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I should have put another title to this post, something like “Ugly Photos’ Post”, but nevermind.
I had a strange week, I actually did a lot of things, but seems like I don’t have much to show to you. I’m still making the parts for my chandelier, another one. I also continue learning metal lathe things. My husband is a great teacher, very patient, I should say. I did learn a lot, but still have to ask him if I have any questions.
As a result I made a beautiful candlestick, made of aluminum, but it looked very silver to me 🙂 Unfortunately, no photos for you here as it broke when I started cutting it off. The good thing is that I learned a lot, I also tried that mysterious jig for making spheres (absolutely, useless by the way for aluminum, because it’s easier to make them with files).
Experiment number two – metal spinning. Looks fantastic in this video, which is not mine, obviously 🙂
I don’t have silver, but lots of copper. I’m not very good with spinning, I managed to make these, hm, “cups” after five or six attempts.
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I’ve finished with the first floor, and cannot be happier! Good to move on to the upper floor – just three doors, two windows and three ceilings left. Here’s how my living room looks like:
I didn’t make the plinth, because I want to install a fireplace first. The windows are made of mahogany, they don’t open, but in my case it’s all been planned 😉
The ceiling is very simple, nothing fancy, I guess, because of the wallpaper, that takes too much attention.
Under the windows you can see my second version of poppy table, this time, again, it was a commission piece, so I’m thinking of the third version for myself. 🙂
Some goodies arrived this morning for my handmade lights, hopefully I’ll try to make them (at least, start) this weekend. If I’m lucky with it, I can also start working on the exterior.
Friday!
It’s sooo good to be back to work on my dollhouse! I’ve finished the main door today:
I didn’t make a door knob for the inner side of the door just yet, it will be there soon, I promise 🙂
Victorian Style
I would never consider myself as a huge fan of Victorian style, probably because I haven’t seen the examples that would look just right for me. And this time I think I’ve found some. One of my latest commissions:
Entrance door – not done yet
Well, it’s not completely ready, I need to carve the back sides of the panels and add some more details. But, so far so good, I like this door. On the left is a photo of the doors that inspired me to try this design. The door handle is supposed to be quite simple here, but there’s no place for mail slot, though I’ve seen some very original solutions for such doors.
I really like the color of the cherry wood:
Bombe Chest – Almost There
My bombe chest is almost done. I need to make the inner parts of the drawers and also sand the trims of the outer parts. For two lowest drawers I needed to shape the sides, very easy to do, I used alder.
Read the news about Sketchup, they leaving Google and becoming the part of Trimble (never heard of them). It is said that they will keep a free version, I’m curious which direction the developers will take. Here’s official Sketchup team post about it.
More woodcarving books
My first attempt to order books from Amazon UK, because delivery rates on Amazon US are quite high for Russia. The only problem is they deliver packages by airmail without tracking number. So I was a bit nervous about this order.
Carving legs
I finished carving these legs last week. I’m almost pleased with result, I was even thinking of making another version of them but I have other projects to do too, so I decided on moving on. I really liked working with cherry, though with pear wood it would be absolutely different experience. The only problem I had is, when I was finishing working with spheres, some of those small claws started to split and fall off so I had to glue them back. But I liked how the joints and claws turned out.
Carving spheres was fun, they look just right from every angle.
The other details above the leg were supposed to be carved by Dremel, but I didn’t like the result at all, simple V-shape micro chisel 0,5 mm was the best option.
I also bought a set of Narex chisels lately. They are quite good for their price, but require additional work. Kirschen is still my number one choice.
I also started working on drawers, two of them were shaped according to the profile of the sides. The most difficult part here is done.
Bombe Chest
I decided to try one more project from Harry W. Smith’s book that I really like.
This chest is made of mahogany in the book, but I really wanted to try cherry for this one. The most interesting part was to make curved sides. Usually I follow all the tips from this book, but this time I was a bit confused. I didn’t like the way of shaping these parts – with a small drum sander held in a flexible-shaft machine. I tried it and found the results inconsistent. Working with a bandsaw was absolutely different experience, very easy and precise. The original thickness of a stock was 8 mm and I shaped it to 2 mm.
Then I cut dovetails for the dividers and glides. All fitted nicely.
The back was also easy to make. Then I needed to carve four claw foots. Something like this:
I’ve seen several how-to videos about carving them, I highly recommend those from Popular Woodworking. Though they all are really helpful, especially their references on different shapes and forms. I’ve been working on them for the last week or so, not really happy with the result but I’m close to the OK version 🙂 Hope to show you them soon.