Sage (e-P IV a&b)

I have just finished two new vessels that I would like to tell you about and show several photos.  The reason I'm presenting these two together is they are identical twins except for size.  The empty   containers  are blue gin bottles, Bombay Blue Sapphire,  one large and one smaller.

Before we get into my construction techniques, I will explain why the word sage is included in the post title.  Sage brush wood is the main decorative wood used in these art pieces.  I was fascinated by the shapes exposed when a cross-cut was made in this wood.  The color and grain pattern are very pleasant.  I collected this wood while living in Wenatchee, Washington.  This was in 1979 when I had just  married   JoAnn.   We built in the foothills above the city.  It was a fun time and we loved our home that we had designed.  Here is a quick peek at Apatchablue, the name we gave our home.  The vacant property next door had sage brush growing over it as seen in this winter photo.  Due to  a job change we began living in a Spokane apartment five days a week and spending weekends in our Apatchablue in Wenatchee.  One summer weekend we returned to Apatchablue to find the adjacent property had burned, and just sage stumps remained on the blackened hillside.  We found that our neighbors had kept the fire from jumping to our home.  I gathered the sage stumps for future art work and these e-P vessels are the first opportunity I have taken to use the wood.  As I worked the wood it gave off a strong smoke odor and some of the segments in the vessels have slight scorched edges still visable.  After all those years these factors are a strong reminder of how lucky we were to have good neighbors.

                                                                                  
I decided to encase the blue bottles in wood, fashioned with a pointed top and extended access to the opening of the container.  The entire surfaces of these boxed bottles was fiber glassed and then the wood pieces were attaches.  Mahogany strips were used to outline and divide space on the flat surfaces.  The same strips were used to cover the pointed sections.  As in other vessels, the resin grout was worked in all spaces between the wood segments and strips.  An orbital sander was used to work all flat sides into smooth surfaces.  A drum sander on a hand drill shaped the tapered round tops.  Voids in the grout were filled at this point and more sanding leveled out the surface. After this rough sanding, plenty of time was taken to work the surfaces down to a fine finish.  Much of this was done by hand with successive finer grades of paper until 400 grade finished the piece, ready for rubbed oil and wax coats.


You will notice I turned mahogany stoppers for each vessel.  I have an old wood lathe that I purchased as surplus property from the high school where I was teaching early in my career.  It has worked fine for me the many past years.  I have several other vessels under construction that require lathe work.

This pair of vessels measure 20" and 26" in height.  Their base dimensions are 4" and 5" square respectively.  In closing I wish to mention that this big/little twin option will be used on several other vessel designs, when I find appropriate  empty vessels.  It is a unique way to produce sets that may attract buyers.  They could be priced separately or per pair.  These were fun to make and I plan to devise another project that uses sage segments.  If there are questions you have relative to this post. please contact me;   also I would appreciate knowing if you have done similar work.  I enjoy sharing.   Ed

Our House-Pet, a Cat and Grand Dog

Our cat is the ideal pet for busy people with limited time to accomplish the many project we have scheduled for ourselves.  Of course our artwork is a priority and writing books and processing the many steps to their publication is a close second.  We are active with social media which involves development and maintenance of our Web site, posting regularly on our blogs and participating with Facebook, Good reads,Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and Amazon's author page.  What time is left to take care of pets?

This is our "Grand Dog."  We enjoy his friendly acceptance and on occasion wild antics when we visit him at our grand daughter and her mom's place across town.  He is a Shibaimu with a sophisticated attitude.

                            Pumpkin

Our cat is a different story.  We don't feed or water him at all and the only requirement is that we admire him when we notice him.  You may wonder how we find time to notice him.  One concern is that you will think poorly of us for allowing him to get so skinny.  He has always looked this way but don't let it fool you.  He has a backbone of steel and never utters a word of complaint.  I think we will keep him.  Meet our cat.

Little Red Pot (e-P IX)

I have been making smaller vessels primarily because of limited shop space in our down-sized new home and my physical limitations won't allow wrestling the six foot plus, 150 to 300  pound vessels around as was my former creative style.  I have also started a new line of vessels that use cast-off containers for the internal cavity.  This method which I have dubbed, empty-Promises or e-P for short has been explained in previous posts and in detail in the last section of my book, "Unique Vessels: How Do You Make These Things?  It can be accessed on my web page at Apatchablue. com.

This post is focused on one of these e-P vessels, just completed this past week.  The empty container used is an olive jar as shown here.


 The exterior shape of the jar was modified with the addition of Styrofoam rings.  I chose a unique wood I had in my collection that had a smooth gray bark and a natural red colored wood.  I'm not sure what type of tree these limbs came from, but by asking around and showing the leaf and seed structure to the experts their diagnosis was a unique Eucalyptus tree.

When all parts came together and an oil/wax finish was applied the results are as shown below.

Full Moon Rising

I have always been impressed with some of the fine wall hangings that used a backing fabric and colored threads to create a picture.  They are called tapestry and I viewed them as painting a picture with fabric.  I wanted to try a similar process but with wood.  I constructed frames with Masonite backing for six pieces of varying dimensions.  The largest was 4' x 3' and 1"deep.  It was an impressionistic desert view using wood from the desert.

The second piece completed was a smaller 2' x 2', more realistic work called "Full Moon Rising".  It is the last one completed to date, however plans are developed for several others in this series which I call wood tapestry.

The photo of the last wood tapestry is shown on the right and I will point out construction details.   At the outset I must give credit to my wife, JoAnn, for the color scheme and painting.  We plan to collaborate on future pieces in this series.  The mountain and cloud shapes are made of elm wood.  The mountains pieces are cut like puzzle pieces and fastened with screws from the back.

The wood used along the bottom edge of the scene is Catclaw mimosa or "wait-a-minute" bush as dubbed locally.  The re-curved spines resemble a cats claw, hence the common name.  The rational for the nick name is obvious when you try walking through a thicket of this brush. The bush doesn't get large, but the wood has an interesting shape.  The sapwood is a light yellowish white and heart wood a deep reddish brown as shown unpainted in the wood tapestry above.

The curved yellow stick outlining the moon contains the many short pieces of saguaro ribs.  This gives the moon a myriad of craters.  The moon's light rays are simulated by the painted sections of saguaro rib.

I have enjoyed the simplicity and bright color scheme of this piece and it has drawn numerous positive comments.

Ed & JoAnn's website  <apatchablue.com>

Merging Tennessee and Montana e-P IIX

The fragrance of Tennessee Red Cedar has always intrigued me as hard to mistake for any other wood with the exception of Juniper Cedar that grows in Montana.  You may have come in contact with the red cedar from Tennessee, used in hope chests or as closet lining.  The distinctive aroma comes from the oil in the wood and most bugs don't like it, so it prevents them from chewing on your clothing or important belongings.

I grew up in southeastern Montana where Juniper Cesar turned the bland countryside into interesting patches of dark green and sometimes a silver tree.  They tend to grow on the walls of canyons and provided a totally different atmosphere.  I can still imagine their evergreen fragrance on a hot day.  We used the dead limbs and trees for fire wood.  They were dragged up out of the canyon and taken home to our woodpile.  As I remember it now, some good sized logs were cut into firewood lengths and split into smaller pieces.  The Juniper Cedar aroma from the split wood was very similar to the Tennessee wood.  Some of the straight pieces were saved for fence posts that would last many years in the ground. I decided it was time to get these two woods together in one of my e-P vessels.  This vessel has a plastic lining (a tonic bottle) so it can be used to hold liquids.

I made two of these vessels over plastic tonic water bottles, one the large 2 liter container and the other a smaller version.  Dimensions of each are as follows:  Large vessel 13.5" tall x 6.5" diameter,  small vessel  11" tall x 5" diameter.  The Tennessee Red Cedar wood was used in the base, central strips and rings as well as the top structure including the removable cap.  The sections of end grain pieces of small Montana Juniper Cedar limbs make up the remaining surface decoration.  In case you are wondering what e-P vessel stands for there is an earlier post that details this.  This last photo shows the relative size of these two vessels.
                                                           

Black resin holds all the wood pieces in place.  After the surfaces were worked down and sanded smooth, an oil finish was rubbed on and when dry, paste wax was applied and buffed.

Baked Apple

In the community of Summer Haven, nestled high in the Catalina Mountains above Tucson, stood a Gravenstein Apple tree.  Records indicated it had been planted over one hundred years ago.  It flourished and grew into a large tree.  The residents of Summer Haven enjoyed the fine fruit it produced year after year.  The stamina of the tree impressed the town’s people and they cared for it during the dry years, pruned it to give it shape and kept traffic and building away from its roots.  One thing that could not be controlled was the forest fire that swept through the town on a dry, windy day.  It burned the heart wood in the trunk and larger limbs,  but the apple tree did not die.  The outer layer of green wood continued to furnish nutrition to the top branches and eventually grew over and around the fire damaged surfaces.  The people were profoundly impressed at the will to live this tree exhibited after being ravaged by the fire and they soon were enjoying its fruit again.

In recent years a second major forest fire raged across the CatalinaMountains burning for days and destroying all that was in its path.  The little town of Summer Haven lost many of the summer cabins and most of the business district.  After the smoke had cleared and the damage assessed, the majority of the residents started to rebuild.  Funds appropriated by the county were designated to construct a community center with 1% of the total allocated for art work.  A committee was formed to establish goals and regulations for use of these 1% funds.  A call went out nationally for artists to submit their proposals for art they could provide at Summer Haven.  A sub committee was soon established by those who felt strongly that the art should relate to the apple tree that had suffered further damage in this fire.  It was still clinging to life but there was doubt about how long it could sustain this fight.  The owner of the lodge on whose property the tree grew planned to rebuild.  He had given notice he would have to remove the tree when construction started.  The sub committee wanted to incorporate the tree in the community center design.  This concept was of interest to our Apatchablue Studio, so a proposal was drawn up and JoAnn and I started attending meetings of the committees.  JoAnn developed a sketch of a large wall relief of an apple tree constructed with apple wood from the Summer Haven tree.  If accepted we planned to develop it in more detail.  We received word that our proposal was one of three chosen.  One of the other artists was local and the other was from the east.  We were all invited to meet with the committee and give more detail on what we planned to do.  The committee would also give us a timeline for the work and an idea of funding.  We were invited to travel to Summer Haven to view the area of the proposed community center.  While there we got a first hand look at the apple tree.  It was a pathetic sight but still had some green leaves in the top.

The local fire crew was called to cut off some dangerous limbs and low brush.   The sub committee lobbied for major visibility of the tree.  They wanted it brought into the main lobby of the community center and dismissed our plan to build a  wall relief tree from wood gathered from the old tree.  The architect working on the plan for the building was against having the actual tree placed in the lobby and we agreed with him that  it wasn't a beautiful thing and much too large for the space.  He suggested we explore decorating the front of the reception desk with the apple tree design.  He gave us information about the size and composition of the reception desk, so we were back at the drawing board.

The situation was becoming frustrating as time went on and the two committees battled back and forth over the treatment of the tree.  In the meantime we were given a pickup load of the apple wood trimmed from the tree, so that we could develop a mock-up of the decorative treatment of the reception desk.  JoAnn had developed a sketch of this plan and indicated what price we were asking for the work.  I was busy fabricating the mock-up which took several weeks.  When we were ready for our “show and tell” session with the committees we gathered copies of our proposal and the mock-up, and after a rehearsal headed for the meeting.  It went well and the committee asked us to wait outside while it was discussed.  The final outcome was, they liked the idea, but the money was the problem.  They were also searching ways to fund the art of the other artist’s proposals.  An auction night was one fund raising idea scheduled to occur in the next month.  I agreed to make wooden apples from the apple wood we had gathered from the tree, to be auctioned off that night.

Mock-up of counter

It eventually became obvious that Apatchablue Studio would not be offered a contract to develop our ideas.  We kept the Summer Haven apple tree wood and    
" Baked Apple" was the first vessel fabricated with it.  Slices from a unique section of a limb, showing the burned surface and the subsequent growth around it are the featured design on both sides of this vessel.  Baked Apple was accepted in the 18^th International Society of Experimental Artists show in Bethlehem, PA., starting on 8/29/09.  Unfortunately I broke my hip and wasn't able to pack and ship the piece to the show.  The only other show this vessel has been viewed in was the Annual Members Juried exhibition at Tubac,Arizona.  The Tubac Center for the Arts selected Baked Apple for their 2009 show starting 11/20/09.  Additional pieces will be developed in the future using this Summer Haven apple wood.  Baked Apple is now a part of my pilot son's collection.  He flies for Western Airlines.

Baked Apple

Antique Wood Lathe (e-P III)

A woodworker or an artist usually has a favorite tool.  Over time this love affair may become quite strong.  In my case our ranch home didn't have electricity nor did the country school I attended through the 7th grade have a shop.  In the 8th grade wood shop I attended in city school they had a wood lathe.  I didn't get a chance to use it but watched other students turn out round objects that fascinated me.  As a high school freshman AG student I was given an assignment to turn a mallet head and handle out of solid oak.  I had plenty of guidance so it turned out perfect in my eyes.  I have kept that mallet in my tools all these years and it is shown in the photo below.

The lathe you see behind my mallet is an old wood lathe I bought from the Medical  Lake school district when they were building a new shop and high school.  When I started teaching there in 1958 my wood shop was in one of the school bus stalls in the garage.  I took the job because of the promise of a new facility to teach in the next year.  It was a fantastic facility with all new furniture and  tools.  I had a bank of three new wood lathes so the school sold the old equipment and I got a good deal on the lathe.  It was old and had seen a lot of hard use but with a few new parts and a good cleaning I had a lathe that has served me well all of these years.  I have several projects in construction and others planned that involve lathe work of varying degrees.  One of my vessels that was completed recently is e-P IV shown on the right below.

This vessel has a plastic water bottle as an inner lining and alternating rings of maple and walnut were fit around it.  Each ring was buttered with thickened dark resin and placed on top of the previous ring.  No hole was cut in the bottom ring so it made a secure base.  Smaller rings were used at the top and the central hole was cut to fit the neck of the water bottle.  This assembled block of wood was centered in the lathe when all joints were set and dry.  Shaping the vessel and sanding it smooth on the lathe was the pleasant task of seeing an object of beauty emerge from the rough wood block.  The photos below show the various elements of my e/p Vessel.

e-P Vessel I

The common dictionary definition for vessel is a type of hollow container used for holding liquids.  What then is an e/P vessel?

Over the past thirty years of my artwork career I have created numerous vessels, but few ever were intended to hold liquids.  At this point I am planning a series of vessels that will meet the criteria of holding liquids.  But what is this c/P business?  In a way it notes my wish to join in the movement to clean up our environment;  to join in the green movement;  to save the planet.  Whee! I got a little carried away there, but seriously,  think of the tons of glass and plastic containers that go in the dump every day.  Yes, I know there has been some progress made with recycling these items, but there is plenty of room for others to join in and that is what I intend to do with my new series of vessels.

By now you may have figured it out.  The "e" in the description of my new series stands for all those empty containers on their way to the dump.  It is a huge amount of refuse.  I have chosen a small e because of the small impact my plan will have on the overall situation.  Not to diminish any effort, remember "a long journey starts with the first step".

Now for the "P".  That may be somewhat harder to decode, so let me lay it out for you.  My vessels will include an "empty" container as the core element and with creative treatment around it, will evolve into a "Precious" container that holds liquid.  I want to emphasise the creative treatment around the core so all e/P vessels don't resemble a wine bottle shape with a few frills.  Let me illustrate what I envision as a creative treatment with the following evolutionary steps of my first e/P vessel.

1.  Plan your work and work your plan.

2. Styrofoam fit around bottle.

3.After shaping Styrofoam and applying
a protective coating, cover entire surface
with fiberglass cloth.

                
4. Attach wood segments and
grout spaces between.

5.  After final sanding apply two
coats of oil finish.  When completely
dry apply two wax coats buffing each.

6.  Fashion a top stopper with cork attached.
Sign the bottom and e/P I is finished.

 This description does not cover all steps in
 detail, but should give an idea what a creative
 finish around the container could entail.  For a
 more complete treatment of this process refer to
 my book:
 "Unique Vessels: How Do You Make These Things?"
 It is featured in my blog,
              www.apatchablue.com

Plan Ahead 4 Heads

While discovering the fantastic things that could be created with cast resin, I decided I wanted to do a complicated cast of a life-sized head.  This piece would be entitled "Four Generations".  The tricky part was to include all four heads in one piece.  My plan was to cast a small baby head, a young boys head, a young mans head, and an old mans head.  I was familiar with the wax model, plaster of Paris mold process so started.  After shaping the babies head, it was coated with plaster and set to dry.  Removal of the wax was accomplished by heating the mold and letting the melted wax drain out through a hole in the base.  The babies head was cast in a dark brown resin, poured through the hole in the base of the mold.  To eliminate overheating a conservative amount of catalyst was mixed with the resin and small batches were poured over a considerable amount of time.  I had learned the hard way that large pours create excessive heat and crack the resin casting.

When cool and solid the plaster mold was chipped away from the resin head.  The babies head was cleaned and set aside.  Modeling the boys head had to be scaled large enough to accommodate the baby head in the same mold.  Do you see the pattern evolving; model the head, cast the mold on it, melt out the wax, suspend the previous cast head in the mold, cast the resin of the next head around it, remove the mold, etc.  I thought I had a winner and could hardly waite until that last cast of the old man came out of the mold and was polished up.  To my dismay the three heads inside didn't show up clearly even though I had used a different colored resin for each of them.  The main problem was the many wrinkles in the old mans face distorted the inner images.  I tried focusing a light on the head from different angles which helped a small amount.  Below are photos of the head in different poses.  You be the judge.  The baby is in dark brown, the boy is in red and the man is in blue.

I would like to try this project again and use very smooth stylized heads or similar objects.  I have also thought of casting each object so that they protrudes at different amounts below the base.  Light travels through cast resin and highlights the edges.  If light was concentrated on one objects end at the base it would in theory highlight that objects edges.

Well, as they say,"back to the drawing board".  Ideas are welcome on this unsolved project and credit will be noted to those who solve it.

E-mail is: apatchablue3@comcast.net
Website is: apatchablue.com
Facebook:  www.facebook.com/edwin.hill.100
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Birdseye Maple and Vinigar (e-P VII)

That is an ambiguous title so what does it mean?  I am going to tell you about one of my e-P vessels that I have just completed.  The main construction materials are Birdseye maple and resin.  This vessel is built around an empty, slender, glass vinegar bottle.  It was salvaged from my wife's kitchen and the wood was scrap from a cabinet shop.  As I use resin the excess from a job is always poured into a plastic pill bottle.  When the resin has hardened it can be removed from the bottle and shaped to fit the particular need.  In the photo below you can see the materials for Vessel e-P VII.

The bottle slips through the hole in the triangular box and the thick wood base on the left is fastened in place.  On the right side of the photo is a pile of Birdseye wood pieces cut to form bricks.  The rough shaped resin pieces for the sides and top of the vessel can also be seen close to the right of the                                                              box.

.The next photo show the application of the wood bricks on the sides of the vessel, leaving an area open for placement of resin half-spheres.  The top resin piece is fit around the bottle to make a liquid tight seal.  A resin top surface will be poured to hold it in place.

This third photo on the left show the grout has been placed between the bricks and the resin top has been poured.  Wood corner molding is in place and all surfaces have been sand smooth.  At this point, before the resin half-spheres are attached, we analyzed the design of the vessel as it had bothered us.  Who is this "we" you ask?  I am fortunate to have an artist with extensive experience and knowledge of design and color working with me; my wife JoAnn.

The fourth photo shows the finished vessel with a new top,cast over the original top piece.  This new top has more weight to balance the piece and just a slight change in radius to make it interesting.  The final photo, shown below gives a close-up view of the half-spheres which are a major part of the design.  If you have questions about any part of this post you can e-mail me at <apatchablue3@comcast.net>
Your comment to this post or previous publications can always be made in this blog at http://apatchablue.blogspot.com.

Twisted Sister

Back in the day, as old timers often phrase it, I listened to a good deal of live rock music.  I still enjoy the classic rock but it is difficult to find. My wife, JoAnn, and I were regular groupies at clubs around the Spokane, Washington area, partly because we had a son playing with a band called "Warning," that would perform in the Spokane area occasionally.  The band was excellent and played gigs all over Western U.S. with one expedition into far north Alaska.  They would play songs made famous by notable bands of the day such as Deep Purple, Aerosmith, Buchman-Turner Overdrive, Keith Emerson, The Grateful Dead and Heart, to name a few.

I was fascinated with the creativity that went into naming bands and how they used the name in their promotion.  One of Warning's promotional pieces looked like a road sign with the words, "WARNING-Rock Ahead".  One of the strange band names that caught my attention was Twisted Sister, an American heavy metal band from Long Island, New York. They used elements of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest along with the driving hard rock style of AC/DC.  This wasn't my type of music, but their name and stage appearance prompted me to create a cast resin art piece.

Twisted Sister's aggressive musical style was coupled with a grotesque use of makeup and women's clothing resulting in a very unique product.  The band began in 1972 and continued through 1987.  They returned to the stage in 2006 and I think are still performing.

I planned a cast resin piece that would reflect the color and flair of members of this band.  In addition I gave the hint of a nun's habit to the shape of the piece, thus presenting the "sister" question of the title by adding a religious reference.  Lines in the lower portion of the casting give a twisting perception to the sculpture.  I had fun developing this art and hope you enjoy Twisted Sister.

Twisted Sister

Birthday Horse

My wife JoAnn, and I are enjoying our granddaughter, Zoey, as she matures.  She and her family live only 25 minutes from our house.  From the day she was born we have been a part of her life.  When her mom and dad wanted to go out for the evening, guess who were the babysitters.  We were present at all birthdays and holidays as well.  Zoey is now a junior in high school, six foot tall and soon to be sixteen years old.  The baby sitting days are over, but there are lively conversations about school and classmates at our traditional Sunday dinners.

I want to start this post back when Zoey was turning three years old.  We were told that at that age she could have a horse;  that's a rocking-horse of course.  We wanted to make one for her that would be special and she would value later in life.  After thumbing through books and magazines we found a book with all of the answers.  "The Rocking-Horse maker" by Anthony Dew.   The book covers nine easy-to-follow projects with the easier ones well within the scope of anyone with a basic tool kit and modest skills.  This is a British author and publisher, which made me wonder about availability of metal parts here in the United States.  A California source was cited for the few metal parts we would need for our chosen model.  I have metalworking skills so decided to make the parts.  Anyone with skills in this area or a friends that will do the metal work for  you can proceed like we did.  If you strike out on both options, you will have to order the parts from California.  The book is still available at Amazon.

We decided to build the mid size three-dimensional carved horse and use Mahogany as our wood choice.  Final dimensions are 4'h x 5'l x 18"w.  We liked the rich red color of the wood when finished and we didn't choose to paint on any details.  Regular horsehair was used for the main and tail, and eyes were purchased from a taxidermy store.  Leather was purchased for our saddle and halter.  A decorative blanket was constructed by JoAnn on her sewing machine.  We  were both enjoying the project and excitement grew as the horses shape began to emerge from the blocks of wood.  We built in a surprise that may never be found.  A time capsule was placed in the hollow body section before the final blocks were glued.  We composed a letter to Zoey expressing our love for her and wishing  her a full and exciting life ahead.  When we presented her with the horse, we told her folks of the time capsule and as of today, thirteen years later it is still intact.

We probably spent several hundred dollars on construction supplies and it took a bit of poking around town to locate them.  We were floored when Zoey's mom showed us a page from the FAO online New York catalogue.  There was our rocking-horse in Mahogany and a proud little Brit in the saddle.  The Stevenson Bros. of England were marketing it as .."made by the world's finest rocking horse makers".  Only 300 were created each year with European royal families at the head of the list.  It was characterised as an heirloom-quality gift to be treasured for generations and priced at $5,400.

The purpose of this post is to start you thinking about the things you can do with a good plan, a few tools and a desire to create.  In this example, look at the value we created.  You can too.

Zoey and her Birthday Horse