AlteredWood@Night

Well, I went and got some more wood for making jewelry boxes and other items. Four boards were $100.00. Right at 20 board feet. So, that’s about $5.00 a bf. Not too bad really, unless I look back in time and start to remember what prices were way back then. But I can do that with the price of most anything and it doesn’t change a thing.

Anyway I got Cherry, African Mahogany, Padauk and some Canary Wood. It looks nice with some good grain. The African Mahogany looks a lot like Walnut with a swirly grain. The Padauk is a little different than what I’ve used before. The grain is still straight, but the wood is wildly streaked, with the colors ranging from a very light reddish hue to almost black. The African Mahogany is a light chocolate color with the grain anything but straight. The Canary Wood is yellowish with streaks of red running through it. It’s beautiful and I think it will look very nice when finished.

It pretty much drives me crazy trying to figure out how to cut all of the wood up to turn it into jewelry boxes. It all looks so nice, and only some of it can be on the outside of the jewelry boxes. What I mean is, it’s all on the outside, but only part of it is on the front and back of the box. The rest of it is an end or edge showing. Even though it shows, it’s almost like a filler, and I have to decide what goes where. I feel badly about relegating a nice piece to show only its side.

I took all the boards and cut them pretty much in half. One half I re-sawed and planed and the other half I just planed. Then I cut it all up into 6-8 inch pieces. I like some symmetry to my bandsawn jewelry boxes, and the thickness I try to keep to a little less than 4 inches, so it takes me a while to group it all together. But, I did it. I got 7 large and 2 small soon to be boxes. I’ve glued 3 together so far. The rest I’ll do as my clamps are freed up. By tomorrow I should have a few blanks to use my band saw on. Then I need to decide which design for which blank. Oh well, I really do enjoy this, but it’s tough sometimes.

Thanks to the kind folks over on WebProWorld, I’ve learned more about blogging. Now I know what a Permalink is and how to change its format. And I didn’t even think about keywords. Duh, they are one of the most important things to remember as far as SEO goes. So much to learn and so little time. I guess if I can stay a couple of steps behind, I’m doing OK. Kind of like playing bogey golf.

I ordered a couple of 55 watt compact florescent light bulbs through eBay. They’re equivalent to 250 watts each. I should have them by the weekend, so I’ll have time to try them out then. I thought with two bulbs I should be able to eliminate any shadows. We’ll see.

I also acquired some more of the white dimpled fiberglass. So I think I’ll make the box bigger and stronger. When I finally get it done, I’ll have to take a picture of it and post it. I don’t think I’ll have to make a giant light box to do so, but you never know.

I don’t know if you realize this, but I have an article on AlteredWood explaining how I am making my jewelry boxes.
I don’t think I need to add it here, but I will add a link to it:
How To Make A Bandsaw Box

I also wrote about my bandsaw which I just love using.

Check them out and let me know what you think.

I finally made a light box to use for pictures of my woodwork. Actually I have 2 of them. The first one is a cardboard box with the sides and top cut out and covered with tissue paper. It works alright, but it’s fairly flimsy. The second one is made out of a piece of fiberglass tub surround. It’s flexible enough to bend which gave me a surface with no corners. And it’s got a dimpled texture to it which looks good in the photos I’ve taken so far. It still needs some work, but little by little I’ll figure it out. So far the only photos are of business card holders. They are pretty small and I don’t know how it will work an the bigger boxes. I’ll find out soon enough.

This blogs design is almost finished. I’m happy with it. It almost matches the AlteredWood.com website.

I had a lot of trouble with the header. I was trying to match the one on AlteredWood. While trying to make it work in more browsers than just IE, I changed the header image to include the pages background image. What a difference that made. After getting all of the navigation from the original site up there, matching and working in all my browsers, I took it down. I thought it should have a simpler look.  Now I just have a simple link to AlteredWood. And it’s not even in the header. It’s just in the sidebar listed under, you guessed it, links.

Anyway, the trouble I had was that I was trying to use the background image on the page and space down the header photo and the navigation from the top. It would look good in IE, but not in any other browser. I think I tried everything, but couldn’t figure it out. I finally Photoshoped the background image and the header photo together and am using that as the header image. Since it’s only one object, it’s a lot easier to align. That’s probably something that everyone knows or there’s a better way that I could use, but it makes me happy to come up with a solution.

I have some new items on the AlteredWood web site. A couple of them are wood framed panels decorated with hearts. And one has the AA symbol on it. I had made and given a few of these away and the feedback was very positive. The panels are almost a 1/4″ thick with a frame about 3/4″ thick. The frames vary between 1″-2″ wide and are routed to accept the panel. The hearts and other decorations are about 1/8″ thick. When I say about, that’s what I mean. I think it looks good to have different thicknesses. And all of the edges are rounded over. I like that look. I wish I knew what to call them.

I’ve also added business card holders. Each one will hold about 125 cards. They are made using laminated hardwoods with the front and back less than 1/8″ thick. Of course they have rounded edges. I have made them in a few different shapes, and I’m sure that there are more shapes I can come up with. They will be a great stocking stuffer.

If you have been on the AlteredWood web site at all, you know that I make little jewelry boxes. Bandsaw boxes. Well, I’m going to be adding some different items soon.

I’ve made a few business card holders. They might make a good stocking stuffer.

And I’m making some plaques with little hearts and such on them. The style is something like Intarsia. Cutting little pieces to fit together. I know it’s not really Intarsia, but that’s the only name I could think of.

I’ve been working pretty hard the past few weeks trying to get ready for what I hope is a better holiday season than last year. I didn’t have much ready and I don’t want that to happen again.

I’ll tell you, sanding little pieces of wood on an oscillating belt sander is hard on my fingers. I usually keep my fingernails long enough to pick up small items, but lately they’re down to the quick. I can’t pick up anything small at all. I’ve also got a pretty good idea of what a criminal who sands off his fingerprints feels like. It hurts. I would not even notice what I was doing until my finger felt a little hot, and then when I looked, there was a pink spot. I got tired of having 3 or 4 band-aids on all of the time.

Things are better now that I got a new sander. It’s a 1 x 42 inch belt sander. That makes it harder to hit the fingers. It is combined with an 8 inch disk sander. That tool works great.

Right now I have no band-aids on, but I still have no fingernails on 6 fingers and one thumb.

Oh, I also got a little block caught on the belt sander and it hit my thumb so hard I thought I would cry. Half of my thumb nail is blackish blue and 4 days later I still can’t put much pressure on it. Man, do I like to suffer.

I have a Dimage 7hi. I bought it used 3-4 years ago. It’s a great little camera. Lots of controls. I know what they all do, but I haven’t practiced enough to be any good as a photographer. I get a good picture every once in a while.

I have the add-on lenses and a 3600HS-D flash. And rechargeable batteries and a tripod. Of course, a camera bag. Lately I’ve only taken pictures of my jewelry boxes to post on the web site.