monkey, did you do your own dovetailing? what kind of wood? maple? it's beautiful. can we get a closer look at the face of the desk...looks like it's pretty curly..is a veneer or solid? what kind of tool to make the dovetail?

All of the dovetailing is done by hand with handsaws and chisels. We've got specialty endgrain and crosscut saws that work wonders. The majority of the wood is cherry, oiled and waxed. The dark stuff (feet and molding of bookcase and entertainment center) is walnut. The light stuff on the sides of the drawers is pine. Peeking through from behind the books in the bookcase is poplar. All solid wood, no veneer or plywood. But the bookcase I am working on now, because of its size, will have a plywood back.

And, since you asked so politely, and I am enjoying the heck out of my new camera (and I'm proud of the work), here's a detail of the front corner of the desk, with the drawer open, and the "stripper tassle" pull prominent:

gorgeous!

I have a pine bookcase all cut awaiting time in my schedule to assemble and glue it up. It's a big one though, and I'm afraid that if I put it together in the basement, it will never come out. I built a "treasure chest" for the kids' costume collection this xmas....I'll try to get a good pic of it up here later.

Happy, where do you get your materials? I ve seen some websites that have "classified" ads for specialty wood, but don't know where to look locally....I'd like to touch and feel it before I buy it. I'd like to find some really curly maple or cherry to do a couple of wardrobes out of, but I'll need some huge pieces for the sides. Home Depot don't got it. Did you join boards to make those wider pieces? Is that table cherry too, or chestnut? Is your dad a carpenter by trade or hobby.

good work!

Muchas Thankas!

There's a lumberyard about 45 minutes away from DC that I go to. They've got a pretty good selection.

Yes, the wide boards are joined. We don't have a joiner, so it's tablesaw/router/hand plane work. The table has a cherry top and a walnut skirt and legs. Woodworking is a hobby bor both my father and I.

I assembled one of those desks with the allen wrenches and glue once ...

Good going, but if you really want a challenge, try a kid's toy like a swing set or a toy kitchen. In my experience they're many times harder than most furniture.

My bathroom was typical early 50's plaster with pink and black ceramic tile on the floor and walls.
Stripped it down to the studs. The baseboard metal cover was replaced with angle iron and tiles. The "Psyche" print from the 1893 Chicago Worlds Fair is the medicine cabinet. 2" maple windowsill and shelf. Bath towel bar is a recycled hand rail from a stairway in an old house.
These pictures were taken when it was first finished. Considerable DoDad's have been added.:)

Cool. I need to do that some day. My bathroom is falling apart.

Is that print of Psyche a Waterhouse work? Can't quite see it clearly enough to tell.

quote:
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Originally posted by Elspode
Is that print of Psyche a Waterhouse work? Can't quite see it clearly enough to tell.
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It's from the B. Anthony collection. I bought it by mail from an ad in Playboy magazine for around $50, as I recall. You know how we old farts have memory trouble. I don't see an artist credit.

do you think she's checking her reflection to see if it makes her boobs look any bigger?

Hmmm..art gallery. Well this is industrial art. A few years ago a friend needed back surgery and since her bathroom was upstairs and she didn't want her mother to move in I figured the best solution would be a lift. It didn't have to be fancy since it was only for a few months, so I built one out of materials on hand.
A couple pieces of heavy steel channel that had guided an elevator in a private home and a steel plate with roller bearings for wheels on the top, bottom and sides with no free play. I fabricated a chair covered with an old piece of leather from a diner booth and a foot rest, attached to the steel plate. The mounting brackets were screwed through the rug and a piece of plywood over the tile floor at the bottom and cut to be firm in the doorway.

I bought 2 garage door openers but I only used the chain and remote control from the second one. This picture shows the door opener attached to the channel where it cleared the top step. like I said, it was a temporary setup and no kids in the house so it wasn't elegant. I duct taped the electric eye sender and receiver (keeps the door from closing on someone)face to face. A remote at the top and one at the bottom and some adjustments to the load limiter, and it worked flawlessly.

from my "high"school days

my hero:
eta: ( iknow the guitar LOOKS way out of proportion, but this was from his electric u-ka-lay-lee (?sp?) days. PS how the hell do you spell that?

Right cunning Bruce, right cunning.

LJ, you're saying your hero was Tiny Tim...?

"ukulele"

Who is that, Jimbo? I want to say it's either Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen or Alex Skolnick...

isn't the violin bow a giveaway?......plus I thought it looked like him.



it's jimmy page

:violin: I thought it was Jimmy page.

Here's something I did on scratchboard. Maybe it belongs in the Mad Cow thread.

Ok, you want fine art. Here's a sculpture from my red/white/blue period. I call it "Marriage" because it symbolizes the struggle, frustration and impossible situation marriage is. No matter how hard he vectors out to conquer the world or how hard she pushes out to clean out the malls, they both are dragged back into the cylinder that is their private hell. They only succeed in reproducing themselves which they could do without the institution. Heavy, huh.:)

also ukelele

I already posted some pictures of these in Dodads, but I thought I'd show a picture or two here, as well.

These are constructed solely of cheap Highland Invisible Tape, and colored with permanent markers. They are hollow and self-supporting. I first make all of the polygonal sides and color them, then connect them from the inside, wrap the outside, and recolor them.

I have to take some better pictures of my crochet and beadwork, but here's one that I just really, really like and am reposting despite it's appearance in the doodads thread ...

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/BMG.jpg

LJ, thanks for the glimpse at your "stoner period" artwork. :joint:

Bruce! that so...macgyver. very cool. you are the king of clever reuse.

Dont any of you woodworkers want to pick up work in Minnesota? I desire furniture, the clever organizational types you display and with dovetails. My current entertainment unit is a stacked pine plank.

Griff, when you were designing did you have any engineering consultations at all? Or did you just go by the books? Were there builders around that you learned from? Also, from what precedents did you borrow? What structures were you looking at when thinking up yours? (you should post a new pick of that lovely hearth.)

And Wolf, the beadwork is beautiful- you make your own statement, like the lone ranger.:)

This is a more conventional piece ... It's a prayer feather. They are used in Native American ceremonials for a variety of purposes, but most often for directing the smoke from a smudge bowl.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images...eathercrop.jpg

Detail of the beadwork:

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images...therdetail.jpg

I'd mentioned in Doodad's that I make dreamcatchers. Some of them are large, some of them are tiny. This is a tiny one. The circle is a wooden hoop with an interior diameter of one inch. The wood is covered in beadwork, divided by lines representing the four directions. The Web is formed out of the same beading thread that the beads are attached to the circle with. It's about the same thickness as common sewing thread. The stones on the necklace are turquoise chips.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/dreamcatcher.jpg

Whoa nellie, I like that one, Wolf. Beautiful, absolutely stunning. :thumb:

(griff is completely tanked so cut him some slack.)
Zero zip nada. Just the books and a great deal of wandering around in old barns. I know some guys now who know a lot about the old ways but my house is how I made my introductions. Its kind of a cool club which my little brother drunkin greenie sob just spent the last four hours trying to convince me to embrace. The buildings around here were paid for by Connetimicallit speculators but obviously built by folks with a background in ship building. The barns were meant for threshing wheat etc... which accounts for their large central floor which happens to make a nice living area if you convert them. More when I'm sensible

This was my first actual piece of beadwork. I had done a "test" piece trying to figure out the instructions for this technique that I found online. I have since taken several classes in this and other beading styles, but this is the one I like best. It's called peyote or gourd stitch.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/talkingstick.jpg

I didn't have any fancy beads at that time. These are the same beads that you can buy at the KMart or the local craft store. They are larger than the higher quality beads, and also tend to be more irregular. But I was determined that I would make something, and make it I did. The feathers are found crow and bluejay.

Oh ... what is it? It's a "Talking Stick". You pass it around a ceremonial circle. Whoever holds the stick, gets to talk. You might be familiar with this from Boy or Girl Scouts, both of which have used this idea to maintain a semblance of order amongst groups of kids whose ADHD meds are running low.

So do you bead them right on the stick or do it flat and apply them later? I'm guessing you have a teeny bitty needle...very cool.
I have an African beaded necklace thats like a solid beaded cord that I'm very fond of- could never quite figure out how it was made...kind of coiled super tight around paper.

I have some amazing beaded Cree moccasins that my bro-in-law gave me. I look at them daily, but only wear them if I want to feel really blessed. I'll try to get a pic for doodads.

For round peyote, you bead around the stick. The needles are indeed teeny weeny. (if you have any experience of beeding needles, I use a #12, which is thicker than a hair, but not by much ... the thinness is both for getting through the holes in the beads, even with multiple thicknesses of thread, as well as so that the needly will be a little bit flexible.)

There is also a style called "flat peyote" which is done as a flat piece. These are usually not then sewn around anything ... they just are a flat piece of beadwork that is used in various ways. I do have an example of flat peyote already photographed for your enjoyment ...

This is a pair of earrings that look like eagle feathers. There are many variations of these around, but stylistcally I liked the pattern because it showed the splits and color variations that real eagle feathers have, and usually aren't illustrated.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/eaglefeather.jpg

I have these in a bunch of different colors. Purple, red, turqoise and blue. The pair that I wear regularly are two shades of turquoise, one translucent, the other opaque. I also have made pairs for friends in purple translucent/opaque and one with black substituted for the white, and red for the black, with reference to the pair shown here.

Most of the creative stuff I do these days is computer graphics and photography, but here's a few samples of a set of colored pencil drawings I did a couple years ago, just farting around with sketching characters (originals are about 8x10):

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.org/Image4_small.jpg

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.org/Image1_small.jpg http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.org/Image3_small.jpg

I didn't realize until I previewed this post that the few images I scanned were all bald men. Oh well.

Alan,
Is the one bottom right a self portrait? :)

The black paper makes the color jump and look very cool indeed.

They are all cool, HP, but straightjacket guy is awesome.

Heheh... Thanks. As it happens, I posted that one just for you.

Thank you!

Here's a small photography sampling... this bunch is from when my friend's band played at a 2002 Winter Olympics venue in Salt Lake City... it was my first and only photography gig. I enjoyed the hell out of it, and one day I might actually try to drum up some business doing it on the side:

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...0039_small.jpg http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...0059_small.jpg http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...0062_small.jpg http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...0003_small.jpg

...and a couple other photos:

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...04_2_small.JPG

http://www.alanbellows.com/cellar.or...06_2_small.JPG

You know I like your patterned tank stairs!

I liked that eagle feather design so much, that I decided to see if I could use it in other ways. This resulted in a cigarette lighter cover. I've seen these for sale at pow-wows, but they are usually just geometric designs, or sometimes little flowers, which are a traditional peyote image. You can replace the lighter ... like most of these covers, it just slides out.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/lighter.jpg

Nice job. Shooting bands working is really hard with the movement and stage lighting. Drummers are notoriously hard to shoot, hiding behind their kit and not lit well.:)

Well HELL look at what happens when you step away from the 'puter for a few days !!! Ain't we a bunch of talented Folks!! ( no sarcasism intended at ALL )
A few questions and comments .

Bruce , Cool that you would help out a friend with the chair lift . That my friend is functional art , but that is a little ass motor with plastic gears ????? Garage door openers was a good choice to work with , they have all the right stuff for some thing like that , but i would have used both motors and gear boxes . Why didn't you ??? Double redundency and all that .

Wolf , first let me say Exelant bead work !! I know that some indian beading has symbolic meaning . Does the bead work around the .50 cal round mean any thing ? If so what does it mean ?? And how the HELL can you stand to work THAT small for that long ???? i meen there is like 50 bijillion beads in those peices !!!!! Your turquoise dream catcher FUCKING ROCKS !!!!

HP , KILLER photog work !!!!! The tank stairs is a killer pic , B/W was defently the way to go with that pic . The farm sun rise is VERRY cool !!!!

Happy Monkey , No offince intended with the stripper tassle comment just my observation. Your wood work is EXEA-FUCKING-LENT !!!!!! I am a Niven fan as well . How the hell did you get those geometric shapes to be self supporting ?? Did you form them around a ballon , then deflate it ????

Wrach , WHAT the HELL are those abstract pics of ??? Inquireing minds want to know !!!!

LJ , Hell of a thread you started here !!!!! I like the "high" school drawings !!

I've taken to calling the .50BMG "Warrior's Token" ... because I think that artwork should have a title, and "untitled" is a cop-out. Mostly what it means is proof that you can bead around anything ... (most people prove this by beading various oddly shaped glass bottles, but hell, EVERYONE does that!!) I did some work on this piece at the "Bead and Chat" at a local bead store. Strangely, none of the other ladies commented much. They just got kind of quiet and paid close attention to their own work.

The patterns that I used are somewhat traditional, but don't have any meaning in this context, per se. I have done ceremonial pieces ... like the talking stick. Bluejay is one of the communicators with spirit, and it seemed "right" for the piece and the purpose.

I have a ceremonial pipe stem that I'm still waiting for the inspiration to strike on. I have to sit with the stem for a while and figure out what it wants to be. It has a nicely placed knothole that will allow me to attach a leather thong to hang some feathers or other appropriate tokens from, but the beadwork hasn't gelled yet. Nor has what I'm supposed to do with my Cedar Courting Flute. I'm fairly sure of the colors for that one, but not the pattern.

There's also a nekked poplar staff in my downstairs closet that's in need of some attention.

On the prayer feather the symbols are the lightning, and the "windowpanes" are all the colors of creation ... not just of the four directions. I have a second prayer feather done with the four directions color correspondence that I haven't photographed yet.

The dreamcatcher represented some interesting challenges, since I had to play with increases and decreases because of the difference in interior and exterior diameters of the wooden ring. Getting the beads to lay flat enough was part of the fun.

As far as working small ... the size doesn't matter. They all go on the string one bead at a time. I do a lot of other crafts. I find it calming, and end up in kind of a meditative trance when I'm really into it. I find it relaxing.

Some pieces work up a lot more quickly that you might expect. The eagle feather earrings take about (now that I've done them a bunch of times) 6 hours a pair. The thunderbirds I'm posting below, because I realized I hadn't shown them off yet, only took about three hours. The technique used here is called "brick" stitch, which is sorta kinda like a sideways peyote ... the effect is similar, but the beads are attached in a different pattern. This was fun to do, because the actuall bead "fabric" is only a small triangle at the top of the earring, with the remainder formed by the long beaded fringe.

http://eva.alexandersguns.com/images/thunderbird.jpg




If I get old and decrepit, Bruce will be the first person I call ... actually, he's a good guy, and I'd call before then, but just for the purpose of hanging out, rather than asking him to do anything.

HA !!! That will show those ladys the power of the WOLF !!!
Wolf says to the ladys busily beading their doilys
"BEAD THIS beeyotch"!!!

Sorry ,,,, it had to be said . :rolleyes:

Fill it with some "natural" :joint: ,,, well ,, you catch my drift
Do you have drug tests at work ?? Obvious question i know but,,,,,

Sorry ,,,, it had to be said . :rolleyes:

K.I.S.S. is the best policy, always.
I bought 2 openers because they were only $150 each and I didn't know if 1 would do it until I got into tailoring it to her.
I measured her butt to determine how big to make the seat then the size of the seat determined how close it could be to the wall and still swivel. Even after she could make it up the stairs on her own, she'd use it at the end of the day or to carry the laundry. When it wasn't needed anymore, I removed it and she removed me.

Be fair, you made the first mistake... you measured her butt. Now you know the exact measurement of her butt and no woman would want to stick with someone with that intimate knowledge.

Naw, Tony. It's useless information because that's a constantly changing number. Ask any woman how much her butt changes, not only yearly or monthly but daily.;)

Ungreatfull Wench !!!!!!

No Zip, she was and is grateful. I think she was trying to put that part of her life behind her and I was part of that part. It's just one of those unfortunate things people do.;)

You were part of her behind?

unfinished 1

unfinished 2

Nice. Is that soapstone or wood? (or something else)

Ungrateful for the winch, the witchy wench!

clay


....gray clay. i say its gray clay. i say it today. I say its gray clay today. Oh by the way, it's gray clay today, I say. I wouldn't have it any other way, than gray clay today.

Hooray!

Drew this Catwoman cartoon last year while first teaching myself vector graphics. Done in CorelDraw 7.0 and Photoshop 6.0. I'm not really big into superheroes and villians, so I took a rather irreverent approach. :D

http://ruhkarv.homestead.com/files/CatWoman.gif

comic strip
 

good stuff! what did you use to draw it? (hardware)

Hardwarewise, I use a four-year old Pentium III @ 800 MHz with 128MB of RAM.

Here's a more recent cartoon done in CorelDraw 11.0. I use Adobe Illustrator sometimes as well, but I find it more difficult to use.

http://ruhkarv.homestead.com/files/GoanUp.jpg