As it was our 5th Wedding anniversary in April, which I was reliably informed should be celebrated with a gift made from wood – which wasn’t a problem for me.
So combining this with the problem highlighted by Jeni that her new Christmas cheese knives were always rolling around on the kitchen worktop I decide to solve this by making a stand for the knives.
It was an interesting little project made all the more complex by the high centre of gravity of the knives – I was able to heavily chamfer the blackwood insets to grip the lower part of the knife handles.
No more sharp knives rolling around!
So in the lead up to Christmas I was busy in my workshop building Sofia’s puppet theatre which was a lot simpler than the previous year’s Donkey, but at the same time I decided to get back to the lathe which looked a bit abandoned!
I had acquired some Oak and some Black Walnut from friends who had been renovating their houses/kitchens and decided that although these offcuts were thin I could laminate them to make something interesting.
I tend to buy bits and pieces for wood turning from the USA as very few UK suppliers have anything particularly interesting. A while back I found a source of some nice cheese knife blades and decided that this was an ideal opportunity to make some…
I decided that to add some detail to the handles for these knives I would use some blackwood cut down to about 6mm – this is the same wood used to make clarinets and bagpipe chanters.
Gluing these pieces together created a decent sized blank for turning.
In order to hold this on the chuck I created a stock from scrap wood onto which the blank could slide…
From here it was a matter of turning this to size/shape.
Once I achieved the desired shape I then had to replicate it for each of the knife ends. This was a bit of a challenge as I usually only ever make one-off pieces and this time I had to try and ensure I was copying the sizes and contours of my first piece. I resorted to a gauge and callipers.
Both the oak and the walnut turned really well and by polishing them while still on the lathe I managed to get a nice finish.
This simply left the cheese boards to do.
For both I decided to insert more blackwood detail into the circumference;
Again finishing on the lathe, and for the oak board, I inserted a green marble tile;
The Black Walnut polished up very nicely too;
A few months back while visiting Jessie’s Kitchen, our favourite place from brunch on a Sunday, Sofia was enjoying playing with a wooden play theatre in the play area and that gave me an idea for this year’s Christmas toy…
I thought I could take this design and improve on it by making a larger theatre with a fold down stage apron and side tormentors on which scenes could hang.
So I set about coming up with a design that would do this, yet still fold away flat for storage (as all parents know this is extremely important!).
So idea in mind, off to Wickes for some cheap timber, which along with an old bit of plywood I had all I needed to build the prototype frame…
Once I had the hinges and angles all worked out, it was time to add a bit of shape to the frame
And then to face this off some 6mm mdf sheeting…
I decided to create a storage box / stage front for under the apron of the stage…
Now it was time to start thinking about the surface finishes and in proper theatre style I decided to use black felt
I had a box of railway curves (flat wooden drawing shapes of various radius used by draughtsmen years ago) which my dad had given me when he retired, I decided to use a few of these to create the detail on the proscenium arch.
A little bit of electronics and some LED strip added a nice lighting effect.
A few glittery details and I was nearly finished.
The final part was to print some backdrops and laminate these onto hardboard.
And yes, it will still fold away for storage!
All done in a few Saturday mornings and ready 6 days before Christmas!
On the 5th November 2011 my sister, Paola Fallone married Colin Sangster.
A fantastic Autumn day and a great family celebration.
Many Congratulations to them both!
Here is a montage of snaps taken by friends and family.
November 20th, 2011 in
Family | tags:
colin,
Paola,
wedding |
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After the fantastic weather for Paola and Colin’s Wedding (blog post to follow) we spent a great afternoon walking around near the house in the autumnal sunset, made all the more dramatic by the low lying mist…
The Laws Farm…
View from the top of the Laws towards Carnoustie…
Out into the Tay estuary…
Sunset over the hills…
We are so lucky living in Scotland, it may rain, it may be cold – but you can’t beat the views!
November 7th, 2011 in
Family | tags:
Templelands |
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So we’re back from our 3rd trip to Disneyland Paris in 12 months (getting the most of our Passeport Annuel). This was the first time we’ve been during the Disney Halloween season and it was a nice change.
Disney, being American take on Halloween in a big way – as is the trend in the UK over the recent years – I remember when Halloween was one night, a scooped out turnip and dressing up as Mrs Mop!
As always we stayed in Val D’Europe in a nice apartment closer to the Park than most of the actual Disney hotels, but not being part of Disney give you a chance to relax in ‘real’ restaurants and shop in real shops.
The park itself was all decorated with pumpkins and the requisite Disney Halloween catchy music was pumping through the streets.
I felt that there were perhaps more characters around than usual, and Sofia loved meeting some of her favourites like Peter Pan.
There were also a number of street shows around the park which was a nice change. These included a Mickey Mouse Halloween interactive kids show with dancing coloured scarecrows and a street dancing Minnie Mouse train.
Sofia loved dancing with Minnie Mouse
We decided to buy tickets for ‘Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party’ – an evening ticket only event that was a great chance to see some special shows and enjoy a relatively empty park!
Unlike earlier in the year, the Alice in Wonderland maze was open – and this was a big hit for Sofia, as was ‘Small World’ in which Sofia had previously never really shown any interest.
So in summary, Disney’s work to freshen up the park for next year’s bug season continues – bits of the park are closed in sequence to allow refurbishment but unless it is your child’s favourite you will still find loads of things to do.
As alway – for Jen’s tips on how to do Disney without falling foul of all the costly pitfall read her blog article.
I guess by posting this update I’m acknowledging that Summer may have been and gone here in Scotland for 2011, and my recollection is that apart from a couple of sunny days in April it has been a pretty wet affair!
However that didn’t stop the usual raft of fun & games…
Some Gardening
A bit of geocaching
Days out
The very occasional BBQ
and a more typical summer pic from Scotland – shorts and wellies!
For the full holiday snap experience, feel free to get your popcorn and watch Jeni’s (not so little) video montage!
While searching google for an article I had previously read about an artist who created ‘planet panoramas’, I found instructions on how to do this is Photoshop.
So here is Planet Templelands – my first attempt at this (done at 6am in a hotel room in London, with a mighty hangover!)
As I type this I am on my second mini bottle of French red wine cruising at 30000 ft on my way to London.
Although the time of posting will be based on when I land as UK airlines are not quite as advanced as our US counterparts with regard to in-flight Internet access.
Should I be worried about how much this enforced offline time effects me? I feel like a chain smoker who is deprived of that next cigarette.
What frustrates me just as much is that gadgets such as my iPad, MacBook and iPhone cannot be used (regardless of airplane mode) when the seatbelt sign is illuminated.
This is where I get very jealous of my fellow passengers enjoying their paperbacks from take off, while I have to wait (on this flght 35 minutes) before I can fire up my ebook.
Take-off and landing are one thing, but come on UK airlines my flight to London is only 1h40 minutes and I can only work/access my tech for less than 50% of that.
Even hospitals, including high dependency units (as I know from 1st hand experience) are more accommodating.
Sigh! At least the wine is ok (albeit French being AirFrance) and I’ve already finished my wee bit of Scottish tablet!
Better finish before that damned seatbelt light comes on 30 minutes before landing.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
July 19th, 2011 in
Family |
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We’ve not had many sunny days recently, but tonight was very nice…
