Even this fox is happy it’s Friday! Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 9/16/16.
Archive for September 2016
TGIF Leave a comment
Something Is Brewing Leave a comment
Yosemite National Park. Photo by Nathan Swzarc. Tweeted by the US Department of the Interior, 9/12/16.
The Road To Color Leave a comment
Wherever your travels take you this fall, I hope the change of season will take you on a road like this one to experience fall colors. This gorgeous picture was taken at Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. The park buffers the Cumberland River as it runs across the Kentucky-Tennessee border, boasting miles of scenic views and lovely wooded trails. Photo by National Park Service. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 9/22/16.
Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument Leave a comment
On September 15, President Obama designated our newest National Monument: the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which is located more than 100 miles southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the northwest Atlantic Ocean. The monument is home to undersea canyons and mountains, making up fragile and largely pristine deep marine ecosystems that provide a haven for rare and native species as well as important scientific research. The area’s rich biodiversity includes deep sea corals – some of which are found nowhere else on Earth – and endangered whales and sea turtles. Thanks to today’s action, New England’s unique seamounts will be protected for future generations. Photos by NOAA. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 9/15/16.
Throughout the expedition we have seen several octopus, but few have been as cute as this one!
Anthomastus coral in Oceanographer Canyon.
Corals were also diverse, but composition and abundance of corals differed between the north and south side of the seamount. We observed this colony of Jasonisis, a bamboo coral, with numerous crinoid associates.
The Board Chronicles: Oceanside Harbor Days 2016 1 comment
The Board Chronicles is an ongoing series of articles about the adventures of Mrs M’s Handmade as a vendor at community festivals & craft fairs. Mrs M’s subsidiary, Mr M’s Woodshop, has been approved to create this chronicle for the good of vendorkind.
The Oceanside Chamber of Commerce has been hosting Harbor Days for a long time. They don’t tell you how long … but it’s a long time.
They outsource the event management to a locally based producer, Kennedy & Associates. They do about 9 community events in the San Diego area throughout the year. This is one of the rare 2-day events. It’s got fire trucks, navy demonstrations & contests.
And it takes place by Oceanside’s South Harbor. On. The. Beach.
We’re in.
New Ideas
- We have banners! Both Mrs M & Mr M now have banners on the front of their shade structures. We are such professionals these days. See the pictures of our new-look booth, at the bottom of this post.
- The folding chairs are gone, and we now have tall directors chairs so we are eye level with our patrons even before we are standing. We are such professionals these days.
- This is our first event in San Diego County. We haven’t gone very far south previous to this; we skipped Orange County entirely.
Observations
- This is the first of 10 big events leading up to the holiday break. Those 10 events will see us go far and wide:
- Oceanside
- Manhattan Beach
- Carpenteria (2x)
- Claremont
- Westlake Village
- Santa Clarita (3x)
- Ridgecrest
- Our booth backed up to the beach: we were 8′ from the sand. We listened to the surf all weekend. I so wanted to love this event and own this space every year.
- As we do these days, we bought a double booth on a corner, 10×20. Unfortunately, our neighbor moved their display racks holding their most popular merchandise into the open space that formed the corner we shared. They effectively took over the open space to display their merchandise, and then added a 6′ table on the sidewalk behind. Management’s reaction? Let me work it out with the other vendor … apparently, they thought it was my job to enforce their rule. Or not.
- Why did I buy a corner space for their merchandise display, again?
- Very eclectic crowd. We saw a costumed donkey, a mermaid being pulled around in a wagon, and countless numbers of people walking by the booth barefoot. On the asphalt. Many out-of-towners showed up. Lots of beach bombers. Lots of dog walkers.
- We had read the event attracts 40,000, which is why we opted for this event over others. Our mistake. Attendance was perhaps 12,000, in my estimation, and I believe I’m being kind. Parking is just about impossible … you have to park a couple of miles away in downtown Oceanside, and take the shuttle. If you do drive to the event and park in the closest lot … you still walk about a mile to get to the event.
- Even though the producer asked for a list of everything you would be selling … they didn’t really care, come to find out, and accepted all applicants. The result of that was that there were 8 vendors at this event selling handmade soap. Or, perhaps I should say, 8 vendors were displaying handmade soap. Velda sold a total of 4 bars this weekend, which is just horrendous. One vendor left after Saturday with sales below $50 for the day. Horrible lack of event management.
- Only event I’ve ever seen with more soapers than jewelry makers. Unbelievable.
- Oh. So. Slow. On Saturday, this event started slow, and then got worse. Our Saturday sales were less than our booth fee … for one booth.
- Sunday sales were better in the morning, giving us hope that was then dashed in the afternoon. In the end, we did cover our booth fee and cost of goods sold … but little else.
- Requests were for a serving tray, a counter, cribbage boards (sigh), backgammon boards (sigh) and pens.
- Not to racially profile, but I got 3 requests from Asian Americans … or Asian Asians … for very large Lazy Susans (which they didn’t call Lazy Susans).
- As the event wound down on Sunday, a young couple came by. The guy was a woodworker who had just found some urban wood … the city had cut down a mature camphor tree, and he managed to get the log and large branches from the city before they hit the chipper. He shared 4x 8″ branches with me – he even brought them to us as we were loading the trailer. I get some wood, he gets a cutting board … and I got to meet a nice young couple that are trading me wood for finished pieces. And this was about the only nice thing that happened to us in Oceanside … other than the sunset on the beach.
The Food
Saturday Breakfast: Free hotel food @ the Best Western Plus. Did I mention it was free?
Saturday Lunch: A tri-tip sandwich. Fair food, in every possible meaning of the words.
Saturday Snack: Cookies from a nice vendor, and salted nuts from another nice vendor.
Saturday Dinner: Ty’s Burgers, or something like that. Passable, with nice ambiance. And it was easy.
Sunday Breakfast: Did I mention it was free? Well, “free.”
Sunday Lunch: Chinese fair food. Better, but dry, unfortunately.
Sunday Snack: Leftovers.
Sunday Dinner: McDonald’s # 1. It was the first place we saw close to the freeway. And we still didn’t get home until 10:30p.
The Facts
- Total miles driven: 266
- Booth cost: $650
- # of people we met during the event from the producer: 1
- Visits in our booth by a promoter’s representative: 4
- Total sales: $935
- # containers of product taken: all of them
- # boards available: all of them
- Saturday alarm: 5:30a
- Sunday alarm: Nope.
- # transactions: 39
- # soap & lotion vendors: There were 8 (EIGHT) soap & lotion vendors, plus an essential oil vendor. I have never seen so many soapers with so few sales at an event EVER.
- # woodworking vendors: Just me
- Edge grain vs. end grain: 9:1
- Returning next year? Absolutely not.
Boards sold: 10
Cutting Boards: 2
Magic Bottle Openers: 2
Cheese Boards: 2
Lazy Susan: 1
Bread Saw: 1
Large Sous Chef: 1
Letter-size Clipboard: 1
Bread Saw 16 – 01. Black Walnut & Hard Maple. Stainless Steel blade.
Cutting Board 16 – Edge 013. Hard Maple, Black Walnut, Cherry, Jatoba & Purpleheart. Edge grain. 14″ x 18″ x 1-1/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 017. Wall mount. Cherry, Bloodwood, Bubinga & Hard Maple. Approximately 5″ x 10″ x 3/4″.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 082. Wall mount. Purpleheart, Hard Maple, Canarywood & Black Walnut. Approximately 5″ x 10″ x 3/4″.
Lazy Susan 16 – 025. Black Walnut, Canarywood & Hard Maple. 17″ diameter.
Cheese Board 16 – 049. Purpleheart, Bubinga, Hard Maple & Caribbean Rosewood. 7″ x 11″ x 3/4″.
Cutting Board 16 – End 017. Hard Maple. End grain. 13″ x 18″ x 1-1/4″.
Sous Chef 16 – 015. Birdseye Maple, Purpleheart & Bloodwood. 11″ x 22″ x 3/4″. Please excuse the smudges of beeswax that didn’t get wiped off in time for the photo!
Clipboard 16 – 025. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Bubinga & Canarywood. Letter size. 1″ clip.
Cheese Board 16 – 038. Jatoba, Cherry, Hard Maple, Yellowheart, Honey Locust, Padauk, Bloodwood & Black Walnut. 10″ x 10″ x 3/4″.
Folded Leave a comment
Imagine how small you might feel in the presence of a huge iceberg like this chunk from the McBride Glacier. At Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve – one of the 24 national park sites in Alaska – you can explore the Alaskan wilderness from sea to summit. True to its name, much of the park is water, meaning kayaks and boats are the main ways to see rugged mountains, dynamic glaciers and wild coastlines. Photo by Sean Neilson, National Park Service. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 9/16/16.
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Holding Paper? Leave a comment
I’ve been told that no one uses paper these days.
They’re wrong.
Paper may be on the way out – eventually – but that day is not here yet. Many people use paper, and keep paper. Refer to paper. Hold papers together.
I can help those people.
Clipboards come in three sizes: legal size, letter size and notepad size. Two clips are offered: 1″ and 1/2″ capacity. Two of these 6 boards are commissioned pieces; the rest join my current inventory that just may last me through the end of the year. Time will tell!
Clipboard 16 – 031. Hard Maple, Purpleheart & Bloodwood. Letter size, 1/2″ clip. Commissioned piece.
Clipboard 16 – 034. Cherry, Hard Maple & Purpleheart. Notepad size, 1/2″ clip.
Clipboard 16 – 035. Bubinga, Cherry, Canarywood & Jatoba. Notepad size, 1″ clip.
Clipboard 16 – 032. Cherry, Hard Maple & Purpleheart. Letter size, 1/2″ clip.
Clipboard 16 – 032. Hard Maple, Purpleheart & Bloodwood. Notepad size, 1/2″ clip.
Clipboard 16 – 030. Bubinga, Cherry, Canarywood & Jatoba. Legal size, 1″ clip.
There’s A Clamor: More Magic Leave a comment
If you think you’ve been seeing a lot of Magic Bottle Openers in this space … you’re right. They are now my # 1 seller.
Imagine if you were the one making them, one at a time.
So, it was time for new designs. New woods. I even added a 5th color of metal bottle opener.
Lots of different stuff here. Honest.
So where am I? I’ve made about 150 of these this year, and I believe I’m going to make another 100 before the end of the year. If I can keep up, that is. I may want to go to a movie at some point.
But I’m not counting on that!
By the way … if you’re new to these, then you may want some definitions and to understand why these are magic. For all of those explanations – and more pictures! – go here. All of these MBOs are approximately 5″ x 10″ x 3/4″. Pricing is simple: $35 for single magic models, and $45 for double magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 120. Hard Maple, Black Walnut, Mahogany & Padauk. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 121. Black Walnut, Cherry & Jatoba . Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 134. Hard Maple, Cherry & Bubinga. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 122. Cherry, Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Jatoba. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 123. Black Walnut, Cherry, Hard Maple & Yellowheart. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 124. Birdseye Maple & Jatoba. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 125. Padauk, Yellowheart, Goncalo Alves & Hard Maple. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 127. Cherry, Padauk, Black Walnut & Hard Maple. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 128. Hard Maple, Cherry, Canarywood, Yellowheart & Padauk. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 130. Cherry, Hard Maple & Black Walnut. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 129. Birdseye Maple, Black Walnut, Mahogany & Padauk. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 133. Hard Maple, Cherry & Bubinga. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 132. Hard Maple, Black Walnut & Canarywood. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 131. Bubinga, Bloodwood & Cherry. Single Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 135. Purpleheart, Bubinga, Bloodwood & Yellowheart. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 136. Black Walnut, Jatoba & Cherry. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 137. Birdseye Maple, Bloodwood & Cherry.. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 139. Black Walnut, Hard Maple, Canarywood & Yellowheart. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 138. Bloodwood, Cherry & Purpleheart. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 143. Birdseye Maple, Bloodwood & Cherry. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 140. Red Oak, Hard Maple, Black Walnut, Cherry & Jatoba. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 141. Black Walnut, Cherry & Jatoba. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 142. Birdseye Maple, Black Walnut, Mahogany & Padauk. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 143. Cherry, Hard Maple & Bloodwood. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 145. Hard Maple, Cherry, Canarywood, Yellowheart & Purpleheart. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 146. Red Oak, Black Walnut, Padauk & Hard Maple. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 147. Cherry, Black Walnut, Jatoba, Padauk, Burmese Teak, Canarywood & Yellowheart. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 148. Black Walnut, Cherry & Jatoba. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 149. Jatoba & Birdseye Maple. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 151. Birdseye Maple, Jatoba, Mahogany & Padauk. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 152. Padauk, Yellowheart, Goncalo Alves & Hard Maple. Double Magic.
Magic Bottle Opener 16 – 150. Goncalo Alves & Cherry. Double Magic.
Oregon Tide Pool Leave a comment
Explore the Oregon Coast at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, which stretches a mile from the shore into the Pacific Ocean. Look for harbor seals year-round and gray whales feeding in shallow waters during summer months. Listen to the applause-like sound as the waves roll in over the rounded rocks of Cobble Beach. When the tide is low, a vibrant ocean floor is revealed – stroll alongside tide pools to see colorful animals like orange sea stars, purple sea urchins and giant green anemones. It’s also home to Oregon’s tallest lighthouse! Photo by Bob Wick. Posted on Tumblr by the US Department of the Interior, 9/12/16.
From The Shop: Thin Stock 4 comments
It all started with a phone call. There was a wedding in crisis. They needed my help. It was an emergency.
Apparently.
Some other engraver had dropped the ball, somehow, and a wedding planner was left without some key elements for the wedding she was producing. She needed 200x engraved wooden menus for a wedding happening in 8 days. There was no time – no time – to order thin stock from the vendor my engraver typically uses. Could I make some thin stock blanks … and what would it cost … to deliver in just 2 days?
OK, go.
Getting information was problematic from that point. What stock did they want? They didn’t know.
It looked like the original prototype from the previous engraver had been done on plywood from a big box store … which is generally some IDKWII (pronounced ii-DUH-kwee) wood imported from southeast Asia that does not engrave well – it looked and engraved very similar to red oak, in fact. Pretty enough as sheet stock, but engrave on it? Bad idea.
IDKWII, by the way, is I Don’t Know What It Is. Woodworkers have an answer for everything.
So, OK, we could use real wood … but what kind? Pine from the local big box store? That’s easy to get, and I could get it in quantity … and pay high prices for wood that’s known to be green, wet and have huge numbers of defects. I ran the numbers, and found that I could go shop at the big orange store, to buy what they call “white wood” (what they call any of the soft wood species they happen to have. It’s usually Pine.). Or, I could go buy some Hard Maple at my favorite somewhat local lumber yard in Oxnard, and pay about the same.
The best wood for engraving, in my opinion, is Hard Maple. This close-grained, light-colored wood makes a highly legible engraving – something that is lost on woods with a higher porosity, darker color, or both. Pine would be OK, but since the price would be about the same…. Other woods might also work (Beech?), but I just didn’t have time to do more research. I had 48 hours, and the project wasn’t even approved yet.
So, I called my engraver – hopefully soon to be my client – and proposed a price that was high, but fair. She built that into her proposal, and took it to the wedding planner.
Saturday, 10:30am: approved. Get it done. Quickly.
I immediately turned and went to my lumberyard … because in my extensive research, I learned that they close at noon on Saturdays. And they’re 60 minutes away … so I would have 30 minutes to select, buy and have them cut the wood into pieces small enough to fit into my Jeep. No time for alternate transportation. There’s just enough time to go. Go. Go.
While driving, I decided to buy 6/4 Hard Maple – that is to say, boards that are 1-1/4″ thick when purchased sanded smooth on 2 sides, as this lumberyard sells. I felt that I could get good yields of thin stock from 6/4 Hard Maple, plus I had planned to buy some this month for my next batch of serving pieces, so I could over buy, have plenty for this emergency project with NO TIME FOR MISTAKES, and use the remaining Maple in a few weeks.
When I got to the lumberyard, I walked straight to the 6/4 and started pulling boards. I tried to select boards about 5″ wide to minimize waste and offcuts, but there were only a few of those in the rack. I ended up selecting 15x 9′ lengths that were between 5″ and 10″ wide. The yard guys tallied it up, and I went to the cashier … who told me it was 118 board feet for $237. Then, realizing his mistake, told me it was $948. I told him that also wasn’t right, and we settled on $450.08. You have to be smarter than the process….
On the way home, I called my client, who told me there were also blanks needed for table numbers and gift tags. Surprise! It was such a good idea that I planned to over buy lumber! In the end, the order was for:
- 200x menu blanks, 4-3/4″ x 10-3/4″ x 3/16″
- 25x table number blanks, 4″ x 6″ x 1/4″
- enough blanks to make 200 1″ diameter gift tags, 1/8″ thick
I had thought I would use the bandsaw to do a technique called resawing, which is how you slice thin stock off of vertically held, thicker, wide stock. I have tried that before and never been good at it … but I have a new band saw. Maybe now? Nope, that didn’t work well, and it wasn’t going to be quick, either.
So, I switched to the faster but more wasteful technique of resawing on a table saw. Why is it wasteful? Because my table saw blade is 3/32″ wide (MUCH wider than a bandsaw blade), and it converts that much stock to sawdust every time I take a cut. And when you’re making 250x blanks, it adds up. Quickly.
But, I have had great success with this technique on my table saw before, and I was in a hurry. Table saw resawing it is.
Here’s the photo essay of how it went, from boards to blanks to engraving.
Delivery in 48 hours? No problem.
I bought over 100 board feet of 6/4 Hard Maple, but only expected to use about half of that on this project.
I was fortunate that this was very clean, white Hard Maple.
First step: cut some blocks to size, and then start slicing them. I started with 10 blocks as a proof of concept – switched methods – got it right, and then cut the rest of the blocks.
Resawing on a tablesaw requires a good jig, a steady featherboard to keep the stock firmly against the jig, and patience.
The featherboard keeps the blank up tight against the jig.
Resawing is the only way to get wide blanks from a thick board.
Every blank had to be rough sanded on it’s way to the finished thickness of 3/16″.
Miles to go before I sleep.
Because I don’t have above the table dust collection, I put a lot of sawdust on the floor. And in the air, for that matter.
Not much waste made it to the cutoff bin, in spite of processing 50 board feet of Hard Maple.
The blade’s view of the work.
The blank takes 2 trips across the blade, each removing about 1/2 of the waste.
Stock this thin does warp slightly if the wood is under stress from a strong grain pattern.
Every blank has to be sanded on all 4 edges as well as the 2 faces.
Ready for delivery
Approved prototype
