High school woodworking
I barely passed...
Spring is here! We have a new metal arbo bench under our overly large Indian plum that grew all weird because it was covered in blackberries. The trees we planted a few years ago are almost as tall as me. The towering cottonwood is just starting to push out leaves. And yesterday we had a wicked windstorm! Made the lights flicker.
This is a two-fer. I made this shelf in high school woodworking class, and now, nearly 30 years later, I have painted it! I love my Posca pens. That is all I used for this, and a bit of pencil for marking even spacing. The lovely smokey color is, indeed, smoke damage. It was in the “Bee Shed” (previously the dog kennel) when a small fire started. Fortunately, this piece survived.
I took these photos on the front porch in the morning sun. This process works way better than taking them at night with all my lamps on in the living room, but it also means I have to do things in the morning . . . Here’re some closer shots. I love how the borders worked out.
Starting with the top and bottom views that no one will ever see. The dark wedge on the right of the shelf in the bottom view is a big gap. It is both nailed and glued, which is good because the glue did not work.
There is no rhyme or reason why anyone is anywhere on here. I was just drawing straight to ink while scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration. The pteradactyl is a nod to Calamityware’s Things Could Be Worse pattern. But also to the time I was in rush-hour traffic in Seattle when something huge flew by and my brain instantly went to pteradactyl. I had the time to actually look at it—turned out to be a hawk with a snake in its grip.
I think I intended for the jackalope’s antlers to be more apparent but spaced out. I suppose I could go back and thicken them. I didn’t do anything as rash as put a varnish on yet. Little Baba Yaga nod with the house there. I don’t know if I put the screwdriver mark on it in shop class or if it happened one of the many times it was hung up. It does not have a fancy hanging system. Literally two holes for screws.
And here’s the back. Both sides, in their own way, make the smoke damage more apparent. The one side must have been flush with a wall because it looks almost the same (the side that also shows that were only used the highest quality of wood). The other side, the one I wrote on, got all the smoke damage, so you can barely make out that I wrote “Angela” and “ANG” on it (I think I kept writing my name too small). You can also just see that I got a B. This was a pretty good grade for me in that class. I was not a good little woodworker. I mean, good enough that I still have nearly everything I made in that class. Just not good enough to keep it from bringing my GPA down a bit.
This weekend, I’m going to put it up on my side of the bed. Originally, Abe was going to use it as his “bedside table” but then we fixed some furniture issues, ended up with an actual table for him to use, and voila. I get it back.
There’s another kid’s comic class coming up in a week at The Jansen. Then on May 17, I have another bone class! I would say, even if you were there the first time, I think it is a repeatable class. And Abe’s first class starts the same day: Fundamentals of Photography. Trust me. That is going to be a very informative class. And I find Abe to be a ding-dang delight.
You know what? I’m going to double down on Calamityware because I love the stuff we have from them. My mom gifted us all water bottles, Exercising Demons. They are very nice. I keep setting mine down in the house and losing it. But I’ll find it again. The mug I linked above I thought was smaller than a normal mug, but we poured water between it and a regular size and it might actually hold more! Perfect for a cup of tea. And now I see a Stay Dry Octopi bath mat. I might have to get that for our upstairs bathroom. We accidentally came up with the theme I want joking about some gross fleshy paints in the mistints at Home Depot: inside the belly of an ancient whale. Abe’s too chicken, though. Bok bok!
I hope your day gets better from here!
-Angela
P.S. Wally had his third birthday this week! Part of his “party” was hanging out in the grocery store parking lot where he got to people watch. This is before he noticed anyone interesting. Like the old lady in the car two spots down.
💙🌿
Love the decorations!