This is an older piece that has served me well as a dice box for a good while now. Still one of my favorite boxes. #woodworking #woodturning #d&d #ttrpg

More needle cases. This time in what I think is holly but I'm honestly not sure. It could be a particularly white maple? Came out of the offcuts bin at the lumber yard. #woodworking #woodturning

Small needle cases in sapele. It's nice to be making something that doesn't have to be food contact safe and washable so I can use my trusty linseed oil and shellac friction polish. #woodturning #woodworking

Finishing up some spoons. These are improving. #spooncarving #woodworking #crafts

Slightly better still photo. I'm finding this very difficult to photograph.

Bound ghost with spooky floating action. #automaton

This ended up being my favorite part of the automaton I'm currently working on. And it's an afterthought. I was going to have a more traditional vertical cam but then I realized I could simplify it a bit by having the cam horizontal and it could also be decorative. #automaton #woodworking

In my ongoing cuir bouilli experiments this is the first time I've actually tried boiling it. This is 2mm veg tan dipped in boiling water for less than a minute and then stretched over a wooden bowl and clamped in place until dry. Very interesting. #leatherworking #experimentalarcheology

Better wood storage is becoming an increasingly urgent item on my studio infrastructure TODO list. This is... not ideal.

Spent the morning roughing out spoons. My hatchet hand has developed blisters in new places. I've decided to take some of these to a craft fair I'm vending at in August so I'll be building up a stock. Also using these to procrastinate on other things. #woodworking #spooncarving #crafts

A small spoon from this big leaf maple. I've been seeing other carvers making spoons with profiles sort of like this and wanted to try it. I feel like I didn't quite capture the feeling, too rounded and organic. Fortunately I have a pile of wood to try again. #woodworking #spooncarving #crafts

Spatula carved from big leaf maple. This wood is lovely to carve. I got a load of this badly dried wood a while back. Unsurprisingly, basically none of it is good for turning but I think I can get a lot of spoons and such out of it. #woodworking #spooncarving #carving

I ended up with an extra saw blade in a slightly smaller size than I normally use and decided to take a minute this afternoon to make a handle for it. It's just roughed out of hickory. Maybe I'll clean it up more or do a leather wrap or something but, honestly, it feels fine so maybe I won't.

A couple of these little boxes (along with some other items) are going down to the Postmark Center for the Arts gift shop in Auburn, WA next week. This is the last of this maple and I'm not sad to see the back of it. It's pretty but very unpleasant to work with. #woodworking #woodturning

One of the back burner projects I've been working on is these little boiled leather boxes in imitation of late medieval examples. These are a significant improvement over my first test and are actually quite usable, sturdy little boxes. #leatherworking #experimentalarcheology

These little forged nails turned out much more convincing than I expected. For a sculptural project that's brewing. The realism is helped along by the fact that they are actually forged, just in copper not steel. They're black from a liver of sulfur bath. #modelmaking but also real #blacksmithing

Planing down a bunch of little pieces for a project using... a machinist's vise. Why use the right tool when the other tool is right there? #woodworking

First step in making more of these divided trays is blanks. I found a couple of thick slabs of sapele at the salvage yard so that's what I'm using for the body. I'll do the dividers in birch which should be a nice contrast..

Crawling snail automata prototype. I'm still not completely happy with either the sculpt or the motion but it's much better than the first version. I'm learning things. One is that this motion, which I thought would be the simplest possible is more complex than that. #automata #crafts

Some process shots for the unnecessarily fancy spindle whorls that I posted a while back. Turned and carved walnut with oil paint polychroming. I'm getting ready to make another batch of these for a shop and thinking on how to improve them. #woodturning #fiberarts #crafts

Last piece in this goblet series for now. My goal on this one was to make every part of it as delicate as I could. It is too thin. I just pulled it off the lathe and I can already see the rim distorting. But look at that light, so pretty. #woodturning #woodworking #crafts

I guess I'm turning a series of goblets now. I'm not sure if that's exactly the right term for this. Maybe more like "footed bowl". #woodworking #woodturning #crafts

Process picture of these divided trays. After the bowl has been roughed and split with a handle in contrasting wood glued in. Then it goes back on the lathe to have the outside turned to final dimensions and the top of the handle shaped a bit. #woodworking #woodturning #craft

Had a couple of pieces in the Edmonds Arts Festival Gallery last weekend, both of which sold which is awesome. I particularly like the divided trays. I was just looking at my wood pile thinking about what to use to make some more of those.

A slightly fancy maple goblet. Turned out of the same branch as the previous tumbler (remains of the branch in the background). I do love goblets as a form but this is the first time I've actually done one in wood. #woodturning #woodworking #craft

Turned end grain cup in green maple. I got a pile of maple a couple of weeks ago and have been experimenting with turning green for the first time. Cross grain bowls have been drying pretty well. This is the first end grain piece from this wood. So we'll see how drying goes.

After a couple of hours of fiddling with it I managed to get a handmade paper kite to fly. Super fun. I've been wanting to try making a kite for years and never have until today when I threw some glue, old packing paper and leftover bamboo sticks into my bag at the last minute and just did it.

Last flavor: Blueberry and Sugar Palm Fruit. I bought a jar of the sugar palm fruit a while back just to try and have been a loss at what to do with it. It's really quite good as little chunks in this sorbet.

Second flavor: Salted Egg Coffee. This one is somewhere half way between a sorbet and a frozen custard. Rich but not that creamy.

Making sorbet for a kite flying party tomorrow. This is the first flavor: plum + black lime. The black lime really dominates, very funky and interesting.

It's been a day of mixed successes so far. I cut the lid off my first cuir bouilli piece, a little needle case. It is a box. It opens and closes. But I had a lot of trouble laminating the leather with hide glue, the end caps didn't stick down at all. So I didn't bother with any surface finish.

Continuing working on this little snail automaton. Working out the motions for the four parts. I need to find a way to keep the shell from rotating, maybe I should have used square dowels.

This is another recent project. I got fascinated by spinning while working on a costume for a reenactment event and so, naturally, started making the fanciest drop spindles I could. These are walnut whorls with cherry sticks and milk paint polychroming around the carving.

Just started work on a small wooden automaton. A little crawling snail.