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
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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
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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
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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.

Sliding Doors and stuff...

Well so faar this week has been good. The class decided to work late tonight, but I worked a normal day and came home. I'm a firm believer that if you plan right and put in a full days work, you'll get everything done. With that said, I didn't plan right, because I haven't gotten the 4 cabinets that go on the inside of the main cabinet done yet. But I realized this about 3 weeks ago and made plans with the lecturer. Those will get done next week.

But as for yesterday and today, a lot has happened. We use this finishing oil here from a company called Livos. They produce the only finishing oil endorsed by Green Peace. It is an oil that is 100% natural. It's derived from plants. So recently they introduced a colored oil range. So that you can use it like a stain. So I decided to use a Dark Walnut color on my case. I've used Blackwood veneers, and Blackwood is a lot like Koa wood from Hawaii. So it is a brown wood, but not really a drak wood. I wanted to make it a little darker. This oil is the finishing oil with color. So I really don't think it made a huge difference in the overall color of the wood. But the piece has come out dark like I wanted.

Today I fit the doors into there sliding grooves and cut out the handles. So the doors work like a charm and they can be removed if needed. So I'll get them on there tomorrow for good and continue oiling. At the moment I have 4 coats of oil on. I have never had enough time to every get more than 2 coats on before. And man it builds so nicely and is looking really sweet.

I also got 4 ball and socket casters to put on the bottom so that the whole piece can be easily moved around. So those will get installed tomorrow and "Bob's you Uncle"

So until then... "Bob's your Uncle" means Then it'll be all good.

Friday- one week left and counting...

I know that I have been post crazy these last few days, but lots happening these days. I told you that I got the case glued up yesterday. So here are a couple of shots of the clamp monster. This thing took 24 clamps in total.

Well it came out of the clamps this morning and into the show room to be prepped for finishing. And that's what I spent the day doing today. I spent the entire day scraping off veneer tape, because I didn't want to risk sanding through. Then I think I spent something like 5 hours sanding. But it was good, because I got a coat of oil on the outside of the carcass tonight. I prefinished the inside of the cabinet, but it still needs another good sanding and the dividers haven't received any oil yet either. But the school is open tomorrow and I should get everything sanded back again and another coat of oil on.
















Next big thing is going to be getting the doors ready and fit to the case. For those of you that have forgotten or might not know. The doors are on the front and the back and they will slide in grooves. So this should be interest. Wish me luck, and I'll keep you all updated.

Until then... where's that ginger beer, it is Friday right?

GLUE UP is Done...

Well the glue-up is done. Man was it a stressful event. Hence the reason I am listening to some relaxing Beach Boys music. I had to coordinate this glue and it worked like clock work.

First it was spread the expoy on all the surfaces that needed glue. Then systematically I had to put 8 pieces together in there proper places and also get clamps everywhere. I didn't have the camera, but I will get a few shots of time clamped up tomorrow. It's a site to see.

So until tomorrow... Liger, half lion and half tiger, it's probably my favorite animal


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Now playing: The Beach Boys - Kokomo
via FoxyTunes

Progess on the entertainment center...

So what's happening with the current project. Well it's been a good couple of days. I spent Monday fixing a mistake that I made so that frustrated me to know end. But yesterday and today were really good days.

Yesterday I cut all the joinery for the piece. I used the Domino machine and cut everything that I needed. So I was able to dry fit the carcass and the dividers together. This thing is massive looking. Well it is just massive. 2 meters long, that's around 6 and half feet long. It's 600 mm tall, that's about 2 feet and it's 500 mm deep, which is about 20 inches. So this thing is big and I like it.






Today I got all the veneer ready for the doors. I used a really sweet fiddle back blackwood. The color of the veneer should be a little different to the rest of the piece. Thus letting the doors just stand out. I hope it works. I also cut all the grooves for the doors to slide in.

So the goal for tomorrow is to get this baby glued up. Also I hope to get the doors veneered up. And then it's veneer the rest of the inner cabinet parts and putting those together. So I hope to have all that done by Saturday. Since for the first time this year the school is going to be open on Saturday. But we all need the extra time.

So until next time... beam me up Scottie, there's no intellgent life here.

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Now playing: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Take Me Home Country Road
via FoxyTunes
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Man what a difference a professional makes...

As a second year group we are planning our graduation exhibition. Part of this planning involves getting the venue and planning how to lay things out. Getting sponsorships and things like that. I have been lucky enough to get sponsorship from a few people. InDesign magazine being one of the few. They are going to give us some post exhibition coverage. With this sponsorship we have to come p with some print material in order to put peoples logos on.

So we are in the process of making a catalogue and some invitations and a few posters. In order to do all this we have to get our furniture photographed. We decided to get it done by a professional. Man when someone knows what they are doing, the results are great. So here are a few pictures. I have uploaded the rest onto my Picasa web album. Here's the link to the album. Let me know what you think.

Professional Photos of my work

Until next time... now you know and knowing is half the battle.

Veneer have you been...

This was a pretty good week. I think that I got a lot done. But no where near as much as I hoped to. The veneering process takes a lot longer than I thought it would. So what did I get done this week. Well most of you have seen the other post. I finally got all the solid lipping on all the pieces. That was a huge feet.

I also finished veneering the entire outer carcass this week. I took that as a huge win for the week. This means that while other pieces are in the vacuum press I can cut joinery on the outer case and get it ready for glue up. I've decided to use a 2 part cross-linking PVA glue. It's a glue that gives me a little more open time than regular yellow wood glue. But it dries just as fast. So I can put something into the presses and take it out within 2 hours. Then once out of the press, it cures. I needed to use this glue for time reasons. It means I can rotate pieces fast. I don't have the luxury of time these days. With only 2 weeks of build time left. Things have to move fast.

So the goals for next week: Get the outer carcass together and glued up. Finish veneering all the pieces. Hopefully get the inner cabinets made. But at the moment that is a second thought.

So until next time all... Remember only you can prevent forest fires...

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Now playing: Wyclef Jean - party to damascus
via FoxyTunes

Don't give me any Lip

Well I finally finished lipping all the pieces to this unit. It only took about 4 days. With that said I did do other things in between as well. I didn't spend an entire 4 days just doing that. But I did lip all the MDF panels and then thickness sand them through the drum sander. So that everything comes out even.












This morning I spent about 4 hours stitching, that's right I said stitching. Since this entire project is going to be veneered, I had to stitch together all the veneer that I am going to use. That meant first jointing both edges straight. Then with a bit of masking tape I had to put the pieces together. Then on the "Show Side" of the veneer I applied the veneer tape. I had to stitch together 3 pieces at a time, and there were 36 pieces to do. Needless to say it took a little while. But it was like meditation, once you got into the rhythm it was really nice. Plus I picked a nice quite spot in the school to use. Which is a lot harder to actually do than it sounds. So first thing tomorrow I start veneering the parts. I hope to get everything veneered by Monday next week. Because time is flying, From Monday there is only 2 weeks of build and finishing time left.

So until next friends... spider-pig spider-pig doing whatever it is that a spider-pig can do.

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Now playing: Salt and Pepper - Push it
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Weekend is here have a can of Gingerbeer...

Man am I looking forward to this weekend. Two reasons, and break from building and the quarter finals of The Rugby World Cup start.

You all know from the last post what the week entailed for me. Today was no different, I spent the morning in my Computer rendering class. With some good success I think. What do you think?



























Then I went back to the school to finish up my torsion boxes that I told you all about. I first had to cut the foam into pieces to fit the individual sections. Then I glued them into place, and it was of to the drum sander. I had to send them through a few times to get them all the same thickness. But that all work like I planned it to. I then cut the top skin put some glue down and laid the tops on and stacked loads of MDF on top to weigh it all down.

















So week one is done, and only 3 weeks of build and finishing time left. Lots of work to be done, but for know there's lots of Rugby to be watched. Go All Blacks

Until next time people.... Time for that Ginger Beer.

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Now playing: Natasha Bedingfield - These Words
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Solid lipping and more solid lips...

So I know it's been almost a week since the last update. And man has it been a busy one. The week started with finishing up all my drawings and my cut list. Once that was done then it was on. I spent a day cutting up all the MDF for all the dividers and inner cabinets and the rail in the back and the front and back doors.

Next I decided that I wanted to make the outer frame or carcass a more substantial thickness. But I really worried about weight, this thing is 2 meters long which is about 6 feet. And it's about 18 inches wide and 2 feet tall. So I wanted to make it about 1 1/2 inches thick. But man would that be heavy. So I thought about it for a little bit. Then came to the conclusion that I would build the outer frame as a torsion box. But not your normal torsion box, because that would still be pretty heavy. So I am going to be using a Styrofoam core torsion box. I don't actually have any pictures of that yet. The foam gets here tomorrow, so I will have them for the weekend update. But I made a small sample box, and man is it strong as. I jumped up and down on it with all 255 pounds of me. And it didn't dent a bit.




So that is how I spent Monday, building the beginnings of the torsion box and cutting all the components. The next 3 days I have been cutting solid lipping for all the components. Then I had to attach them. So to do this meant to cut miters on every piece. Then I would use the disc sander with a 45 degree guide and just touch up the cuts and size the pieces so that they fit perfectly. Man that took about a day longer than I thought it would. But it was really nice, just working and not having to talk to anyone and not be bothered either.



So tomorrow I'll finish the torsion box and then have to apply the solid lipping to those pieces. Then comes the fun part, veneering. But I'll talk about that next week.

So until next time people.... I have to go Hero's is about to start.
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Now playing: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Over the Rainbow
via FoxyTunes

Monday we start working...

So like last week this week has been a lot of design work still. But that ended today with a final presentation of our design. I finally settled on making an entertainment center. This unit will have some modular elements to it. Inside the cabinet there will be 3 if not 4 separate smaller cabinets that will be movable and removable. They will be able to hold components and DVDs.

The front will have 2 doors that slide along the length of the cabinet. This allows you to put the doors anywhere you want. Also there will be 2 sliding back panels for the same purpose.

We were to be inspired by something Australian. I choose the fact that I think that the people here are a very industrious people. They are hard working and have a very hands on approach to things. So this piece gives the user a chance to move things around and set it up the way that they like. The inspiration was meant to be subtle.

But I get to start work on Monday. Which will be nice, since there is a lot of work to be done. I will be using veneer for the entire piece. Which means a lot of work, putting solid lipping on all the boards. Then just making veneer lay-ons will take a good many hours. Especially sense I plan to do a random veneer pattern on the front sliding doors. We shall see how it all goes. Believe me there will be lots of updates and photos during this project. So keep coming back for more.

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Now playing: Gorillaz Feat. De La Soul - Feel Good Inc
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