Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Category: With Thoughts Like These

One fine day… Saturday.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on One fine day… Saturday.

Another week in the can, with a few brand spanking new physical wood projects to show for it. Fantastic! I love when things come together. Now if I could just focus that drive into my children’s book, I’d be all set to go. I’m trying to have fun with drawing again, and I have a lot to do, so it could take some time. I’m resisting going to the computer first, because I always wanted to illustrate a book by hand, and what better thing to do that with, than my own? Right?. So I will keep trying. It’s not like I have a publisher or editor waiting for my work, it being a hobby and all, so I should try to keep it light. But on the other hand it means something to me, so I want to put a lot of effort into it. Tough balancing act.

I managed to get a fair chunk further on my old fisherman bust sculpture, which is great news. Nothing boosts morale like some solid wins under the belt. Been a tad out of practice with sculpting lately as well. Have to build up my finger sensitivity and 3d spacial awareness. Takes a different kind of thinking to build out primary shapes and build a life like form. Hard to describe it, except you know very easily when it’s wrong. Lots of adding, subtracting, and pushing clay around to get the volume and shapes correct. Playing around with it in my palm until I’m happy with it. Same goes for drawings too. Could be a bit of a wait until I get it all where I want it to be. Should be all the better for it.

I originally wanted to edge the drive way and front lawn along the curb, but it is to rain for ten hours today, so that’ll be a tomorrow thing. Though we have a children’s birthday party to attend (masked, obviously). Which will eat up my morning. But if the suns out after lunch I can get some minor lawn care done. Perhaps tackle the lawn mower maintenance too. Who knows!

Things I’ve built recently. A 4ft long bench, a smaller 2ft Cedar toy box, an Ash cutting board plank, a 3ft Pine toy box, and a Walnut tray with floating inset plywood panel. It was a productive week in the shop. None of it is heirloom quality mind you. No fancy joinery. Just butt joints, miters and glue and Pin/Brad nails. Quick and easy. Plus various grits of sandpaper. I also busted out the palm router to round over edges, and my plunge router to add details to the large Pine toy box that now lives behind a couch under a windowsill.

Ugly bench made from scrap pressure treated wood.
Small Cedar toy bin.
2ft long Ash cutting board with grain highlighted by a propane torch flame.
Large 3ft Pine toy box.
Smaller Walnut 12×12 inch tray, with floating base panel, mitered corners, and blue felt lined bottom panel. I used Minwax on it that dried a bit milky. But ultra smooth.

So that was my week. With any luck in the next few weeks we will see the weather start to get warmer, and then the kids and I will start to walk to and from school every day. It really helps to tone down the hyperactivity when they have to walk everywhere. We do have to be prepared to leave 15 minutes earlier than normal, but if we don’t need boots, snowpants, scarves, hats, gloves, neck rings and toques, maybe we can manage it? Maybe?!?

Returning to my Children’s Book.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Returning to my Children’s Book.

Now that I most likely have all of Book Two completed, also known as 41 Chapters of The Ghost of the Dirty Starling, I may actually bother to rewrite my childrens story, and begin to illustrate it myself. Of course I might end up writing an epilogue to my interconnected space serial, which opens it up for more exploration, but we’ll see about that. I seem to need a break from it for now. That happened last time as well. I am astounded by authors who are able to create fresh new worlds and pump out glorious novel after glorious novel, year after year. My hat is off to you lot. That hurts my brain to think about. My childrens book is simple and short and features only two characters. I’ll need to come up with an appropriate look for them. One was based on our former dog, now he’s been dead for nearly a full calendar year. I hope that doesn’t make me weepy thinking about him. Hard to say.

The other major question is; do I bust out the pencils and ink, or draw it in illustrator? I could draw it up by hand, scan it and colour it in Photoshop. That would work pretty well for me. I think the simpler I keep it the more likely I am to follow through with it. Hell I wrote 50,000 extra words of a second novella rather than tackle it from December through April, so that might tell you how I feel about starting drawing/inking again.

I have a bust in the works in my office in Chavant soft. I hate the soft Clay’s. So sticky. Plus it deforms too easily as I handle the piece while I work it. Nothing like working hours on a nose or ear, to mash it the next day because you grabbed it with warm hands and forgot to watch out. I tend to use Hard wax/oil Clay’s to avoid just that scenario. Or I use Sculpey Firm and bake as I go, to avoid it too.

Today I build myself an Ash cutting board. I wanted to test out my 45 degree cutting jig, and see how the saw stacked up against 8/4 barn dried Ash. It burns, is what it does. My planer doesn’t care much for hard woods either. My new electric hand planer from Bosch was amazing though, so kudos to them on a find product. I also practiced my trim routing of round over edges. Cut in some 45 degree hand holds, and a through & through finger hole, about 2 inches in diameter. Then used my propane torch to burn the top surface and bring out the grain. Looks interesting. Sanded to 220 grit, and finished with a butcher block prep oil. Not great, but not awful. Works as a cutting surface.

Ash solid wood cutting board – 2022.

About 24 inches long, 1.75 inches thick, and nearly 11 inches wide. Had a huge crack down one corner, which I cut off, as I don’t have epoxy to fill in the rather large gap. I chose to cut that corner off instead. It’s pretty heavy. I have it resting on a cookie drying rack as the oil penetrates the wood. Nice quick project.

123 – easy as do ra me, simple as ABC…

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on 123 – easy as do ra me, simple as ABC…

What a funny looking number. Looks fake to me. Or oddly staged, as though someone were trying to find a random number. But here we are on day 123 of writing every single day. Yesterday I sort of completed my story arc, and now I’m trying to decide if I need to add an epilogue to fill it out a bit, or just leave it be. I could easily fill book three with the whole thing in greater detail, but I’m not sure at this point if I want to. Feels a bit rushed, but that’s the thing, building up to nothing is how life tends to feel. Blink, breath or loose focus for an instant and it’s all over and done with. Like studying your whole life for an event, having a sneezing fit that obscures the brief pinnacle moment and you’re left wanting at the end. Tragic, I suppose. Inevitable? Not sure. But that’s how I write. The fiction in my writing is that nobody gets off scott free, they all die in the end. Not so true here, is it. Awful, horrible people shrouded by money, privilege and power can do as they please and languish in luxury until their natural deaths. Fuck that, I say. Treat them as you would any, and every throw away character. Boring, work a day deaths for all involved, hero or not. A stubbed toe that gets infected, and they die of blood poisoning even though they were set to ascend the power structure or live forever after one more minor detail was completed. Nope, not on my story arc, fuck face. You die, no pomp, no circumstance, no banners or lying in state for you. Left to rot and decay in a random unlisted room someplace. Maybe the janitors turned off the environmental controls after cleaning, and didn’t realize you had a panic room back there, but were so cheap you used Company environmental facilities instead of paying for your own separate supply, and it’s constant maintenance. Ha. Eat shit.

I’m thinking that as the weather gets better, I want to focus more attention outside at the house. Windows, tree pruning, the lawn, the gutter blockage, driveway, vehicles. I’d like to start the screen door or coffee table build soon. I’m thinking about sculpting more again too. Playing the guitar and/or piano is somewhere I’d like to focus my attention as well. Same with teaching the kids about baseball, soccer and bicycling. We got out yesterday morning and played some ball hockey which was a lot of fun. So much to do, and try to focus on. Easy to get paralyzed by it all and wind up doing nothing at all. Except write. I’m pretty good of late about doing some of that every day.

Oh-oh, Spiderman No Way Home arrived this week and I got to watch that with my wife one evening for a date night. I ended up having to work for forty minutes in the middle and missed a chunk, but I liked what I saw the first time around. Watched the middle portion the next day, and liked it even more! Was pleasantly surprised by it all. Made me tear up in a few spots too. Not that that is particularly difficult as I get older. I’m sad that some major plot points were spoiled for me on Twitter, but I still enjoyed the whole movie anyway.

Hope you enjoyed all (41) forty one parts of book two, The Ghost of the Dirty Starling, as much as I did writing them. It started out heading one way, and moved around a bit, and was ultimately a fun little novella to write. Maybe now that it’s off my shoulders I will write some one off’s about my dad life experiences. Or not.

A Cedar Toy Box: Just because I can.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on A Cedar Toy Box: Just because I can.

While I am waiting on parts to a report I decided to build my kids a cedar toy box, lined with burgundy felt, to store their new horde of LOL Dolls, and OMG Queen Surprise fashion dolls and their myriad accessories. I once again used only materials I had on hand, which meant I could built a 2ft long, 10 inch high box that was 7 inches wide along the sides. The base is made from half inch plywood, and I used spray adhesive to cover the top/bottom of the precision cut plywood base to stop marring our floors, and to cushion the blow from dropped toys into the box itself. I had thought about using box joints, or lap joints, or even miters. But in the end, to save time (as I’m waiting on parts to a project) I did butt joints, glue and Brad nails to lock it all in place. I sanded only to 100 grit, to removed the graying outer surface on the cedar boards, and to round off all the edges and corners. It’s functional, and currently resides under a window, behind the couch.

2ft W x 10″H x 7″ D. Lined with 2mm burgundy felt to cushion dropped toys, and save my old floors.

I need to take Wednesdays bench build down to the orchard at the farm, but my uncle in law has Covid, and I don’t want to bother them while they recuperate.

Holiday Friday today, so need to find things for the kids to do to not drive us crazy. We are also on baby watch for my SIL’s second child. Due date was yesterday, and she’s gone over. Now we wait for the good news, and potentially in a few days, see the new baby from afar! Weee!

What’s so special about Day 121?

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on What’s so special about Day 121?

Nothing really. Still madly working away on projects for my day job. Built a bench out of scrap pressure treated lumber for our orchard down at the farm. And have been working on house hold things like laundry, dishes and bathroom cleaning, you know fun stuff.

Today also marks 14 days of lifting weights again. Not much change due to starting light in weight, but I think because I changed my mindset about 121 days ago, in regards to finding the time to do things that are important to me, I’ve found it easier to stick with the exercise because that reward pathway is built in my head now. It doesn’t have to be much, as long as I do something physical every day. I don’t even put a time expectation on it for duration. Just do anything, everyday. Eventually I’ll discover a rythm or a regimen that works. But I’m not at that point, I’m just trying to do it, at all, every day. Bicep curls, tricep curls, rowing, chin lifts, kettle bell swings, Turkish get ups, shoulder press, arm raised, shoulder shrugs, bench press with a make shift bench, chest press, squats, lunges. If it can be done with two or fewer dumbbells I’ll try it to see if it works for me, without hurting myself. Do I aim to run marathons or run an iron man triathlon, nope. I just want to feel a bit better, and possibly fit into some nice pants in the future. I’d like to be able to lean over to tie my shoes without my belly impeding my way. But weight loss isn’t my concern right now. Just building the mentality to do it every single day. Legs, arms, back, belly. I don’t care which. It takes time, and a small effort, but I’m happy to have started. Much like writing, I’ll see how long I go for, no pressure.

Tackled two jobs yesterday that I had been fixing piecemeal for multiple years, and the shabby nature of the file, and compounding small fixes finally caught up with me. Had to invest multiple hours into rebuilding them from scratch. It’s better now that it’s done in this manner, but boy did it give me trouble. The project started out with minor changes, then a few more, then several more, and then a total redo. But due to the nature of the first changes, it wasn’t worthy of a rebuild. But mission creep, and the totality of the changes over the years warranted it now. Plus it was giving the printers grief, and made me look bad in the process. So I bit the bullet and fixed every single facet in a single day, and hopefully now it’ll be perfect moving forward. And I don’t hear about it until next year when products get added or dropped, and distributors change their contact info, or logos get updated etc etc…

So that’s my Thursday. I’m waiting on two more parts of my large report and then I can send it off for proofing all of the data / tables and graphs/charts. Then I can make any edits and submit it to the clients. Then it is time for the invoicing! Getting paid – ya!

Sing 2 : Une belle review.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Sing 2 : Une belle review.

What a lovely film Sing 2 is. I know that we are late to the game on this one, as it even had the chance for rerelease to theaters for the March Break. But we aren’t out and about kind of people during these Covid times. So we finally saw it on Bluray at home.

After my third full viewing I have to say it has better flow, and a tighter story through line than the original. Not that the first was bad, but it didn’t come together as organically as #2. The music is pretty great, Halsey as Porscha was lovely. My kids loved her flying around the planets singing “This girl is on fire!” And twirling mid air. The whole thing is a hoot. I particularly enjoyed the Clay Calloway, portrayed by Bono. Rather touching story line.

The animation is superb, bright colours, easy to follow. Not a lot of jump cuts, let’s the story play out, gives the moments a chance to breathe. Fine film. Worth another watch or two. With my kids, it’ll be on the tv another five to ten times at least. Ms Crawley is a fan favourite in our household. Same with Johnny and Meena, Rosita and Gunther. Mr Moon is an adorable fuzz ball in a lamé blue suit.

Fun for the whole family. Though Mr Crystal the wolf does attempt murder by fall from a great height on multiple occasions, so do with that information what you will.

I didn’t know she was 115 years old.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on I didn’t know she was 115 years old.

That’s ancient in dog years, holy cow. Today marks continuous writing day 115. That’s not any specific kind of milestone, but I did keep going even while having a pretty dastardly flu all this week. So that counts for something around here. Though it was a light week for paid work, some labels, a display, a meeting through a glass door, a some customized brochures, I did much more outdoors. Spring is in the air! And so is the sun and slightly warmer temperatures.

To celebrate I put out the patio furniture. The deck carpeting, chairs and kids toys. The solar lights and ornamental garden decorations, the hose ( but didn’t turn the water on yet.) This whole month is one longish rain storm, with intermitten fits of blue sky and sun. The slack line went up. The swing is back in working order. Crab sand box is uncovered from leaves, snow and winter debris. Porch chair, and drinks table put up. Scooters dug out of the shed. Gardening tools brought to the front, and winter shovels and de-icer moved to the back, and away from the front door. I did not uncover the AC unit, as that’s about 6 weeks away from being needed, if at all in the spring. Cleaned the car of snow gear and toboggan etc… a productive morning.

In the shop I built the second peg board and placed that over the lathe. It’s a bit bare, but I wanted it off the floor, and that’s where it was going anyway. I got my large cross cut sled holed so it can finally hang on the wall and get out of my way.

I have a new project from my wife for the farm orchard, a rustic bench. So I’ll move that in front of my adjustable saw horses. I was looking at last years progress on the screen door, trying to see if I can salvage it, or am I putting good money after bad on it. I do need a door there though. So I might press on with it.

I had an hour or two tweaking the kids bikes yesterday, so all good there now too. Cleaned a bunch inside, got the laundry sorted and put away. All in all a good week for having been ill. Still am, but not as bad as last weekend. Maybe I’ll watch Dune again. It’s long enough that I can just phase in and out of attention with it and still enjoy it a bunch. Part two coming next year!

Odd question for you.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Odd question for you.

Why is it that all of our local bicycle repair, or sales stores around here open at or after 11:00am? Is this in preparation for warmer weather and a morning ride with no rush to get in to open the stores? I don’t get it. In most parts of Canada, bicycle riding weather is mid April until early November, at the best of times, and that’s not guaranteed. So what do they do the rest of the year? Are these the Peloton people? Anyway. I went to our local bike shop to buy what could have been $100-$150 worth of name brand parts for my kids bikes. Namely brake pads, kick stands, bike pegs, and some much needed bike specific repair tools for chains and tires. But they weren’t open for another 3 hrs. So then I went to Canadian Tire, which had empty spots for brake pads, no kick stands whatsoever, and no service people around. Then off to Walmart, which had most of what I’m looking for, sort of. I might have to put down the break pads they did have, but otherwise I made out ok. The kick stand wasn’t exactly what I was after either, but it’ll work just fine as is. My last hope, in town anyway was a SportChek, but I didn’t have much faith in that store. It’s all glitz and no underlying product strength.

I’m trying to avoid Amazon. Not out of anything worth a damn, but because if I can grab it now, I can do the work now, sort of thing. I hate all the waiting involved. I looked at various other bike related stores but they opened at 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm (noon) or as late as 2:00pm. WTF. I don’t have time for that. Gotta be around for school pick up. Plus I’m not comfortable with how Covid is progressing to have my kiddos tag along when I wander around stores searching for stuff. Maybe after Wave 6 is behind us, or my youngest is finally old enough to have all of her jabs.

Yeah so. Odd start to the day. My Flu is still in me working it’s filthy tendrils deeper into me, but I’m keeping the worst of it at bay with NyQuil brand products. Sleeping well, eating & drinking fine. On occasion I can breath through my nose properly. Feel off, but not horrible. Which is a big step forward from last Friday/Saturday. Still testing negative – so. Yeah.

Going to eat and then work on the bikes for a bit. Ciao.

We’re only human after all.

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on We’re only human after all.

Six days in and I’m finally starting to feel a little more like myself. Still have the register of Barry White when I talk, and fluctuate between stuffed up and Oh God, Eew! With an occasional cough. So not totally out of the woods yet, but – still negative. So, we have that going for us, I suppose.

I had some work to do yesterday, most of which I did, while my head was swimming in cold & flu medications. Nothing major though, and I left a good chunk for today just to give me a chance to plan it all out so that my foggy mush brain didn’t cock it all up. So far, so good.

Kids were all on the up & up yesterday after five days off school recuperating. This bug hit us all in fun and exciting ways. No two completely alike! Fun fact, I can’t distinguish between eaten tomatoes and watermelon in a puddle of vomit. Suspiciously alike in many ways. Ask me how I know! Go ahead do it.

Views here have tanked, obviously. No one wants to read about me whining of being sick. But I’m not mentally in a place capable of plotting some of the most important chapters/installments of my short story series. This brain fogs gotta go. DayQuil and NyQuil , whilst excellent for treating symptoms, make me spacey AF. So a delay is in order. Hopefully you’ll check back in once they start up again.

I need a shower and a nap.

Our children’s school currently has

greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment on Our children’s school currently has

No EA’s in the building, and at least four teachers off sick. Oh! Who ever could have foreseen this happening? Uh, everyone!?! So we have that going for us. My youngest is off with a lingering cold (not covid – tested negative twice over a period of six days). Who would have thought that no longer wearing a mask in a building full of unvaxed four year old was a good idea. Not too mention the poor vaccine uptake in the five to twelve year olds. Ugh. So what’s next, a school closure because they don’t have the physical adult bodies to keep it running. Get all those consultants and board folks in here to keep it running. They were so keen on their political aspirations, and ambitions to find a cushy job later on, that they signed off almost immediately on dropping masks in schools, with very little push back, if any, at all. But they still work remotely because their offices are too dangerous to go to work in person. Must be nice to set different parameters for yourself, and leave the kids your jobs are centered around, out to dry. Very frustrating. If it was dropped for some, it has to be dropped for all. You made those decisions, now go wallow in your folly.

In other news, I have personally worked on two Ukraine Support gigs in the month of March. Which is cool. Raising money for displaced families via multiple micro breweries. Very different artwork for both ventures. I hope that they both manage to make a difference in somebody’s life for the better.

Hey! , yeah so yesterday I busted out the angle grinder, a cut off wheel and some angle iron to make my rigid router sled. After a practice cut where I was a full quarter inch shy, due to a wandering disk, I got two 6.5 inch cut offs made without maiming myself, or burning the house down from flying sparks. I wore my leather apron, gloves, goggles and ear phones, so I was most protected from a 10,000 RPM spinning wheel. Then I filed off all of the slag, rough edges, points and vein opening Shanks on both pieces. Then bolted it all together with quarter twenty bolts, washers and some nylock inserts to keep it from coming undone. Looks like I thought it would, and gives me just shy of 42″ inches worth of width to flatten slabs, or bigger chunks of wood. The aim was for a full 48″, but I forgot about my routers handles that stick out of the sides, and connect with the sides of the sled, impeding full coverage. But no matter. I don’t really have the room in my shop to work on slabs that are close to or over four feet wide. Three feet would be best, given the constraints of the space. Fine with me!

I had hoped to start in on my adjustable saw horses, but sick child #2 is home, so that’s a no-go today. And by the sounds of it, tomorrow as well. She finally reached the snotty expulsion phase, so we have another few days of this before it clears. Then I have the router table sacrificial fense to build, and the face plate for the trim router so I can mortise out wider pockets without it ripping downwards and gouging out uneven holes. So many things to do!