

Dale Nish woodturning class - Provo 2008

2008-04-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

During the Rocky Mountain Woodturners 2007 Symposium in Loveland I had the opportunity to bid on an win a gift certificate for a basic wood turning class at Craft Supplies USA in Provo Utah. Scheduling worked out that I was able to take the Dale Nish class offered in April 2008. My Dad joined me for the trip over from Colorado and with the exception of a Windy trip through Wyoming, and a nice Spring Blizzard driving into Salt lake, the trip wasn't bad. The accommodation's at the Hampton Inn, while there, were very nice and the weather improved daily.

Class Started on Thursday morning. Showed up around 8:00 to a very nice setup. Each station had a full stash of tools, chucks, visor, and calipers.

There was a variety of Lathes to choose from, and I opted to use one I had not yet had a chance to turn on. A Oneway Lathe. They also had a couple of Vic-marks and a Powermatic.

Prior to the Class starting, we met Paul Chilton who was going to be the assistant to Dale during the course. He introduced us to his wife who was joining us in the class. Here, he's getting all the tools sharpened prior to the class beginning.

The first project in the class was to work on a Bead and cove stick. We turned an aspen spindle round, and worked on making even, repetitive beads along the length. Then, turning down every other bead, we worked a cove in between to end up with something like this:

It didn't turn out to bad, and gave Paul and Dale a measuring stick on our abilities on the lathe. I tried to make sure I pushed myself out of my comfort zone during the class since I had both instructors there to assist me when I had troubles. Most of the bead and cove stick above was done with a Skew. A tool I was previously hesitant (never) in using. :-D

Someone managed to get a shot of me turning... I guess I had to prove I was there somehow.
Obviously I wasn't the only person in the class. There was 7 others in the class. They ranged in location from Arkansas to Oregon and skill from a very experinced Pen maker to this being their first time touching a lathe. It was great fun and I met some great new friends.

Below Earl gets some advice from Dale Nish on working the Bead and Cove project.
Eric and Paul discussing the project as well.

Our next project was to turn a twig pot. Another project using aspen. This project was done by transferring some basic measurements given to us in an handout to establish the basic dimensions and shape of the pot. We established the Height, and major width points (Top, Bottom, neck, widest base point). Then using a drill bit in the tail stock we drilled a hole to allow for a test tube to be fitted into the pot. It was a very neat little project.

We broke for lunch after working on these for a bit and most of the class went to lunch together. It gave us time to meet and chat about turning, which was fun. After lunch Dale demo'd a project I had been intimidated by for a while. Turning a wooden egg. The reason I was intimidated was that someone had pointed out how difficult an egg or wooden fruit shape can be. Bowls, vases, etc come in all shapes and sizes. While Egg's do too, everyone pretty much has an idea of what an Apple, Pear or Egg shape should be. So it makes for increased awareness of the angles and shape of the form. Using another handout of base measurement points I was somewhat successful in this attempt. I made sure I tried a few more times, practice makes us better right?

Day two expanded more on our experience. Our Morning project was to turn a bowl shape and work on the hollowing of the interior. The kicker of this project was that after turning your bowl you took it to the bandsaw and cut it in half. The idea is, that this allows you to see and judge your work of hollowing out a consistent thickness through the bowl. This bowl ended up fairly even, but was a little thin at the very bottom. I likely would have made a very nice Funnel during sanding :-D

Friday afternoon we got to work on a bowl that we'd end up finishing. Paul spent some time with me working on the basic form and shapes on the outside of my bowls. As with the eggs I was having difficulty with a curve that looked like it flowed all the way through the bowl. This one actually ended up pretty flowing similar to if it was taken out of the portion of a larger sphere. I really liked this imagery to work on my shapes. Additionally, Dale and Paul explained that often times the tool marks on the outside of the bowl are made when your hand closest tot he bowl is guiding the tool rather than your back hand.. something I had not previously heard.
I thought this was a great shot of Dick turning and getting some great shavings coming out of the bowl.

Thursday night we had the amazingly fortunate opportunity to visit Dale's house for an open house and see his wood turning collection form around the world. This was a fantastic experience and I'll make another post with the tons of pictures I took.

Friday I realized that I had not caught a shot of Dale demoing during our class. So... below is him demoing the Sat morning project of a Platter. Another project i had not yet tried. During this project Paul worked with me again on the Ogee design on the side of the platter and how the inside curve and outside curve of the Ogee form should compliment each other.

Eric Turning on his platter,

Here is Dick working on the Bottom portion of the platter. Probably the most important part as when you run your hand from side to side the bottom is the part your hand feels the most deviation in if there is one.

Here Earl has his platter all turned and sanded and is working on applying a coat of Lacquer finish on it.

Here is a shot of Ron working on his platter. One of the two local students that were in our class.
Here is Virginia, Pauls wife, working on a small turned box. I got to see a couple stages of it and it was a very neat project I'm going to have to try at some point.

Here is Bill working on his platter. He had a great hat on during the class that I really liked. It simply said "RELAX"

And finally Steve, who drove all the way from Arkansas to take the course, working on his platter. By his head you can also see a collection of the turnings turned as demo's during various classes at Craft supplies.
This was a great class and I believe everyone had a blast learning from Dale and Paul. I highly recommend taking a class at Craft supplies if you get the opportunity.

Bruce Perry Inspired piece

2008-04-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

From the March turning meeting I was very inspired by Bruce's demo on winged bowls. I really liked the flow and curve of the pieces he demo'd plus the look of the small vessel sitting on the piece. So I gave it a whirl. Below is a piece that I turned one evening in a couple of hours. It started off as an approx 3" thick 8" wide, and 13" long piece of aspen my dad found in some rough cut timber.

I mounted it off center on the lathe. I started by turning the bottom flow of the piece along with a tennon for me to mount this into a chuck. I was then able to reverse the piece and hold the tennon with my oneway chuck. I then progressed inwards from the outer wing working to form the piece's wave similar to what I had outlined on the bottom. I did this portion in steps to ensure that I didn't make any portion to weak to support the tension of the turning on the outer edges. As I got to the center, I started to outline the vessel and give it shape. The hardest part was defining the bottom of the vessel. Due to where the wings of the piece are and the angle to get the bottom, this posed some major problems I'm still working on. Bruce had used some custom tools he ground just for this purpose. Basically they were right angle bent tools for scraping and a pointed tool to get into the bottom corner. I then removed the tailstock and hollowed out the vessel. This proved to be the easiest of the project. I then did a LOT of sanding. Both with the lathe on, and with it off. The vessel was mainly done with the piece spinning, everything else very carefully with the lathe off. I then turned a jam chuck, re-mounted the vessel inside the jam chuck and cleaned up the bottom. It was then I realized that the shape of under the vessel should have been rounded not done like a normal bowl or vessel bottom. I hope you enjoy...

April Loveland Woodturning Meeting

2008-04-07T21:58:00.001-07:00

I'll start with some instant gallery and club shots from this months meeting. Below is a shot of a alabaster (I believe) lamp shade a gentleman brought in. He's holding it up the the light to show that translucence of the shade.
Below are some examples of Bruce Perry winged bowls brought in for this months challenge. Some were fortunate enough to end up with a completed piece, others were not. You can see even failures can make a good IG piece if it helps us learn.
A very very amazing segmented hollow form vessel. It's amazing how little wood is there. The lines between the layers are also thin segmented sections as well. Very very well done piece.
A Fellow classmate from the Trent Bosch class in '07 turned these pieces. Dale is showing extreme talent at turning. The Gum piece at the top is one of my favorite styles of turning. I love the burl cap looks
Another Square style turning in the instant gallery this month. You can also seem some nice little box shapes a club member is experimenting with

This month's demonstrator was Frank Amigo. You likely have seen one of Frank's pieces. He has 3 pieces in the 500 bowls book. He's also a part of the AAW and currently serving on the board. He does very amazing work with scallops and flutes on his pieces as can be seen below. He did some showing of how the methods he uses to lay out the design, start the scallop and slowly carve it into shape. Below are some pictures and examples of pieces he brought of past work to show.

This is one of his Shell boxes. The top (smaller portion) screws off to open to a box. Very great piece.

Bruce Perry Demo - March 2008

2008-04-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

Winged Bowls

Presented by: Bruce Perry

Reported by: John I. Giem

On March 6, 2008, Bruce Perry presented his method of turning a ‘winged bowl’ to the Loveland Woodturning club. He got started on doing this kind of turning after getting ‘bored’ from turning many bowls. He is trying to make a turning that resembles a teapot setting on a leaf of a flower.

One of Bruce’s winged bowls.

For the demo, Bruce used a piece of rectangular spalted birch about six inches by ten inches. He mounted off-center toward one corner between centers on the lathe. At the headstock, he used a disk covered with sandpaper mounted in a chuck. A live cup center without a center pin was used in the tailstock. He believes that a screw center has too high of a risk toward coming loose.

For safety reasons, the audience was split to two sides leaving a clearance in line with the piece being turned. During the demo, Bruce only wore safety goggles because his normal full face shield would interfere with our being able to hear him.

- The turning speed is critical. The faster it turns, the easier to cut and get a smooth finish. If it is turning at the resonance speed then the lathe will vibrate heavily and move all over the place. The turning speed MUST be either below or above the resonance.

- The initial cut was an arcing cut from inside to outside.

- He often uses a bandsaw to remove part of the waste after the initial shaping.

- The tailstock will eventually get in the way preventing the rubbing of the bevel on the gouge. At this point he switched to a bowl gouge with a straight across grind. This allows the continuation of bevel rubbing resulting in better control and smoother cuts.

- A tenon was turned on the bottom of the piece (that side toward the tailstock). He wants just enough to mount in the chuck be strong enough to hold but not so much that it interferes with the design.

- Uses a skew as a negative rake scraper to help smooth the surfaces.

- When he reverse mounted the piece using the tenon and chuck, he also used the tailstock to help stabilize the work.

- Keep the tool rest close to the work to give good support to the turning tools but yet far enough away so that the tool is supported on the shaft not its’ bevel.

- Cut from the outside toward the center leaving the thicker sections toward the center. If one were to cut from the center outward, then the thinner inner sections would work like a hinge allowing the outer rim to flex and vibrate.

- For better control, keep the tool rest parallel to the path of the cut.

- He turns the outer edge to about ¼ inch thick.

- When the cutting of the wing approaches the base of the pot or bowl, the clearances get tight and
there is the risk of catching the wing of the gouge and causing a ‘dig in’. To avoid this, he
switches to a spindle gouge and specially shaped scrapers.

- When possible, use heavier (thicker) tools to minimize unwanted vibrations.

- The scraper he uses to carve out the base near the bowl is a specially ground hooked negative rake scraper. Since this scraper gets relatively little usage, he ground it from an inexpensive carbon steel skew.

- He finds that the wings of the piece look better if they are just a little thicker at the outer end and a little thinner on the curve going back to the pot.

- He drilled a depth hole in the center of the pot (vessel) using a spindle gouge.

- Small hollowing tools with a negative rake were used to hollow the small vessel.

- He remounted the piece with the vessel mounted on a jam chuck. The chuck was custom turned to fit on the outside ‘downhill’ side of the bowl. There was a ¼” hole drilled through the chuck so that if the piece got stuck on the chuck, it could be removed using compressed air through the hole. The tailstock was used to hold the piece firmly on the jam chuck.

- The wings are sanded without the lathe rotating by using a two inch random orbit sander. The tool rest is removed while sanding to provide more room and access.

- He will use about three applications of sanding sealer before starting to sand.

- The sanding sealer will help stabilize the softer portions of the spalted birch. These softer sections are difficult to get smooth with the turning tools due to their softness. The sealer will improve their durability.

- Bruce took the piece home with him where he will finish the finial turning, sanding and finishing. He will bring it to the Symposium in September and enter it for auction to support the education grants.

Troy's First Train Ride

2008-02-25T20:34:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Troy got the opportunity to take his first real train trip. This was a Gift from Grandma and Grandpa Gleckler this year for his birthday. Unfortunately the week before the trip Kayti decided she didn't want Grandma to go on the trip so she graciously shared her flu with her. As a result Grandpa, Troy and Daddy all got to make a trip out of it and had a blast.

We left sat morning and drove down to the train station in Denver to catch the train. Troy was very excited and informed us that the Train would have to pull really really hard to pull the big train.

Sitting in the Train station.. ready and waiting.

Papa and Troy sitting in the Train all ready to go.
Up in the mountains there was a tremendous amount of snow. Some of it has started melting off but even during the trip we saw the snow falling.

Troy was so excited, when we got to Glenwood springs we told him we'd be spending the night in a Castle. Hotel Colorado is a very historic landmark in Colorado registered as an official historical landmark. It's hosted many President's such as Teddy Roosevelt, Criminal's such as Al Capone, and was even taken over by the Navy at one point as a medical facility where they updated the Water and electrical lines during WWII I believe.

While in Glenwood Springs the popular thing to do is take a dip in the Hot Springs Pool This is a pool fed from natural hot springs and has the wonderful Sulfer (rotten egg smell) that you all can imagine I truly Love. Troy enjoyed being in the water but was unable to reach even in the shallow end so he spent most of the time latched on to me. He still enjoyed himself but it will be nice when he's able to be more mobile in the pool.
First things first at the hotel/Castle. Gotta make sure the beds are good and comfy and bouncable.
There was a bridge to cross the highway, train tracks and river which of course Troy wanted to Cross as many times as possible.
Additionally at 4 it's evidentially the really fun to have your picture taken sitting as many places as possible.

After a fun weekend, You gotta thank Papa for the great trip. (In the Lobby of Hotel Colorado)

Ready for the train incoming.
That thing sure is loud
And BIG

On the way up Troy made a Friend Wyatt. They were the same age and had a blast playing together on the way up and back. It made the 2 - 9 hour trips much more tolerable

And after such a fun trip there's nothing to do but crash and enjoy the last few hours of the trip back.

The People's Happy Cake

2008-02-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

So, 5 weeks ago Tammy decided to take a plunge and enter this years Home and Garden show's Cake competition. She mulled for weeks/months over it and finally decided she was accomplished enough to enter the competition. The final decision was whether to enter her particular category of intermediate cake decorator or go for the gusto and enter the Theme of the Home and Garden show "Enchanted Cakes." After repeating to herself several hundred times "Go big or go home" she decided to attempt the Enchanted Cakes category. Below is the results of the 5 weeks of nightly/weekend/ and every other time work on her cake...

This is about a 22" tall tree on a 30" base. Because it is a show piece it doesn’t have to be made from cake, but has to be something you could recreate in cake. So the center of the tree is what would have been cake. The tree has a PVC pipe center for support with copper tubing for branches, its completely covered in modeling chocolate which is edible.

All of the decorations are royal icing or fondant. The lily of the valley were my flower to plant on the farm and Tiger Lilys were always my mom’s favorites. The columbine were put in because we’re in Colorado. All of the activities of the fairies are just the things I think fairies would be doing in an enchanted forest and I love the expression on the Tree who has a lovely bark mustache.

I made hard candy and poured it into little dew droplets to give it a little shine. The fairies and flowers are mostly fondant (basically edible playdough)

Carrying a little Ladybug...

Reaching out to a Butterfly

Shaking Dew off onto Mr. Mushroom
Playing Hide and Seak
A small game of Leap Frog
Riding in the Saddle
She loves me, she loves me not
Staking up Mushrooms
Swinging from the Tree
and Climbing the Tree

Come Friday the 15th of February Tammy very nervously took down the cake to the Denver Convention Center. She cautiously scoped out the competition there when she dropped off her cake and surmised she had a decent chance. Saturday she was able to finally take a breather and enjoy life again. :-) We relaxed, hung out at my parents and didn't think about the cake once. Sunday, Tammy had volunteered to work the Cake booth from 10 until the 4:30 when the awards show was.
Around 1:00 Sunday afternoon, Tammy called me very depressed. She had the opportunity to read some of the judge rankings of the cakes and found she hadn't done well enough to place. Being the supportive family we are we said we'd still come down to the award show for her.
Once down at the awards show the family all got to see the variety of cakes that had been entered. There was a great variety of talent shown as well as very creative ideas on the themes. Sitting in the theater prior to the ceremony, Grandma seized the opportunity to have Troy inform Keegan Gerhardt, one of the judges and Food Network Cake Challenge host, that he thought his Mommy made the best Happy cake in the show. This lead to a lengthy discussion between Keegan and Tammy in regards to her judging results. She learned a lot from this and believes this will definitely help her in the future.
Sitting there listening to the results it was a truly a priceless moment seeing Tammy's face light up with tears as they announced that her cake was chosen as the Peoples Choice Cake 2008 for the Denver Home and Garden show. This award was voted on by the thousands and thousands of people attending the show that weekend. Truly an honor and something Tammy will remember for a long time. It also resulted in her cake being on display the rest of the week while the show was going on.

SUPERMAN TROY

2008-02-06T20:27:00.000-08:00

Faster than a speeding bullet, Able to Eat Large Happy Cakes in a single bite, it's a Toy, it's Play dough.. no it's another one of Tammy's awesome cakes. She made this for Troy's 4th birthday and did it amazingly while working on the Enchanted Forrest cake

So... why not some of my work

2007-12-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

Let's start out with my Birthday cake from this year. It's almost as if Tammy knew exactly what I wanted.

Here's a few item's I've turned recently;

Last night I worked on an Ash bat for a friend of ours. She wanted to give it to her boyfriend for Christmas. It actually turned out pretty good and now Tammy wants on.
This is a Aspen vase I made to fit in a stand I had sitting around. It's not finished yet as I'm still trying to decide what kind of finish/finish work I want to do to it.
An Alder basket weave bowl I turned and burned. There's a basket weave patter on the top rim that was burned in.

A nice box elder bowl. Stands about 7" high and 10" across

One of my favorite pieces so far. A Cedar hollow form/vase that I turned, dremeled out the holes and burned with a butane torch

side view

This is one of my Elm vases I turned in the Trent class earlier this year. Finally got it dried and finished.
Some mini turnings I did. The walnut one (right) is about 2" high.

Another Mini. About 1" high, with a burned in pattern
This is from a piece of Old Pithy pine I had sitting around and decided to mess with one day. Sure glad this didn't become firewood.

And my winged aspen bowl. Turned completely on the lathe and the wings are left for artistic value on the piece.

Dr. Suess

2007-12-13T14:48:00.000-08:00

Tammy went to the Dr. Seuss cake challenge yesterday to watch these AMAZING cakes be created. It was really hard to tell, down to the last minute who was going to win because they were all amazing.

The competitors were given all of the Dr. Seuss books 3 weeks ago and had to decide which book they were going to do. The kicker was, that one of the judges was the VP of marketing for Dr. Seuss incorporated so she knew all the exact details of the books and characters and colors and context.

The Cat in the Hat won and Green Eggs and Ham was 2nd. The comments about Horton Hears a Who, were that it was too busy and too much going on, the story and book are very simplistic, but the finished product was just amazing. The Grinch who stole Christmas just had a few issues with proportion but the details were incredible, the who people with their crazy hair, the dog and the sleigh.

I also learned a lot of Dr. Seuss trivia. Dr. Seuss started writing books in 1957 (this is the 50th anniversary of the Grinch) and at the time for children it was determined that there were 250 words that children needed to know most. He included 237 in his first book, the cat in the hat. But his editor bet him $50 that he couldn’t do a book with just 50 different words. Dr. Seuss won that bet with Green Eggs and Ham! He wrote his last book in 1990 – Oh the Places You’ll Go.

dead jack-o-lantern

2007-11-05T11:15:00.000-08:00

Took this to work, it was a pumpkin spice cake, white chocolate buttercream frosting.

This weekend's cakes

2007-10-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

Did a couple of fun cakes this weekend and a halloween pumpkin coming up this week.

Showing off Daddy's work

2007-10-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

This past week Tammy's parents were in town for the week visiting the grandchildren and us. We had a good time with them and got a bunch of things done around the house. Lucy loves gardening and helped by cleaning up the back flower bed, weeding, and planting some new roses and other flowers to help ensure we have blooming flowers through out the summer and fall. We know have 2 beautiful Pink/Red rose bushes in the middle of our flower bed. Dave was able to assist me with redoing the sandbox that our wonderful puppy Pippen decided was a chew toy, as well as assisting with some other honey do's and small projects I had going in the shop. Tammy's father used to be a logger and so I took the opportunity to have him saw up some of the logs I had sitting around into bowl blanks. I think I now have a good supply for the next month or so. :-)

On Friday, Tammy Jo had surgery to remove her Gall Bladder. Ever since Kayti was born she's had problems with Gall stones and finally decided that the pain of them was enough to warrant having it removed. Hopefully this will ease some of her pain.

On Saturday I took some time to turn one of the hollow form's and my daughter decided she wanted to see it and have her picture taken. She's a great helper.

This weekends Cakes - Tammy

2007-09-23T19:27:00.001-07:00

3 tier wedding cake for saturday, top layer is White Chocolate cake with chocolate chips, the middle is carrot cake with cream cheese filling, and the bottom is chocolate cake with rasberry filling. separated with real gerber daisies.

Did this Toyota Prius for a teenage girl's birthday....closest she is going to get to owning one. Its red velvet cake with cream cheese filling and a marshmallow fondant cover.

2007 Woodturning Symposium Instant Gallery

2007-09-21T09:39:00.000-07:00

Wanted to share some of the pictures from the 2007 Rocky Mountain Woodturner's Symposium. The following are the pictures from the Instant gallery. There was some amazing pieces this year from some very amazing wood turners.

This is a Funeral Urn from Lee Whiteside. It has an octagon middle to it like a bolt. A Very nice piece.

These are some natural edge platter's from Rex Burningham. Also the 3 Peppermills in the background are his as well. He did a demo on these and truly makes fantastic Natural Edge platters.

The next 2 are from Ron Gerton. He made an amazing bowl that was 2 1/2 feet approx across and made for a very striking piece. He came back and wrapped the edge with some sort of resin I believe. As you see in the 2nd picture, he lined the inside of it what I believe to be scroll sawed pieces, letters, and shapes.

This is some very interesting pieces from Trent Bosch. I really appreciate this work as I had the pleasure of attending one of Trent's classes earlier this year. He makes amazing looking knots that are joined with cast brass or metal knots to make the sculpture. You'll also notice the small bowl to the left. That was made by one of his daughters and shown in the gallery.

I very much liked this piece as I'm partial to the copper stands and their use with wood turnings. This was made by Steve Harding and is a great Sphere shape. The one in the background is a Much larger sphere and very impressive as well.

Allen Jensen turned these three pieces, all hollow forms.

I had the pleasure of seeing up close these pieces from H.P. Thode. They may look out of place at a wood turning symposium, however when you find out that these pieces are all to scale versions of these masterpieces which require you to turn all the spindles to accuracy. They suddenly appeal to all wood turners.

Ken Eberle turned these fine pieces of segmented turnings. I had the pleasure of talking with him Sunday morning prior to the symposium opening. He has taken an amazing leaps in his turnings from his first turning lesson's at a RV Park (I believe I recall) to his amazing pieces below. He documents the number of pieces as well as the amount of hours associated with each piece. He is correct when he told me that doing segmented turnings like this definitely takes Patience

Another Piece from Rex Burningham, a fantastic natural edge piece that looks like a comet.

A Pierced turning by Phil Lackey. All the holes are randomly different, as well as becoming less frequent towards the back.

A great piece by Ron Gerton, a Hanging hollow form. Great mixture of what I believe to be metal and wood.
One of David Nittman's amazing basket weave looking pieces. If you have not seen one up close you are missing out. You literally need to be within a foot or less before the basket weave illusion begins reveal itself as something else. He is a master at these pieces. This one is also decorated similarly on the bottom of the piece.

Donald Derry had a very interesting looking Rice Bowl here. Turned, Carved, decorated and formed to make a artistic piece.
Gene Westworth had this square turned lidded bowl for lack of a better description. Some very beautiful wood and detailed details :-) in this piece.

Doug Schnieder turned these hollow forms with voids. His placement of these voids as he shapes the form really add an amazing effect to them.
A few of Gordon Dekrey's Segmented turnings
The Amazing Cindy Drozda's Turnings and the great finiale's on them.

Bud Smith's Hollow forms with "Necklaces". Very neat accents to the piece. I believe I heard he makes these accents himself to work with the form better.
3 of Dave Kaufman's Hollow form's and platters. As you can see it doesn't appear he uses a solid piece of wood for his work. Always has to have some void, which he works very well into his pieces.
Curt Will had this piece on display. It struck me as interesting. Often you hear of natural edge bowls but not often do you see a natural edge hollow form or one that incorporates the bark edge of the tree.
Another one of David Nittman's pieces. This is a Large Striking platter that is approx 2' or more across.
And finally we have some segmented pieces from Curt Thebold. Although it's hard to see the segments with the wood grain and bleaching, but all three are segmented but are blended very well.

Labor day fun

2007-09-17T10:02:00.001-07:00

This is Troy, Kayti and I sitting by a Stream in Red Feather labor day weekend. We had a good time. Kayti is waving with her hands on her chin... always being cute.

Welcome to my Blog

2007-09-17T09:38:00.001-07:00

Nothing special on this post, just testing things out. I'm going to try and put family vacations, cake pictures my wife makes, and woodworking happenings from me, like when I cut my fingers off :-)

Hope anyone who comes here enjoys.... Thanks

Kayti's Birthday...

2007-09-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

Some quick pics of the wonderful Mushroom Kayti Cake Tammy made for Kayti's birthday. It was a great tasting cake and we managed to hang on to the Kayti Fairy and have since put it in a case that will now be on permanent display in Kayti's room.