Descending Ashtray

Whew, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve last posted, and to you, dear reader, I apologize. I’ve embarked on adventure that has been taking up a lot of my time, and I’m not talking about my homebrewing hobby …

Sarah and I have begun remodeling our attic. It all began with some plans (with some help from my friend and contractor Andrew Young), which led to a building permit, which led to the purchase of a sawzall, which led to … me neglecting this blog. But let’s move on, shall we?

The Plans

We are fortunate enough to have a full-size attic - the plumbing permit for our house in 1927 listed it as 1 1/2 stories (saving us about $10,000, a story which I’ll tell another day) and we’re planning on converting the existing space (right) to a master bedroom and bath, which will up our home’s totals to 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and about 1500 square feet of living space. Here are the plans for what the new space should look like:

The Demo

I have always heard that demolition is the best part of a project, and I have to say, it has been fun, if a bit sweaty and dusty. But … we’re almost done. Most of the attic’s walls and ceiling were covered in some vintage wood paneling whose surface concealed some very old insulation. When you pulled down the paneling, the insulation and miscellaneous roof debris came with it, coating my head with asphalt, roofing nails and the occasional abandoned wasp nest. Good times. Next, I’ll regale you with stories of chimney removal. Really good times!

In one of my many experiments on the now-all-but-abandoned DaveSelden.com, I had a somewhat regularly occurring feature I called “Studio Visits,” where I documented visits I made to other artists’ studios, with lots of photos and minimal text. Other artists’ workspaces are usually so private, and it’s interesting to see how the setup differs based on personality and end product.

On my recent European vacation, I had the opportunity to re-visit the studio of Constantin Brancusi, a favorite sculptor. In 1956, rather than see his beloved space demolished in the name of a construction project, he donated its contents to the city of Paris to be recreated elsewhere. In his later years, Brancusi believed the perfect venue for experiencing his works was his studio, where each object was carefully positioned with respect to other objects, optimal lighting conditions and physical needs of the viewer.

In the ensuing years, the studio was recreated in various forms, all to some degree temporary, but in 1977 the studio received a final resting place at the Centre Pompidou in front of Paris’ Museum of Modern Art. A building designed by architect Renzo Piano references the original studio heavily, respecting the artist’s wishes as to placement of works and lighting conditions, but maintaining a safe distance between the visitor and the valuable original artworks it now contains.

Something I have been thinking about lately, and something that I noticed in Brancusi’s work (as well as in the Louise Bourgeouis retrospective inside) was the care and attention Brancusi gave to the pedestals for his pieces. In many ways the pedestal was so integrated with the sculpture, it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

And of course, there were the tools, laid out in neat order as he left them. They were the only evidence that this was a studio, really, so clean was the floor and so white the walls, you’d think you were simply in a strange museum. Artifacts of his life were there if you looked, though, including a violin on a bench at the rear of this photo, apparently for the impromptu parties that were often thrown here (Max Ernst and Jean Tinguely had adjacent studios). His sleeping quarters were in the raised area above.

Walking around Bruges on my recent Europe trip, I spotted this interesting tool near a construction job site. It’s a combination table saw and chop saw. Not probably the best thing in the world for building fine furniture, but I bet the owner of this tool likes carrying one tool around instead of two! Pretty cool idea, actually. I think the table saw fence doubles as a guard for the top of the blade when you’re using it as a chop saw.

Posted a bunch of our trip photos to Flickr yesterday. I have some more things to share from the trip, and I’ll be sharing those over the next few days. For now, it’s out to the shop!

I have recently put together a 5″x 8″, three ring binder to help organize my work notes. (I know it may sound a little nerdy but my memory just has not been the same since my college education). I have broken it up into two sections then there are three sub categories for each.

1. Art Notes:
a.Painting
b.Drawing
c.Sculpture

2. Shop Notes:
a.Woodworking
b.Home Improvement
c.Landscaping/Gardening

Basically I am trying to write down any key tips that have to do with any of these categories. Such as: How to make good canvas stretchers, what gesso I used, or what brushes really work good for different techniques. Or with woodworking, I am always experimenting with different finishes but often forget what I used for a certain piece.

This work notes binder is just a way to keep track of techniques and results that I learn from personal experience. And I can use it to organize magazine articles or internet print outs. This idea is a result from being frustrated when I am doing something that I have not done in a while and have to learn it all over again. So hopefully this journal will help solve that problem by making personal work experiences easier to reference.

As a holiday bonus this year, employees where I work received AmEx gift cards. My first thought was to use mine for my upcoming trip to France and Belgium, but then learned the cards are difficult to use for travel expenses. Luckily, Woodcraft takes them!

I had been thinking of acquiring a lathe for a long time. I think my hesitation had to do with the fact that most of my work is very geometric in nature, and I think of the lathe as a tool for decorative turnings: spindles, bowls, vases, etc. I also had no idea how much fun a lathe could be!

I ended up going with a “starter lathe,” the Jet 10×14 Mini Lathe, which seems like it will do the majority of what I want for at least a little while. The “10″ number indicates the diameter of work that can be turned on the lathe, while the “14″ indicates the length between the motor (headstock) and the tailstock. An extension is available to increase the “14″ dimension, which I may do soon-ish.

I forgot that with most tools, the minute you start playing with them, you can think of uses for them. I am going to be remodeling my attic this spring, and part of that will include spindles for the stairway railing! As you can see from what I’ve got mounted in the lathe, I’ve come up with a lot of artistic applications for a lathe as well!

The second major purchase with the gift card was the WorkSharp Sharpening Center. I’ve read about these a lot in the woodworking magazines I subscribe to, all of which have rated it highly. I think it’s easily one of the best purchases I’ve made in the last 2 years (tablesaw still wins the “lifetime achievement award”) since it does a mundane job quickly, which gets me back to work sooner.

Basically, it’s a motorized version of the “Scary Sharp” sharpening method, which I’ve used in the past for my chisels and plane irons. With the WorkSharp, a perfectly flat glass disc has adhesive sandpaper stuck to it. The glass disc is rotated by a small motor, and you simply rest the back/edge of the chisel on the rotating sandpaper to develop a mirror-like polish, working your way up through various grits of sandpaper. I took a 1″ chisel to “Scary Sharp” in about 2 minutes with the WorkSharp (granted it was fairly sharp to start), which would have taken 10 minutes the old way.

The new tools required a fair amount of shop cleanup and re-arrangement, too. I’ll take a few new pics of the whole shop once I sweep up all those lathe shavings!