Sawdust and Sand

Posted By James Leach on May 6, 2009

This was a fun festival. I met a lot of great people.

I know I have been gone for a while in terms of posting to this blog. That’s because … well there are several reasons. I visited the mainland and kids/grandkids, worked on kids homes, planned on posting when I got back to Hawaii in February but got distracted by craft fairs, working on houses, turning new bowls (lots of bowls).

That being said, the real reason I have been off posting (and updating my website for that matter) is that it was so ponderous. Now, it is not in the nature of parents to admit to their kids that the kids know more than the parents, however I will admit that my daughter Rebekah suggested I use Wordpress for my website right from the git-go. But you see, I had used Webeasy web creation software before and had already bought the program and begun the website. I decided I should continue the path I’d begun until I found a reason to change. Webeasy is really a good program, but for the one-of-kind work that I do, updating becomes a very frequent necessity. I discovered that I couldn’t keep up the website and create the work I wanted to create. Creation won out, but I now realized a change had to be made.

That change is now in progress thanks to my daughter, and I believe it will serve to keep those of you who are interested in my work updated on new pieces that you might like to add to your collections. I will be adding some of , but not all of my previous pieces (several of which have been sold). I am setting a goal of adding new pieces at least every two weeks. I won’t be grouping them by type of wood as before. New work will be set in galleries that will give vital statistics. Work may be purchased through the website by contacting me by phone or email to jleach52 (at) live (dot) com. Payment can still be made through paypal.

I hope you will be patient while the inevitable bugs get worked out. I think in the end the ability to add new material in a timely way will pay off.

 A big thanks to my daughter Rebekah for moving so much of my old website to the new format, and her assistance in molding this new site.

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Posted By James Leach on January 15, 2009

I rescued a new type of wood recently from the yard belonging to a friend of my brother-in-law. It was soon

Shattered Plate

to be on its way to the rubbish heap. It’s called santol, and I am told it is used as a lumber in the Philippines. I’ll try turning anything so I cut a blank and chucked it on the lathe. As it turns out it is relatively straight grained and easy to turn; it’s also very stable and finishes beautifully.

Because it is so stable I decided as an experiment to turn a very thin plate. My expectations were high since I have had few disasters recently. When I first started turning this was not the case. Being the experimental type of personality, open to turning all kinds of wood in all conditions of deterioration I have had spectacular successes and colossal catastrophes.

 I was able to turn the blank down to an eighth of an inch in thickness and the edge was flexible but sound. So far so good. Once I have finished turning the top or inside of a plate or bowl, I invert it on Cole jaws to finish its bottom. Knowing the edge was easily flexed, I tightened the chuck’s gears slowly and carefully watching for the slightest hint of a flex and then backing off just a hair. I confidently began to cut the bottom side, and at first all went well. In fact it was 95% finished when a slight wobble began to take place.

I have experienced this before and knew what it meant; one edge of the bowl was pulling free of the jaws due to the centrifical force created by the rapidly turning chuck. I have also been able to recover from this condition by using my bowl gouge to place enough pressure on the bottom to stabalize things until I could hit the off switch. The wobbling was rapidly becoming worse, and I was reaching for the off switch with my left hand while frantically trying to stablize the bowl with the gouge in my right hand. I suddenly developed a deep envy of those who have a machine fitted with a foot controlled kill switch. Just before killing the motor, the plate took off at a 45 degree angle into space like a supersonic Frisbee. It hit the ceiling and shattered into five different pieces.

Instead of a cute new super-thin plate to add to my list of bowl turning accomplishements, I had an event to analize and lessons to learn. It had been many years since I shattered a bowl in such a spectacular manner; once upon a time I would have - rather loudly - grumbled and complained (maybe even whined a little bit), but now I could laugh out loud at myself and marveled at the beauty of the plates flight. And should you wonder why bowl turners are sometimes shy about allowing visitors into their shops, now you understand.

Yes, when I first started turning this event would have upset me greatly, but in time I discovered it was one cost of learning to turn. If I never took chances I would never learn the boundaries inherent in any kind of wood or technique. I discovered that pushing boundaries was sometimes the best way to learn. Upon consideration my shattered plate taught me a good lesson. Today as I turned a thin bowl out of  santol I taped it to the Cole jaws to keep it from working loose. I now can proudly display a delicate, thin walled plate made of santol and list it as one of my wood turning accomplishments.

Thin Plate Surface

Thin Plate side view

I also reaized that this is the same way with life. I have often looked back at decisions I made that led to less than desireable results. I sometimes verblized my wish that I had never chosen what I chose or done what I had done. It seems to me regrets such as these are at the least a sign of a lack of imagination and creativity and at most a lack of courage. (If I applied this attitude to my turning I would not have attempted and succeded in making a thin-walled plate.) So what is life without risks and stretching of boundaries. It is stagnant and dull; it precludes the growth that is the essence of a rich life.

So my New Years resolution is to quit considering the choices I have made which resulted in shattered expectations as regrettable mistakes. When and if I revisit them I will look on them as experiments in pushing the boundaries, and the only mistake will be if I don’t internalize the lessons to be learned so that I might grow to be a more complete individual.

And for those in my life who have heard me say, “I wish I had never …” I most sincerely realize my error and recind those words.

I wish everyone a very successful, growth-filled new year.

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Posted By James Leach on January 6, 2009

live sculpture

I want to write a quick post just to thank those who have written encouraging comments on some of my posts and the blog in general. I am new to blogging and so am unfamiliar with all of the termenology - someone “pinged” me, what’s that? As those who have done itknow, if you add pictures, by the time you set them up, shootthem, resize them, insert them. and then try to say something intelligent about them, it does take time. Having said that, I love to share what I make with others along with some scattered thoughts on life. The last probably is a reflection of why I spent twenty-seven years as a teacher.

As I was considering this thank you post I wanted to share more than just words so I am including a few pictures of sculptures from nature. If you are a blog novice like me, you may not know that you can click on the pics for a larger view - but you can, if you want. I also had a thought about life I wanted to share that may give you a little perspective on who I am.

It seems to me that there are three things to aspire to in striving for a full life. One I have achieved, one I am on my way, and one I still hope. They are: someone you can love without reservation, offspring that make you proud, and a job that you can lose yourself in completely. I have two wonderful daughters and eight and a half grandkids. Both of my girls are intelligent, attractive young ladies who married awesome men and are having broods of energetic children. That goal is signed, sealed and delivered.

I am working on my goal of a woodworking career. I have a web site (www.sawdustandsand.com) I just established. I am- as readers of my blog know - beginning to go to craft fairs. I have yet to make any money, but hopefully I will find an outlet to share my creations with the world that will pay the bills and allow me to keep creating. Anyone out there know a gallery looking to present/represent a new wood artist? I am on my way, trusting that my investments in time and money along with my creativity will pay off in time.

When I am creating in wood my body, soul, and spirit are all absorbed in the process. The resulting joy I feel is incomparable. Working in wood from the raw log upward as I do is an adventure in itself. I have heard that you can read the inside of a piece of wood from the bark, and while this is partly true, It is like the old saying about judging a book by its cover. As you delve beneath its surface you uncover unguessed beauty and sometimes curiosities. Some turnings make me stand in awe and some make me giggle with delight. I swear wood has a life of its own. It speaks to me as I work it and sometimes it plays tricks on me. Okay, so I am on my way on this one, and I pray it will flourish so that I may continue my wood quest.

As for finding my soul mate, I have tried twice. Neither was without benefit. My first wife helped me produce my two wonderful children. My second wife was an artist and encouraged me to explore my creative side. I can thank her for many things, not the least of which is the courage to create. I know myself more fully because of my time loving her. I still hope to find someone with whom to share my loves and adventures in life - someone with whom I can share creative experiences. She  may be out there right now with the same hopes, desires, and drives that I have - who knows.

I do know I am half way to achieving  the three goals I mentioned above, and no one can claim that I haven’t given my best shot in the other half. There’s something to be said for never giving up.

Before I finish I wanted to leave you with a couple of pictures I took of natures wood sculptures. I hope you like them.

water sculpture

wrinkles and cracks

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Posted By James Leach on December 31, 2008

Christmas is a great time of year. I love the lights, the ornaments and decorations, the food. the fellowship with loved ones. It is also a busy time of year which isn’t a bad thing. As they say, staying busy keeps one out of trouble — mostly. This year I got especially busy doing Santa things. I was making ornaments and bowls, hair picks and beads; I started working on some earrings, but didn’t get as far as I hoped because…

We got visitors and one in particular waylaided my creative energies for her own purposes. First she noticed a lapdesk I made for my bed so that I could spread my legs beneath it and work comfortably on my computer while sitting on my bed. It was just a raggedy thing I had cobbled together from scraps of plywood, but she thought it was a good idea and wondered if I could make her one.

Don’t know if you are anything like me, but I can do things simply if they are just for me. If I am making something for someone else however, I can never do things simply. I look at the things I make for others as a reflection of myself, and I grew up to believe you should always present yourself in a positive light. I did make the lapdesk out of scraps left over from our house building - 2×2’s and 1×4’s, and I considered simply doing some mortise and tennon joints with square material; Ah But, I own a lathe and wouldn’t some turned legs improve the look.

I have studied the old American wood craftsmen and have always been impressed by the fact that their tools were utilitarian, but they still made them beautiful. Does something’s asthetic beauty make it work better. Maybe not in the literal sense, however when the beauty and balance of a tool makes your spirit sing, as a well made tool does mine, one can’t help but be more productive.

So scraps or not, I decided to turn the legs and make the lapdesk a little prettier. Here is the outcome.

Oh, but I have gotten ahead of myself. Some times my memory fails me. As I now recall this was the second project this Christmas visitor asked for which she sneakily wispered in my sister’s ear who relayed it to me. Her first request was actually made directly to me after she viewed my bowls. She wondered if I could make a stand for her hat. You see she is a cadet in ROTC training, and her hat gets wrinkled when it sits around. And, she wondered, could it be made in such a way that it could be used for ironing - to press out any wrinkles that my find their way into the fabric when not on the stand. I did explain that I could make the hatstand easily enough, as to pressing, I wouldn’t recomend pressing on the raw wood but if her mother quilted a cover to go over the stand, then I could make the headpiece come off for easier pressing.

Once again I turned to my lathe. I have some Norfolk Pine I am seasoning. So I went to my stock and selected some nice pieces; strong and stable, but light and easy to handle. I turned it in three parts; head piece (upon which the hat would sit), base, and spindle. I finished it by first soaking in a mixture - one part polyurethane, one part linseed oil, and one part mineral spirits. After a night of soaking I wiped it down, let it dry, and then applied two coats of tung oil. Norfolk pine takes on a warm glow when treated this way and the contrast in colors is spectacular. Here is the result.

Along with these projects I am busy helping my sister build her house. I turned the balusters for her upstairs railing. I finished them several months ago and finally the time was right to install the railing. I am waiting for some of the trim material I made to be painted before installing, but here are a few pics of the railing almost completed.

All of this has kept me very busy. Not only that, but looking at the hatstand made me think of another project idea that is now in the design stages in my mind along with the carved nativity figure my oldest, dear daughter, Rebekah says she would like to have for Christmas next year. One figure a year is her wish. I guess I will be busy for some time to come if the Lord allows me good health.

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Posted By James Leach on December 18, 2008

Well, I told you I would share with you how the craft fair went. To begin with, I am telling myself that building a business takes time. A big part of building a business is advertising . So, one of my objectives was to let people know about me. I did get out some business cards. I can’t say that there were any crowds though. Sales were nonexistant for me although I got a lot of compliments about my work.

Here are some pictures of my set up.

     Close up on the left.

                                                                                   And closeup on the right.

As you can see from the lathe on the left side in the first picture I did a little turning demonstration during the craft fair. (Click on the pictures for a larger view.) It was fun, but since there was a breeze I had to be careful not to let my shavings blow into the other exhibitors spaces.

The mall said they appreciated our participation and wished to invite us back on a day when the cruize boats are in so that we get a better crowd. I’ll let you know how that one goes when if it happens.

Hope you are all doing well with your Christmas preperations. Best holiday wishes to you all.

Jim

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Posted By James Leach on December 5, 2008

I have been busy lately so I haven’t been able to share in any new posts. I’ve been putting in ten hour days getting ready for the craft fair this weekend. I’ll take some pics and share some of it with you.

My nephew suggested to me - he is always coming up with good ideas - that I should try turning some Christmas ornaments. Now I have made ornaments before. They take time and care to create. I explained to him that the time it takes to make them would require them to be so expensive that it would be hard to make any money on them. So, I wasn’t going to make any ornaments.

I have been turning some bowls from Norfolk Pine trees. When done right they have a warm glow to them.

I don’t know if it is Christmas magic at work, but when I look at those bowls, I saw ornaments.

So I decided to try one out of Norfolk Pine. I hollowed it out and added a little magic from the Kauai beaches. When you shake it, it rattles. Here it is.

How is an ornament like Lays potato chips. You can’t make just one.

I got an idea for an ornament that combined Norfolk Pine and Mahogany. As I worked this is what took shape.

Then I decided to try a guava ornament. I love turning guava because it turns smoothly - like butter. I didn’t get a good picture of the first guava ornament, but here is the second one that I turned.

I glued up some slices of Norfolk Pine and mahogany in an alternating pattern. Tomorrow I am planning on turning a few more ornaments. After all, what would a Christmas tree be without a few candy canes on it?

I’ll try to get some good pics for you.

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Posted By James Leach on November 29, 2008

I love both my daughters dearly. I think about them many times a day. I would do anything for them, so when my youngest, Deborah, asked me to make her a cookbook stand for her birthday in June I said yes without a second thought. I like to design my own woodworking projects rather than make someone else’s. It always makes me feel like I am cheating a little bit when I copy someone else’s plans. So while I agreed to make the stand without a second thought it was followed by months of thinking and planning. You see I like to know the end from the beginning and I hesitate to begin until I am sure of the end. It is a fault I am working on.

After agreeing to make the stand I knew I wanted it to involve some turning so I turned five spindles from a log of wild plum I had been seasoning for about a year. And those five spindles stayed in my shop for months staring me in the face, reminding me that I needed to complete the project. I had a notion of what I wanted to make it look like but I wasn’t sure how to best do it. As I am building a wood turning business I have plenty to keep me occupied so I kept thinking and planning while the actual project stayed on the back burner.

I finished my website, and harvested several types of logs from a friend who needed to thin some of his trees. I made a workbench and turned dozens of bowls, but got no further on the cookbook stand than those five spindles. Last week I signed up for a craft fair, and now I have display shelves to make. As a wood worker I want my shelves to be an extension of my creativity so I am working from the log to the finished shelf. I want to make them reflect the nature of the tree so I am milling boards with a natural edge. With more than ever to do I finally decided I had to complete the cookbook stand in time to send off with a Christmas box. I decided to take the next step and see where it went.

I milled the base and top rail. After drilling holes for the spindles this is what I had.

It is a little nerve racking to make something that needs two parts aleigned perfectly along five seperate points. I can’t wait to put them  together to varify that I got the fit and aleignment correct. When I did this I ended up with

this.

So far so good.

Now I needed to decide on feet. I felt that keeping the base simple would be best since I wanted it stable and to sit low on the counter. I thought maybe relieving the back edge at an approprite angle for easy viewing of the recipee when cooking may be the best solution. With a bit of tipping to experiment with different angles I determined that a 45 degee cut would do the job. Hoping that I wouldn’t take off too much and ruin the part I went to the table saw and cut. I relieved the back of the top at the same 45 degrees where I woud drill holes to accept the legs. Next I had to make supporting legs for the back.

I turned the legs and a connecting spindle. Now to drill the holes at the proper angle. When done the stand looked like this. So It begins to look functional. Now for some turning on the top. I took it to the lathe. I planned the design while I turned. I had to keep it symetrical. I didn’t want it too large so as to be heavy looking, but it needed to be sbstantial enough to hold the largest cookbook. Here is how it turned out. What do you think?

So, I think it works. I’ll ask my daughter after she has field tested it for a while. The back legs are made so that they can be removed for storage.

When I jumped in and started making the stand things just fell together. Guess I shouldn’t have waited so many months hoping to see the end before I had even begun.

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Posted By James Leach on November 23, 2008

I am preparing new bowls for a December 7 Craft Fair at Harbor Mall at Nawiliwili Harbor. If you’re visiting the island of Kauai then come see me. I am currently turning some small Norfolk Pine bowls. While turning  one down to  a cylinder I was thinking about the shape I wanted to give it when I hit some large flaws in the blank. I had a decision to make. I like flaws. They make bowls interesting - people too. I had to decide weather I wanted to leave it or fill it in. I sometimes leave the flaws even when they go all the way through. It can be an interesting effect. At other times I fill them in using a technique using cyanoacrylate glue (super glue) and dust created while sanding. Today I decided to fill. Here’s the result.

Now it was time to hollow the inside. One of the major flaws extended around to the front. It looked like this.

As you can see, anther of the flaws goes all the way through.

This could mean serious trouble. I have had bowls split right in half as I turn them due to the flaws like this.

Sometimes I think I am just wasting my time on such a blank. I could turn many more bowls from flawless blanks that didn’t need the extra care and attention of flawed ones. Maybe it would be better to cut the flaws out all together or simply throw the blank away. Instead I decide to work with the possibilities and see where they go. I take the challenge, and the result is often worth it. If I do my job correctly the flaw often becomes the shinning star of the show.

The thought came that it’s often the same with me. I have my flaws as do most human beings. They make me unique, but I don’t accept them. I try to work with them to make them work for me - help me become a better person.

Here is the inside. It is kind of like I grafted on a new skin, one with a beauty mark.

So maybe working alone in the workshop gives me too much time to think. Still, it seems to me that when you find a flaw in yourself you can give up, simply cut it out, or find some positive aspect in it that can be used to make you even better than you already are.

Here’s the final bowl and I think it is more attractive than it would be if it had been perfect from the start.

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Posted By James Leach on November 21, 2008

I  like to try new things all the time with my turning. It keeps me thinking and learning. I develop new techniques. It also keeps me from getting bored. If you have visited my website you know I am planning a new page with accessories. The first type of accessory I developed was a hair pick for you women who have long hair. (Guess some of you guys might qualify too.) Now I am trying to develop, in collaboration with my sister, some earrings. I am doing some turnings, and she is going to do the wrapping with wire and attach them to the fixings. Today I was working on  disks to be used in large dangly type earrings and it lead me to think about learning curves. Starting this business is a huge learning curve for me, and this new product is no different. But that’s okay, as long as a person keeps learning he or she stays young. So this is what I came up with today after working from 8:00 AM to 1:30 PM.

It doesn’t look like much, but considerable time was spent learning how to make tools to keep the two disks for an earring pair like enough to work as a pair. Then more time was spent developing a chucking system that would allow me to finish off the backs. Now since I am developing this for a business time is money. I will certainly need to make more than two sets of earring parts in five hours to make them turn a profit. As I turn more the learning curve will allow this to happen. I know this because I experienced it with my bowls. When I first started turning bowls It might take me a week to make one. Now I can do one or two a day depending on how complicated the style is.

So I had to keep telling myself that my development of accessories involved a lerning curve and not to give up the idea of adding them to my product line just because todays production took so long. And I had to wonder how often in the past I have given up on new ideas before allowing the learning curve to make them successful. Be patient with me during this development of accessories. I think in time my sister and I will have some exciting and beautiful pieces to show you.

By the way, do you allow the learning curve a chance to make you successful. Be patient with yourself when you take on new challenges - exciting things are going to happen.

P.S. This is a small Norfolk Pine bowl that I made in about an hour after I finished with the earring parts. I will still take a few moments each day building up the tung oil finish, but as you can see the bowl learning curve for a style like this has made it time efficient. I also think it is a nicely proportioned, sweet little bowl. I plan to make several more cute little bowls similar to this tomorrow. Oh, and work on my earrings of coarse.

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Posted By James Leach on November 19, 2008

Sometimes you have to put things away for a while. It is just a fact of life you learn as you age. Yesterday I starated this post with enthusiasm. I had planned to upload, for your viewing pleasure, a short video snippet of one of my snorkling outings. I tried and tried to upload the video and it seemed to be doing its thing right up to the very end where the red upload bar would stop and stay. Not for just a moment, or a couple of minutes, it stayed and stayed. It wouldn’t budge to say finished no matter how hard I tried to think it there and no matter how many times I tried. As I felt the pressure rising, and not the pleasant sensation you experience as you desend into the depths of the watery world under the sea, I soon realized it wasn’t going to work and I was only wasting my valuable time. (The older I get the more valuable each second seems to become.) So, I did the mature thing - I didn’t yell at the computer, I didn’t throw it, I just put it away.

Today I am going to try just once to upload the video and if it doesn’t work I will entertain you instead with some still picture versions of that great underworld called the sea. I have some beauts. Then in coming days my oldest, beautiful daughter, Rebekah, who helped me grow younger by becoming part of the blogger generation, will help me figure out what to do to upload videos. I hope some day soon to demonstrate some turning technique for you via video.

What I really wanted to communicate with the video is how important it is for everyone to descend with snorkel in mouth at least once in their life - UNDER THE SEA. I have been swimming since I was a tadpole, but the first time I snorkeled was a couple of years back when I finally made it to Hawaii to see my sister. I have only snorkeled in the easiest, most accessible places and the underworld even there is a sight. The beauty and diversity of life is inspiring. And movement is so free and effortless. Life looks like one big field of play with fish dashing to and fro, up and down. Now I know intellectually that they are out there earning their living by looking for edibles, but it doesn’t look that way when you veiw this alternate world. It just looks like a kaleidoscope of beautiful whorling shapes and colors. So If the chance arises here where I live in Hawaii or the warm southern coast of Florida or California, or the Carribean - by all or any means - go snorkling and enjoy the Wonderful Watery World under the sea.

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