No Low Income Allowed

The immediate neighbor to the West of us is dead.  Rhonda came by to say that.  Liver related she said. He drove up maybe six months ago and parked.  New address, new views.
He lived in the red and white RV.  That's his car in front of it as well.
Rhonda said he came from good family, had a house a couple blocks away but lost it somehow after the mother died.
That new place being built, all shiny gold, that one looking down on the red and white RV.  Views of our Six Palms.  No low income units going in there.  I guess it was urban legend that idea that all new development must include a percentage of affordable units.  I wonder if a certain percentage of money is being dedicated to put some nice public art on the building.  Probably.  Pretty sure that's a law now.
I can hardly say much myself, seeings how I'm part of the gentrification of the area.
Life and death rolls on no matter what.  Living high and looking down or the other way round.  Bad liver, good family, good heart, bad family.  It's all the same. There's going to be a final sunset someday pointing the way, through the palms, through the metal studs.
Color him gone.

Make it spooky he said, like a cemetery at night without a moon, with fog and mist and creaking branches.
The first of images from that shoot to go to press.  I know you can't really see it very well here. It's because it's dark and spooky and mystic. That's ok, like they say, "Always leave them wanting more."
This is up on the viewing/critique wall at ADG and should be able to be viewed/critiqued soon at your favorite place to buy wine.

Power of Ten

It's gotta be in the power of ten somehow.  Like that Eames video, The Power Ten, the scale difference between finishing up something the day before to today is vast.

From working with veneers that were shopmade to .040" to these two slabs requires different handling strategies for sure.
From using tweezers to carabiners and a come-along.  From not breathing so I don't breathe something out of place to gasping for breath.

A small jewelry box.

These two slabs were hella heavy to stand up.  They're 2.5" thick.  First one I muscled up with a clean and jerk and came close to dying from it falling on me.  The second one I pulled up with a come-along.  They'll stand there for a month until I get to them.
Going to be close to 8' of hand cut dovetails in the project.

Two Period Pieces

I guess the horizon is calling me.  Or least starting to whisper in my ear.  Most things I start I will eventually finish although there is a chair I started to build when I lived in Coldstream, British Columbia circa 1976 that is dead in the water.  That will never get done.

These two period pieces circa 2007 and 2014 though are up and running.

Praise the Lord!

The circa 2007 is the two year photo project which was finally delivered and hung.  Got to spend time with Taylor and Nick as well so that was enough to justify everything.

Trying to make sense of something I hadn't looked at for a few years

Couple from when I was making the frame.

The photos were numbered as far as date of shooting.  This is number one.  I was very high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on a solo trip.

Circa 2014 I don't remember how it started.  Probably just from wanting more knowledge.
I purchased the hardware which also came with a set of plans for a saw used by French Marqueters since the 18th century.  The Chevalet de Marqueterie.
The knowledge came to me from Patrick Edwards.  Start your journey here.

Built a couple pieces of the saw and it started to gather dust from there.  Put into deep storage but I thought up a project to start on that would require me to finish the chevalet.

The plans as well as the box they and the hardware arrived in.

So you sit on it, put what you're cutting in the jaws and step on the foot pedal to hold it place and pull and push the saw back and forth to cut.
The whole object really just functions as an elaborate way to hold a saw.

Working to plans is super weird for me.  It becomes an exercise in doing something without needing to figure out why you're doing it this particular way.
I added leather to the seat

The saw has two adjustment points that allow it to cut square to jaws that are holding the work in place.

And the saw is held to rod by these wedges.  I made it tight enough so the carriage bolts really don't need to be tightened, that's why they're just sitting there.

Now let's see what comes out it.