the left index incidents:

sometimes i wonder how much more damage can possibly be done to my left index finger.
so far it has been:

• cut by bandsaw 
• drilled into
• sanded off tip with belt sander
• hit by exploding grinding wheel at 65.000 rpm

these are just the incidents i remember and can count my scars against. there might be more....

then, yesterday morning at work at the Inn, as i was chopping up bacon for the chopped salad, i chopped right into said finger, cut through the nail and side of finger. (the side that is not numb from being sanded off) yeah, it hurt, but it has hurt worse in the past. 

if anyone wants to see a picture, i will post one. i have just been chastised so many times in the past for posting one - therefore - no pic this time.

left index, i do love you! a lot. and could not imagine my life without you. so please stay.

E. A. Clore and Sons

even though i am still al little under the weather, boredom got the better of me, and i took the table top to E. A. Clore and Sons in Madison today.

the place is magical - in so many ways. i did not have my camera with me - so here are a few picture from their website. please do go to their website and check out the factory tour. then you will see what i mean.

beautiful stacks of wood everywhere, bed post patterns that are over 100 years old, and the machinery to match the age. the place has a little bit of a willy wonka factory feel to it.

among other things, they have an amazingly, large belt sander:
it sands large items for you perfectly smooth! the machine has 3 consecutive belts in it - all different grits of sandpaper - so it sands 120, 150, 180 all in one swoop. the results are quick and beautiful. in about 10 minutes the top was done!
had i tried to attempt this with my little belt sander, i know i would have worked on it for hours and still would not have had a flat, fabulous surface. $31.50 well spent!

till next time, clore factory....

garden:

some of you have been asking about our garden....this is not all of it, but it gives you an idea of whats growing this year! here are some pics i took last night. enjoy.

horseradish, leeks, onions, and asparagus

gooseberries, radish, carrots 

broccoli, kohlrabi, and kale (not quite in picture)

sweet peppers and a random, volunteer onion

cabbage and tomatoes

japanese eggplant and muscadine grapes in grey square boxes

tomatoes

goji berries and garlic

hot peppers

"team work .....

.....makes the dream work"

...this was always said by my fellow core student Joshua Kuenstig. 

this friday, Robert and lived it.

for a while now (maybe even since i've known him) Robert has been wanting to put a drain ditch in the front corner of our property with a retraining wall. that area always has standing water in it.
this past weekend Robert scored a bunch of retaining wall bricks at a "yard sale" at MWP (Madison Wood Preservers - our local building supply company). thursday he dug a ditch and started with the blocks, but he did not get very far, as working alone is sometimes quite tasking - and can get frustrating.

so i told him i would help him on friday.
together, we made it happen: in the 85 degree sun, with some snakes saying hi and a mammal under the ground that we could see moving around - and despite the bricks weighing about 40 lbs each and felt like they kept getting heavier and heavier with each one - we got it all done

since we finished, we have decided that its not done yet..... it is looking a little lost and unfinished.

we want the wall to be a little longer and then curve around - the wall will become the front edge of a raised bed of sorts - then we can plant some blueberry bushes or something similar edible and maybe something flowering in there to make it a little bit friendlier.
so - we will work on it some more this weekend... or in the coming days....

pigpen:

according to my dear husband - i am Pigpen from the Peanuts.

today, more than ever - i was able to see why.... after i got up from the sofa after my lunch break, there was a huge dust-butt-print left behind..... hmmm

after reading about him, he seems quite endearing and maybe i should not be too offended by the name.

dining table: in the making

after a very disappointing saturday at the Strawberry Street Festival in Richmond this past weekend, 

it was tough getting back into it in the studio this week.

yet i managed to get all the legs, aprons, and supports cut:

now they just need joints cut and fitted - glued up, sanded and finished.

oooh-okay.

wont get to any of those steps till next week. tomorrow i am heading to Lynchburg to visit a my friend Anita, and then i will be working at the Inn the rest of the weekend, i think.....

therefore i should be and really hope to get this baby done by the end of next week so i can move on with other projects that are piling up.

cicadas are hatching:

cicada |səˈkādə, səˈkädə| noun

a large homopterous insect with long transparent wings, occurring chiefly in warm 

countries.

       The male cicada makes a loud shrill droning noise after dark by vibrating two membranes on its abdomen. [Family Cicadidae, suborderHomoptera: many genera.]

i am blessed.....

a couple weekends ago i was invited to a homecoming party for friends who had been gone all winter.
the invitation requested for everyone to be ready to share a blessing you've experienced this year.

as i was mulling this over in my head, many blessings came to mind. but which one did i want to share? i talked to robert about it - and he spoke right from my heart: its been a real blessing that you have been able to keep working in your shop all year - so right he is!!

this is a huge blessing - and it is a blessing that is due to many other blessings in my life:

• i am blessed with a husband who believes in me and supports me in going for it
• i am blessed with friends and family who are my biggest fans and are huge supporters and collectors of my work - and are the reason why i have a studio/shop in the first place
• i am blessed with a husband who grows food for us, so that we have enough to eat and be as healthy as we can on a tight budget
• i am blessed with enough odd jobs here and there to keep me from getting a full time job 
• i am blessed that therefore i can pay my bills myself and don't have to fall back on Robert and keep some financial independence
• i am blessed with more and more custom/commission work 
• i am blessed that there is always just enough - enough love, enough support, enough patience, enough sleep, and enough money to keep going - one month at a time.

this is just a small amount of blessings that i can think of as i write this. i know there are many more.

-some of my beloved, supportive, and awesome family-

i ended up not being able to attend the homecoming after all, but thought i would share these thoughts with you all because you are these blessings in my life.

thank you!

what is a blessing that you have experienced this year? would love to hear about it!

today was another treacherous rainy day. it has been raining on and off since monday.

despite the rain, i did get the second milling on the table top done, milled all the wood for the aprons and legs, and got the top glued up.

on to more tomorrow/friday........

dining-table beginnings

-started milling the table top planks today-

-the boards were so long-

-i had to step outside my door to retrieve them-
-thankfully the rain held off for a while-

road-side table re-vamped

33 series fun

a couple months back my friend Katey Schultz purchased the first stool in the 33 series when she visited me during her residency at Lynchburg College. she immediately fell in love with them when she walked into my studio and HAD to have one. who could say no - or would want to?
(i don't think i have talked much about these stools - as i keep forgetting to take pictures - but promise i will soon do just that.) 
this week i received this email and video from her and her family, at who's house stool 1/33 resides:

We, the Schultz family, are speechless here in our little house on the hill. Who knew that your stool had such magical powers! Check out the attached photo and video. We have track lighting and a fan. And just look what it's doing...WOW!

so here is the little video they sent and hope you will enjoy it as much as i did when receiving it.

C.P. Johnson

yesterday morning tom and i went to a new-to-us hardwood lumber yard in culpeper, VA i found out about via craigslist just a few weeks back. C.P.Johnson Lumber was an amazing place. Huge selection and truly beautiful wood. Chris is so very knowledgeable and it was awesome talking to him and perusing the place.

one of my favorite parts was the bargain bin - there he has shorts and odds and ends of all kinds of woods - from poplar to oak, cherry, and curly or tiger maple - for just a few bucks a board, because they are warped or have some kind of other flaw in them prohibiting him from selling it for full price.
i spend quite a bit of time there, finding some very cool pieces.

-my loot-

after about 1.5 hours there, we loaded up the truck. tom got beautiful un-steamed walnut, regular cherry and some curly cherry he will be using as a detail in a credenza he is building for his daughter. i got the oak i need for the dining room table commission i just got: beautiful quarter-sawn 5/4 oak for the top regular 4/4 and 8/4 oak for apron and legs. then i also got this beautiful wide 4/4 to 5/4 quarter-sawn wormy oak and a bunch of odds and ends from the bargain bin - which is more like a whole wall.

you can already tell how pretty this oak is - even before milling it -
and i usually don't get too excited about oak

keep making a lot of work:

some words to remember when getting discouraged:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” 
― Ira Glass

thank you, ira glass - you have such a way with words. hard to believe you were at this stage once....

quick and dirty

a few months ago this chair became the reason why my laptop battery was fried - you can read all about it here and here if you like. since then its just been laying on the floor in our great room - a tripping hazard. i finally took it to the shop this week and did a quick and dirty fix today while waiting for the paint on the table to dry.

i dug out all the old, broken pieces, re-drilled the holes in both legs and also got the leg that had broken off to fit back into. then i took a left over deck spindle that Robert always brings me back from jobs - who know when one would be able to use them - cut the ends off, and took a spoke shave to the ends to make them fit into the re-drilled holes. 

 - and then to highlight the boo-boo, i painted it red. if you have to be different from the rest - might as well make it stand out and not try to blend in - as you can never quite do that anyway. plus, it will add a splash of color to the room.