Got BORED, so carved a quick TIKI.

[grizz]

I was busy with the Cigar Box Guitar build today.

Did everything I could on it, up to a point, then I ran out of stuff to do, and did not want to start making the new Diddley Bow, as there is too much dust around.

I dug out a building block from my stash of weird "I am sure I will use it sometime" pile.
I had found it up on the farm a few months ago, on their road repairs pile of building rubble that they crush and break to fill holes on the roads and to stop tractors sinking in etc.

This was actually inspired by DeliDave when I visited him and saw the stuff he had carved from blocks and various other materials.

So I drew a basic TIKI face onto it, and went and sat on the stair outside the shed (Trust me it was cold) and started gently chisseling away the bits I did not want.





This carving I did as a surprise for Nicola, who once again has tollerated me and my ketting sucked into making stuff and losing touch with reality.
It will be a garden ornament in one of her garden beds and allowed to age and get covered with moss over time.



Brought it into the house once done and plonked it in the kitchen on the table and called Nicola, who seemed pretty pleased with it.

I tried to photograph it, but the flash tends to mess with it, and without flash its a bit dark in the kitchen.






Hope to get back onto the Cigar Box Guitar build tomorrow then.

[Time Out]

Hi Rian,

Happy New Year my friends,

You are such an inspiration to me with all the varied projects that you and your new bride set your hands to. After a full year of recovery from my spinal surgery, I am still in a reasonable amount of pain but very slowly and steadily getting better. Your ideas and accomplishments amaze and encourage me to keep busy in my shop. Thank you so much for keeping on sharing your life and projects with all of us.

One of my wife's relatives was an orchestra leader/conductor and a very fine finish carpenter from the turn of the Century. He did the very fancy inlays in ornate RR coaches in the Midwestern US. Linda and I inherited many of his carpentry tools, such as planes, gouges, saws, and even a few of the tools that he had learned to cast in steel during his apprenticeship program when he was a young man. I even found the steel stamp that he used to stamp his J.B.K initials on many of his tools! They had gotten a bit rusty over the years since he passed on and I have taken on the responsibility of carefully cleaning up and putting these fine old tools back into usable service condition. I have learned so much from doing this and have developed a love affair with these old vintage tools and will continue to use them. He would have wanted it that way. I am also rebuilding and strengthening a 14"x40" wood HF lathe and then learn how to do something with it.

I hope your work situation improves this new year! Keep inspiring us

Your friends from California - Clyde and Linda

[grizz]

Hi Rian,

Happy New Year my friends,

You are such an inspiration to me with all the varied projects that you and your new bride set your hands to. After a full year of recovery from my spinal surgery, I am still in a reasonable amount of pain but very slowly and steadily getting better. Your ideas and accomplishments amaze and encourage me to keep busy in my shop. Thank you so much for keeping on sharing your life and projects with all of us.

One of my wife's relatives was an orchestra leader/conductor and a very fine finish carpenter from the turn of the Century. He did the very fancy inlays in ornate RR coaches in the Midwestern US. Linda and I inherited many of his carpentry tools, such as planes, gouges, saws, and even a few of the tools that he had learned to cast in steel during his apprenticeship program when he was a young man. I even found the steel stamp that he used to stamp his J.B.K initials on many of his tools! They had gotten a bit rusty over the years since he passed on and I have taken on the responsibility of carefully cleaning up and putting these fine old tools back into usable service condition. I have learned so much from doing this and have developed a love affair with these old vintage tools and will continue to use them. He would have wanted it that way. I am also rebuilding and strengthening a 14"x40" wood HF lathe and then learn how to do something with it.

I hope your work situation improves this new year! Keep inspiring us

Your friends from California - Clyde and Linda

Hi Clyde, thanks a lot for the lovely words.

I guess, even though I am on a year contract, which will end at the end of August, unless they see reason to employ me (Like if the girl I am covering for, decides not to come back to work from maternity leave) , we are still in a fortunate place, both of us are able and willing to work, and I can do stuff to either keep busy, or do whatever needs to be done, be that manual labour, factory work etc.

I love the old tools, some of them its just their sheer beauty, some it is their purpose.

I am glad you are keeping busy.

I think I may have mentioned it before, my brother told me while I was unemployed "You were not born to be idle" which i guess is my mantra.

I am just prepared to give stuff a try, sometimes just to show I can, and sometimes, like with this TIKI today, to give Nicola something of an ornament for the garden, which I think both impressed and surprised her..... she did not realise I could/would try sculpting or whatever you would call this thing.

Again, maybe a repost, but someone on VZi and www.ukgser.com commented on my sandals, which I wear in snow as well, so I gathered a few pics from various other threads over time, just for ammusement.


Grizz's Patented Toe-Teckters

Some more illustrations of function.






Job done.







Lowering the Fiesta seats for my bus..... more action.



Out of sight, but the same principle continues.



Even test riding the products of my experimentation.



Sometimes I use a size 11 clamp for woodwork, note, non toe-teckter use.




Guess the doctor will see me now ??

[StPatron]

Guess the doctor will see me now ??

Nope. He said he had to leave to attend to an emergency and then raced out the door. You're supposed to come back next month.

Funny, I noticed that too. The comment about the brutal cold in combination with the sandals. While the sandals have remained one of your trademarks, I haven't seen the zippered coveralls lately. Did Nicola burn those? Ya know how many wives don't appreciate the value of grungy work clothes. The white lab coat is a nice touch, also. Is that how you were able to sneak away from the asylum?

Nice work with the sculpting, Grizz Rodin. I've had busted that stone in half on the first strike. Seriously, now. Thanks for sharing yet another project with us.

[grizz]

Guess the doctor will see me now ??

Nope. He said he had to leave to attend to an emergency and then raced out the door. You're supposed to come back next month.

Funny, I noticed that too. The comment about the brutal cold in combination with the sandals. While the sandals have remained one of your trademarks, I haven't seen the zippered coveralls lately. Did Nicola burn those? Ya know how many wives don't appreciate the value of grungy work clothes. The white lab coat is a nice touch, also. Is that how you were able to sneak away from the asylum?

Nice work with the sculpting, Grizz Rodin. I've had busted that stone in half on the first strike. Seriously, now. Thanks for sharing yet another project with us.

Hey Gary, it's 11.26 here, should be in bed by now, Nicola crashed out at 10pm.

The zippered overall, is in the garage, it tends to get used with welding etc.

I have a T-Shirt and fleec hoodie under the lab coat, which was donated by one of the secretaries from their "scrapped" pile. No idea why, seems perfectly functional to me.

WRT the grungy clothes, Nicola again is a saint, she will wash and dry them every night, and has learned that I tend to use the sleeves and front as wiping surfaces for glue, paint, silicone, blood etc.

I love sharing, because I get to see so much on here, and the carving came from Deli Dave, or Jackdaw as he is known on here.
When I visited him and his wife at the end of last year, he showed me all the stuff he had carved.... and he is good.... so I had to at least give it a try, and running out of stuff to do on the CBG today when I had inlaid the coins, meant I had to get started.

I hope to start assembling electrics and parts tomorrow, maybe even take the strings in and ask that guy at the music shop to set it up and give it a play.

Right, bed time.

Cheers. Rian.

[grizz]

Took a pic in daylight today, gets a better perspective of detail.