Descending Ashtray

Well, Santa Claus has come and gone, and I can now reveal another project that’s kept this elf pretty busy in December: this Australian Lacewood jewelry box I made for Sarah.

The top and sides are solid lacewood, with alder used as a secondary wood for the bottom (not shown). I bookmatched the top, splitting a thick board in two as you might open a book, which leaves the grain of the wood symmetrical on both sides. Hard maple was used for the edge banding. Finish is 3 coats General Finishes Clear, with 3 more coats of TopFin on top of that. I hand-rubbed each finish with 0000 steel wool between coats, with the exception of the last two. The oil really pops the distinctive, shimmery lacewood grain, and the TopFin gives it a nice tactile feel, something like very hard butter.

Here’s another view of the box when open. I used two solid brass hinges from Woodcraft, $30 for the pair! They do look really nice, though, and are very easy to install. I also created some half-lap dividers that slip into the box, also made with maple, about 1/8-inch thick. This is where a planer really comes in handy. As far as I know, you can’t buy lumber that thin! I lined the bottom with some paper-backed velvet from Portland-based Woodcrafters. I like to spread my woodworking purchases around.

This was my second finely-crafted box, and I think I am improving. Perhaps I’ll make myself a humidor in 2007 with the leftover lacewood.

If I’ve been a little quiet in December, it’s because I’ve been working on some top-secret projects on behalf of Santa. I still can’t reveal all of them, but I can start with this “Reindeer Call” I made for Grandma Selden (she doesn’t read this blog, or any web site, for that matter).

It’s a whistle, carved to look like Santa Claus. I’m not sure it will summon reindeer, but the 45th paralell isn’t exactly close to Santa’s Stable (it’s midway between the equator and the North Pole, and it runs through Oregon).

The Santa carving tradition is much older than I am, but I have been making Santa’s for my grandmother for a number of years. It’s a fun exercise each year for me to flex my folk art muscle, so different stylistically from what I normally do. Last year, I went all out and created this 11″ tall standalone Santa. In it, Santa is doing some chainsaw carving on a tree whose branches resemble a certain antlered mammal native to the Arctic Circle.

In this photo you can see Santa’s face, as well as a little detail on the back of the tree.

Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday, and may you get all the tools you asked for this year.

I was looking through some pictures from a trip last summer and I came accross this one.  At first, I thought that it did not turn out very well and almost deleted it. But the more I looked at it the more my perspective began to change.

When I took the picture, I was hoping to zoom in on the flower but the auto focus on the camera saw things differently, thus bringing the middle ground into focus.  Instead of the obvious flower being the focal point, I starting seeing the texture of the wet rocks, the translucent leaves whose tips were decaying and the dark silouette of plant stems.  The composition also seemed to work well, everything points toward the center.  Almost as if there is a hole you can look through.

Looking at things in this way reminded me of the documentary (What the bleep do we know?) that I watched last weekend.  One of the examples that they used to show how we see only what we want to see, was a story about about the native americans.  When Columbus’s ships first came to america the natives could not see them at all.  There was nothing in their minds to reference what they could possibly be.  So they simply did not see them.  The only way they did finally see them was that the medicine man noticed strange ripples in the water from the ships.  Trying to figure out what was causing the ripples he slowly became able to see the ships.  What a strange concept!  But it does make me wonder what it is that we see and what we are capable of really seeing.

The King  - This movie was interesting but also very disturbing in an unexpected way.  A good example of how ignorance can be damaging to mental stability especially within a family.

What the Bleep do we Know? - A fascinating documentary about how quantum physics can be effected even by our thoughts.  I was amazed at the similarities between the science of what they explained and the technique taught at the Vipassana course.

An Inconvenient Truth  -  Al Gore directly faces the facts about global warming.  There was more than enough evidence to reaffirm that there really is a serious climate crisis in effect.  He also does a good job of explaining the simple things that we can do to make a difference.  An important film to watch and it might be a good idea to change your light bulbs! (Pun intended)

Josh e-mailed me some pictures of the house that we worked on together.

I mainly worked with Josh Carlson and Mike Owens on this house.  In the above picture Josh made the arches, Mike did the layout and I finished the rest.

This was another one of Josh’s amazing arches!

Mike did this incredible ceiling!  I watched him spend countless hours working on a ladder to create this beauty.  I worked on these windows as well.

I got a $100 check in the mail yesterday, a Christmas present from my grandparents. I am a little torn as to what to spend it on. Here are two options I am considering:

1. Veritas Shoulder Plane
The more I use planes, the more useful I find them. As my furniture making skills have advanced, they are great for finessing a joint or smoothing a rough finish, and a lot less noisy than their power tool equivalent. This costs a little more than $100, but I could always add to it. Unlike a traditional plane, a shoulder plane has a cutting blades that goes from one side to the other, allowing it to shave tenons and (wascally) rabbets. More than a few times lately I’ve wished I had one.

2. Woodworker II Blade
I already have one of these blades, but it needs to be sharpened, which would leave me without a blade for awhile. I got the existing one second-hand, thrown in with my table saw, and really love it, though it does have a few chipped teeth. I suspect it might be out of flat, too. I probably would use the saw blade more than I’d use the shoulder plane, though.

If you had to choose between the two, which would you choose and why? Or is there something else I should be considering?