Friday, August 31, 2012

Mr. Coffin's Wood making

Last week, the kids went to camp in Sandy Point. On the way, there was a house with bird houses for sale out front. The sign said $5. I decided to investigate and was rewarded with a lovely hour or so in the morning.
Mr Coffin, an 80 year old man, wearing suspenders and looking like he had already been up before the sun rose with energy to spare, invited me in to see his things.
He apologized for his work piled up in his house and said that if a woman was around, it probably wouldn't be allowed past the kitchen. His work was neat piles of finished wood working. Mr. Coffin declined to be photographed, but was happy to have me share his work with you.
Here's a little tour. (photos with cell phone)

These oxen and ox were carved by hand with a jack knife. At the exhibition, they have oxen pulls and the oxen are decorated as such.

 These chains were carved with a knife. Each chain came from one piece of wood. Not each link, each chain!. That takes a bit of work. And time. And patience. And finger cutting I'm sure.
 This is a 6 player board for a game I can't remember. He has the rules printed out to accompany the board. 
The 4 player board. 
Here's a plant table. I remember my grandmother having a table like this with a huge, viney plant.
 A 3 tiered shelf. He makes 2 tiered ones also.

A miniature sized lobster trap.
And a few more lined up. He makes about 5 at a time to ensure that they are available for customers.

A basket of wooden spatulas. All of his cutlery are sanded so smoothly.
The fork tines are cut with a jack knife. I don't know how he gets them sanded so round and smooth.

 An assortment of sizes for spoons. I think I would want to rub it with mineral oil or a mixture of beeswax and olive oil. Which one can you use for food?
 A 3 person cribbage board...
 A 2 person cribbage board. All of his game boards are made with various woods doweled and glued together, instead of 1 piece of wood that would warp. The colours are so rich. His wood is kiln dried.
 When I told him that I was from Newfoundland, he showed me this. There is a quarter coin under the hammer. You open the clothes pin and it hits the quarter. ha ha. Funny. :}
 This tractor and trailer are all hand carved.
 The next stop was out in his shed. I bought the teal coloured bird house.
Look closely, the bird houses are hanging....
 Upside down! 
 These bird houses cost a little more. I think they are $15 or $20. Log Cabin Style.
 And this is a bird feeder. The roof comes off so you can fill it with seed. He suggests you put it on a post, as the weight and size of it are a little big to be swinging in the breeze.
In addition to buying the bird house, I also bought a bat house. We have it hanging on the post in the middle of the garden. The post was a mystery to us, but now it has a purpose. I'm not certain that we have any bats. There are some in the town. But we have flies, mosquitoes, annoying flying things that we hope the bats will come to eat!

I will be going back to see Mr. Coffin and to buy some things before he sells them at the Christmas Market at the local fire hall. If I'm lucky, I may have a few things to sell there also. 

It was nice talking to him. His house overlooks the ocean. It was a warm, sunny day with the sea breeze coming over the land. A nice spot and a nice feller.

Thanks Mr. Coffin, see you soon.

Amanda

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Lavender Wand Tutorial

I had a lovely afternoon making some lavender wands with my friend, Jan. We put together a tutorial for you.
First, gather some lavender. It's lost it's colour here, but is still fragrant. We put the stems in water to see if it would help soften the tips where we bend them. I'm not sure that it worked.
 We chose 11 stems. I prefer a fatter wand, like the one at the end of the tutorial. It's up to you. You do need to have an odd number to keep the weaving working.
 Tie the stems just below the base of the flowers.
 Start to bend the stems down over the blossom. Be gentle. The stems can crack.
 Continue...
 Start to space them out and arrange with weaving ribbon in mind.
 Tie the base of it.
 It helps if you have an extra set of hands.
 Start to weave by putting the ribbon of choice Under the stems. (we couldn't find the thin ribbon, so used this instead. It's not very colourful, but whadda gonna do. You can see the colourful version at the end.)
 Start to weave around the wand. We used a wool needle to in and out. It helped a lot.
 I got kind of involved in my own wand and forgot to take more pictures of the progress. Here is the finished wand. Her weaving is much neater than mine. I messed up and tried to compensate several times. :}
 Here is the colourful, bigger version. Make sure you pull the weaving as tight as you can, as the wand shrinks a little as it dries out.
There you have it.  A little momento of summer days. Thanks Jan.

Have a good one,
Amanda

Monday, August 27, 2012

A boy and his felties...

This is my boy, Rafael.

These days, you can often see him here.... It's prime pickin' time.


The past few days have been at the table needle felting.
 He's just gone a little crazy for it. The sock monkey on the left is the first one that I did a few years ago. Check it out here. The cube monkey at the bottom is one he did yesterday and the large monkey on the right is felted soap. I had a request for it at the market on Saturday. 

 Yes, oh yes, I had a lovely time at the Farmer's Market on Saturday. I'll be going there again to set up a table. Pleasant way to spend the morning.

 He's in a bit of a sock monkey mode.
See the one on the bottom, it's a heart shaped monkey. His idea.
He's also in a Mario Brother's mode.
All photos, except the ones of himself, are Rafael's. See his shadow?
Since these pictures this morning, he has done a few lady bugs, another Mario creature and a few other things. I'm just leaving out on the table for a few more days to see what comes out of his hands and head. I do need to buy more needles though. Ugh. 8 year old boys can be hard on needles.

If you've come from Late Night Stamper, thanks for joining me here. 

See you again soon.  A tutorial for a lavender wand...
Amanda

Welcome to my new home!

Well, with the shift in my new place of residence July Happenings and a new life, I've decided to finally change my blog to it's proper name. If you've been following my crafting since I've started, I started as a paper crafter. Over the years, I drifted to sewing, needle felting, crocheting and other similar stuff.

As such, my blog name of Late Night Stamper, just didn't apply. 3 years ago, I reserved this blog name, By Hook and Thread. It's time to come live here.  I'm leaving the Late Night Stamper  blog up for you to still browse through and hopefully find some inspirations.

So change your  bookmarks and follow me here too... just on the right hand side. Who will be my first follower???? Is it you?

I look forward to sharing more things with you.
Cheers,
Amanda