The wood is starting to tell me...

... What kind of a chair it wants to be. It turns out that it wants to be a bit different than what I had in mind for it. It wants to be more rustic and natural. Maybe not THIS rustic, but definitely not refined. Looks like I'll need to go out and find a more appropriate piece of seat wood than what I have on hand.
Der Holz fingt an, mir zu erzählen was für ein Stuhl er will werden. Nicht genau was ich plannte, eher primitiv und natur gemass. Da muss ich jetzt ein Sitzbrett aussuchen der mehr geeignet ist als was ich schon habe.

The black locust tree was cut down last year and is truthfully now too dry for this technique, but I can still work with it. It is also more knotty than is preferred. My wood guy and I are just getting to know one another though and he seems to have an understanding of what I'm doing and should be able to supply me with wood more suited to my needs in the future, which reminds me, he was looking at felling an Elm last week, I need to call him.

Das Blacklocustbaum war im vergangene Jahr gefällt und wirklich ist schon zu ausgetrocknet für dies Technik aber ich kann noch damit was anfangen. Er ist auch knotiger als gemöcht. Mein Holzmann und ich aber nur angefangen haben uns zu kennen, er schaint aber zu verstehen was ich tue und soll zukunftiger mir ausstatten können mit was ich brauche. Da erinnere ich, er hat ein Ulm angeschaut dass er fallen würde, ich muss ihm anrufen.

(click on any image to enlarge it)

I have the two arms and crest rail roughed out. I really want to keep the rustic edge of darker wood even though I know it isn't really very sound wood, but then I'm not an expert chairmaker and am allowed to do things "wrong". (can you see the mischevious smile of the creative rather than technique oriented guy?)
Die 2 Armlehne und der Gipfelkamm sind schon grob entworfen. Ich will den dunkler Holz am Randen haben, auch wenn ich weiss das er nicht genau vernünftig ist. Ich bin aber kein Expert und kann was "falsch" tun. (könnt ihr der schelmischer Lächeln der eher kreativ als techniker Mann hier sehen?)
I have also built a rooting frame for rooting cuttings from various trees and shrubs from around the garden. Hopefully some of the cuttings will strike and turn into potential material for future bonsai. It's an old cement mixing trough that had gotten holes in it. I built up a wooden frame on top of it and have an old window over it to create a kind of mini greenhouse.

Ich habe auch ein Minipflanzhaus gebaut worin ich hoffe die Abschneidungen von Bäumer und Buschen Wurzeln zu schlagen würden. Die würden zukunftiger potenzial Bonsai werden.

What's up Lars?

Yesterday Geoff and I went to the annual Bonsai exhibit at the Portland Japanese gardens.

I've been collecting some tree and shrub seedlings from around our garden. maybe some day a couple of them will have the potential to become Bonsai.
Meanwhile I've knocked together some old scrap wood into molds for making some paper/cement training pots.
I'll do a post later on the pots.

I've also got my log soaking to keep it wet until I start making chair parts.
And I'm warming up the soil to get ready tp put in the tomatoes.
I've almost used up the warp I have on the loom and will soon be able to wind on a new one, one which will hopefully be evenly tensioned across the loom.

It's spring you know, it's time to get involved with as many projects as possible;D

wood fibers

It's spring, it will soon be time to hang out in the yard after work and on weekends. Naturally any red blooded guys thoughts turn to woodworking at this time of year. I went to a local wood yard this morning and came away with a chunk of black locust wood.

Let's see how it splits out.

This is a selection of similar versions of my goal.
I'll let you all know how it goes.