Tag: Gifts

Making usable stuff with fire and dirt.

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

As an update to my original post about the pottery class that Stamps-With-Foot gave me for Christmas, I have made a bunch of little pots and am in the middle of firing and glazing them. Really unhappy with the red glaze that is available, but the milky white one is great, so I am doing the majority of the pots in that color.

I plan to make 8-10 coffee cups, a set of matching puppy water & food bowls, and a number of honey pots before the end of the 10 week course.  I have 4 coffee cups that have handles on them and that are drying now, waiting to be bisque fired. I’ll turn wooden lids and honey dippers for some of the cylinders and give them as Christmas and birthday gifts if they turn out well.

Progress thus far:

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Christmas list for Santa – 2015

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

I already have a bunch of crap, so my first request is that people give to a worthy cause and send me a note about it.  My three favorites and where our charity funds go:

  1. Heifer International:
  2. Doctors Without Borders/MSF
  3. Go give blood and send me a post card
  4. Habitat for Humanity
  5. Diabetes Research

Books:
Campaign Furniture by Chris Schwartz
Theodore Roosevelt: a Strenous Life
A copy of Chris Schwartz’s The Anarchist’s Tool Chest GOT A SIGNED COPY!!  I have a fantastic wife!
I could stand a Kindle Paperwhite
Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America by Jennifer L. Anderson
A volume on handplanes or a tome on traditional woodworking
Twilight at Monticello
Bees of the World by Mitchner
A Lost Art Press volume of The Essential Woodworker
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
James Krenov’s Cabinet Maker’s Notebook
Two Classic books on Shaker Furniture: here and here.

Stuff:
Growler from West Seattle Brewing Co.
Letters from my kids – written on actual paper.
German Wheat Beer is always welcome
A fine bottle of Anejo Tequila
Porto, a good bottle of Porto – Tawny or Ruby.
a Beekeeping Smoker
Zombie shooting targets
An iPad mini – lots of storage (with this you can delete the Kindle)
An Ash Pack Basket (Sling-style harness)
Permission to buy a sweet Faber-Castell Classic fountain pen/Perfect Pencil set
Amber 2ga. Plugs
2ga. Dark Jade plugs
A longboard Skate Board
A handsome tweed vest – or two
Tiffany blue silk tie and matching pocket square
An Electric Violin
Brown Redwing Engineer’s boots
These new bad-ass cufflinks
A Global Chef’s knife, Sashimi knife, and bread knife
Classic Cartoon DVDs (Wanrner Bros., Tex Avery, Bugs, Tom&Jerry, Loony Toons, Road Runner, etc…)

Tools:
A huge antique pattern lathe found in a barn on a dirt road 🙂
A pair of 1/2 round molding planes
A Pair of Snipe Bill molding planes
A 1.75 – 3Hp SawStop Table Saw
A Grizzly G0602 Benchtop Lathe

12/28/15 UPDATE:
I had a great Christmas: A full stocking, books, beer glasses, stuff from my list (noted above), my family got great stuff, I got to see the kids and my grand-daughter, we were all warm and safe, and I gave a little to charity. I couldn’t have asked for or hoped for more.

Last Project in Seattle Shop for a While

/ Matt Talley / Leave a comment

Just before we left Seattle for Toulouse, Stamps-With-Foot and I went to San Francisco to secure our French Visas. While there, we spent an afternoon visiting friends and family. At one point, we found ourselves at my wife’s non-biological little sister’s house (Becca) and I noticed a couple of chunks of wood sitting out on her patio. My wood lust made me wonder over and take a look… HOLY CRAP! She had 4 huge chunks of Aromatic Cedar Burl – like $450+ in exotic wood sitting out in the rain. I immediately ran inside and told her to get it on eBay right then. She and her husband found the chunks sitting on the side of the road with the trash and just picked them up. I tried explaining to her how awesome and rare her find was, but Becca didn’t really have the will/time/interest to sell the pieces to some other lumber-jock and I was told to take some home if I wanted it.

I argued.
I tried to tell her how to sell it.
She was firm.
What was I to do??
I packed two hunks into a diaper box, taped it up, and checked it as luggage on the flight home.

The wood was a little wet still, but I couldn’t help myself – I HAD to cut into it to see what the figure looked like. I was a little heart sick on the first cut when my saw hit rotten heart wood. I managed to cut out a few (6) big wedges and a couple of blocks. I sanded one of the wedges smooth and applied a little walnut oil and OH MY!! I do not believe that I have ever fallen in love with a hunk of raw wood before that instant! I didn’t have the time to really do anything detailed, so I cleaned up the two sanded wedges and brought them in the house for bookends and left the other bits to dry and season in the garage until we move back and I can give them a some proper attention. I will make a little lidded bowel for Becca and maybe some bookends out of the other sections for her dad.