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

Tag: projects

One fine day… Saturday.

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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?!?

What’s so special about Day 121?

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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!

The Obligatory 2021 Year in Review Blog Post.

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These are typically the type of thing that most people don’t bother to read, and I’m cool with that. As this sort of thing is for the poster rather than the audience. There was a definite shift in my workload and type of projects this year, compared to last year at least. Usually I would devote the majority of my off time to sculpting in clay or Super Sculpey®. Of which I did do some, but no where near what I have done in years previous. By that, I mean that I produced four this year. Two in plastercine and two in Super Sculpey® that I have yet to paint, though I did manage to get them baked and cured. My day job was fairly slow in the first half of the year, but I managed to pick up two new clients that have done a fair number of projects each, plus my returning clients all had work for me to do this year, which I am very thankful for. The big To-Do this year was Wood working. I was able to get out and into my shop and do a number of new and exciting projects this year in various types of wood. I have a good portion of Ash, Spalted Maple, Walnut, Pine and Cedar sitting around so those where what I worked in primarily. I was also able to add some textile work into the mix with Felt, Faux Leather and some real Sheep Skin Leather. I used the textiles on my dice trays, tool box trays, and to line the insides of my Harry Potter® Trunks. Below is the list of wood working projects from this year.

(3) Dice Trays – Lined in Felt or Faux Leather – Spalted Maple, (1) Die Tower – Spalted Maple, (2) Dice Vaults – Spalted Maple, (3) Harry Potter® Trunks – Pine, Cedar, Elm – Lined in Felt – Trimmed out with Ash, (1) Walnut Leather Working Tool Box – With (1) matching Tool Tray lined in Faux Leather – Trimmed out with Felt, (2) Walnut paper towel holders, (1) Pine Skid/Organizer for Pool Noodles and Towels, (1) Ash wheeled cart for old table saw, (1) Cedar box joint job box, (1) Cedar Porch Tray/Shelf that fits over the railing, (1) Elm Craft Supply box – Lined in felt, (1) Mixed Wood Antique Table that I am currently refinishing, (9) Cedar routered orchard signs, (3) Cedar name plates for gifts.

I have this feeling that I did a few more projects that I can’t immediately recall because I gave some stuff away to friends this year because it took me a while to sort out how best to approach some projects and I had to make more than I needed in order to be able to throw away the first iterations that were done incorrectly. A case in point, would be to use ply wood inserts for the base of the dice trays and trunks because real wood warps and twists after it has been milled flat in such a humid province like Ontario, Canada. I always hated the look of plywood, but a 3/8’s sheet with rich, thick felt glued over the top face is super sturdy and you’d never know unless you look underneath. A few years ago I refinished a rocking chair which was a lot of work, but also very satisfying, so I’m taking a crack at an old weather beaten table that was improperly stored at the cottage. I can’t make it look brand new, but I can make it look much, much better. Something you’d be proud to have in your home for playing cards on, or having a board gaming session.

Besides those things, we have done as much as we can to stay safe from Covid-19, I qualified to get a third dose early, and our youngest are finally eligible to get their first jabs in the coming weeks. I managed to get out while the numbers were low in October, to go and see Dune® in a D-Box Atmos seat late one Sunday night, and it was pretty great. It spurned me on to finish the first Dune® book, which was pretty dense but ultimately enjoyable, as I now look forward to Part Two in 2023! I was fortunate enough to get to read a bunch of great books this year. If I can find them I will write another post about them as a heart felt recommendation. Some of them were early Science Fiction classics written decades ago, and some of them came out this year or last year, so there’s a pretty good spread of the new and old in that reading list. The holiday season is baring down on us, and the new year approaches. I wish you all well, and hope that you are all safe & sound.

I’m also going to plug my book of short stories again, available through Kindle Unlimited.

The Company – A series of interconnected space short stories: Varied works of short fiction
by Amazon.com.ca, Inc.
Learn more: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B091JB3MG7/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QFEER8NFM58WZMAA90C6