Testing here to check some updates.

Mostly, I spent the day doing paperwork and running in the sleet.  But that clears the decks for the weekend.

 Cheers

After four hours of homework, this is where I stood.  The Carcass was assembled and the table top was glued down.  The next step was to finish shaping the skirt - the first step was to shape the underside and get the sides trimmed to length.

In the first shot you can see the short and long skirts, which are rubber cemented together so they get shaped the symmetrically.  The second shot shows the skirt test fitted after the ends have been sanded to fit in between the knees of the cabriole legs.  I was able to to this with a sanding block on the short ends, but the long rails I had left plenty of spare length, so decided to wait until I had the table saw set up to help with the trimming.  As this was bound to be a longer process than I had time for, it will wait until next time.

But it will give me a good opportunity to start telling the story of my new Preac table saw - so stay tuned.

I am working this evening on the Goddard Townsend Tea Table (when the kids go to bed), so I was looking for a quick entry to drop in for today until continuing that series of posts.  I found this blog which is making me really hungry (they have food creations posted) - and intrigued as eBay has blogs.  Who knew - not me apparently.

The title of the site is great: Diary of a Mad Miniaturist (the ramblings of a crazy dollhouse lady).

Definitely something to do a bit more investigation into.

Its been almost 6 weeks since Newport and the IGMA Guild Study Program.  I have spent about an hour shaping the slippers on the Goddard Townsend Tea Table.  Today, I spent a couple of hours forging ahead.  I took a bit of a break over the weekend.  I have been concentrating on my war-gaming miniatures - which I paint from bare lead.  But the break over the weekend got me fired up to work on the furniture.  I also knew I had a two hour block to spend, so it was easier to motivate to set up the work station.

The photo above is where I began the day.  Here is what I have left to complete Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes its good to take a break.  I am in the process of putting in 30 days straight, exercising, working at least one hour a day on mini projects, and posting  to the site here.  Today, though, I relaxed with the kids.  I got my run in, and this post will keep me honest here, but I have not worked on any mini projects since Friday.

 My intent was to catch up today, but I was more fun to play block with my three year old.  He loves playing with my D&D minis - they are plastic so he cant do much harm there.

 Tommorrow and Tuesday I will make up the time lost, but it was good to regroup and kick back for a bit.

Cheers

The final day of class rolled around on Monday morning.  I had spent 3 hours the night before shaping legs, and I hoped that I would be able to finish up.  Today was a half day, as all the classes you meet at noon to check out our progress and then have lunch before heading home.

Unfortunately, It was not to be.  I still had to shape the slippers (feet) on my legs, and there were a few parts on the carcass to add detail to.  We also spent some time talking about stains and finishing, as well as care of our new carving knives.  I never got the hang of the knife, so used my exacto to do most of the cutting on my legs - that and my trusty sanding blocks.

 In the end, this is Read the rest of this entry »

It has been a long week, so I was relaxing this morning after my run.  I started surfing around, looking for some inspiration.  I found a great site featuring two miniature artists - Pat and Noel Thomas. 

 I have been working primarily on my war-gaming miniatures this past week, although it did do a day on my Goddard Townsend Table.  I have been trying to clear the backlog of old projects - its almost like paying off the credit cards - I need to do a little bit each day.  I think I will work on the table tomorrow, but until then, enjoy the Thomas’s work, and these shots of the Viking Army in Progress.  The big guy is a giant Neanderthal figure for my RPG Game, set in the time of Aurthurian Britain, one generation after Arthur goes over the sea.  You can see my wizard keeping him at bay in the second shot.  Cheers.

Here we go - day 3 of the IGMA Guild Study Program in Newport.  Day 2 saw the workshop get started and we all got to spend some time on each of the machines.  Above you see the overhead shaper set up to make a plunge cut to create tenons in our leg blanks.

All through Day 2 I was wondering how fast (or slow) I was going.  With 10 of us in the class, there was sometimes a back up at the power tools, but there were enough processes going on simultaneously that it wasn’t too bad.  Linda Laroche, our instructor, also measured and set up all of the cuts and jigs for us on the power tools, so I think the time kind of evened out.

I spent a lot of the day sanding.

A lot of Sanding.

Mostly, I was using my sanding blocks as a carving tool to shape the graceful curve of the cabriole leg.  I left a lot of scrap on the initial cut with the jewelers saw, so I had to sand down quite  a bit.  But I achieved a zen-like state and did not mind so much staring down at my work station

Getting up from time to time to use a power tool to shape a molding edge, or trim away the table top to let it into the rails of the table broke up the day a bit, but I still had a bit of work to do that evening.  I took another run, grabbed a little dinner and spent the rest of the evening sanding away on the little desk in my hotel room.  I really wanted to get my table fired up the next day.

This is what I was shooting for.

Linda’s sample was great - and I referred to it over the course of day 3 -and would on day 4 as well as I shaped the foot of the legs.  But that is a story for the next post.

I thought I would post some pictures of the Oklahoma tour I worked on a few years ago for a company called NETworks Presentations.   This is an adaptation of  Anthony Ward’s West End and Broadway Design.  I have worked on a number of Networks tours over the years - Hairspray, State Fair, Oklahoma, Sweet Charity.  These are usually adaptations from the original designs, modified to fit into smaller theaters and set up and take down quickly:  the Bus and Truck circuit.  For me, it is a great opportunity to solve specific technical challanges while remaining true to the original design.  Most times we make things smaller, and isn’t that what this site is about.  This model was built in 1/2=1′-0 scale and took about a week to complete.  This particular Project is the year 3 cut down - so I only had to build the house for this model.  The other parts, Read the rest of this entry »