I get into long conversations about composition with my friend Karl. He’s back in school and telling me how he’s learning the basics of composition. Cool. What’s that?

Threading Pedz Legs……. “Ol’ Pedz Leg!” 

The newest in the terrazzo line…..

So far so good. What are they? You’ll just have to wait and see!

Daughter Numero Uno has asked for me to make her furniture when she gets married?!?!?! Two beds, that’s a lot of work. “Why would I need two beds Dad?” Hehe….. uhhhhhhhh I don’t know!

I usually only post things related to what I do at the studio. This Enviro section was originally about the types of trees that the wood I use comes from. Today though I’m posting about some Cuban Tree Frogs that are finally emerging from the aquarium (thanks Carol) that has been their home for the past 3 weeks.

The tree the frogs are perched in is one of two Paradise trees that were put into pots by my daughter and me. I figured that it would be OK to post these pictures here. 

I never realized the process of the eggs turning into tadpoles turing into frogs was really that incredible until the aquarium they were in sat on our kitchen counter for 2 and half of the last three weeks. I might attack documenting the process as we experienced it but right now, here are my newest babies.

Thanks for checking in,

Paul 

 

So far I’ve turned stainless steel, mild steel, aluminum, delrin (a plastic), brass and today it was rubber. Rubber is interesting to turn. The main thing it requires is very sharp tooling. In this case I ground a cut off tool real narrow. I then ground and honed the top and front edges.

 

The tooling requires a certain amount of rigidity. For example and razor blade won’t work.  Because the rubber flexes a great deal, I’m using the live center to support the end of the piece.

Now that I have the milling machine and lathe, I wonder what I’ve been doing without them for so long?

Milling the footrest. 

Just some of the machined parts for the Mrs. Wonky stool:Â

The last Pedz top I poured and featured here was a real coooooooool orange. Orange with real nice red glass. The orange pigment I used was NOT specifically for cement. Now this little fact made a BIG difference in the cement curing. It DIDN’T. I waited about 6 days before attempting to pop the Pedz from the mold. It crumbled immediately. Good news was that I was able to salvage both the stainless reinforcing and the red glass. Both were installed in the new yellow Pedz top. (I really wasn’t happy with the “real coooooooooool orange” anyway)

I used the same  type pigment but yellow and added 75% less. The new Pedz top released from the mold great and will be ground on the 11th.

 

 

The new yellow top after grinding: