This is a pair of small woodturnings, called treens by some (particularly by Beall Tool Co., the maker of the Treen Mandrel System which I used to turn these.)
A Canadian two-dollar coin, a tooney, is included for scale. And in fact they’d be good for collecting your toonies and other loose change.
When I was a young kid, it used to be a fun thing to periodically sit at the dining room table and bring out the shoebox of family photos, and divvy them up between my sister and me. Dad would keep a few too. The goal was to create our own photo albums of the photos we had selected.
As I got older I would continue this practice of curating the best of my photos into photo albums. But with the digital age upon us, like many people I found myself with fewer photos and slides and negatives to manage and archive, but with mounting numbers of their digital equivalents.
And you can’t exactly put a JPEG into a photo album now can you?
Well sure you can, as I would soon find out.
For ten years or so I have, from time to time, trotted out my virtual shoebox of photos to put together a photo album. Not just a virtual album, as you would do on Flickr or Facebook, but a real world honest-to-goodness published book of photographs.
There are lots of ways to accomplish this, but the service I chose and stuck with was My Publisher (www.mypublisher.com).
I recently did a couple of new albums, which they call “photobooks”. One is to showcase my woodworking projects, the other to collect some photos taken around Owen Sound and Grey and Bruce counties, where we now live.
Here’s the woodworking one:
Click here (or on the cover photo) to view the whole book.
Here’s the Owen Sound and Grey Bruce one:
Click here (or on the cover photo) to view the whole book.
I seem to have forgotten to include my name on the Owen Sound book. Duh. That’s what happens when you stay up late to work on these things. But as it’s a print run of only one copy, I think I can remember who took the pictures.
Click to view larger on Flickr
This is a pair of small rolling pins made from hard maple with prominent zebrawood accents. I made these as a custom order — the dimensions are as per the customer’s specs, about 10 inches long by about 2 inches diameter for the larger one, a bit less for the smaller one. The tapered one is a so-called "French rolling pin". Both are intended to be used one-handed.
(Click any photo to view larger on Flickr.)
We’ve been battling the drought all year, trying to keep enough water in the pond to keep our goldfish afloat. When we bought the house, there were an estimated one thousand goldfish. Due mostly to predation (after we removed the net strung over the whole pond, herons and other birds became regular visitors) we found ourselves down to about six fish.
Lynda recently purchased a small aquarium at the Market Day where I peddle my woodworking, and managed to rescue those last six fish. Also a couple of snails and a tadpole. We returned the tadpole.
Our two Lady Amherst Pheasants, Corny (Cornelius) and Cornelia, were found dead this morning in their cages, victims of some kind of predator. Judging by the size and position of the entry hole, and the condition of the birds (I won’t go into details) we’re thinking weasel. Corny and Cornelia are survived by George and Martha, our Reeves pheasants and now the last two of the seven pheasants that came with the house in 2006.
My latest Big Stripey Board, now featuring Zebrawood. I love what the zebrawood adds, I’ll be doing that again for sure. Species from the outside edges are Purpleheart, Quilted Maple, Walnut, Zebrawood, then Purpleheart again, buy soma paypal then Maple in the middle.
The board measures 10″ x 15″ by 1.25″. Usual features include finger grip recesses for easy lifting, and little rubber feet to keep the wood up off the wet counter. Finished with plain old mineral oil for ultimate food safety.
(Click any photo to view larger on Flickr)
Two Scoops
When life hands you a heat wave… Here’s a pair of ice cream scoops I just made. The wood is Pau Ferro, the scoop is “platinum gold with gunmetal accents.”
Zebrawood Bubinga Walnut Jewelry Box
This is the same box I posted a while ago, except I’ve gone ahead and made it into an actual jewelry box (added the upper tray, the dividers and the blue flocking.)
Click for larger version on Flickr
I made another Big Stripey Board, by request. From the outsides, the wood species are purpleheart, cherry, maple, walnut.
This is a medium-sized (roughly 10″ x 7″ x 5″) general-purpose treasure box. I may still add dividers for the jewelry box treatment, we’ll see. It’s a real multi-species affair, with zebrawood front and back, figured bubinga sides, and a walnut lid.
(click photos to view larger on Flickr)
