Mercury Retrograde

Mercury Retrograde.

There, I said it. I had to text my friend Janet and ask her to explain it, since it's all I've been hearing about for the last few days. (Thanks, J!)

In a nutshell, there are times of the year that the planet Mercury appears to be traveling backwards. Things feel out of kilter.

One of the best descriptions I've heard is that feeling you get when you're sitting in a car that's not moving, but because something next to you is moving, you have a feeling of imbalance, or movement. I don't know about you, but I feel that way in the carwash, when my car is sitting still, with the brushes moving back and forth around my car. It makes me a little dizzy, so I have to close my eyes in a carwash.

On a more practical level, Mercury Retrograde causes us to feel out of sorts. It's not a good time to make any hard decisions, and for God's sake, don't sign any contracts.

Anyway, all of this might explain why it's been a weird week in the shop.


Yes, this is a piece of wood embedded into the drywall, right behind the radial arm saw. Luckily, the danger zone of this tool is behind it, where no one can get impaled.

And yes, this has been one of those "oops" weeks in the shop.


Nothing serious, but like I said, damn Mercury Retrograde!


Here is a warning for next year.


And finally, today would have been my dad's 83rd birthday. Not a day goes by that I don't think of him. I'd like to think that he is somewhere out there, watching the work I do, and feeling proud. Anyone who reads this blog has seen glimmers of his personality in what I write here.

Here he is as a young boy,

and as a sailor.

And finally, on his honeymoon. Stud. Muffin.


I miss you, pop. Happy trails.

Inspiration

This post is about a week behind schedule, but I have some good excuses.

There has been some craziness in the shop, including almost losing the tip of my finger, as well as a few rush orders (i.e. - will you make this dresser while I wait?")...

WTF?

As always, I'm grateful for the business, but working one handed isn't one of my best skill-sets.

Anyway, I want to write about something completely unrelated to wood today - being inspired.

Did you ever meet someone and you just know you're a better person for having met them? In this case, I had the opportunity to have dinner last week with four amazing people who were all in town for the Zappos.com Rock and Roll Marathon in Las Vegas last weekend.


It was their carb loading dinner, as all were running the half-marathon the following morning.

Meeting them got me thinking about what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it - in this case, all were amazingly calm and almost nonchalant about what they were about to do the next morning... run 13+ miles. I can't even imagine that!

I managed to get up early the next morning and get down to the Strip to cheer them on, thinking to myself - how the hell does someone strip down to nearly nothing when it's only 40˚ outside, let alone run for two hours?

Here are some of the amazing photos of that morning.

Who knew that Elvis was a runner? There were many impersonators in the crowd - what's the plural of Elvis? Elvi?








A SpongeBob Elvis? Nice.


And there were some great costumes in the crowd. I had no idea!


There were quite a few brides and grooms.


And caped crusaders.


And a "coach" who was cheering everyone along with a martini.


My friend, Kristi, motivating everyone with her cowbell.


There were bands set up every few miles, playing music along the route for the runners.


Very cool.

It was literally a sea of runners, as far as you could see down the Strip.


And here are my friends, about three miles from the end of the run. They were actually smiling!




I don't know if they were pulling my leg or not, but they said there were beers available for the runners along the way.

Hmmm... that might not be enough enticement for me.

And finally, the finish line at Mandalay Bay, where Bret Michaels was performing a free concert.


Runners and supporters were everywhere, and I was just proud to be there, watching everyone celebrating. Honestly, it was quite moving.



Best of all, it almost inspired me to strap on my running shoes and take a shot at it next year. This page has a training schedule, in case these photos inspire you, too.

Another very cool thing - copies of the book "Delivering Happiness" written by the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hseih were being passed out to everyone. This book details the beginnings of Zappos, and outlines his thoughts about running a business. It was quite compelling, I devoured it in two nights.

It might be one of my more favorite books on running a business, and I plow through a lot of those. Congrats to Tony for developing such a great management style, and a fabulous company.

Congrats to all the runners, you were awesome!

see more There I Fixed It

Well, this can't be a good thing.


Things like this make me wish I knew how to work on cars.

Let It Be

The latest graduates at Studio: Wood It Is!

It's been a little busy at the shop, with deliveries, pick-ups, drop-offs and ... ta da! Graduation! Here are some pictures of the latest class to graduate. Congrats to all, you really did a fabulous job, especially with your boxes.

Fuming! and dog sweatshirts...

We're having some of the coldest weather in years here in Las Vegas. Of course, it comes right as I need a warm day to fume some picture frames. What is fuming, you ask?

Fuming wood is a technique for darkening wood by exposing it to ammonia fumes. This technique works particularly well with woods rich in tannins, like white oak. This process was commonly used in early Arts and Crafts furniture, and was discovered when people noticed that the wood in horse barns turned a lovely deep brown color. The change was occurring from the horse urine reacting with the wood.

Luckily, today you don't need a horse to get these results, just some very high strength ammonia.

Here are some photos of two white oak tables I made and fumed years ago. That is the color that the white oak will achieve.




So a couple of weeks ago, we all made white oak frames in a picture frame class I was teaching. I took everyone's unfinished frame home, so I could put them into a fuming tent and monitor the darkening process.

Of course, every single day - it's been too cold to do it! The process is greatly hastened by the addition of warmth, so I'll just have to wait for the next sunny day to attempt it.

Stella, the shop mascot, doesn't really like this cold weather either. So as I was making a few sweatshirts for her to wear in the shop, I thought it might make an interesting blog post.

My buddy Helen showed me how to do this many years ago, and it's a perfect way to re-purpose old sweatshirts. I don't know about you, but I always have old, stained sweatshirts laying around the house.

First, cut the sleeves off of an old sweatshirt, up near the shoulder.


Try to measure the circumference of your pet's neck. Or just hold the sleeve up next to their neck, to know where to cut the sleeve to length. Then - cut a few arm holes. Remember - the holes aren't completely on opposite sides, they're located more toward the front of the body.

Finally - cut the sleeve to length. I like to taper it a little, so it covers her body on top, but not on the underside.



As you can see, I left the sleeve a little long, to make a turtleneck out of this sleeve. Just fold it over, it's looks amazing.


She's such a ham, I put the sweatshirt on her, and asked her to tilt her head back, so I could get a nice photo of it.


Stay warm, and stay tuned... I'll have some images of the fumed picture frames as soon as we have a warm day here. Meanwhile, I'm heading to the shop with silk underwear under my jeans. BBBBBbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Turn, turn, turn... part three

Matching a finish is always difficult, especially if the wood is stained, so I usually grab some different cans of stain and make a few samples. In this case, I tried some Watco Walnut, a Minwax Gel in Mahogany, Minwax Walnut, and to round out the batch, a Zarr stain in walnut.


After staining some scrap wood that had left over from making the base, I decided these two were the closest match. You always want to stain wood from the piece you've made, so that you'll get an accurate color match. I thought that was a given, but when I mentioned it to someone recently, they said they'd never thought of doing that.

You can see from this picture that the mahogany isn't dark enough. But the walnut is a little too dark, and needs more red tones.


So I mixed up a little of both in a cup, and tried it on another piece of scrap. It was perfect.


The stain goes on very evenly; if I have to stain wood, Minwax products are usually the ones I use.


The color match is nearly perfect.


The only real difference between the two sections of the legs is the sheen. The original section has a nice satin sheen, while the new legs, which are just raw wood, need some protection.

To bring some sheen to the wood, I used Mixwax Wipe-on Poly over the stain. We've been having a cold front here, so it is chilly in my shop. That makes the drying time very slow.

Here is the sheen (finally!) building up on the wood.

In the picture below, I have marked the area with the red line to show the new section of the leg. I think it turned out to be an pretty good match, don't you?


And here is the final piece, finished and awaiting pick-up.


I'm going to say something I never thought I would hear myself saying, but after the last couple of repair jobs I have completed, I am actually starting to enjoy repairing old furniture. It gives me a chance to work with some different woods, study new construction details, and has given me an appreciation of woodworking that took place long ago.

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