On the Move

So this is the last post that I will post here. As of 1 Jan. 2008 my blog will be at Kaleo's Workshop. Please join me there. Thanks

Kaleo

This week in wood

Click To Play

With a little extra time on my hand, I've decided to test out the audio world. Finding out there is a lot more involved in making a good video, that will have to wait until I get home. So let me know what you think?

Attention BIG NEWS HERE

So for the past few weeks I have been mentioning big changes around here. Well I am ready to make the big announcement.

I am starting a new blog and this new blog is part of The Wood Whisperer Network. This new blog will be a lot like this blog, but I hope to integrate more video and audio into it. I also plan to have more how to's and project based writings. So the address is going to change from the one that is here, the one that you all know and love. (ha ha ha) The new blog will be found at www.kaleosworkshop.com. I will be double posting for a little while. Most likely until the New Year and then I will stop posting here. So please make the switch I don't want to lose any of you.

So head over there and check it out and let me know what you think. Those of you that have subscribed to my RSS feed by email, everything has already changed for you. For those that haven't signed up please do, but if not then you'll have to remember the new address. But that should be to hard

www.kaleosworkshop.com

I'm looking forward to hearing from you all and answering questions and sharing experiences so let me have it folks...

Until next time friends... Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all

P.S. I don't know what is going on with my page here, but the Header picture is messed up. Another reason to make the switch...

The Last Supper

So tonight most of us from the school got together and had a nice dinner. The finality of this part of my life is real. I guess I knew that last week, but man did it get hit home tonight. As we all sat down and began talking with one another about what are plans were for the next step, it really dawned on me that it was over. With that said I am glad to be done. Two years was just the right amount of time.

It's hard to believe that only two years ago I started this whole adventure. But I look back on the time here and see all the things that I have learned. Things that I never thought that I would be doing or even able to do. Things that I hope to share with you all in more detail as I go through projects with you in the near future. I feel like I have been given 10 years of experiences and practice in 2 years. But that was the goal and the desired outcome.

One thing that I never thought about before I embarked on this journey was doing this, writing and shooting little videos. I have found great joy in relating my experiences to everyone, but now look forward to continuing down this path. So I look forward to hearing from you and sharing your experiences and questions. I'll do my best in answering any questions you might have. So let me have it, together we'll learn and have a good time.

Until next time friends... Love is 100% fat free

Am I an exhibitionist???

So the show is coming to a close this week. I guess we have to go and pick up the stuff that hasn't sold. For some reason the gallery isn't calling any of the students to tell them that work has sold. But some guys have gone over there during the week and found red stickers on some of the tags, meaning that piece is sold. So I haven't been to see, but man I hope something sold. Because I just don't know what to do with my stuff.

Well in the last few days I have received emails about entering a few show, which is really cool. I all I've been doing is filling out applications and making CD's full of images, writing brief descriptions and mailing lots of stuff. Two of the shows that I've been asked to enter are here in Australia. One is for OBJECT magazine. ( I think I mentioned this one earlier.) The other is for The Australian Wood Review magazine and Bungadore Furniture Gallery, called Studio Furniture exhibition. The studio furniture show has 10,000 dollars in prize money. 5 g's for the top prize, 3 g's for second place and 2 g's for third place. Man any of those would be great, cross your fingers

The other show I heard about through the Furniture Society, it's called Multiplicity. It's a show about pieces of furniture geared toward production. So here's to hoping for the best.

Also, here a couple of shots of my stuff at the show. We had some professional shots taken for our post event coverage in a couple of magazines here. So these are mine.

So until next time all... Ohhhhhh Fffff udge... ( but I didn't say fudge, I said the queen mother of all swear words the F---)

Kudos to the one who knows where that came from... think people think

It's a Blue... Blue Monday...

So this weekend was a nice relaxing one. With no pressures on, nothing really important to do. Had a really nice time at a Christmas party. I spent a few days in Sydney last week with my Mom before she left to go back home. We had a really good time walking around town, we went to the Naturally Australian Gallery. Where they had quite a bit of furniture from some big Aussie makers. They had 2 dining sets from Tony Kenway. They were a round table with 6 chairs and they were selling for 53,000 dollars. Crazy huh, I think the recent sold on set made from Huon Pine for 62,000.

I also received an email this weekend from a design magazine called OBJECT. They invite design schools to nominate 3 students to enter into a nationwide exhibition. So apparently I was nominated by my head of school. So now I have to put together a portfolio and send some pictures and apply to get in. They choose 18 people from around the nation to exhibit. So that would be cool, we'll see if it happens.


So with such a good weekend, why such a blue blue Monday? Well today I spent the major part of the day packing up my bench area at school. Now it's not the leaving the school that has made it a blue day. It is the fact that I had to pack away all my tools. I won't get the chance to see or even use them until I get home, which looks to be in April. That's close to 5 months. Now I hope you understand why it's a blue day.

I have some big news coming up in the next few weeks. So I hope that intrigues you all a little bit. I need to say thanks to a few of you that have left me comments. You know who you are, but they are very appreciated.

To answer a few of them, the book chair is just for displaying your books. Not really for sitting on. You can sit on it, but the seat and the back are at 90 degrees, so it might not be comfortable. I am surprised everyday at who I find out is reading. There are professional designer makers of fine furniture to magazine editors. No way would I have thought that this many people would be interested in anything that I had to say. So thank you all.

Until next time friends... Smiling is my favorite


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Now playing: Harry Connick, Jr. - I'm Gonna Be The First One
via FoxyTunes

Out of the Woods '07

So I know that it took me a long time to get this up. But I hope it was worth it.

Click To Play

So this little video goes through the painting and the delivery of all the plinths and pieces. It goes through the set up of the show. Then it goes through the final walk through of the show. Hope you enjoy. Beware the movie is about 7 minutes long. So it might take a little while to load.

Until next time friends... Global warming is not cool...

Promises and Lies

So I told you all that I would get the video up soon. Well that is part true. I got the camera back today. Sent a good few hours editing this evening, and right now as I type it is being compressed and exported by Imovie. But it's 11:00pm and I have to catch a flight at 10:00am to Sydney. So I don't think the video will get upload to the net that early in the morning. But I get back on Thursday night. So first thing Friday the video will up for your viewing pleasures.

Until then friends... Break dance not hearts!

I'll show you mine....

So the show was last night. We spent all day Thursday and most of Friday setting up. But I have to say it looked terrific. I know I said that I would try to get the video done this weekend, but I left the camera at school over the weekend. So Monday I plan to go the the Design Centre and take some footage of the empty show and then I'll get it ready.

We had a really good turn out to the show. Which is always nice. What can I really say about the show. I had a few people really interest in my stuff. A really nice couple from Melbourne seem genuinely interested in my chair and really my style. I really hope to hear from them. I have high hopes that they might be my first commission.



So please to be enjoying the few shots that I have from the show. And stay tuned for the video early next week.

Until then friends... "The smell of wood in my shop is more pleasing than a desk in an office." Sam Maloof
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Now playing: Harry Connick, Jr. - Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
via FoxyTunes

Show Day...

This is a quick post because I have to get to the school and make sure everything is set up. Today is the day of the show, so wish me luck.

Let's Do it....

So what's going on world? Things are finally getting going here. This week so far has been all about painting and sanding and more painting. If I have to paint one more plinth I am going to throw something. But that all came to an end today. We rented a big truck and started to deliver things.

It's amazing how many plinths we actually made. I think we made about 40 plinth in all. Most of them were the same size, with a few exceptions. You'll see them all when I get the video up hopefully later this weekend. I've been taking real exciting footage of everything. OK not really, but it'll be good.

I tried something new yesterday. I waxed all me furniture. Now I have never done this before. But I didn't have the time to put more coats of oil on. So I used a good cannuba and paraffin wax mix. I like the feel it gives the furniture. But I'm not sure about the overall up keep. I mean the main benefit of oil finishes are that you can always fix them, by adding a new coat. But with a wax on top, that stops you from being able to do that unless you strip the wax off first. I don't think I will use wax in the future. But right now, I'm trying to sell everything that I made. Because I can't afford to bring it home. So hopefully the wax will make it all nice and shiny and someone will go WOW look how nice and shiny that cabinet looks and it's only 800.00, let's get it. ( I think I am living in a dream world right now ). But it can happen.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Here in Australia they don't celebrate Thanksgiving or even Halloween. So I forgot about it. Also the fact that it is the Christmas season and it's like 90 degrees outside. But I hope the holiday season is going well for you all.

Next time there should a great video on the show.

So until then friends.... Ghengis Khan Is My Homeboy

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Now playing: Tone Lòc - Wild Thing
via FoxyTunes

What do I have to say....

Well I don't have a lot to say tonight. We rented a car and and headed out of town for the weekend. I left the school with all but 3 plinths made. I hope that they got the others done and at least a couple of coats of paint. I guess I will find out on Monday. I still have a few things to tie up on a few of my pieces. I have to final sand the shelves to my "Hollow" unit.

I found out on Friday, when I stopped by to see the set up of the exhibition that was in this last week, that they placed books on my coffee table and then put it in front of a window. There just happened to be some big sun spots on the table. So now I have to scrape down the top and re-oil this baby. I don't know what this guy who set up this exhibition was thinking. He also put one of the other students cabinets upside down. They actually displayed it upside down. You know what they say, " if you want something done right do it yourself."

Anyways, I will try to get some good posts in this week. I have to get the show set up and then I hope to get permission from the other students to make a video of the show. So look forward to that.

Until then friend... Camping is In-"TENTS"

You are cordially invited...

So my mom got in the weekend and is here for the next few weeks. Which is really nice. We spent the weekend in the rental car driving all over this little Island. It was a lot of fun just going places. Not even planning what it was we were going to do. We just got in the car and went places. We left on Saturday morning at 10.00am and got home Saturday night at about 10.00 pm. Then did the same thing on Sunday. I tell you what I am tired of driving.

But I took my mom into the school today to give her the 10 minute tour. And I was happy to see 5 of my fellow students hard at work making all the plinths that I planned out last week. Hopefully they will get the easy ones done by tomorrow and then it's up to me to get the rest of them done. I think that they haven't gotten that fear in them yet, the show is next Friday night. Yeah I know that is roughly 2 weeks away. But we have to start setting up on Wednesday next week. That's only week away. So there is a lot to be done. The catalogues have gone out to the printers and the invitations are going to be sent out by tomorrow. We have to finish building and painting all the plinths. Make sure all the catering is done and ready, get all the booze for everyone. I really can't wait until it's all over.

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Now playing: Men At Work - Down Under
via FoxyTunes

Update..

Well there's not to much to update on. I have a cold, my mom comes into town on Friday. Still working on the show ( that I already wish was over ). This thing is becoming a monster, right now we are planning the plinths for everything to sit on. We ordered about 1000.00 dollars worth of MDF yesterday. It all showed up today. Now I am making cut lists for each plinth that needs to be made. I hope to get that done tomorrow and then hand it off to someone else to make, while I spend some time with my wife and kid and mother.

This weekend a lot of my furniture is in an exhibition here in Tasmania. It was a last minute thing, but I guess this show is about a book about the area. And it is being released at this show. But I was told today that I am not invited to the opening. In fact none of the artist on display are invited to the opening. I guess only the elite and the rich are invited. But I don't hopefully they will buy my stuff.

Until next time my friends... Stay tuned changes are on the horizon.

Come one Come all, to the greatest show on earth

So I told you that I would write a bit about the process of putting a show on. Well here it is for your reading pleasure.

First- Find your venue. This is important. You want it to be a well recognized place, a place the will invite people. Typically it's a gallery of some sort. You want this because there are a lot of perks built in when a gallery is involved. One is that they have there own mailing list to get people to come to your show.

Second- Try to figure out what your costs are going to be. And think about everything. Food, booze, invitations, promotions, the cost of the venue (maybe), Catalogue of the work being displayed. All these things cost real money. IF your lucky the gallery might throw some of this things in. In our case the invites and some of the booze are part of the package. The venue is free also, but after opening night they charge a 5 cover charge for people to come in and see your work. That's how they recoup there money.

Third- Sponsorship, sponsorship, sponsorship. This is very important, because this show costs. So think about who you might like to have as a sponsor. Don't be afraid to ask. We asked for a beer sponsor only to be turned down. But then we asked some magazines and they gave us great sponsorship. You have to offer them something that is worth wild.

Fourth- Make sure that you have work to show. With us it's not a problem, but that's because it's a group show. A solo show might be harder.

Fifth- Plan out your space. Know the area that you are going to be displaying in. Know how you want your work to be viewed. Know this before hand, it makes it easier than just rocking up the day of and going, Hmmm.. that would look good there and this should go there. Don't be afraid to go out on a limb and do something different. People expect to see your stuff on white plinths 2 inches off the ground and a do not touch sign on it. Plinths are good don't get me wrong, but if you don't want that sterile feeling then do something different.

Sixth- Have a huge opening night, get the press there. Send out press releases 2 weeks before hand. And send them anywhere you can think of. Recently I sent ours to The Furniture Society, Australian Wood review, Fine Woodworking and all the local newspapers. Invite everyone you know to be there. The last thing that you want to happen is nobody to show up.

Seventh- This I just thought of, but the whole goal is to get your name out there and hopefully sell some stuff. Always remember that the gallery is going to mark up your stuff. So price it right. Here the gallery adds on 33% and then a 10% government charge. So if you want 4,000.00 dollars for your coffee table, know that the gallery is going to put a price tag of a little less than 6000.00 on it.

I hope this lays out some of the steps to throwing a show. It's a long and hard process. Especially with a big group of people showing. Everyone has there own opinion on things. For us it's boiled down to putting 2 people in charge to make the major decisions.

So until next time people... Always remember the show must go on..

The rest of the Professional Shots

Well I finally got the rest of my furniture professionally photographed. All the pictures were taken by Misha from Merettie collections. You can find him and his work at www.merzetti.com. For any of you that might live in Queensland Australia, that's where he is. He does great work.

I'm really glad that I got these taken. As I began to realize that I was not going to be able to take any of my work home with me, these pictures became more important. Not just for sentimental reasons, but for future professional reasons also. I spent about 250.00 dollars to have the photos taken, which is far cheaper than 8-10,000 dollars to ship all my furniture back to the states.



So what have I been up to. Preparations for the end of the year exhibition. Myself and a fellow classmate Fiona have been laying out the rooms with all the furniture. There are three rooms to fill. Which won't be hard with 12 students and 4 pieces of furniture each. I tell you the process of setting up a show is crazy. Maybe I'll blog on that this weekend?

Anyways, here are a few shots of my entertainment unit which I have decided to call "Hollow". The reason behind the name is the fact that it's made from the foam torsion box, so it's not solid. Also that it has a lot of open or hollow space.



Check out the rest of the photos by clicking on the gallery of photos. I am just going to add the new ones to that album.

Also I am trying out a new thing called Twitter. You can see little updates on the side bar. They are just quick little updates right now on a daily basis, but soon to be more often. You can go to www.twitter.com and subscribe to receive the updates when they come out. I also just joined up with Facebook so look me up there also.

So until next time people...

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Now playing: Wyclef Jean - Gone Til November
via FoxyTunes

Looking for some inspiration...

Well I'm at home today because it's a holiday here in Tassie. Which holiday is it you might ask? The answer is I have no idea. There are some many holidays here you'd think that people didn't like to work. Anyways I have a little time today so I thought I would post.

So I was thinking over the weekend about the next step in life. Which for most of you know is moving back to the USA. It will also include finding a job that will give me some health insurance and slowly starting my own business. Which will mean setting up a shop and the hole 9 yards.

I started thinking about this little blog that I write. I have really enjoyed this a lot. It has lead to some good opportunities. Like writing for some other blogs like www.woodtalkonline.com. I've been able to learn a little about making and posting videos. Which also is a lot of fun to do.

So I thought this weekend about what the next step for this little blog is. Now that school is pretty much done, what am I going to write about. So I've thought about writing about specific topics. Now I haven't thought about those topics yet, but I will. If there is anything that you all might want me to write about or share my opinion on please let me know. You can either email me, or leave me a comment here on the blog.

I have been keeping track of hits for about 6 months now. The blog is getting about 500 hits a month. Now I know that is not a lot, compared to some blogs. But if you were to tell me a few months ago that 500 people a month would read stuff that I wrote I would have told you that you were crazy. So thanks to all of you that read, I appreciate it. So please let me know what it is that you would like to see happen here over the next few months. What direction should we go and what things we should talk about. Believe me I am extremely flexible.

So have a thought about it and drop me a line.

Until then friends... Keep on Truckin'



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Now playing: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Take Me Home Country Road
via FoxyTunes

A Nice Relaxing Week...

Well this has been a great week. Nothing is due and there were no pressures, it was really nice. I went into the shop on Monday and took a quick video of the unit. Which you all have now seen. I promptly went home, because I could. Then on Tuesday I decided that I should do some work and started to veneer the rest of the parts that I need for my Unit. That didn't take to long, so I looked into my timber rack and noticed that I had some Peruvian walnut left. I also had a few boards of maple. So I decided to make another Wrapped table. Only this time I did a few things different. Instead of cutting hand cut dovetails I cut miters and keyed them. Thinking that this little table might become a production item. So I want to see how fast I can make these. So this new version took me 8 hours. I know I could have done it faster, but I indulged myself and did some hand planing.

With that said, I spent about an hour this week tuning up my hand plane. I had to regrind a new primary angle. Then I put the secondary bevel on it at 30 degrees. Put the blade back into the plane and adjusted everything. Set the blade to a really fine cut and adjusted the mouth. Then I proceeded to use this baby, man did it work beautifully. I forgot how much I love to use hand tools.

Well I had the rest of my pieces professionally photographed today. So I should get those pictures by Tuesday next week. Then I will show you all the new table and the professional photos of "The Unit".

So until then... you scream, I scream, we all scream for Ice cream.

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Now playing: Foo Fighters - DOA
via FoxyTunes

A Video Presentation of "The Unit"

He is a quick video presentation of my entertainment unit. There's not a lot to explain in writing. I hope that you can see it. I'm still working on the quality of the video.




So until next time... Live long and prosper

Presenting... Well I haven't named it yet, but here it is.

So today I finished the entertainment center. I put the doors on and the ball and socket casters. The whole piece got a coat of oil. The doors only have one coat on them at the moment. But the rest of the piece now has 5 coats of oil. I tell you what, I have not had the time with any other project to get more than 2 coats of oil on. Man the more you put on the better things look. I can't believe how this stuff builds up and looks so beautiful.

So all that is left is to get at least 3 more coats of oil on everything and then present it on Friday. Well I still have to build the 4 inner cabinets but that can wait until next week. I also have to come up with a name for this piece. Any suggestions let me know, kalafinefurntiure@gmail.com, or leave a comment.

So until next time... it's all fun and games, until someone gets an eye poked out.


This is a shot of the back.






















Check out the figure in the doors.









Shot of the top of the cabinet


Sorry about the quality of the shots, I hope to get the professional in soon to finish shooting my stuff.