Kaleo’s Workshop

So I haven’t had a lot of time in the shop this last week.  In fact I haven’t been home much at all this last week.  Now that it is summer my son Kai is taking swimming lessons in Maryland by my mother in laws home.  So the family has been staying up there all last week and this week as well.

But I did get a chance to head over to my local WoodCraft store.  That was a blast, because it’s been over 2 years since I’ve walked into one of those.  I went to get a few things for the box.  I bought a new metric and imperial 6 inch rulers.  They make a really nice one.  I also got some pretty nice zebrawood veneer for the top and bottom of the box.  Also a small 1/8 inch piece of zebrawood for the splines in the box.

So hopefully this weekend I’ll get into the shop and do some veneering.  Also I plan to make a simple spline cutting jig.  So I hope to get some good video of all this.

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So let me start out by saying never have I seen so much rain here in the Washington D.C. area than the last month. You would think that we were in Seattle or something. Even with all the rain in the last two day, the shop has stayed relatively dry. Of which I am very happy. But the real fun came last Friday, it was the first time that I had the chance to pour a concrete counter top. Man was it really cool. It took us about 2 hours to prep and pour and clean up. First things first we had to build a frame, that was built a few weeks ago. But you have to remember when you do this that you are doing everything upside down. So we decorated the top surface with some nice stones and some petrified pieces of wood. This was all done by my Uncle Chris (you can check him out at Concrete Connexion, google it I can’t get the link up now). After which 4 bags of concrete go into a huge mixer along with some dark blue tints and some trade secret stuff. This all mixes for a few minutes and then it’s into the mold which is on a huge workbench equipped with 4 massive vibrators that shake the hell out of the concrete. Then you let it cure for 4 days which brings us to today. It came out of the mold this morning which was cool to see. But now we have to do some griding and then polish and then she will look amazing. I will snap a few photos when that all happens.A new Episode of This Week in Wood should be out by the end of the week. So look out for that.
Also please excuse the spelling, for some reason the computer that I am using won’t allow me to spell check. It’s not my money MAC.

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I will be reposting the latest video later in the week.  As most of you might know, it is an extremly huge file.  So I am working on it as fast as I can.  You can still watch it on the site.  But getting it from Itunes is hard.

Thought I would post a quick little video showing you all the madness that is my life at the moment. You can check out the video in the comments section. Leave your own if you dare!!!

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So today was the exhibition and it went really well.  There is so much work involved
behind the senses to pull something like this off.  This last week has been crazy.  I finished my stools on Tuesday.  Then I spent all day Wednesday painting the stands for every ones stuff.  Thursday I spent part of the day finishing the painting, and the other part of the day doing our assessment presentation.  Friday morning or this morning was spent setting up the lights and laying out the floor plan and getting everything together.  And being 1 of 3 students that were completely done, I gave a hand to get all this done.

So it all went really well.  I’ve decided to call my stools “Nalu”  which is the Hawaiian word for wave.  I named it that because for the shape of the seat.  But also for the fact that the ocean is strong yet full of mystery.  I think my stool is the same in that fact.  Very strong but full of mystery.  People really responded to my stools.  Everyone stopped and looked and tried to understand how it works.  It was good to get real feedback from people other than other furniture buffs.  Just your everyday person telling me what they think about my design and building.

So here are some pictures of my display.  I will post pictures of other students work once I ask them if it is ok.

The television station never showed up. But the local newspaper did, and they only took one picture and that was of me and my stools.  So we’ll see if I make the paper tomorrow.  If so I will scan in the picture and the story later.

I thought that I would let you all know that I have entered my hall table into a online contest.

It’s at www.lumberjocks.com  Go there and take a look.  I don’t know if you have to sign up to vote or not.  But for those of you that are interested in woodworking it is a really good site.  I always go to fine woodworking website, but have found that the people at this site are friendlier.  So go there and vote, of course I want you to vote for me, but look at the great work and vote.

I’ll let you all know the results in a couple of weeks.

Kaleo

This last week was a really long week.  I think it has to do with the fact that I am completely tired of this project.  All I have thought about for the last 8 weeks has been this bloody hall table.  Now don’t get me wrong I have enjoyed building it.  But for the last week I have been so ready for it to be done.

But to report it is almost there.  The project is due on Tuesday morning.  And as of right now all I have left is to glue up one drawer and fit it in.  And slap on a couple  coats of oil and she will be DONE.  So by Monday night, if I drank I would be at the pub celebrating.

As it look right now I will be the only person in the class to finish this project on time.  The good thing about that is that I will be able to show this table at the Graduating students exhibition next Friday.  This exhibition will be held at the Design Centre in Launceston, Tasmania, and will go for 2 weeks.  So hopefully it will be a good experience.  I’ll post more on that next week. Here is the website address for the design centre (  http://designcentre.com.au  )

This weekend there is a craft show in Deloraine here.  It’s said to be the biggest craft show in the southern hemisphere.  We laugh because almost everything here is said to be the biggest in the southern hemisphere.  I think that Australians forget about other huge countries like South Africa, Argentina, Chile and what about Brazil there are like 200 million people there to Australia’s 20 million.  Anyways, the school has a booth there and I am showing my box and “8″ Table there.  Which from what I here is getting a lot of interest.  Because I priced it at 350.00 dollars.

Well I’ll leave you now, until next week,  be good have fun and don’t forget to wash behind your ears.

Kaleo

So this last week has been pretty normal. In fact I can’t really think of much new to write about. I’ve spent most of the week making some drawers for the chest of drawers that I am making at the moment. Neil has taught us the way that he makes drawers. Which was completely different to the way that I had always known. But I must say that his way is much better. He makes them in a way so that the drawer sides are a lot thinner, so that the overall drawer is not only lighter but looks so much more elegant.

We had a meeting this week with the head of the school of architecture. He came to discuss the future of the school with us. For those of you that didn’t know, the school was once private but last year almost went bankrupt. So the Australian government decided to lend a helping hand. They decided to make the school part of the university of Tasmania. Anyways the university has decided to keep the school going in the near future. The only problem is that our fearless leader Neil Erasmus has decided that he needs to get back to his business in Perth. So he is leaving at the end of the year. Which is both a good and bad thing. Next year our course is mostly taught by visiting lecturers. Meaning we get other designer/makers who come in and teach a specific class. So we don’t get any actual teaching from Neil. But he would be there to bounce ideas and concepts off of. But now with him and Pam leaving, they are actually coming back next year to teach us a 6 week class. So we will actually get more of him this way. So I think it’s a good thing.

Anyways until next week. I start making my self designed hall table. So I will keep you all up to date on that.