Anyone for Chess?

It's been a while since my last post, mainly because I've been working very hard on instruments more than folk art, and also due to the hard disk crash that took me away from my work for several days. However, today that changed a little, since I started doing more work on the chessboard I've tinkered with for several months. It was time to sand the uneven surface to make it an even surface. That took several passes through my drum sander.

Since my drum sander is only 10 inches wide, I had to pass the chessboard through twice, turning it around to get both sides. Fortunately, my sander has an open end and can sand pieces up to 20 inches wide in two passes.

Today I also ripped some maple strips to carve and mount on the board as a decorative frame. As soon as that's done, I'll start thinking more about what type of figures I want to carve as chessmen. More to come!

Yeow!

Hard disk crash! My old main computer, an aging Dell 1st generation Pentium 4, ate the hard drive, and it's taken two days to get it running again.We knew it was having problems because we kept hearing unusual squeaking sound coming from the computer's case. Fortunately, I was able to back everything up before it finally quit. It took several re-boots to get everything, but I saved all the data before the final gasp. I went out and bought a new hard drive, installed Windows XP Professional on it, and spent the last two days re-loading software and data files. That kept me from doing what I really wanted to do: work on my new instruments and folk art pieces.Tomorrow's another story. I have to make time to have photos taken of all my new pieces. My photographer had time on Friday to schedule me in, so I'll be taking around 10 things to get photographed. When I get the photo files, I'll set them up for the web and blog, and, of course, for submitting for show jurying.Stay tuned.

Lady Libertree

Yesterday I finished another birdhouse to submit to "Birds + Their Dwellings" at the Museum of Craft + Design. I call this one "Lady Libertree". (Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled nesters.)

The deadline for submissions is July 10, so I might have time to do one more. The exhibition, in the Museum Shop, runs from October 2 to November 14 and is open to crafts in clay, fiber, glass, wood, and metal.

As the prospectus says, "This show is inspired by the amazing variety of shapes, forms and designs of birds and the places they dwell. Found on every continent from the Artic to Antarctica, birds have found an enduring place in our cultures as figures of myth, art, food and pop icons." The show is open to all U.S. artists, and artwork must be original and made in the past 2 years.

Another idea is forming in my head. Guess I'll have to go do some carving.