Whirlygigs and Stone Mountain Park

Saturday morning was my weekly woodworkers meeting/demo.  The title of this demo was Whirlygigs.  What the heck is that?  I had no clue, but I knew there was some animation involved.  Boy was I surprised when I got there.  The guy who makes them started about 5 years ago.  He is currently in his mid 70s.  From what I gathered most of what he has done has just been a creative thought that he continues to expand on.  All of the items you see in his displays are carved out of wood.  

This is the first one he did and it's called "Boring Sermon".  It is powered by wind.  When the propeller moves, the preacher's arm goes up and down.

Here is a close up of the sleeping church goers.

This one is also wind powered and the painter's arm goes up and down as though he is painting the church.

This is Santa taking a bath before his big trip.  Again everything is carved from wood.  The little round rug was created using  sawdust and glue.  Then he just painted it with acrylics.  Any time he wants texture, he uses leftover sawdust.  Love it!  Did you see Santa's 'mom' tattoo?

This one has a small power supply.  Santa scrubs his back, soaps his beard, and the duck and ball both move when turned on.

This is a four piece band.  He carved the figures and all the instruments.  Powered with a power supply, all four of the band members move as though they are playing their instruments.  It's pretty amazing to watch when he turns on the music.

A close up of one of the figures.  The blurriness in his arm let's you know that he is in motion right now.

This is  a choir that sings "Joy to the World".  The pianist's arm moves up and down on the piano.  The conductor's arm moves up and down.  the guitarist strums his guitar.

This is a shot of the mechanics underneath that makes the movement possible.  It was a great demonstration.  The creator had no formal training in any of this.  As he puts it, he isn't an engineer or anything, he just thought it all through.  When he gets stuck on how to make something work, he just sleeps on it and waits for the answer.  

 After leaving woodworking, I stopped by the post office then decided to go to Stone Mountain Park.  This park is 5 minutes from my house and other than going there last weekend, when my brother visited, I hadn't been there in over 6 years.  PITIFUL!  I hate when I take for granted the beauty that is right in my backyard.  I vowed to go there at least once every couple of weeks.  Yesterday I was only there for about 30 mins or so, but it was so rejuvenating.

This park is huge.  I won't go into all that is here.  Yesterday I just wanted to be near some water.

The water is pretty clear.

I drove to another section to see more water.

These are pictures from last weekend.  This is the actual mountain.  I've walked up before.  It's a little over a mile to get to the top.  It's a 5 mile hike around the base of the mountain.  There are lots of people walking, biking, and running every day.  It's hard to go there without feeling the need to exercise.

My sister-in-law is taking a picture of the cable cars that will take you to the top.  On a clear day you can see about 45 miles away once you get to the top.

I'm looking a little beat up here.  Too lazy to do much to my hair.  I am trying to take pictures of me while I still look healthy.

Are there places nearby that you keep forgetting to visit?  There is another blog post going up in a little while with a doll photostory.  Don't forget to check back.

What Am I Doing in my Spare Time....Woodworking!

It's been a little over a month since I found the Woodworkers Guild, thanks to my dear friend and blog reader, Gwen.  In that time I have jumped in head first, as usual.  There are two groups, the woodturners and the scroll sawers.  Most people in the group are one or the other.  I've decided to do both.  Typical, right.  This weekend is the Gwinnett Woodworkers Show.  We have a booth at the show and Hans asked me to work a few hours making puzzles.  Mind you I have never scroll sawed before unless you count the 5 mins I did it in a meeting a couple weeks ago.  But, what the hell.  I'll do it.

Here I am at the show, scroll sawing puzzles.

I got a little nervous about it after finding out the people were actually paying for these puzzles.  I actually did a really good job and I can't wait to make some for the store.

This is George, he is one of the master scrollers in the group. This was a better shot to see what we were actually doing.  We would take a digital picture of the person.  Print it out on digital photo paper.  Glue it to a piece of wood.  Then we scrollers would turn it into a puzzle.  We didn't have lines to follow, we just got to be creative with it.  You know I love that!  I forgot to take pictures of one of my puzzles.

There are many different projects that can be made with the scroll saw.  I took a picture of the scroll sawed portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  You can see part of the GA bull dog to the right.  I plan to do small versions of these for the 1/6 scale dolls.

This is me taking private lessons with Jack, one of our master turners in the group.  On the 6th day of the first week of going to the meeting, I met Jack at a woodturner's evening meeting.  He told me he taught one-on-one classes.  The next day I was there in his home shop, ready to learn how to use a lathe machine.  Here I am in a small portion of his shop.

This is Miguel the other student that takes classes, too.  He is working on a much bigger lathe.  But everything I was doing on the small lathe, I can do on the big one, too.  I can even do Barbie sized pieces on this big lathe.

This is a picture of Jack's house.  Take note of where the RV is located.

This is Jack demoing at the woodworker's show this weekend.  His hat was made on one of these machines.  It is made of wood.

This is a picture of Jack's workshop, which is right behind his house and over the little fish pond he built.  I am standing right behind the RV and taking this picture.

A closer look at the two story shop he built himself in 5 yrs time.  There is a two story glass front that overlooks the pond.  On the top level is his art studio, and a small apartment.  The first level has a large metal workshop that takes up 3/4 of the first floor.  The other 1/4 is the wood working shop that you saw me in with the lathe machine.

Our regular meetings are every Saturday morning from 7:30am - 10am.  Three Saturdays ago we had a field trip to Pierce and Pierce, an Architectural Design Business.  We got to see there manufacturing facility.

There I am.  Those are not both my pairs of legs. LOL!  When I first saw this picture, I was thrown by the extra jeans until I realized it was the legs of the guy next to me.

I love big machines.

The wood piece shown was turned on a lathe just like I was working with.  Of course it was MUCH bigger.

Meet Susie.  She is a retired neuro surgeon and an incredible wood worker.   She did a Saturday class on Finishing.  I am always excited to see the women woodworkers.

She was most impressive.  She, too has an incredible workshop that she put together herself.  If I ever needed a brain surgeon, she would be top on my list.

So that's what I've been doing in my spare time.  Earlier I posted the Easter basket winner.  Make sure you look if you were on the list.  Later I will be posting a new sofa with a tweaked design.  Don't forget to come back!

Hans Brought Me a Gift!

The woodsorker's scroll saw group meets the first Monday of the month, which happened to be last night.  Scroll saws allow you to do the most minute cuts possible.  The gentleman who runs the group is Hans.  He and I spoke in length after the Saturday class.  When I arrived last night, he handed me a plastic jar with plastic hanging out, with the instructions, "Be careful."  I thought there was something live or wet in the jar.  No.  It was an ultra mini chair that he made for me with his scroll saw.

And here it is.  It is not scaled at all.  My doll persona said forgive her for looking so bummy, but she didn't want to ruin any of her good clothes in the woodworking class.  Those are Barbie Basic jeans.  They are looking quite baggy.  I didn't think that was even possible.

Hans said this was two cuts on the scroll saw.  Wow!

He just did a rough cut.  And he didn't sand it smooth.  He just wanted to show me what was possible.

 

 

 

So as you can imagine, I am super excited to get started.  The first thing I will use the scroll saw on are my handmade baby cribs.  Oh the possibilites.  I have lots of other projects planned.  I did get to use a scroll saw for the first time last night.  Amazing!

One of the guys wives came along.  She was a very sweet person.  She told me that I should come to the hand woodcarving group.  I told her I just might do that in the future.  Woodcarving is not on my list, so it probably won't happen.  She did make my night, though.  She asked me what I did.  After I told her, she said, "So you are an adult?"  I wasn't sure what she was asking me, so I didn't respond right away.  I thought since I mentioned doll furniture, maybe she was confused.  She said, "Oh I thought you were a high schooler."  REALLY!  I wanted to hug her.  So this brings me to my new motto!

I love my life!



"I'm So Excited...."

It's 5:30am on Saturday morning.  In exactly, 2 1/2 hours I will be somewhere that I've dreamed of being 20 yrs ago.  Where you ask?  In a woodworking class!  I am a tool fanatic, but I don't know how to use all of the tools I have.  Most of my tools are regular size, but I have a miniature table saw and a miniature lathe.  Neither of which I have ever used since buying them 9 or 10 yrs ago.  A lathe is the tool used to make the legs on wooden chairs.  I'm sure it does other things, but that is what interested me.  But these are just two of the many tools I am looking forward to mastering.  The router and the scrollsaw are two more tools that I am looking forward to seeing in action up close and personal. 

I have dreamed of making perfect small scale wooden dressers, chairs, cabinets...   OH MY!  I'm getting excited again.  So maybe my Etsy shop will have some new interesting pieces this year.  Time will tell.  To prepare for class, I stopped by Lowe's yesterday to scope out my first new tool purchase in many years.  It will more than likely be the Blade Runner pictured below.  It is quite the versatile tool, and the compact size will work well in my workshop.

I am taking a couple of dolls with me.  Vanessa will definitely be going.  After all it is her dream.  Racquel's husband, Terrance may go.  He still enjoys doing things around the house, even though he could hire out the work, and usually does so because of time cnstraints.
 
Another thing to finally mark off my "Ultimate To Do List".  Woot woo!   Gotta go.  I don't want to be late.

By the way, how is your "Ultimate To Do List", coming along.   What?  You don't have one!  I highly recommend them. 

Message to the young people:  Don't ever stop taking classes.  Any and every thing that interest you, take a class on it if possible.  There are continuing education classes at local colleges, online classes, seminars, etc.  It's all aound you, all the time.  You just have to look for it.  At 43 yrs of age, I am still excited about classes.