I have been happily turning wood since my last post a month ago. A couple of weeks ago, I had a table in my friend Gail's booth at WEFF to sell my sock blanks. I took some of my wood items almost as an afterthought. And sold enough of them to make it worth having gone, but not enough to make me quit my day job. It was pretty thrilling to have the things I have so enjoyed making be appreciated.
Took the pen class at Rockler, learned some new techniques, and had a ball. Same students and teacher that were in the first class and it's a very congenial group. Came home with a handful of beautiful pens.
Rather than writing more about this last month, I will let photos tell the story.
It's been a very busy couple of months since I last blogged. I've become totally obsessed with woodturning. To the point that my dad's shop is becoming a full-fledged woodshop.
Katie and I took a pen class at Rockler and came home with two more (I think) gorgeous pens each. I also took a class on grinding gouges so I can sharpen my own tools - came home from that with a new slow-speed grinder and Wolverine jigs.
And it hasn't been enough to just turn ready-made blanks into pens. No... I have to learn to laminate my own blanks and make other things. I loaded up on pen and accessory kits from PSI and a box-'o-blanks and was on my way. Turns out that the b-o-b was a really good choice - it came with photos of the woods so I could identify each piece once it was turned and the woods included are all beautiful so far.
Resurrected my scroll saw that has been sitting unused for a couple of decades, and put it to work. A sheet of veneer, big bottle of wood glue, and I'm making all kinds of laminated blanks. This is a perfect craft for the packrat in me that can't throw anything away. Scrap of wood too small to make anything? No problem - just glue it to another scrap and presto! And reading some of the forums, I see that people are even saving sawdust and shavings to include in casting resin. My casting molds are in the mail as we speak.
I love, love, love what I've been doing. I'm a little bit frustrated by the ever-growing need to have the right equipment for the right job and my own lack of knowledge about tools in general. And had one major meltdown over drilling issues that resulted in me raising my voice (yes, I did!) and actually throwing a problem blank on the ground. It was already cracked so at least I'm not living with that guilt. And my rage lasted long enough for a trip to the hardware store to get a real drill press.
So here are a few of the things I've been making:
This is the idea that started me in this new direction. I wanted to make some tools for my fiber arts - nostepinnes, shawl pins, a dealie for controlling yarn at the spinning wheel orifice, latch hooks - I have loads of ideas I want to try. This one is a latch hook made with mystery wood. A very simple profile and originally somewhat visually boring, so I added three lines with burning wires.
This tool is a bracelet helper. If you were a teen in the sixties or seventies you probably think this is something else, but you would be wrong! The clip on this gadget holds one end of your bracelet so you can use your free hand to clasp the other end. This is made with Honduran Rosewood.
This next gadget is made from a piece of spalted curly maple. The first photo shows the whole thing assembled. The gold bit pulls out of the wood and, surprise! it's a seam ripper. The handle is designed to fit back in the wood, so you have a tiny point on the ripper to fit in tight places, but a substantial handle to hold.
Next is a perfume pen. Another blank from the b-o-b, this is Yucatan rosewood. A built-in container holds a piece of very porous material. You fill it with perfume by dipping the wick that protrudes from the barrel into the perfume of your choice. For those whose spinning wheels have easily accessed oiling spots, this might be a fun way to carry their machine oil.
A twist pen (uses Cross pen style refills) in black palm. I've noticed I tend to make the lower parts of my pens especially bulbous because I'm more comfortable with a substantial pen. Everyone who has picked up this one has remarked on how good the size feels.
This is another twist pen made of bocote. I chose to make this one without a pocket clip.
And this is a work in progress. Made from a 2x12 piece of cherry, this is a nostepinne. Look it up! It's a little on the heavy side, so it should be used by someone who needs a really substantial tool. Or wants something lovely that can double as a self-defense device. I need to cut off the waste wood at the bottom and finish the ends, but couldn't resist including it in today's post. I have a whole line of nostepinnes in different sizes and weights in production right now.
Now, on to my favorites to make and to look at so far - the laminated woods. I had an aha moment last week... Years ago, when I was living with my beloved dad (who could do ANYTHING), I often went out to his shop and found a piece of my good kitchenware being used to soak old oily Model A parts. Well, I found myself needing to soak a piece of veneer in water and automatically made a beeline for the kitchen, where I grabbed a loaf pan. Later realized that I had just done what used to drive me crazy. Except that I can and did return the pan to the kitchen afterward. Don't think I could have done the same when my big stockpot was used to soak transmission parts. Anyway, I guess I am now channeling Dad when I work in his shop (now my shop, but in my heart it will always be Dad's). Maybe I'll get lucky and channel some of his talent and ingenuity.
This pen was made from my first laminated blank, using bocote, maple veneer, and bloodwood. The veneer was pretty brittle, but a good soaking in warm water softened it enough to fit the curves in the two wood pieces. I loved how the curves in the bocote nearly followed the curves I cut on this side of the pen.
For my next laminating project, I wanted much more contrast in colors, so I chose some blanks in bloodwood and yellowheart. Again, using maple veneer between each piece of wood.
First, I made a piece with more curves than the bocote/bloodwood pen.
Another surprise... this is a secret compartment keyring. Just the perfect size to hold some toothpicks, a couple of aspirin, or maybe some mad money. As a fiber arts person, though, my immediate thought when I saw this was "needle holder!"
My favorite pen to date. I cut random blocks of each wood and simply
glued them together in alternating colors. I intended for the stripes
to be a little more off-kilter, but held back when cutting because I
thought I was getting carried away and would have problems clamping the pieces together. Will trust my instincts next
time. But I still love how this turned out.
I was actually planning to keep this pen for myself, but it's too big to be comfortable in my hand. Darn it! It will have to wait for the right person to claim it.
Finally, here's a little stylus for a smartphone or tablet. The little black thingy fits into a headphone jack when you're not using it so it won't get lost. This is made from the same blank as the pen, but I cut it in half lengthwise and offset the pieces to make it far less uniform.
So what's next? Well, the nostepinnes are waiting to be finished. Lined up in my shop, I have about a dozen pen kits glued up and waiting to be turned. And a few surprises in the wings. Not to mention the UPS truck. Plus an advanced penmaking class at Rockler next month. And a bandsaw class at Woodcraft in December.
During introductions at a recent GLASG meeting, I blurted out that my special skill is spending my paycheck on fibers and tools. I was not surprised to see how many other members agreed that this is high on their skill inventories. I think most of us fiber fanatics love the tactile and visual sensations we get from our stashes and our equipment. Fortunately, I haven't been bitten by the spindle spinning bug, but I know many spinners who have more spindles than they will ever use, just because they are drawn by the beauty of the wood or the craftsmanship of the artist. For Lent this year, I am giving up bacon and guilt over my shopping habits. I think doing both will make me a better and healthier person.
My friend Gail from Weaver's Cupboard and I went to the February meeting of the Greater Los Angeles Spinners Guild (GLASG), where Gwen Powell gave a seminar on using the blending board and woolen spinning. Gwen has a Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning from the HGA and teaches spinning, weaving, crochet, and dyeing. She was instrumental in bringing back the garneting board from obscurity under the friendlier name "blending board." She worked with Clemes & Clemes on the design and the result is a board created with the fiber know-how of a master spinner and the craftsmanship of a major fiber tool maker. After seeing some of their boards in action I find them tempting but for the time being, I'm sticking with my less beautiful but fully functional handmade board.
Gwen demonstrated how to create a batt and then pull off several nearly identical striped rolags. She also showed how to add inclusions (little bits of stuff to add interest) to the batt. Finally, she showed how easily the rolags could be spun into woolen using a long draw technique.
Easy for her, that is. She has become so expert at using her blending board that she had it loaded with fiber and created rolags in just a minute or two.
It took me about 20 minutes to get these rolags off my blending board. I clearly have some issues with consistency. We used some 1/4" dowels to wrap the rolags around - perhaps a large dowel would help.
I also put some inclusions in the purple/blue set, which mostly fell out later. But it was a lot of fun and I'm going to enjoy using this tool now that I have some clues about what can be done with it.
Yesterday, I had a few minutes to spin the rolags. I really tried to stick with the long-draw woolen technique Gwen showed, but I struggled. I think part (but not all) of the problem was the consistency of my rolags. Some parts drafted easily. Other parts required tugging to get any fibers out. And I kept catching myself reverting to my worsted style. Since my singles were so inconsistent, I decided to Navajo ply without regard to color to get a very chaotic yarn. I love how the colors turned out. Wonder what I can do with 18 yards of chaos?
Gwen will be giving a full workshop for my Saturday Spinners group in a couple of months and I'm really looking forward to learning more from her.
One of my local guild's members sent out an email through the grapevine a couple of weeks ago about selling her Pat Green Triple Picker. Lucky for me, I check my email obsessively and was the first to respond to her message. As much as I like my Kaydessa box picker, I can prepare only a few ounces of fiber in an hour. While the Pat Green can go through several POUNDS of fiber in an hour. You can get an idea of its size from this photo -- the picker is sitting on a porch swing that seats two adults. I'm still keeping the Kaydessa -- it can go to workshops with me, but the Pat Green will be my go-to tool.
This picker needs a little attention -- it's a bit rusty and the wood needs some care, but for the price, I couldn't have been happier. A little elbow grease and it will be ready to go. And just in time. At the GLASG meeting, I won a bag full of unwashed alpaca. Looked pretty horrible, but after washing, it's a beautiful light fawn color. It was already a bit matted and washing matted it a little more, so it's going to need a ride through the picker before it can be carded.
Ever have one of those days where you couldn't do anything right? Friday I took another machine knitting class at Newton's Yarn Country. This session was on punch lace (aka thread lace) and using the lace carriage.
For the life of me, I couldn't even remember how to cast on. Had to sneak a peak at my instruction book because I wasn't going to admit it. And still had to ask for help. And at one critical point, I ran the carriage over the bed without adding a necessary thread and got to learn how to manually pick up and re-knit dropped stitches.
Unfortunately, I didn't think to have Newton's check out my lace carriage in advance. It was skipping stitches and knitting some in unintended places, so I left it to get some TLC. The punch lace, though, was pretty easy to do and I also learned a new binding off technique. Here I'm in the process of binding off a swatch.
I'm not sure what I would use it for, but this technique makes an interesting textured fabric with the heavy yarn overlaid by a lightweight thread.
This is the purl side of the fabric. You can see where the dark thread is is not caught consistently. Once we added more weight to the fabric, the stitches became more consistent.Still pretty ugly, though.
I read somewhere that there really isn't a right or wrong side in punch lace - you choose based on what's pleasing to your eye - but I don't think there's any question here that this is the wrong side.
And this is the knit side. Still don't like the overall pattern, but I like the look of the lacy thread over the heavier yarn. We used a dark thread over a medium toned yarn to get some contrast between the two. I think this would look interesting (in the right pattern) with a metallic thread or perhaps a different tone of the same color.
Close-up, you can see how the yarn and thread are knitted together.
I also learned to do a hem with a picot edge. I think it makes a really pretty border.
Saturday was the Griffin Dyeworks Fiber Frolic. This is an annual (I think) event held in Monrovia, where they offer a number of classes, have a small vendor hall, and a spinning circle. The Griffin people were super friendly and made it a fun day.
My morning class was on fiber blending with Micki Lawrence from Funhouse Fibers. Micki sells her
handspun yarn and dyed roving on her site. I already knew Micki a little from GLASG, and expected her to lead a
lively and fun class. She did not disappoint. Even though she was a
last minute replacement for the original teacher, she was well-prepared
and I would take another class with her anytime.
Using just the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and a pair of hand carders, we worked on creating a color wheel by blending different proportions of the colors. Then created tints by adding white to each color, and shades by adding black. Aha moment for me. I have to admit I'm intimidated by color theory. I know what pleases me and I know what I definitely don't like. I tend to stick to a few "safe" color choices. But I finally got it that by blending a color that I don't particularly like with a different color, I can create the illusion of an altogether different color. And I really like the texture created by combining two colors.
Micki also demonstrated using a DIY hackle to blend color. Although we ran out of time and didn't get to play with them, she had brought along enough of her handmade hackles for each of us to use, and we were able to buy them. These are made by attaching some plastic hairpicks to a board. Simple. But having drilled through plastic in the past, visions of massive hand injuries made me take no time to decide to buy one. I'm pretty sure nearly everyone in the class bought one as well.
Speaking of buying things, there were shopping opportunities here. Ruth from the Dizzy Ewe was there with piles of her gorgeous fibers. I purchased some lovely cream-colored Polwarth top from her for my afternoon class.
One of the vendors was selling gently used books and I found a copy of Yarns to Dye For. It explains how to achieve different patterning effects such as stripes and faux fairisle in hand-dyed yarns. Having done a fair amount of dyeing using different techniques, I think book is excellent for the crafter who doesn't want to become an expert dyer or invest in expensive equipment, but who still wants to control where color goes in the yarn. Instructions are very clear and uncomplicated. Think my next solo dyeing project will be "watermelon" stripes.
At the Griffin Dyeworks tables, I bought a small bag of cochineal and made myself walk away. ( It's now triple-bagged and in my studio.) Fifteen minutes later, when a friend showed me a handheld tapestry loom she had bought, I was forced to go back for another look. And made a trip to my car with:
Not one, but two tapestry looms made by Jim Hokett of Hokett Would Works. Yes, Would. The first time I saw the name, I thought it was a typo but it turns out to be a pretty clever play on words. The larger loom is 12:"x16" and is made of purple heart and padauk. The smaller one is 7"x8" and is made of pecana (sic) negra and coyote wood. I wish I could take better photos because this one does not do justice to the lovely wood. Jim Hokett doesn't have his own website but his tools are sold by several fiber companies, including Griffin Dyeworks.
These looms are warped by running a thread across the length, through the first notch, and back through the second one. I'm told that the finished product can be removed from the loom by just pushing the warp threads up the notches. Can't picture how that would work if there's enough tension on the warp but guess I'll just have to see.
Here you can see the loom partially warped. Below are sections of the front showing threads alternately going into or coming out of each slot, and the back, showing how the threads are wrapped around every other peg.
Then I found this tiny tool called a barb beater. It's just 1"x2.5" - a perfect size for working with small areas on one of these handheld looms. Also made by Jim Hokett.
Finally, I fell for this beautiful nostepinne made of mahogany and poplar. This is used for winding yarn into a ball. Who could resist this lovely tool? I don't know who made this one.
My afternoon class was on dust dyeing, taught by Elena Dent. I love, love, love any form of dyeing. And Elena made it very simple. She had a dozen or so different salt shakers filled with Cushings dyes cut with cornstarch and a pair of commercial steam table pans filled with hot (not boiling) water simmering on the stove. We added some vinegar to the water, put in a piece or two of fiber, and started sprinkling them with the dye powders.
Elena was knowledgeable and informative, and did a good job taking the mystery out of the process for the class. Only thing I would change is to have a monitor to make sure people took turns nicely. The pans were large enough for two people at a time to share one. Most of my classmates were considerate, but we had one person who shoved her way in front, and filled one pan with her fibers. Then took that batch out and started another before anyone else had a turn. At one point she had one entire pan filled along with half of the other while the rest of us waited our turns. And of course we were all too polite to say anything to her. Maybe drawing numbers would have helped. But I don't think anyone let this ruin the class for them, and I would definitely take another class from Elena.
Some people mixed the colors in the pan and ended up with fairly monochromatic results. One of the women had some silk scarves that she slowly dipped in the pan repeatedly, and ended up with some lovely ombre effects. I wanted multi-hued fibers, so I sprinkled several different colors on my roving. I tried not to agitate the water, so the colors would pretty much stay where sprinkled. This is the first time I've done dyeing where the result was pretty close to what I was trying for.
Despite the care we took, somewhere in the process I managed to felt the fibers a little. But I'm going to spin this if I have to card it again! I'm so curious to see what the colors do when spun.
All in all, it was a great day and I look forward to going again.
