Walking Stick Z - Part 8

I just wanted to check in to update my progress on my walking stick.  I am slightly over half-way on
wood burning the Celtic Knot Work.  Here are the latest pictures.

In my earlier blog posts on the stick I showed how I drew the knot and linked the knot into strands.  The first ten inch strand took about two hours to wood burn. The later strands only took about an hour and a half.  The difference is time is because once I moved further down the walking stick it was easier to control the stick while I was burning on the design.  I expect that the bottom of the stick will be as difficult as the first section. 

I start at the top of the stick and work my way down to the bottom. The top of the stick is rounded so you don't hit yourself with a sharp edge in case of a fall while hiking .  The bottom is flat so that the stick does not easily slip.  In the
event that the pattern does not end directly at the end of the stick, and has to be cut off mid-pattern, I
want that at the bottom of the stick, not the top.  It is not as easy to determine where the pattern will end as you might think.  You can measure and get a good estimate, but little micro-adjustments that are made here and there as the pattern is applied can make a big difference in where the end will actually fall.  If the spiral is made a little tighter or looser to accommodate variations in the walking stick will not match the measurement.  

Anyway, I am about five hours in on the wood burning.  As you can see in the photos, the Celtic Knot Work spirals around the stick.  The spiral has several inches between the coils.  There are two reasons for this.  The first reason is that the looser coil means less wood burning.  The tighter the coil, the more strand of pattern have to be wood burned on.  I like the knot work, but lets face it, this is a stick, and there is only so much that people are willing to pay for art on a stick.  The second reason is that there is plenty of room in case I get really inspired and decide to add a poem or Shaman Staff.  It was interesting to bring the element of poetry into my art.  I've left myself the option to go all out.  If not, the stick will still have plenty of charm once it is completed.
add some additional small knot work to the walking stick.   I wrote a poem for my walking stick entitled

Besides the rest of the knot work, I will also be adding gold paint to the wood burned sections.  The gold against the dark brown of the wood burning really highlights the pattern.  It also covers up some of the wood burning mistakes that were made along the way.  After the painting is done, I give the whole walking stick a coat of antiquing medium mixed with a little paint to give the stick a warm glow.  And then of course the whole stick is given three coats of sealer.  There is still plenty of work to be done.

I don't think I have shown a picture of the top of the stick yet.  Not content to let the rounded top be, I decided to add a star to the very top of the stick.  It has not yet been sanded.  Some of the scorching will come off once I give it a good sanding. 

So that is about where I am on the stick.  If the weather holds, I will be outside wood burning again this week and I hope to get another ten inches of wood burning done at least.  I will try for twenty inches, but I am not optimistic about that as I have a very busy week.  In the mean time, I will be blogging more on what can be accomplished when crafting a few minutes at a time.  Check back next blog post for some new photos on Halloween craft projects and some wearable art.

Halloween Crafting a Few Minutes at a Time

There are only 66 more crafting days until Halloween.  It seems like there is plenty of time, but the season will be here before you know it.  I have already started working on some of my decorations.  If I do a little bit on a regular basis, I will have all the decoration ready for the Halloween party without feeling rushed.  I like to give myself plenty of time.  If I wait until the last minute, I end up staying up late trying to get things done at the last minute and I don't enjoy the evening as much.  The other alternative is to buy decorations, but I hate spending money on things that are destined for the trash in a day or two.

Some crafts take a lot longer than you would expect from looking at them.  Many people do not do them because they can't find two or three hours to make the project.  However, if you could find ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes you have time to make crafts.  The project will not be complete as quickly, but it will eventually get finished.  There is satisfaction from comes making things yourself.  By giving yourself permission to just work a few minutes at a time, you tap into that feeling rather than feeling frustrated because you can't fine the time to make the craft.

Styrofoam wreath as the foundation.

Cardboard wreath foundation.

Before we get into the instructions for crafting the wreaths shown in the photos a question:  How much do you want to spent on your craft.  As the saying goes there are ways and there are ways. Two (or more) projects can be look the same on the outside but have internal support structures that can add or subtract from the cost of the project.  I will show you what I mean with the project I am blogging about today.  So look at the photos of the wreaths on the right.  One is black and the other is orange and black.  Other than the color difference, can you tell me what the difference is in these two wreaths?  Probably not unless you investigate further so I will tell you
here.  The black wreath cost $6.07.  The orange and black wreath cost $1.48.  If I had made the wreath according to the original crafting instructions the cost would have been $25.75.  So read on for instructions on how I made the wreaths and what the cost differences are. 

First off, let me say that this project is one that I saw in a book on Halloween decorations:  Spooky and Bright by Hearst Books.  This is a reprise of Halloween ideas that have appeared in Country Living magazine over the last several years.  I did not make the wreaths totally following the directions in the book.  I found their way to be too expensive.  The instructions called for a Styrofoam wreath, crepe paper,and black glass headed straight pins.  The wreath was $4.69 at the craft store.  I could not find that color pins at my craft store.  When I looked online I found packages of fifty straight pins that were half black pins and half white pins for $4.79 per package.  To have all black pins I would need to purchase four packages, so the pins would cost a total of $20.56  The crepe paper was two rolls for  $1.00 at the dollar store.  (I only needed one roll.)  As written the project cost $25.75.  Not extravagant for a project, but I thought that I could do better.  Even on this project it was possible to cut the cost by using any glass headed pins you happened to have.  The pins on the wreath were covered by the next layer of crepe paper and the pins on the crepe paper that wrapped around the sides would have been hidden on the back of the wreath.  You won't see the pins at all, so why pay extra for black.   However, I also had concerns about whether or not some of the pins could fall out and cause an injury if someone stepped on one or a small child got hold of the wreath. (One caveat that I will add is that if you choose to use pins you will be able to remove everything and reuse the Styrofoam wreath for another project.  If you choose to follow the directions below, you may not be able to re-use the wreath.) So on to my makeovers of this project.

The original instructions for the black wreath called for cutting 100 four inch long strips from the crepe paper.  The strips were then folded in half.  I did the same for my project.  For the first wreath I also purchased a Styrofoam wreath as per the craft instructions.  After that, I diverged from the original instructions.  The original instructions called for laying three crepe paper strips across the wreath and attaching them with straight pins.  Rather than using straight pins, I used a low temp glue gun and glued the strips on.  I would put one dot of hot glue at the center of the bottom of the crepe paper strip then fold the strip in half and pressed.  Then I would run a very light strip of glue along the bottom edge of the folded strip.  I would pick the strip up, flip it over so that the glue side was down and adhere it to the wreath.  The stringy bits of glue that are such a nuisance when using hot glue can be minimized by holding the glue gun straight up and down and by gently wiping the tip of the gun against the crepe paper after each dot or strip of glue.  Each row of three crepe paper strips was overlapped by the next row of three crepe paper strips.  When I was near the end, I added the long strand of crepe paper ribbon, then finished gluing the folded crepe paper strips over top of it. All total the assembly time was one hour and twenty-four minutes.  However, it is not necessary to make this project all at one sitting.  Any time you have ten or fifteen minutes you can adhere quite a few strips. 

The orange and black wreath was less expensive.  It cost only $1.48, but that lowered expense added crafting time.  It took about two hours to make this wreath.  The main difference was that rather than purchasing a Styrofoam wreath, I made a wreath from cardboard.  The cardboard was free.  My store gives away boxes, so when I see a fair sized one I bring it home for crafting material.

I drew a circle using a compass on a piece of corrugated cardboard.  Then I drew a smaller circle inside the first circle and cut out the inner circle.  I cut the scrap piece of the inner cardboard into small strips and hot glued the pieces around the edge of the circle.  The pieces were small square pieces glued equidistantly around the circle.  The wreath was still a little thin, so a second layer of square pieces bridged the first set of squares that were glued onto the wreath.  This created a five-eights inch thick wreath which is about the same thickness as the Styrofoam wreath.  The wreath was flipped over and the crepe paper strips were glued on as described above.  Any part of this project can be worked for a few minutes at a time.  Keep the glue gun, glue and pieces of the project in a box so everything can be pulled out in a matter of seconds.

Everyone is busy.  Finding blocks of time to craft is one of those things we tend to put off because we always can think of something more important that needs doing first.  But it is generally possible to find a few minutes here and there. Giving yourself those few minutes to do some crafting is giving yourself a gift.  Don't discount how much enjoyment you can receive from making a craft.

A note to regular readers: 
Regular readers know that my current main project is a Celtic Knot Work Walking stick.  I am still progressing on that.  I have wood burned the knot work pattern about half way down the stick.  I probably have about six more hours of wood burning to do to complete the knot work.  While that is going on, I am blogging about some of the projects I have completed by working on them a few minutes at a time. Not every project requires long hours at one sitting.  Check back next blog post for new photos of the walking stick.

Craft Projects- A Few Minutes at a Time

Ball on a temporary stand while being spray painted.

A lot of people look at my crafts and say they would like to do them, but that they don't have that kind

Green patina highlights the crannies.

of time.  Many people that have the skills to do higher end crafts stick with quick projects for the same reason.  Today I want to blog about finding the time to make art or crafts.  Finding a few hours would be nice,  but many projects can be done a few minutes at a time.  It is something like the story of the tortoise and the hare.  The hare wants to do a project in a sprint and get it done in one sitting.  The tortoise is willing to finish the project at a slower pace.  The craft project still gets done; it just takes longer.  In many cases that might be better than trying to make the craft quickly.  It is easy to becomes stressed or frustrated when
working on too tight a timeline.  Making a project should be enjoyable, not an ordeal.

Regular readers know that I have been working on my Celtic Knot Work walking stick.  My last blog post showed that I had managed to get the first ten inches burned onto the stick.  Between prepping the pattern, transferring the pattern to the stick, and wood burning it onto the stick it took about two hours and forty-five minutes.  Even that was broken down into segments of twenty minutes, twenty five minutes, and an hour.  For something such as the wood burning, I feel that I really need a good hour to sit down with it because I am working outside.  It takes time to take the bench and tools out, and put them away.  That has to be accounted for as well.  This part of the project is one that really requires more time in one sitting. It is not always easy to find that amount of time especially when it is an outdoor project and is weather dependent.  This project moves slower than some others. 

As I make my projects as a hobby, I can't always spend a large block of time on crafting.  When that happens, I have to acknowledge the frustration and do what I can when I can find the time.  Finding small blocks of time here and there have allowed me to create some projects that otherwise never have seen the light of day.  I thought that over the next few blog posts I would show you some of my projects that have been done a little bit at a time.  Some are new and have not been on the blog before.  Others you may have seen before if you are a regular reader. 

My most recent project is another Hypertufa Gazing Ball.  The ball is cast in half-spheres and joined together.  Painting this project was quick in actual time spent.  This ball was spray painted with an indoor-outdoor metallic paint called Aged Copper by Rustoleum.  It produced a nice metallic shine.  I placed it on a temporary stand to spray paint it.  I sprayed the upper hemisphere which took only a few minutes.  The ball was left outside for an hour so that it was dry to the touch, and then brought it in overnight in order for the paint to completely cure.  The next day I took it outside, turned it over and spray painted the other side.  Then allowed it to cure again.  It was a nice shiny ball and the ball could have been declared finished at that point.  However, I decided to embellish. 

I have a philosophy in crafting. Work on the project until it could be considered complete.  Then find at least one way that you could add an embellishment to it.  When that section of embellishment is completed, look at it again and see if there is at least one more thing that could be added to the project.  My projects look better when I take the extra time to add something more.  In the case of this gazing ball, I decided that all the little crannies in the ball could be highlighted with a greenish patina to make it look as if it was copper that had been weathered outside for a long time. 

The decision to highlight the crannies was another bit of crafting wisdom.  If you have some annoying part of your craft that you can't get rid of, make it a feature.  The Hypertufa does not cast as smoothly as concrete.  It has lots of little crannies.  If I am covering the ball in mosaic tiles or stained glass, people never see them or the cold join in the center of the ball.  In this case  the ball was painted and the crannies were visible.  Instead of being frustrated by the crannies, I decided to highlight them.  When people look at the metallic ball and they see the pits tinted green, they start to develop a story about this ball.  It is old.  It has been here a long time.  It has a history.  It is amazing how  people's reactions to an art piece change once their imaginations have been triggered.

I used Rustoleum American Accents Authentic Patina for this part of the project.  The patina kit was not bought specifically for the project.  I was using up some leftovers from one of my husband's projects. The green patina is a applied with a sponge rather than being a spray paint.  It only took about twenty or thirty minutes to do half the ball and clean up.  The next day I found some time to paint the other half of the ball.  Once again, the project could have been declared complete.  However, I decided that I wanted to give the ball a light spray of copper so that the green appeared to be in the pits and crannies rather than all over the ball.  Now I am calling the painting of the ball completed. 

I will add three coats of indoor-outdoor varnish to the ball before it finds its way outside for good.  I still have to paint and varnish the stand as well.  A few minutes at a time is all it takes.

On Thursday I will be blogging on another project that was completed a few minutes at a time.  This was a really fun project.  I hope you will check back to see it.
 

Walking Stick Z Part 7 - Celtic Knotwork on Stick

Celtic Knot Work spirals around the stick.

This week I have been outside wood burning the Celtic Knot Work onto the stick.  I'm glad to finally be getting to this stage of the project.  I enjoy working outside.  It is hot and humid and the insects are making an almost hypnotic cacophony.    It rained last night and is supposed to rain again this morning so I am not out there today.  Maybe it will be better weather tomorrow.  

With all the rain we have been having, mosquitoes are a bit of a problem.  There is usually a sweet spot in the day where it is warm and sunny enough that the mosquitoes have gone in until nightfall but it is still cool enough that the flies have yet not come out.  That is the best time to be outside.  After about 9:30 to 10:00 a.m. the day turns so hot and humid that it feels brain-boiling hot and the flies are out to get anything that moves. 

Next transfer is on and ready for burning.

I wanted to blog about the amount of time it takes to create one of the walking sticks.  There are a number of steps involved.  They are not as quick a craft as one would think.  The time will vary on just what you plan to do to it.  Each step and its complexity (or lack thereof) affects the amount of time it takes to complete the project.  The steps involved may include stripping the bark, sanding, wood burning, carving, painting, staining, and
varnishing.

Some people choose not to strip the bark off the stick.  It is very natural looking and just as usable as a walking stick.  Some people may choose to only strip a portion of the stick and wood burn, paint, or carve in a few strategic places.  I completely stripped this walking stick because I plan to have a design that spirals around the entire stick.  I like to have a spiral pattern because it seem very organic, even when it is a complex pattern.  The spiral pattern reminds me of the vines that I see wrapping around trees.  Of course, all this adds to the time.

I stripped the stick over a couple of days.  Overall it took about four hours.  Once the walking stick was stripped, it needed to be sanded.  I hand sanded it twice, once with 100 grit, then once with 220 grit.  After that I went over it once more with a hand sander to get it as smooth as I could.  I guess that took about an hour.  At this point I am five hours in and now have a stick that is ready for decorating.  I drew my own Celtic Knot Work.  Learning how to do that took all day.  I expect that time will decrease if I work with it enough to understand it better. 

Once a pattern has been developed it has to be transferred onto the stick.  If you go to my blog (folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com) and scroll through the previous posts for Walking Stick Z, you will find links to sites for drawing knot work, book references to help you learn to make Celtic Knot Work and instruction on how to transfer the pattern.  Since I blogged extensively on these subjects earlier, I am not going to go into it again here.  It took twenty minutes to prepare the ten inch strand of knot work for transfer.  Once the transfer was ready, you have to tape it to the stick which just takes a minute or two.  After that it took another twenty-four minutes transfer the pattern onto the walking stick.  So you can figure that it is going to take about forty-five minutes for each ten inch section you have to transfer. 

The wood burning takes even longer than transferring the pattern.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  First off,  you really have to do this slowly and carefully.  If you move too quickly you are likely to go off your line.  You can sand out an error, but it is difficult.  (See the last blog post that shows what can happen if you hold the wood burning tool at the wrong angle.)  Also, you could sand off your pattern and have to fix your transfer as well.  Because the walking stick is round, it is easy for the tool to slip. 

Another reason for moving slowly is that the pattern spirals around the stick.  The stick must be turned while following the line in order to have a smooth curve.  As the stick is constantly turning, it is not held down by clamps.  Since it is not held down by clamps, the wood burning tool is apt to slip.  Working at a steady pace, I was able to wood burn five inches of the pattern in one hour.  At that point, I felt I needed to stop for the day.  My hand was getting cramped and I was tired of sitting in one position for so long.  The next time, I burned the second half of the ten inch strand and it also took an hour.  So for each ten inches of the knot work design, figure it will take two hours of wood burning time.

I did not add the amount of time that it took me to develop the pattern into this time estimate.  If you want to save time, there are plenty of pattern transfer books and online resources that will help with that section of the project.  The following estimate is only the work time for this segment.  When you add up prepping the pattern for transfer, transferring the pattern, and wood burning it, the total comes to two hours and forty-five minutes for each ten inch segment.  When I add in set-up time and clean-up time it might as well be rounded up to three hours.  Given the height of the stick (5'7") and the fact that a small portion of the ten inches is lost due to the spiral around the stick, the time estimate for this portion of the project is approximately twenty-four hours (3 hours times 8 segments).  If the time for stripping and and sanding is added in, the total time so far comes to twenty-nine hours to complete the project up to finishing the wood burning.  
 
This project also calls for it to be painted, stained, and varnished.   I will be blogging on that information as soon as I reach those portions of the project.  I will be blogging next on Sunday.

Walking Stick Z - Part 7 - Testing Tips

At last!  My schedule and the weather finally came together.  I could go outside and get started on
wood burning.  Today I am blogging about testing different wood burning tips to see which one will work best for this design.  I tested three tips.

Pictograms from Shaman Staff.

Although it seems a ridiculously small amount of wood burning in the photo, I allowed an hour for the test.  Because I was doing my wood burning outside (charred wood smells up the house), I had to set up and break down my work area.  Because I was testing three different tips, I had to wait for each tip to heat up, which takes at least five minutes.  I also had to wait a few minutes for each tip to cool down so I could change tips without
burning myself or melting the plastic box that held the tips.  Waiting for the tips to come to the right temperature took up most of the allotted hour.  I did not waste that time, however.  While I was outside on a nice day, I did some stretching and held some yoga poses.

Lettering from Shaman Staff.

I was also performing a second test that during this project.  My husband has a bench outside that he uses when working on some outdoor projects.  It is not as tall as my portable potting bench that I use when working on projects.  I thought that if I could use that bench rather than having to carry my work bench outside that it would
save some set up time. Well that part of the test showed that I was better off spending the time carrying out my work bench.  The bench that was out there was too low to use the stool and sit down.  Standing up to do wood burning had me bending over the project at an uncomfortable angle.  Because I was holding an awkward position, I did not feel that I had good control of the walking stick or the wood burning tool.  So all in all, I guess I am glad that I was only doing a small test.

Today's photo is not the greatest photo I ever shot.   I was really having trouble getting the shot to stay in focus.  Even using a small holder for the camera, I was getting just enough movement that the picture was blurred.  This was the best photo of the many photos I took.

Anyway, on to the wood burning test. I transferred a line of the Celtic Knot Work pattern onto a scrap piece of the walking stick.  Regular readers may remember that the stick was originally seven feet long and I cut it down to size.  I used the cut off piece for my test.  Since it is from the walking stick it is going to be the wood is going to be the same shape, dryness, and texture of my walking stick.  It is important to test on the same material so that you have an accurate idea of how your wood burning tool is going to work on this project.

I first tested a flow point.  (The wood burning on the left side.) This point is usually used for making dots, shading, curves and cursive writing.  It burned a wider line, but because the tip was rounded, I felt as if it was going to get away from me.  Also, if you held it in one place too long to get a deeper burn you ended up with a series of dots rather than a line.  On the plus side, it did burn a wider and deeper line than the other tips I tested.

The second tip I tested was the Universal Point.  As its name implies, you can use it almost anywhere.  The tip did a good job of following the lines and curves.

The third tip was a Tapered Point.  Sometimes it is called a Stencil Burning Point as it also burns through plastics.  (Another job you will want to do outside or in a well ventilated area.)  It cuts intricate designs.  The point is very thin and tends to bend with the heat.  It burns a very thin line, which might be a plus on this project because the pattern is only an inch wide.  It is possible to make the line a little thicker by holding the tool at a slight angle.  There is a danger there though.  If you hold the tip too far over part of the wood burning tool can touch the wood.  That part is hot enough to burn the wood.  If you look at the test piece on the far right, you should be able to make out a rounded burn area at the end of the upper line.  That is what happens when the tool is held at too much of an angle.

I have used the Tapered Point on walking sticks before.  My walking stick called Shaman Staff was burned completely using the Tapered Point.  I have included a picture of that walking stick in this post.  One thing I learned from the wood burning the Shaman Staff was that the tip of the Tapered Point will eventually break off.  (To see the blog posts on the Shaman Staff, sign on to the blog at folkartbycaroljones.blogspot.com and search for blog posts from August 21, 2013 through December 1, 2013.)  I was almost at the very end of the project when the tip gave way.  Although the tip came with the original kit, it was not in the pack of refill tips.  This tip has to be purchased separately.  In fact my craft store did not carry the tip.  It had to be ordered online.  Amazon has it as well as other craft vendors.   So if you plan to use this wood burning tip, I suggest that you order an extra one before you get to far along in the project.  In fact, you might want to order a couple.
 
Despite its drawbacks, I do plan to use it for the Walking Stick Z project.  I also plan to use my work bench, even though it means I have to do some lifting and carrying.  It weighs about fifty pounds.  Monday I plan to get started on the walking stick. Weather permitting of course.



 

Colorful Mandala

I have not been able to get outside to work on my walking stick.  The weather is just not working with me.  We have had more rain.  Sometimes it rained on and off during the day.  Once it rained all night. The grass is so wet that I do not want to be out standing on it holding an electric wood burning tool.  The day or two when it has been dry enough to be outside I have had to be away from home.  One of these days I will have a day at home when I can get outside and do some wood burning.

Since it has been rainy, I have had to amuse myself inside.  I have been working with a book on how to make and use Mandala:  Mandala Luminous Symbols for healing by Judith Cornell, PH.D.   I have also been playing around with a book on how to make Zentangle art: The Art of Zentangle 50 inspiring drawings, designs, and ideas for the meditative artist.  I guess the Mandala I created is a fusion of what I have learned from these two books.  I used Prismacolor Premier Colored Pencils on black Canson paper.

As I blogged about the Celtic Knot Work several posts ago, it is better to have a good ability to visualize the outcome before you start working.  It is easy to spot a mistake in a repeating pattern. 

Third time is a charm.  I hope that I will have some wood burned Celtic Knot Work on the walking stick by the next blog post.

One other thought before I go:  I have noticed lately that my picture layout is changed on the Yahoo emails.  I am sorry if that has caused confusion when I label something Photo 1, etc.  I will be more mindful in the future that the photos may not appear in the same order on different platforms.

Raining, No Wood Burning - Update on Hypertufa Projects

Painted Hypertufa ball.

Adding a primer coat of Gesso.

Regular readers know that my plan was to blog today on testing various wood burning tips to see which worked best with the Celtic Knot Work design for the walking stick.    I do my wood burning outside on my outdoor work bench because the charred smell of burning wood makes my home smell like a forest fire has taken place.  Rain once again blocked my plans.  With drought being a problem in so much of the country I am grateful for the rain, but it is getting to be a bit much.  I had planned to work outside on Thursday.  It rained.  Friday, rain was predicted all day.  It rained intermittently throughout the day.  Saturday, the forecast called for no rain, but it decided to rain fairly heavily for about four hours.  Everything is still soaking wet outside.  Once it dries out enough, I will be outside working on my project.

Lip at the join had to be ground down.

In the mean time, I thought I'd update you on my latest Hypertufa projects.  I painted a small Hypertufa ball in January and put it outside.  A plain Hypertufa ball, or one that has been painted can stay outside even in winter.  I am pleased to say that the paint has not faded or cracked in any way despite rain, snow, ice, and hot summer sun.  The ball looks as good now as it did the day I put it out there.  It has inspired me to paint another ball.  I am half-way through giving the ball a coat of Gesso for a primer.

It is worthwhile to not the different casting methods used on the balls.  The painted ball (Photo 1) was cast by using a round plastic ball as a mold.  It does not have the join line in the center, but will always have a slightly flattened bottom. (gravity!) The other to balls (Photos
2 and 3) were cast in half sphere molds
and were joined at the center using thin
set mortar.  This leaves a line in the center. For more detailed information on casting Hypertufa, sign on to the blog and search the menu on the right hand side for blog posts labled Hypertufa.

If a ball has mosaic tiles and grout, the ball needs to be brought in during the winter months because water sometimes gets down between the tiles and grout and can freeze and cause cracking.  Remember to bring your tiled garden balls in for the winter once a freeze warning is issued.

I cast another Hypertufa ball and a stand for the ball.  This ball was a bit of a disappointment at first.  I had the mix a little too wet.  It slumped away from the mold and oozed slightly in the mold when it was turned over during the curing process.  This left a little bit of a lip on the edge of the ball and a slightly flattened top.  My attempts to repair the situation by patching in additional mortar did not help much.   I just left it sit for a while until I was ready to make a second attempt at a repair.

This time I tried a different approach.  I got out an angle grinder and ground down the edge and the rough spots created by my first repair job.  Where once I had a big jutting lip in the middle of the ball, I now have a smooth edge.  Although the edge shows the scars of grinding, I think that once the ball is covered with mosaic tiles and grout it will be barely noticeable.  The top of the ball is a little flatter than it ought to be but I think it will be the defacto bottom of the ball.  So the angle grinder worked.  If you should use it to work on your Hypertufa (or any other project for that matter) be sure to wear eye protection, ear plugs, and a dust mask.

We should be in for a few days of nice weather, so I hope to have the photos of different types of wood burning tips on the Celtic Knot Work next blog post.

Walking Stick Z - Part 6- Pattern Transfer

Wax paper covers the right hand strip of the pattern.

I'm moving ahead on my walking stick project.  In my last post I blogged about creating the Celtic Knot

Pattern traced over with a colored pencil.

Work pattern.  I also linked to some web sites that were helpful in teaching me how to create the patterns.  Today I am blogging about transferring the pattern I created onto the walking stick.  There is more than one way to transfer a pattern.  Some methods work better than others.  I have my preferred method, but I will also blog about my experiences with a couple of other methods because it may help save you some aggravation or extra work.  First off, I want to briefly get into what did not work well and why.  Then I will go into a detailed description of the method I use and why I like
this method.

Wax paper taped to stick colored pencil side down.

The most obvious method of pattern transfer is to use transfer paper.  This is essentially what we used to call carbon paper.  You put a piece of the transfer paper under your design and then go over your design with a pencil or pen.  You will have a copy.  There are drawbacks to the method though.  The prime annoyance is that the copy is easy to wipe off or smear your copy accidentally.  That may require you to recopy a portion of your pattern.  It is not always easy to get the pattern lined up exactly.  Another potential problem is that the smeared carbon can get into the wood and leave streaks that have to be sanded to remove them. 

Pattern transferred to the walking stick in the original direction.

Another method I did not have much success with was to print the pattern, place it on the surface, and dab the back of the paper with alcohol to cause the ink to transfer.  Yes, it worked, but it was not suitable for this purpose.  The liquified ink bled into small cracks and fissures in the wood leaving a very smeary design.  The rounded surface of the walking stick caused the ink to run off easily.  There are other transfer mediums that work with paper products that I have not tried, but after the work that it took to get the walking stick back into a useable condition I was not tempted to try them.

Now, on to what works.  My plan for this walking stick is to have the knot work pattern spiral around the stick.  This is how I transferred the pattern to the stick.  I have used it on quite a few sticks, and it has never failed or caused me a problem.  Even better, it is fairly inexpensive.  Supplies for this project: wax paper, a dark colored pencil (I use an Indigo, but any color with enough contrast would work as well.), some blue painter's tape, a pencil sharpener, a stylus or pen with a rounded head, and a smooth, hard work surface.  You work with one strip of the pattern at a time, but it saves paper if you print several copies on one sheet.  This method works better for me than transfer paper because the colored pencil does not brush off easily or smear the pattern.  You can put the walking stick aside for days and the pattern will remain intact and ready to use.

Begin by taping your pattern down to your smooth work surface facing upwards.  Cut a piece of the wax paper 1/2 inch larger than a strip of your pattern.  Tape the wax paper strip over top of your pattern, making sure that none of the pattern is covered by the tape. (Photo 1.)

Using the colored pencil, trace over the pattern.  (Photo 2.)  Now here is the tricky part of this.  If you read the previous blog post you may remember that I drew my design, then copied over the lines with a marker.  The marker bled through the paper enough that I could trace over it from the back side and have the design without all the distracting dots and erasure lines.  (Or I could have used a light box or taped the design to a well lit window to facilitate the process.)  That is fine for this pattern, but what it means is that I am working with the reverse.  After I copy over the pattern onto the wax paper, I will flip the wax paper over and tape it to the walking stick, the pattern is going to transfer so that the lines will be going in the direction that I originally drew the pattern. 

This matters considerably if I am using letters and words.  For example: a capital B faces curved parts to the right.  If I were to draw a capital B, cover it with wax paper, trace it onto wax paper, flip the wax paper over, and transfer the pattern, the letter would be reversed. If something is direction sensitive, work from the back of the pattern so that it will transfer in the proper direction. Make sure that you know which way your transfer is going to print. It is always a good idea to experiment on a scrap piece of wood before committing your pattern to the walking stick. 

Now that the direction issue has been dealt with, the rest of the process is relatively simple.  Tape the design colored pencil side down onto the walking stick.  I chose to have the design  spiral around the stick.  Use small bits of blue painters tape to tape the wax paper to the stick.  Use a ball headed stylus or other rounded object.  If you don't have a ball headed stylus, you could use a pencil, ball point pen that is out of ink, or a wooden skewer that has had the tip sanded to a rounded point.  Go over each line with a fairly strong pressure, going over each line a number of times to make sure the pattern transfers well.  Be careful not to rip the wax paper.  When you have finished your transfer, check each line before you remove the pattern.  If you find that you did miss something go over it now.  It is easier than trying to line up the pattern once it has been removed. 

 Each strip of the printed pattern can be used multiple times, but eventually it begins to show wear and tear.  When that happens I move on to the next strip.  I generally only use the wax paper strips once.  You can get a second transfer, but it is much fainter than the original transfer.  The wax paper is somewhat fragile and tends to rip if you use it a second time.

Once in a while you may find that a section of the pattern did not transfer well.  In some cases you can just wing it and draw the line in with the colored pencil.  If it is a complex part of the pattern you are going to be better off taping the pattern back into place and going over that part again.  In a repeating pattern, differences in the pattern are quite noticeable.  Winging it is more expedient, but getting the pattern right is more important.   In some cases it may be necessary to add more colored pencil to the wax paper to get the section to transfer well. 

So that is about it for today's blog.  Next blog I will be showing the different wood burning tips and how they work with this pattern.

Walking Stick Z- Part 5

A pattern from the tutorial

This is the same post as yesterday with some edits and spelling corrections.  It is funny that I can read over something once and not see the mistakes until after the article is posted.

Finally, I had a week where I actually feel like I'm getting back to a routine.  I made some progress this week on my projects.  I have been working on two different projects this week.  It feels great to get something done.

Drawn by dot method.

My major focus this week was the Walking Stick Z project.  I had  been going around in circles on that one for a while.  This week I had time to take out the palm sander and give the stick a final sanding.  I did not take out all the nicks and gouges that go along with stripping the bark, but I did sand the stick down enough that it is smooth enough that a pattern can be put on the stick.  It is ready to go.

Reduced size to fit walking stick

I spent most of the rest of the week working out a pattern.  Regular readers may remember that I was going through it trying to decide what to put on the stick.  I wanted dragons, but my dragon drawing ability just wasn't up to the task.  I suspect that once the dragon drawings were reduced in size they might have looked better than they did in a large scale but I just wasn't satisfied with them.  Next I tried to draw a stylized thistle.  I was trying to make something in a graphic that could easily be transferred to the stick.  Once again the results were less than what I wanted them to be.  It is one of those things that would have been just okay.  I finally decided to do some Celtic knot work.  And that is how I spent most of the rest of the week;
learning to draw a knot work pattern.

Strands linked together.

Because I am at some point hoping to sell some of my work, I want to make sure that all of my work is something I have done myself.  So that means that I had to learn to make the knots.  I had made one small project before, but it was so difficult to figure out I did not think I would ever use it again and did not save the pattern.  Several years later, I am back at square one.  I went through about five pages of graph paper front and back before I really started to "get it".  Lets just say that I need to work on my visualization techniques.  I guess that really is the key.  You have to have what the whole knot is going to look like before you start or else you are going to get lost in the process.

I started out using a book on how to make the knots:  Celtic Art The Methods of Construction by George Bain.  The book is still available on Amazon, but I have had this book since before the Internet was invented.  It has instruction for many types of knot work, but at times I found it a little hard to follow.  However, if you are really interested in learning how to do many different types of knot work, it is probably worth it to have own the book.

The good news is that there is plenty of information on the internet about how to create knot work.  I wanted to give a shout out to one website because I found it particularly interesting and helpful: www.clanbadge.com/tutorial
The website provide written instructions on how to create a knot and also had a Font for sale that could be used to create knot work on your computer.  For this project I followed the instructions for drawing a knot by hand because I want to learn how to do it, but I hope to get back to that website and experiment with the computer version at some point.  It is definitely going to improve turn around time on projects to create knots from the computer. The first photo shows the knot pattern I made using the tutorial from this web site.  This is the front side.  Once the pattern was drawn, I went over it with a marker so that I could distinguish the pattern lines from all the other lines used in creating the pattern and all of the lines that were mistakes.  They were still fairly visible even after having been erased.  I am not sure how well they will show up on the photos of the blog though.  The marker slightly bled through the paper enough that I could see it from the back, so once the entire pattern was drawn I turned the paper over and went over the back side with the marker so that I could just see the pattern without all of the other lines showing.  This pattern is too complex to use for my walking stick project however.  By the time I reduced the size to what would fit spiraling around the walking stick the lines were just too tight.  However, it looks as if it would make a great pattern to put on a painted box, so I'm holding on to it.

Another website was also helpful in helping me learn the dot method: http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/knots/computer.htm
I think that I really began to understand the dot process once it was broken down in a step by step manner.  Before this, I just was not understanding what the book mentioned above was trying to show me.

Once I became familiar with the process, I started working on a knot pattern.  It is not perfect, but it is one I labored over for hours.  Sometimes it was a matter of working on a piece of it and then going back and saying "What is wrong with this picture?"  And finally I had something I could live with, although I suspect that people really familiar with the process could find all sorts of mistakes.  If you look closely at the photos you will see a number of erasures and false starts.  The photos are of the last pages I did, not the several pages that went into the trash.

Anyway, I finally had a bit of a pattern.  I reduced it to a size that would work well when transferred to the walking stick.  I made a number of copies of the pattern and glued them down on a sheet of paper to form strands.  I made copies of the strands and put them all on one sheet.  Then I made copies of the sheet so that I will have plenty of strands to use for the walking stick.  Now that I have my pattern, I am ready to start transferring the pattern and start the wood burning.  Well, actually, there is one more thing I have to do before I start wood burning.  I need to cut the stick down to its final height and round off the top end.  I will probably do that today. 

That is about how far I have been able to get this week.  Next blog post I should have some photos.  It will probably be on Thursday, but if it starts to rain it might be the following blog post.