Eggs Over Easy

A colorful coop of eggs.  Trusty Assistant's is at the top
of the bowl, with all phases of the day represented.

 Somehow, through our neighborhood network and social media, we were connected with a wonderful person who delivers locally grown, free range chicken eggs every week to our door.  What a deal!  Being from a variety of chickens, most of the eggs are brown but there are some occasional light blue and white ones mixed in.  When a decent size and color egg would come along, I would set it aside for pysanky and soon I had quite an accumulation of small ovoid blank canvases.  With no immediate projects needing completion, I broke out the kistkas, wax, and dyes and started working on some designs.

I took the compass rose
design from the Settler's
game board I recently
created and replicated it.

An egg created for a fundraiser for
African Wild Dogs.

I first learned about pysanky from my high-school Russian Language teacher, Ms. McIvor, as a way to integrate some Russian (or in this case Ukrainian) culture into our language lessons.  Being also interested in art (later becoming on of my college degrees), I took to pysanky quickly and spent much free time making them in Ms. McIvor's classroom during lunch or other free periods.  After a long hiatus during college and after, I ordered a kit with dyes and kistkas and wax online after picking up a book called Decorating Eggs by Jane Pollack from an art store in Portland.  Since then, I've been intermittently creating eggs for gifts or as charitable donations for fund-raisers or just for the fun of it.  Just recently, my Trusty Assistant has also taken an interest and has produced some quick and spontaneous designs.

The last batch of creations was a fun mix of some new contemporary designs that I find more challenging and fun with some designs that lean towards more traditional.  Some of my favorites are ones that utilize the negative space or, in the case of eggs, the natural brown and white of the shell.  Another break from tradition has been a blending of Ukrainian design basics with Celtic themes.  Since I can trace my heritage back to both cultures, I enjoy mixing the two.  Since the project front has been somewhat quiet recently, I thought I would post some pictures of the fruits of one of my other hobbies.

Salvage Work

When we first purchased our house, the unfinished basement had a small, rickety workbench that wobbled like gelatin anytime you tried to saw a piece of wood on it.  It didn't take me long to take it apart and build something a bit sturdier out of some of the pieces from it and some other scrap plywood that had been repurposed from another part of the house that we had remodeled.  It wasn't great by any means but it did the job decently enough that I used it for several years through the various house projects I've worked on.  With the recent basement overhaul, replacing the workbench again was on the list of things to do but this time, I wanted it to be more stable, look nicer, and provide more storage than the past practice of just tossing stuff underneath it.  I also aimed to make it completely out of scrap or salvaged lumber.  After moving the old workbench all over the basement as I redid walls and added cupboards and shelves, I also wanted to make this one more mobile.  

Bowling, anyone?

For the work surface, I wanted something more solid than the 1" plywood that made up the current bench top.  I began collecting scrap 2"x 4" pieces from whatever I had leftover, my neighbors, and what I could pull from pallets.  Using my table saw, I shaved all the rounded edges off and cut the boards down to about 3"in width.  Once I had enough to assemble a bench top about 6' wide by 3' deep, I lined them all up on a plastic covered piece of particle board and connected them all up using wood glue and deck screws, leaving gaps for the post tops about two layers in and about 6" from the edges.  

For the corner posts, I had some decently thick pieces leftover from a large radiator crate that the shop across the street had given to me years before.  I notched the tops of the posts to fit the gaps I left in the bench top and then attached the posts with 2" x 4"s at top and bottom which gave it some better rigidity and also help support the bench top a little more.  At the bottom, I used 3/4" OSB that had been part of the same crate as the posts for the bottom of a three compartment storage shelf and attached some heavy duty locking wheels to the ends of the posts.

It's still a mess under there but now it's a nicer mess.

Finally, I wanted to add some extra storage by adding drawers just under the bench.  The drawer faces and surround were made completely out of pine scraps from my cupboard and shelf project.  The sides, backs, and runners for the drawers were made completely out of pallet boards, some of them glue laminated together.  The drawer bottoms were made from 1/4" birch plywood scraps from the cupboard doors.  I didn't have a lot of solid pieces to make the drawer fronts so I made them each unique using different sets of pine scrap and so, while they are all of the same wood, each one has a very unique texture to it.  The runners were attached at the back of the work bench to leftover scrap plywood from my old bench.  It was some of the nasty painted stuff but very solid so it was perfect for part of the bench you'll rarely ever see.

In the end, 100% of the wood products were from scrap or salvaged from broken pallets.  Alas, the hardware was all new with the exception of the drawer pulls themselves.  For the first, I was able to use a carved bear's head I made a few years back that hadn't yet found it's purpose in life.  The second was from a combination of a replacement water tap handle that had been floating around for years that fit perfectly into a threaded bolt insert that came off of some old snowboard binding hardware.  All in all, I'm very happy with the new work-bench, especially now that it's done.  On to the next project!

Ladder Shelf Salvage

Typical shelf found at
LoweWalStapleKohlMart

After my mostly successful foray into creating my own glued wood panels for the shelves and cabinets, I decided to give them another try on my next project, a ladder shelf.  After changing our bedroom furniture out from a rustic, outdoors-like feel, to a more modern style, we were lacking a shelf and my wonderful spouse was getting a little annoyed at the stacks of books that were populating the closet.  So, it was time to get to work on fixing that.  We did some searching out of different designs and settled on a ladder-shelf style that was fairly common in many stores.  Of course, my significant other wanted to quickly go buy one so we could resolve the lack of closet space and, of course, I said, "I can make one!"  I'm sure there was some eye-rolling at that.  However, I convinced her finally when I said I was going to be using a lot of salvaged materials.

Ladder to nowhere

I've been collecting scrap pallet wood for various projects and this was the perfect project for a lot of what was taking up space underneath our deck.  Because I was making it from scratch, I was also able to customize the dimensions to fit just the right spot in the room.  I wanted to make it taller than normal to maximize the space since we have a decently high ceiling but I was unable to find any salvaged pallet wood that would work for the height so I purchased four 1"x 4" x 10' alder boards from my local Shurway.  The shelves were made completely out of pallet planks and the shelf supports were made from the leftover pieces of the alder boards.  I used a dark walnut stain to try and match the color of the new bed frame and two layers of gloss varnish.

What I really liked most about the way this turned out was the grain character of the shelves.  The pallet planks were a variety of soft woods and also various ages.  I tried to make sure the wood of each shelf was the same and it gave each shelf it's own subtle difference.  I sanded the glued panels just enough to give the shelves an even appearance and smooth out the roughest patches but I left as many imperfections as I could to make it obvious that this was reused material.
The one thing I would do over if I could would be more careful with the use of glue on the shelf sides.  Although attached by screws, I wanted the extra reinforcement since not all the boards were perfectly straight.  However, while I wiped up the excess glue that was squeezed out, it was hard to get all of it in the inside corners and seems.  Excess glue spots on the basement cabinets and shelves project wasn't such a big deal because the wood was light and since I used a natural stain, they would be difficult to spot.  With this project, the glue spots show up a lot more clearly because of the contrast with the dark stain.  Thankfully, the glue issue is minor and doesn't stand out glaringly.  Besides, all those books that were previously hanging out on the closet floor are now where they ought to be, on a shelf.

A Post-less Year of Projects

My high-school English teachers would be very disappointed in me.  A whole year with nothing posted!  Like any art form, writing should be practiced every day for an hour at least but alas, doing other things with my hands has gotten in the way of my intentions to keep up with this blog.  Today, however, I'm finding the silver-lining in feeling like I'm being alternately dunked in the Yellowstone hot springs and the Volga river mid-January.  That's right, it's cold season in the house and just like the jelly-of-the-month club, illness brought home from school is truly the gift that keeps on giving.  I'll need to have real heart-to-heart with my Trusty Assistant about what he brings home.

So while I sit here wrapped in a blanket, armed with a hot toddy (the Irish cure for what ails you) and an over-used handkerchief, I will finally take some time to reflect on the past year's accomplishments.  

The Bridges of Portland (a.k.a. Bridgetown) are much more
romantic than Madison County.  If you're an engineer.

If my recollection of time is somewhat accurate, I finally got around to framing one of my favorite posters acquired during a charity auction.  I wanted to give the frame a good weathered look so I used a thoroughly aged pallet with a gray patina on the wood.  Unfortunately, with the age, the boards were also all slightly warped.  Cutting the corner angles to match turned out to be an exercise in futility so, leftover metal flashing to the rescue!  I had a small roll of galvanized flashing left from the front porch project and created some custom corners to add stability to the frame and hide the errant corner angles.  Considering the subject of the poster, the flashing adds a great touch.  Even the screws to attach the flashing were salvaged from something else that was deconstructed so, I can safely assert that at least 75% of the materials for the framing are reclaimed or re-purposed.  We can debate calculations later.

Cabinets and shelves.
You put things in them and on them.

The next project was the largest time consumer of the year.  This is Phase II of basement reconstruction.  Our north wall in the remaining basement was pretty much useless.  I had my small workbench area and we had some small shelves for toys but with the way the plumbing was set, it was a very unusable space.  So, my idea was to add extra storage for all the junk we think we need to have on hand in case of an apocalyptic event.  As you can see the idea was to alternate sets of closed-door cabinets with open shelving to help us better organize all that junk.  Since we have no garage (yet) and the attic is a pain-in-the-ass to get in and out of, this was a priority for me.  

Trusty Assistant demonstrating
the scale of the furniture.

I hate to say it but this not reclaimed material.  I purchased knotty pine boards from Shurway Lumber to make the basic frames and shelves.  The door paneling on the cabinets is hemlock.  This project was a real first for me because the shelves and frames were made by gluing panels of pine boards together rather than buying project boards of white "wood" from Home Depot.  An extra pair of 3' wood clamps was also a must for this one as the gluing process takes a lot of waiting time.  Thankfully, it was a really nice summer and I was able to let many of the panels set outside. The project was a success although I learned quickly that staining and varnish application must absolutely be done outside or in a well-ventilated area.  And always make sure you cover the stain with a good varnish!

It's game time!  Bring on the hexes.

I declined to put a North on the compass rose out of pure spite.

 The next project was intended to be a Christmas present but instead is being held for someone's birthday.  This was my second attempt at a Settlers of Catan board.  I used the leftover hemlock paneling from the cabinets for the fascia and a leftover chunk of project board that's been floating around the basement forever that was just the right size.  The cork rolls were something we discovered at Scrap.  I wanted to keep the illustrations simple as opposed to my last board which was painted to somewhat duplicate the original Settlers frame.  For this board, I used my engineering pens to draw the coastline, ships, and compass rose and then covered it all with a natural stain and semi-gloss varnish.  

Also, throughout much of the year, I was working on this, a painting of the fishing vessel Takako in Ilwaco harbor.  It's acrylic on canvas board, 16" X 20".  The sail insignia really drew my attention to this one and with the background of Jessie's Ilwaco Fish Co., I thought it was just a great scene.  I have yet to frame it as I'm waiting to find some good weathered wood or some more salvage tongue-and-groove to pull it together.  If you want it unframed, it's yours for $500.

Takako, Ilwaco Harbor, WA

Right; Mine: Left; Trusty Assistant's

Also throughout the year, we were connected with a local egg-producer that sells the best eggs imaginable.  Of course, not all eggs are to be eaten.  Some are ovoid canvases waiting to be inked.  This year, I decided to try out a Germanic Celtic theme rather than my usual Gaelic Celtic knots.  Also this year, my Trusty Assistant wanted to try his hand at the art of Pysanky.  While my Trusty Assistant's first attempt at a pysanky egg was not what he intended, I think this one of the best "happy accidents" I've ever seen.  I just love this egg.

Now, of course I can't just sit idly by (although when racked be a fever sometimes you have to give in), and there are many other projects in the works or on the horizon.  The current project is a replacement of my basement workbench which was a hobbled together mish-mash of whatever was in the house when we bought it.  It's wobbly, heavy, and unstable but it has done its job for years.  I'm working on replacing it with a new bench made completely out of salvaged material (minus the fasteners).  Work is progressing but hopefully much quicker now with the acquisition of a Pallet Paw.  I had several attempts this summer of welding my own but (sorry Dad) the welder I had was inadequate for the task.  I've already deconstructed a couple pallets with the Paw and looking forward to the ease of the task compared the ole' pry-bar and hammer.  Also on the schedule is a triptych of our Nicaragua trip in ink and watercolor.  No guarantees on an actual completion date.

I hope you all had a productive and informative 2015.  To my high-school English teachers, Mrs. Cartwright and Mrs. Munk, I sincerely and repeatedly apologize for my lack of practice.  Thank goodness I'm not being graded.  I hope you all find inspiration and motivation in 2016 and I'm looking forward to sharing more.