Gabe Lueders and Dave Selden have been friends since high school, and artists since birth. This is a new means of collaboration for both, separated by many miles; Gabe is in Iowa, Dave in Oregon.
Ewing Park turning green
You may have a brand new 18″ Jet bandsaw with a 12″ clearance but you probably don’t have a new Bonnie T-shirt.
The new shop in progress, it is a little bigger then it looks.
I just ripped out the carpet in this room today. I am sitting in the green chair as I am writing this.
Finally, I’ve had time for some more exploration with my adze and crooked knives. Feel like I’m finally getting a feel for them, but realizing they are difficult to sharpen. I’ve been using a cloth buffing wheel and tripoli, which seems to work, but the point of the more crooked knife is always catching and scaring the living daylights out of me as it’s wrenched towards my body at high speeds. At least it will leave a nice clean wound. They keep a nice edge …
Here’s a square wall piece in Yellow Cedar. I made a circle-cutting jig for my plunge router
Here’s my first test of the circle cutting jig in some scrap Western Red Cedar (leftover from the picnic table!). Very dry, brittle wood, difficult to carve. The yellow cedar and basswood seem oily-er and nicer to carve. Far fewer chip outs or splinters.
Finally, the circle jig. Not my invention, but pretty handy, and it greatly expands my circle-machining capabilities. The yellow cedar project was finally too big for my drill press to reach center (18″ square piece).
I have purchased custom frames from American Frame before, and always been really satisfied with the experience. They have some nice calculators that let you start with your artwork dimensions and add to it mat width on all sides, as well as figuring extra to fill in a frame. They ship you the dissembled frame by mail, and you assemble it and insert your artwork. Materials are high quality and always nicely finished. Highly recommended.
Today, I got an e-mail from them that they are starting a new service that allows artists to actually sell prints of their work through the American Frame web site. I haven’t signed up yet, but I assume you probably upload high quality scans/photos of your work to their site, and they in turn print out high-quality Giclee prints as customers request your work. Then, they cut you a check (price is whatever YOU set for your work) periodically based on your sales. I think you should try it out, Gabe! Some of your landscapes would be great, I think.
The home of John Andrews, featured in the New York Times today. I have always thought about living near Oxford if/when we return to the Midwest. I really liked the feel of that crumbling main street, with those big old brick commercial buildings. I liked John’s setup with the studio downstairs and home area upstairs. I think my studio needs have changed since I had those original ideas, but I do like the idea of a small town in Iowa filled with lots of different artists. Kind of like Stone City back in the day. A little Iowa nostalgia for the afternoon.
Brandy and I drove up to Eldora and stayed at a cabin by Pine Lake. We did lots of hiking around the area. It was pretty cool for being in Iowa.
Inside the cabin with Brandy next to the fireplace.
An island in the middle of Pine Lake
Outside of the Cabin.