Remember the big salad bowl that I was making for a wedding present for a friend? I didnt think it was going to be finished in time for the wedding as I didnt think it would be dried out and ready for finishing by April. Well, it might be dry enough to at least get the sanding done on it.
Here it is right now:
This is the mother of all salad bowls--its the largest bowl Ive made to date. The weight of the bowl has stabilized and that means the water content has stabilized too.So, tomorrow Im going to mount it on the lathe and do the finish sanding. I hope I can get it done in two weeks time.
Stay tuned,
VW
Getting ready to re open the wood shop
Well, were nine days away from February 1 and its time to get ready to re-open.
I need an additional work table so Im going to be going down to the wood shop to make one. Ill be posting some photos later this evening.
Were on our way!
VW
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Sore knee
In my great effort to stay healthy, Ive strained one of my knees lifting weights several days ago and now my knee is stiff and a little painful so Im staying off of it. So no wood turning until at least next week.
Instead Im happily carving spoons at the moment and after about 6 prototypes, I think I have a good pattern down pat. When Im done carving Ill send photos.
More later,
VW
Media Cabinet Final Stages
After the vertical partitions were dried, I got to work final fitting all the shelves and got those lightly glued into place. Lastly, I put the center doors back in and did the final fitting of those to make sure I had enough clearance all the choice around each door. Then it was time to do any glue removal and finish sanding to prepare for the finish. One thing I like to do is to wait a few hours for the dust to settle, literally, then wipe the whole piece down with mineral spirits. This does a couple of things. First, it gets all the saw dust off of the piece. Next, it allows you to see any blemishes or glue spots that you may have missed and allows you to touch those up before putting on the finish.
For the finish I am applying a couple coats of Watco Danish Oil. Once that is good and dry (after a few days) I am going to spray several coats of shellac on it. This may be about another week or so achoice as the weather is supposed to turn pretty cold again for the next several days.
A couple construction Items I still need to do are to scrape and sand the top, rout the profile on it and apply the finish. I also need to feet on the base as well, but that will be last. Nearing the end!
Be Safe!
Annual Blue House Christmas Boutique St Matthews Episcopal Church St Paul Minnesota
The annual Blue House Christmas Boutique is coming up on December 3 & 4 at St. Matthews Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. They will be selling all sorts of amazing crafts and foods and a lot of Selkie Wood Works products. Im discontinuing my kitchenware and knitting lines and so youll be able to get genuine SWW stuff at a discount.
If you are a fan of Selkie Wood Works or my other blog Pipearoo then I would love to meet you. Ill be there Saturday morning December 3 from 10 till noon and Sunday from 9:15 till the drawing for the SWW bowl at 12 noon. I hope to see you there. PS: Theres still time to purchase a raffle ticket for the ash wood bowl. Let me know if you want one.
VW
Milk Paint
Just some thoughts, comments and advice on using milk paint based on my (limited) experience so far:
I have only worked with Real Milk Paint – I love their products (look at their Soy-Gel Stripper and Citrus Solvent too) but there are other companies out there…
I highly recommend the Anti-Foaming agent. With our water, things ended up more like milk paint mousse until I started using this stuff.
I like using quart sized, wide-mouth mason jars for mixing and storing the paint.
If you just mix the powder and the water by shaking, you get a much more textured (gritty) paint that has a very interesting look, but will need some work (rubbing down).
If you use some kind of blender/mixer (I use a mixing wand – corded no less! I am so ashamed…) you get a very smooth and even paint.
Remember to stir the paint often as you use it – there tends to be a subtle shift in the color/consistency as you use it up. I probably extenuate the situation by alchoices trying to mix up “just enough” to get by – sort of like Kramer and the fuel light.
It dries fast! You can do a second coat or top coat with oil/wax in about 3 hours! Love it!
Non-toxic! Yes!
Low, low odor! Sort of a pleasing wet cement-ish smell to my nose…
Normal mix 1:1 (powder:water) for opaque (two coats) or 1:2 for a wash.
Very easy to mix colors to create new hues.
Get the Color Sticks - choice better than the computer monitor for judging final results.
Keeps in the fridge for a good while.
Cleans up with good old water!
Dries FLAT! Which some people find attractive – but I like it much better after the oil/wax hits it.
I usually make a test board or two and play around with the paint and oil combos. Sometimes I like the Tried and True Danish Oil (cradle) and sometimes I prefer the look of the Dark Tung Oil that Real Milk Paint also sells. On the latest project (chest) I just went with my own mineral oil/beeswax mix – also looked great.
Here’s a (totally staged) shot of my paint kit:
