Lillian St Wood Shop Update

There has been great progress with the Lillian St wood shop.  The chimneys are gone!  This may sound like a small change but its not.  The demolition of the two chimneys created holes in the roof and the floor, scars on the walls and a large pile of bricks.  The demo crew took care of closing off the roof and Beth Rogers patched the floor and walls.  She then went on to moving a support post and building a lovely long work bench.  This change has created a lot of useful space.

This photo is the before shot.  Notice the chimney on the left and the random arrangement of machines.  

This photo show the same area of the shop from a somewhat different angle.  The counter has had a wonderful organizing effect.  Machines are finding their places.    The area to the left of the counter is a "parking lot" for larger machines on wheels.  

Chris Fondi, Beth Rogers and I spent Saturday, May 5 working on various wood working projects and more organizing.    Chris and Beth are chatting and think they are not in the photo.  The lumber rack on the far right is much improved but it still needs a bit more work.  

It was great to get back to the shop.  I've had some health challenges this spring that slowed me down.  I'm feeling much better now and can breath freely again!  Spending a day working at the shop made me feel like I am myself again.

Learning from Photographs

When I see photos of my work I somehow see the work differently.  Its a fresh perspective that sometimes is helpful.  This happened recently when I had a series of shadow boxes photographed.  I liked the contents but the boxes looked shabby.  So shabby that I cropped away the boxes from the photos. 

 Yesterday I built a new shadowbox to accommodate this work. There are a lot of decisions left about how to finish the piece.  But my gut tells me it is much improved. 

The most challenging thing about making this box was becoming reacquired with using a router.  There were  several routers that I could have worked with but I choose the one that was most familiar to me.  It's been over a decade since I used a router.  It was scarey.  I had to finish building the router table.  I had to remember how to use the jigs.  I had to change a bit that hadn't been changed in years.  But I did all that and it feels good.  Now I'm ready to try the other routers. 

In other parts of the shop Beth Rogers oiled the pieces of her lovingly made trestle table.

Elaine Fuller painted some details on the tale that I made a few weeks ago.  

A Crankie Folk Singer

Yesterday was a good day.  A group of six artists spent the day at the Lillian Street studio working on a variety of projects.  Elaine Fuller continued to paint the walls vibrant colors.  Beth Rogers and Chris Fondi built some storage units and worked on Beth's trestle table.  Joyce Compton made origami shopping bags from newspaper and pitched in on various projects when help was needed.  I built a quick drawing table.  It has mismatched legs, two of which are made from a tree branch.  Elaine will be adding touches of color to this one but most of it will remain wood. 

Ellen Gozian (the crankie folk singer) made her first visit to Lillian.  She wanted me to build a crankie box.  A crankie is a gizmo that displays a story scroll to illustrate a folksong.  It took a bit of design work but here is the crankie that I built for her.

                                            
Ellen brought an illustrated the scroll made with a paper collage technique.  The scroll attaches to dowel rods and the top lifts off to allow for changing scrolls.  We also built the crankie so that it can be back lit or front lit.  With back lighting the applied paper cutouts will appear as silhouettes.   With front lighting the colored papers will show.  When the crankie was complete Ellen gave us a performance.

It was the first showtime at the Lillian Street studio!  A good time was had by all.  I'm looking forward to attending one of her shows to see the crankie in a public performance.

Ethernet Cable Joy

This morning I solved the internet connection problem for my computer.  I drilled two holes in my floor.  One near the router and one near the computer.  Then I strung an Ethernet cable across my basement ceiling.  It took a while to figure out where to plug it in on the computer.  Then the challenge was to learn how to change the computer settings to a local area network.  Now that I've done it I understand the logic of what I needed to do.  But when I was problem solving all of this it was a daunting task.  I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging. 

Today I'm purchasing a tabletop drill press and tomorrow I'm setting it up at the Lillian Street studio!  I'm really looking forward to that!

Building a Craft Fair Display

Today was a day spent at the Lillian Street wood shop.  It was lots of fun as usual.  I used my time to build a table top craft fair display.  I'm honored to have been invited to participate in a well organized craft fair that is focused on providing supplies to indie fiber artists.  You will be hearing more about this fair as I prepare for it.  It will be held Saturday November 19th from 11:00 to 5:00 at the Wilkins School Community Center, 7604 Charleston Ave. in the Regent Square neighborhood of Pittsburgh.  Check it out!  

It will be my first craft fair and I want to have a terrific display for my button shop.  I built this display entirely from old stash and recycled materials.  It was fun to figure out how to make it without spending any money.  The exception is that I will purchase hooks to hang my button cards.

I started making some buttons from recycled hard wood moldings.  I'll drill the holes on the buttons next Sunday.

At the other end of the shop Beth Rogers is building a table top.  She is in the process of becoming reacquainted with fine woodworking techniques.  If you look carefully you can see that she is gluing up some bread board ends for the table top.

This is a photo of the renovated tool cabinet.  Can you see the influence of playing a lot of scrabble?

Happiness is a New Bandsaw

While I made dolls and did family stuff in August Beth Rogers has been working on the Lillian Street wood shop.  It's looking good and it's getting organized.  For me the most exciting thing is the arrival a a lovely new band saw. 

Beth is hard at work building a new bed for herself.  My tools are moved in and my workbench is waiting for me to get started on building my new couch. 

Beth built herself a drawing table. 

I'm looking forward to making the time to work in the wood shop!

Stocking My Etsy Shop

I've been on a button making binge and have been adding to my Etsy button shop inventory.  It has taken me a while to figure out how to make fabric and fiber buttons in a way that is unique to me.  The technique that is working well is to learn about traditional button making techniques and then render those techniques with materials from my set of resources. There are a number of well established button makers on Etsy who do a good job of making cover buttons and sliced branch wooden buttons.  I need to find my distinct style to compete with them.  Happily my efforts seems to be working.  I am slowly beginning to get sales.  But there is much more to do.  I read that when shops have about 100 items in inventory sales increase.  I'm about halfway to that point.  Nor have I done any marketing with social media.  I'm waiting to do that until I have the enlarged inventory and an updated shop banner. It's a good thing that I have several years to build the shop before I retire.

The following three photos are examples of buttons made on plastic rings.  The traditional buttons were made in white on sheep's horn rings. I'm using up stuff that I inherited from my sister.  I really enjoy playing with the color.  As I get more experience I have a larger set of techniques to use and my craftsmanship is improving.  Best of all, I'm having fun.

Felt centers with a satin cording stitched onto a ring.

A fancy fiber button stitched onto large & small rings, stitched together & finished with a bead center.

These have the same 2 ring technique as those above with the addition of a knotted center.

This type of button was traditionally finished with a thread shank or no shank at all.  I'm using a cloth covered commercially made shank back.  It just feels like better craftsmanship to have a sturdy back.

This weekend I made my first wooden buttons.  They are made from a trim sample that was probably manufactured in the 1980's.  The trims are well made from an assortment of hard woods.  To make these buttons I laid out cut lines and the hole spacing.  I drilled the holes first with a drill press and then cut the buttons apart with a power miter box.  I realized that making wood buttons is hard because it means working with power tools on small pieces of wood.  I'm looking forward to making more wood buttons.

Toggle buttons about 1/4"x 1/2"x 1 1/2".

Building a Deck

Three good friends helped me build another section of the deck that is growing in my back yard.  Yesterday we got the lumber and hauled it into the yard.  This was the hardest part of the project.  Today was the fun part. 

The treated lumber for today's project.

The before photo.

Beth Rogers (57) planning the blocking between the beams.

Chris Fondi (58) & Elaine Fuller (69) stand up to rest their backs.

Me (61) cutting a fancy shape with my lovely saber saw.

Our progress by lunchtime.

Screwing down the decking.

 

Relaxing on our finished product.

We were so tired and sweaty that we poured glasses of ice water over our heads and spoke fondly about our bath tubs!  The next section of the deck will extend from the portion that we built today to the brick wall in the back.  I don't know if it will happen this year.  It depends on how my various other projects are progressing.  It was a fun day and we all got some exercise.  The deck is now large enough that I can host a dinner party on it.  That will happen soon.

A Discovery During Studio Construction

While working on the walls of the lower level of the Lillian Street Studio Beth Rogers and I made an exciting discovery.  We found some old casework and drawers that had been walled over!  We had been working on the studio renovation for a year and a half and somehow hadn't noticed that there was unaccounted for space under the upper cabinets.  You can see the area in the far right of the photo below. 

Look to the far right where tools and lumber are propped in the corner.

 We took a prybar to the area and found this.  

The framing is still in place but you can see the drawers and casework that had been closed off for years.

We then noticed that there was space above the upper cabinets so we opened that up and removed the cabinet doors.  It was a very exciting find!  The mystery is why it had been walled off.

In this photo the drawers have been temporarily removed to let everything air out.

Other things are happening at the studio as well.  

Ceiling lights have been hung

Drywall is up and primed on the main work level.

Wev'e begun framing work benches.

Lillian Street Woodshop Studio Progress

Last week 2 Men & a Truck moved a lot of machinery and good lumber into the shop.  Today Beth Rogers, Elaine Fuller, Chris Fondi & I worked on getting the place functional.

 The first thing we did was put all the machines on locking casters so we can reposition them as we need them.

 Beth got the old drill press running, hung a cabinet on the wall behind for bits and jigs and started hanging hand tools.

I spent most of the day building a router table and a tool battery recharging station.

Chris Fondi began construction of a trellis of recycled materials on the back porch.  Hopefully a vine will grow there and block the hot afternoon sun.   She added 5 stones for good luck.

Elaine spent the day painting in the lower level.  For the first time it was organized enough and clean enough that we were able to eat there.  After many, many months we are very close to being able to work on projects in the new studio.

Learning to Upholster

In my quest to acquire the skills to build a couch I need to learn something about how to upholster furniture.  Last week I made a couple foot stools to work on.  The old Bernina sewing machine is up to the task of sewing the heavy fabrics.  I'm getting more comfortable working with the upholstery fabrics.  I had assumed that I would be using a random patchwork style of upholstery but as I went to work on these foot stools I found myself doing patchwork that reflects the shape of the base of the stools. I liked what was happening and went with it.

Of course I will use a lot of buttons on my upholstery.  I love to make buttons and I can use these projects as a marketing tool for my Etsy button shop.  In these photos the buttons are not yet attached.  I'm still playing with where and how to position them.

I also need to figure out how to finish the cushions.  Should they be permanently attached to the base with upholstery tacks?  Should they be finished as pillows and attached to the base with Velcro?  As a learning experience I may do one cushion with each technique and then see what I think about the results.

My cat is not waiting for me to finish.

A Day at Lillian St. Studio

The studio is almost ready for the machinery to be moved in.  While Elaine Fuller and I were off having fun at summer camp Beth Rogers was pushing progress at the studio.  She built a vertical lumber rack that immediately got filled in a with lumber to recycle into shop improvements and projects.  It won't take much to get it sorted out so that fresh lumber can be stored there also.

She built a wheeled cart for the chop saw.  A nice feature of this cart is the lumber supports on either side of the saw.  This makes it easier for one person to cut long pieces of wood.

One of the things I did today was start a couple foot stools made of recycled lumber.  I took them home to make some patchwork upholstery tops.  One will end up in my home and the other will be in the upstairs lounge at the studio. 

Beth realized that we needed a mirror the other day when she got some saw dust in her eye.  She hung a beveled mirror in the lounge.

Beth Rogers lounging in the lounge.

We installed an air conditioner and it made an enormous difference in the temperature.  It doesn't look like much but it's got it where it counts.

Meanwhile, down in the kitchen area Elaine Fuller was painting.  The bench and table are almost ready for use.  I will celebrate the first time we eat on the table.  We couldn't today because the paint on the bench was still wet. 

The cabinet that was hidden behind a wall has been repaired and painted.  It looks fabulous!  The microwave is in place.  Soon we will set up a mini fridge in the lower left.

The wall to the left has turned into Elaine's patchwork quilt in drywall scraps and paint.  I'm curious to see how she will detail it.

I am so happy to have this studio!  I want to spend a lot of time working in it.  The couch will be my first serious project.