actively create more art even though i hate putting this down in goal form since i know if it stares me in the face everyday i will feel the need to actually make some progress on it

The majority of my leather work recently had been for a guy who was making motorcycle tank bibs. Well, he decided to shut down his business and retire this week so I will not have any more pieces coming from him. Sad – as this was a consistent source of work. Good – in this will give me more time to do some of the art pieces I have been thinking about.

I made this for our club challenge. The body is made from eucalyptus. It is just about 5” tall. I have been asked to make several other. The inside is actually hollowed out wider than the opening – that was the challenge for the club.

This is from a kit and took me several nights to glue everything together. The guy who sells these has a laser to cut all the tiny wooden pieces.

Then turning it was nerve racking! The kit was $50 and here I was putting a sharp knife to it while it was spinning @ 2000 rpm!

I really do not like lettering but this logo carving really comes out looking good. I have made a special tool just for helping to tool the chains.

I have been doing so many commission pieces that it was a joy to do something for myself. The box was painted by my aunt and given to me last summer. When she gave it to me I decided that I would do a similar leather carving to give back to her. I will deliver it next week and am looking forward to finishing the exchange.

This was the challenge for my turning club this month. The turning was easy. The layout was interesting. The sanding however… I think I was sanding every night for the last month (slight exaggeration).

This is from a logo for a friend’s repair business. It will be another motorcycle tank bib.

I find woodworking to be an artistic release for me so I am filling it under this goal.

I didn’t get it finished while on vacation this week but I did make nice progress. It took me a whole day to turn the spindles for this cradle but I felt that a baby cradle needed to have curves and be somewhat ornate. This is from Woodcraft magazine. I used oak instead of maple (oak is what I had on hand).

I still need to make the legs/pendulum support and then stain/seal. When it is done, it will swing. The pattern was for the American doll 15” “bitty baby” but my niece collects the 18” version so I had to modify the length a bit.

This one I practiced on a piece of leather big enough to frame if I liked it (I do – now I will need to make a frame).

This was a bit frustrating that I could not add significant detail as the piece will be exposed to the elements.

Here is a butterfly design. This is based on the design painted on her helmet.