weekend work

It's been a busy weekend. I ran a job for Chloe (student). She's making the pressed steel cross stitch patterns and I'm drilling them on my CNC router. I did three different designs for her this weekend. It's taken most of the weekend to run these. I have to run the router super slow to prevent burning up bits since we're using a number 52 bit for all the holes. Some of the designs have over 3500 holes so it just has to peck away. I learned early on not to mess with trying to run it fast; burned up a few bits. I now have it to the point that I can make a bit last for at least 300 holes. Not too bad in my opinion.

While those were running on the router, I got Lela's (a student) test folded paper bowl ready for casting. Lela is folding paper and assembling these complex three dimensional forms. The one here is small compared to the others. We want to attempt casting some of these via lost paper mold. She probably wants to do aluminum due to cost but I want to see this in bronze. Anyway, we're ready to invest now.

While all of this was happening, I cut some die forms for Asheville jeweler, Laura Wood. I'm going to heat treat these this week and get them to her. I had helped her wit some similar design work before COVID when she took a workshop with me at my studio. Now my former student Elizabeth Walton is working for her and so Elizabeth asked me about these I said I could cut them instead of her using a service bureau. It's a good excuse to test out heat treating aluminum. I've been reading up on it. Looks like it should be simple to do. I suppose I could have cut these in steel, but I had to use a .03 end mill in some sections and I didn't have any steel plate on hand (the right thickness), and I wasn't looking forward to cutting steel with those small end-mills.

I also worked on some RhinoCAM for the inner Ferrari handles and my McMaster Carr order for brass came in so I can cut those soon. I ended up casting bronze versions from some Form Labs 3D prints, but I want to see what the machined ones look like compared to the cast ones. I smoothed out the cast ones while machines were running.

I also worked on one of my cast iron teapots since I have a couple exhibition opportunities coming up. Still trying to decided if I want to enamel this and I think I may design a new handle design for it.

Oh, and I talked to Eric this weekend. Sounds like we're both going through similar stuff in life right now. We've decided to try and help each other out by making a point to chat more frequently. It was good to chat with him. It's reminded me that I need to take time to draw more and I need to plan some big projects that I've had for a while; or at least dream about them to get the ball rolling.

Oh, I put together a bunkbed for Olivia tonight in between the work and helped her cut some wood that she was whittling today. I gave her a pocket knife to and we talked about being responsible with it. Small lessons, but important nonetheless.

Well it feels good to list all of this here, as it's Sunday night and I've been feeling like I haven't gotten anything done for a while. I need to make a point of doing this to keep myself on track.