Week 2.

This week seems to have passed by in a whirl of activity, and yet I don't seem to have much to show for it. Its been a busy week with everyone just getting on with their own projects, and not much in the way of bench exercises.

My jig and test leg

Pretty little maids all in a row

Its taken me the greater part of the week to cut, shape and sand the legs on my new dresser - I always find I start off really slow, worried that I might make a mistake, but by the end of the first one I'm just a wee bit bored with the task, so I power through the next few taking as many shortcuts as possible. Funnily enough, it doesn't seem to have made much difference on the end result (other than speeding up the process mightily)!

I started off making a little homemade jig and a test leg out of pine, and painstakingly shaping the thing by hand using a spokeshave. It took 6 hours, and the finish was rough and ready. I then moved on and ditched the jig, deciding instead to shape them on the bobbin sanders and sanding them smooth using the orbital sander. There was a moment of madness in the middle when I decided that I would only sand it by hand so that I wouldn't compromise the shape I had spent all this time creating (accurate to a tenth of a milimeter), but that would have probably taken me a month to do and quite frankly, life's too short!

Saucy.

Too many other hours have been spent just cutting and planing wood down to size, getting pieces ready for assembly. I do however have one more thing to show for this week, a little block which I made to hold a rack of spices in. Its not particularly exciting (or if I was completely honest, particularly well made either, with a bit of a rough and ready finish), but it works. Ish.

A New Year.

Happy New Year! In my three week sojourn back in the big smoke, the question that people asked me the most surprisingly wasn't "What's the best plane to buy?" or "What's your favourite wood to use?" or even "What did you enjoy making the most?", it was about the people and one of the things I love the most about the course so far has definitely been the people, who are awesome. Just this once, I will therefore bow to peer pressure and impart some burning truths about the Scots which I am sure you are dying to know:

1. They are very friendly. I have often had to curtail strong urges to shout "Stranger! Danger!" when accosted by randoms for a chat on the street.
2. They are mean. And by mean I mean careful with their money. Cue Ewan wandering round the workshop trying get people to 'test' his hidden coin compartment by depositing coins into it. I have yet to see any of them get said coins back.
3. They are hairy. I haven't actually investigated this truth in any great detail, but I have been told this on great authority (ie a Scotsman who claimed they are as hairy as they are mean). All I can say is there is a proliferation of beards (and moustaches) in the workshop, and even a sideburn or two (although to be fair, this has been contributed by the Mexican).
4. They love their whisky. In fact any type of alcohol, as long as it is cheap (see point 2) and available in copious quantities. The fact that we are students merely compounds this.
5. They like their cabbages. To be honest this one puzzles me, but I have learnt from experience that if you send a Scotsman a picture of a field of cabbages you often get a squeal of delight in return. Put a cabbage in his bed and you've made a friend for life.

So what has the first week of Term 2 brought? 
Well, the emphasis this week has been (and for the rest of the term will be) on veneer work, and we've been trying our hand at little bits of marquetry in preparation for our main projects. Its painstaking work, requiring a steady hand and attention to detail as you often have to carve out little finicky shapes with a scalpel on super thin strips of veneer, all the whole praying that it won't split! Whilst quite time consuming, I'm actually enjoying this even more than solid wood work. There's something about the nature of the task which I guess appeals to the geek in me, allowing my inate OCD tendencies to rise to the top. I guess I'm also a bit more confident now that I know my way around the workshop and the tools, which means I can relax a bit more and just enjoy myself. Although it sometimes feels like I haven't learnt very much over the last 10 weeks, this week when I came to re-cutting one of the shelves on Stumpy (the 2mm gap was just bugging me!) I managed to do it in 15 minutes flat and get it right in the first go! Astounding when you think that it took me 3 hours the last time around! Wa hey to progress!

Making a scalloped fan inlay

A random marquetry panel

Parquetry panel

Scalloped fan shape marquetry finished piece. Exciting as you get to burn the veneer in sand

An almost finished scale model of my new project

In project world, this week has been about preparing and finishing our designs, life size drawings, scale models and cutting sheets etc. Whilst we're all moving at lightning pace compared to last term, I haven't managed to get as much done as I would have liked and will have to carry on with this next week as well.

If you squint hard you can make out my full sized drawing