My First East Coast Show!!!!

Fred got a shop.
You don't need to know Fred to know Fred if you've been to his shop.
First impressions are first impressions.  It's messy, it's filled to the brim with flotsam.
And jetsam.
I doubt there's a sharp chisel in there.
He throws em in a drawer.  Yeah, they're a crisscrossed jumble of old and tired chisels in a drawer.
You think, so this is Fred.

But spend some time in there.
Walk around quietly.
Observe and feel.
See how this object fits in with the object next to it.
How that picture on the wall just seems so perfect in it's placement.
The big window,
The shape of the roof,
The parts of finished projects on the walls
The parts of yet to be finished projects all around.

And sooner or later you'll see that the shop is nothing but an exquisite piece of performance art.
And if you're there with Fred to talk about stuff you'll see everything is placed for a higher reason.
Nothing is by chance.
It's all visually pieced and placed together in the most beautiful of FredSpiritLogic.

Fred's got all of Dad's tools.  I was always flying in there and couldn't take anything with me.
Fred...well he would drive his truck and load up for the trip back.

Dad had a shop.  A basement shop (and a two car garage that couldn't hold cars because both of them were filled to brim with crap.)
Many fathers come home from work and mix up a gin and tonic first thing.  Not Dad.  Maybe he would throw five minutes of ball with us but soon after he headed in to change out his white shirt and tie for work clothes.  Into the shop to make something or out to the garage to maintain something.
Thing is Dad always bought crap tools. I don't have a problem with Fred having them.  Really.
Well, I did like that car jack he had.  It was green right Fred?  I think you could've jacked up a house with it.
Maybe that huge block and tackle...I could use that.

And Dad had his father's tools.

Grandpa had a shop....well, he must've but I don't remember it.  See Grandpa made violins...and repaired violins...so he must have had a shop....and taught violin.
Dad got his tools.
And Fred got those too.  It's only right that he did.


See Fred is an architect.  He's also a contractor.  He needs those things.

So whenever I do something wood related and a write a blog about it I send Fred a link to it.

The recent door I made I sent a link to Fred, he writes back "I liked one of your photos so much I had Jean print it out and we put it in the front window.

Fred has an old late 1800's brick building in the old section of a historic Virginia town.  18 W. Washington St. Lexington.

My first east coast show!

Love you Bro.

Sum of the Parts

Or how to make the world's best Negroni.

Each part here is key....key...so pay attention.

Assemble.  Now there's a couple things here you won't have.  Maybe you should stop right now.
But I'll go through it as an exercise.

From left to right.
Peppercorns
Tone Tone's Vice Room Barrel Aged Vermouth...here's one you can't find no where.
To some, a Negroni is a gin based drink.  To me, it's a Vermouth based drink.  So don't skimp.
Campari....Ok..you might want to do half Campari and half Aperol if you want
Bummer and Lazarus Gin...It's local
A rose....Ok this is optional but still nice.
Charred Cedar Bitters..here's one you can't find cuz I made it.

Two more key things.
Three pounds of hand/mouth/lung blown ice cold gin chilling mixing pitcher from Ben Dombey.
Two inch thick cold holding bottom.
And one of his pure bliss in the hand cocktail glasses.
Inch and half of cold holding bottom.
Both should have been in the freezer for a few hours.

You got all those things right?  Let's make.

I don't have a problem with the classic 1+1+1 approach to a Negroni.  Equal parts gin, vermouth and Campari but here I do a 1+1+3/4 with the 3/4 being the Campari.

Two inch cube in the freezing cold arm bending mixing pitcher and the gin.

Find a way but you can do it...slide and slip and prod and poke the glass wand between the cube and bottom.  Add the vermouth and Campari

Now to bring in four senses.. Stir

Tactile
Sight
Smell
Sound

Stir more.

More...now your breath is shorter in anticipating....shallower..

You're almost there.  Rhythm..it's all about rhythm.

Another two inch cube in one of Ben's glasses and pour.

Lee Harrison told me this tip of his one night at the Utah.  Try some fresh cracked pepper on the top after you pour.


Along with a squirt of my Charred Cedar Bitters and some orange peel.

Not necessary, you can of course pick your own music, but I'm listening to Anoushka Shankar's CD "Land of Gold" a beautiful rumination/exploration on displaced peoples of the world.
Sitar M.I.A. Negroni..

Take away my crayons

Lots of photos in this one.

I decided I needed to make the hinges.  Used the angle steel that was left up in the rafters again.  Basically very large knife hinges.

Fitting them to the opening...well I tried to fit them.  More on that later.

After the jointing of the two pieces one last run through the big machine.

After being ravaged by the big machine I decide that it needs to cut to the final line by hand.
There's one big wrong in the crosscut photo.  David, you'll be able to pick it up.

And David, on the rip, I cracked the saw.  Damn, it was handmade too and the maker now is dead.





The wood gets attached to the hinges by threaded inserts and 3/8" bolts.  I took the shine off the new bolts and washers to fit with age of the hinge steel.

Handplaned the surface.  Just the barest of sliver coming through throat of the plane.

Grip, pull.  Repeat.

Backside ready to be picked up.

Up and In.

The square with the circle with the triangle on the other door.  Dictated by the city of Oakland.  There is one and only one room in the building and it's the restroom but we still need that sign on the door.

Chose to let the wood hold each other, the acceptance of one another through give and take.

Set in unfinished plaster, letting the corner bead show too.

I wanted the whole door to be flush with wall and still don't know how it happened but the bottom hinge got set in 1/4".  And so it shall be.  There's a 1/4" reveal.

Ok, so the handle.  I had the handle figured out in my head before I even thought about the door but now I'm not sure yet on it.  May have to go into the wilderness and fast until I have a power vision about it.

Right now to open the door you rotate your hand vertical.  With fingers on top of one another, you slide inside the slit.  You feel the walls of the crack as your hand slips in, curl your fingers just a bit and pull every so slightly.
Perfection really.  Functionally and metaphorically.


I heard this story one time of a kindergarten teacher whose pupils really excelled at their art.  When asked her secret why her students were so talented.
"You have to know when to take the crayons away."

So, I'm trying to listen to this.  Maybe to add to this will take something away.  Let it be.  Let it flow round and round.  Let the two pieces always be receptive to the intrusion of the hand to be opened.

Phrases of the Moon

Sliver of

Tending toward

Approaching aft

Full filled

1+1+1+1=1

It's a school night so Jules did his homework before and we couldn't take it too late.
A short four hour get it together at Tone's Vice Room.  Don't look for it on Google because you won't be able to find it. 
Tonight was going to be special since Megan was sitting in with her violin.

Warming up, hydrating up.

Tuning up

Stuck in traffic, the violin shows up.

A blend of jam along with songs on sheets of paper.

We start out spread apart but by the end the pull of each other like some force and we start to move toward the center.

One of human's most important discoveries...music.  There are few things more beautiful than when many become one together.