Thursday, April 16, 2009

Finger Painting in Hickman

Well, I only finger paint a 1/3 of the time. Tis fun. (and helps blend the colors a bit better then brushes). Here is the picture the mural just before I started working on it.


...and after I worked about 14 hrs.





I am looking forward to getting to work on the next section. :D

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Blacksmithing

Sunday i got to go the Choo Choo Forge in downtown chatt. with the blacksmith club. (perks of being a sponser). it was great. I highly recommend it.

here is their smaller forge. they have 2 inside and 2 outside. and lots of anvils. its amazing!

and a view of the wonderful shop. it is packed with tools. oooo. aahhh. :D and the walls that are not covered with tools, have lots of neat metal art on display. i will show pics of those in a different post.


tools everywhere. *huge grin* it was such a TREAT to get to play with so many tools. i had forgotten how refreshing it is to have access to a good workshop. very happy!


making the notches to start drawing out the lip of the tongs.


hammering the flat part for riveting and drawing out the lip of the tongs.


tongs before they are riveted together.


I even got to use the famous and super excited power hammer. *grin* i SO want to make one of the these. it really speeds up the work, the hammer on this is 25lbs. i am drawing out the reigns (handles) of my long set of tongs. and then i used a treadle hammer to hammer the square stock round. so many nice toys. yayness.


the top pair of tongs is the first set that i made. the bottom pair were made by someone else. the handles are short because the whole pair was made from a single, short piece of square stock.


my second pair of tongs. the extra long handles will let me get metal out of a campfire. i am hoping to teach simple blacksmithing over the campfire this year at summer camp. (i can use some granite for our anvil for an old fashioned and cheap approach to smithing. yayness for sharing the joys of metalwork with my kids.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Quote from the Potter's Shop

Sunday, i got to see an artists guild down in GA. it was very inspiring! the view from their studios was impressive.






There was a blacksmiths shop, fiber art (the lady raises sheep for wool for her art), silk artist (moved here from France), and a pottery shop (both her and the blacksmith lady teach are master artists and teach at an international trade school over in NC during the summer).





I found a cool quote on the wall in the potter's shop (double click pic to see full size)

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Chatt Rail Yard

After Christy asked about names, I had to update this post ;) Names are as follows:

Oswald the first



Fredrick- well fed and even nostalgic




Reginald- an accountant at heart




The three sets of wheels are the base of the train. so they are named after binary:
0- base 10
1- base 10
Hexi- for base 16




Carl- a creative and constructive individual