Handmade violin

Posted January 6, 2009 by Tina
Categories: musical instruments, stained woods
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My first musical instrument project was a violin made by my Uncle Gene.  He had decided to quite making them, but was kind enough to add one more to the list. He even sent along a book called Violin Making to help and inspire. I remember being terrified that I would ruin his beautiful craftsmanship with my crazy stain designs.  I went through many design ideas before I settled on something that I thought would work. (I’d still like to make something based on the f-hole, maybe next time.)  f-hole

Here’s a couple of pics before I did too much damage:

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Hardwood and supplies for Christmas!

Posted December 28, 2008 by Tina
Categories: stained woods
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Yes, it’s true.  I got a bunch of wood-type stuff for the holidays.   My husband picked up some of my more standard supplies.  And, my brother was kind enough to get me some new hardwoods — some of which I’ve never even heard of before.  Including panga panga, jatoba, purpleheart wood and one of my more normal favorites, maple.  I can’t wait to see how the stains look on the new wood!

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I think my socks match the purpleheart wood!

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Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Posted December 24, 2008 by Tina
Categories: around Bloomington
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It’s the best time of the year… At least that’s what I’ve heard.  My ornaments and I will be making a second attempt to visit friends and family today.    We had to turn back after freezing rain made the roads gridlocked.  It’s amazing how much relief my husband and I felt just getting out of traffic and turning back.  We’d just barely made it to 37N in the 45 minutes we’d been travelling — and if you’re familiar with Bloomington, you know that’s usually a 5 minute trip.  Here’s a tiny pic I snapped after we turned around.  Not the greatest, but you get the idea.

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We’ll try to leave again, soon.  Wishing everyone the best of luck this season!

Cheers!

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Finished ornaments

Posted December 16, 2008 by Tina
Categories: stained woods
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Yes, it’s true.  I’ve managed to finish some ornaments over a week before Christmas.   I’m not sure how, but I do know that I haven’t baked anything, yet.  So, here’s what they look like after several coats of high gloss tung oil finish.

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Ornaments!

Posted December 11, 2008 by Tina
Categories: stained woods
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I had to put away my trivets for a little bit. I realized that my next idea was on a time crunch. Ornaments!! I found some little tag-shaped craft wood. (Yes, I spend a decent amount of time at Michael’s.)  A few round ones, and am turning them into stained wood ornaments. So far, I like them, and think they have great potential. This seems like a natural holiday project.  Perhaps an annual one?  Maybe I should just give them as gifts?

The work table

The work table

A little one on a sanding block

A little one on a sanding block

With a ruler for scale

With a ruler for scale

I guess I should get back to work.  Only a few are out of the stain phase.  Tick, tock!

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New Trivets

Posted December 7, 2008 by Tina
Categories: stained woods
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I’m not sure why I’ve decided to work on a bunch of different trivets at one time, but that’s what I seem to be doing.  New designs and new sizes.  More complex than ever before.  It’s exhausting.

In the past the trivets have been 9 1/2″ squares of pine that I stain and finish with polyurethane.  Many, many coats of polyurethane.  It works great.  I’ve been known to take things straight out of the oven and onto the trivet without any problems.  Now, I’m trying out some 6″ squares.  I think they will work out nicely.  I’m working on several different pieces right now, including a better version of the DC Star — both large and small.

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That’s actually the smaller DC star, and a comparison of the two sizes with another pattern.  I guess I should look up what that one is called, huh?  Any ideas?

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The Farmers Market turned Winter Market

Posted November 30, 2008 by Tina
Categories: around Bloomington
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Yesterday morning after breakfast downtown, my husband and I stumbled into the Winter Market.  The usual gang of veggie and flower sellers weren’t there, but the coffee place was as popular as ever.  Bloomington’s market had an end-of-year hurrah by having many local artisans set up shop for the day.  There were Tuba Santas and carriage rides, even a reindeer or two! It was all very festive.

I like to check out the art to see what’s new and if anything inspires me.   I really fell for this wooden ring from Studio AMF.  She uses braille as a design element.  What a great idea!

I also stopped in at the Tattoo Dreams stall.  Lots of wood items, but embellished with stamps, using letters and words –which always interests me.  I guess we didn’t spend enough time there, because I keep thinking about one of her boxes that might have been Day of the Dead inspired.  I think the chilly weather got the best of me.

Here’s are a few Bloomington pics that I took this week:

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Downtown before and after:

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The beginning of stained woods

Posted November 25, 2008 by Tina
Categories: furniture
Tags: , , ,

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I didn’t start out staining wood–I painted it.   The first piece I did was a raw wood toy chest-type thing.   It was the first time I realized that I needed a creative outlet to offset work (and sometimes life).  The pattern is a takeoff from a school assignment where we had to draw our versions of a mandala.  It’s done in acrylics, and I’m not sure how many months it too to finish.  I do remember mixing all the paint, and having to re-do parts that I did not like.  I’ve also had to refinish it a couple of times, but once I put on several coats of Polycrylic (it’s a Minwax product) in 2003, it’s been fine ever since.

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DC Star

Posted November 13, 2008 by Tina
Categories: stained woods
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I think I’m getting this one worked out.

I worked on a sample version on a warped pine trivet that I had lying around.  I snapped a few pics to show the process if anyone is interested.  I’ve already changed my mind, and it no longer fits on the 9 inch square that I was using.  I added a line outside the big star, and it looks like I’ll need to reduce the size.

I purchased a new circle cutter, and was pleased to find out that it seems to work well for painter’s tape!  I’m looking forward to doing an offiical version.  Yes, I have a few more changes in mind.

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A new trivet idea

Posted November 8, 2008 by Tina
Categories: stained woods
Tags: , , , ,

I’m thinking about star patterns.

DC starI took a picture while I was working in DC this year, and I can’t seem to shake the image.  Where else but DC would I take a picture of an interesting star pattern?  We were walking around The Mall in our few hours of free time before starting our gig, and decided to check out the newest memorial.  The World War II memorial.  It was hot and full of people.  I wasn’t inspired to take pictures until I found this drainage grate.  If I can make this work, it will be an entirely new type of star for me.  You can see a couple of others on the drum post.

For comparison, here are a few that made it into my repertoire. A coaster set done on maple:

maple-set

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