Guest Workers

Got Grit?

Here you see the gritty grin of a person sanding beautiful wood. Cherry, at this moment. Every piece of wood you are about to see came from a tree. I say this because it has never been so real to me before. Such a simple idea, yet so much work! Trees are not smooth, nor are they beveled or cut to size. That all had to be done piece by piece. Not complainin'. Just es'planin'!

At the end of March, we had some guest-workers. Meet Vickie and Kevin.  C'mon, let's get busy!

There's Kevin, helping plane some wood.

Planin', not complainin'!

 The Altar piece has been the center of attention for some weeks, but other jobs are calling. Here's Vickie getting gritty with the antique light fixtures. Go Vickie!

Scrubbing

Lights Before...

And after. Viva La Difference!

And we sent Kevin to the corner...to sand the floors.

You've been very very bad!

But the floors look very, very good!

Scrubbing

Meanwhile more vertical action on the Altar Piece.

Evening Light

We had a nice visit with Kevin and Vickie, but the weekend came to a close and the Altar Piece was still not done.

Thanks, guest workers! See you in a few weeks!

It's like making a Giant Painting…

…overheard while eating chicken soup on a tuesday night…and the rest of the sentence was, " but it takes three years of your life and a ton of money."

Latest Zaitz Original!

Michael was referring to the renovation of White Church Gallery, specifically the altarpiece we're working on.

The sides are the pillars. 

This past weekend was all about putting some wood up on the front of the church. I started the ball rolling on Friday by pulling staples. It's been awhile since I'd done it, and it seemed harder somehow than the last time. The staples were rusty and stubborn. It was the opposite of fun.

Ugly, ugly staples.

I had to clear the floor around the pillars, because work was about to commence on them. So I pulled staples and sanded around the front of the Church. Saturday morning, bright and early, we got to the church filled with eagerness and a bit of anxiousness. We'd been working on the wood planks for almost two months now, taking them from rough sawn planks all the way to the glorious art pieces they became. But now, after weeks and weeks of planning and plotting, we were finally going to see how the whole thing would look. Would it look as we intended- to be a glorious work of art? Or would it look like Dean Martin's living room? (Actually- Dean Martin's living room ain't too bad!)

Owners: Dean Martin…Tom Jones…Nicolas Cage…then Citibank…

The first step was to do the bottom border. These border pieces came from giant planks of walnut.

Mitering needed!

This procedure took some hours, since it needed to be practically perfect. Level, fitted, and mitered.

All went fairly smoothly; there was a rhythm of measuring thrice and cutting once.

Measure it one more time…

And then it happened. A boo boo. A piece of walnut got cut too short. Red Alert, Emergency! Luckily we had a chunk of unprocessed walnut nearby. I ran it through the planer a few times, I jointed the edges, then did a quick but thorough sand job on it. It would have to be clear-coated in situ. But it looked fine, and work could continue.

All angles and edges…

Walnut is a VERY hard wood, but it keeps a nice edge.

Ah, mitered!

Sweet! It all fits!

Once the base was finished, we started on the upright pieces.

With a little help from our friends! 

Thanks to Rybak's owners Paul and Ann for burning the late night oil with us and getting the first layers of the altar piece up. It was grueling, exacting, tiring, but inspiring.

At last!!

And so it goes…piece by piece, bevel by bevel. Screw by awkward screw. Awkward, because Mike had to screw each of the boards in from the back.

His arm had to fit through the space you see here at the side. And then somehow bend around enough to put pressure on the driver to screw into extremely hard wood from the back. (After drilling a pilot hole.)

There's not a lot of room behind!

We had two different nail lengths depending on which wood it was going through. There was a lot of thought put into this! And it was exhausting work.

But we think it was worth it. Here's the other side.

It looks better in person…

There are imperfections, and we'll fix a few next time, but this represents so much effort that I hope it shows.

I had to take a selfie- and I think it's my fave so far. Blurry, wrinkled eyes, weariness, but a sense of purpose and accomplishment.

Hey now!

The next morning, things still looked good, so we did a photo shoot.

The Artist

And the apprentice!

Until we meet again!

Enjoy the Process!

We have a lot of wood that needs to be processed. Processing wood (my definition) means taking it from a rough-sawn piece of lumber to a finished piece that can be used as art.

Hey! That sounds like work!

Yes, it is a lot of work, dear Thomas. But it won't cut into your nap time, never fear!

The beginning of the process was to plane the wood, as we saw in a previous episode.

After planing, we had a lovely pile of planks, all with slightly different widths and lengths. So we measured them and sorted them into piles. 

Assorted widths!

Piles of planks.

After long deliberation, a decision had to be made. It wouldn't have been as hard a decision if I hadn't gotten all sentimental about losing width. The Cherry wood is so very beautiful, each piece with its own intricate and mystical design, that to modify it by sawing off an inch of it seemed a crime. Almost like cropping a painting!

What is it? Cropped!

Cropped it must be. The pieces couldn't be different widths.
But wait! We can cut a straight edge without…a straight edge! So we had to use the jointer. The jointer is like the planer- it has rotating blades that makes a smooth edge. One side had to be very smooth so that it would glide against the fence on the saw and create a straight edge on the cut side. 

The red warning label says: "Caution! Rotating knives"

It wouldn't be a work-in-progress picture without the white orbs of dust! The camera (as you must have guessed by now) turns the millions of dust particles in the air into little white orbs of unfocussed annoyance. 

White orbs of wonder!

Each time we planed or jointed, we made lots of sawdust. Since it's March in the Thumb of Michigan, it's still quite cold and snowy out. So we decided that sawdust would provide good traction on the ice! 

Well, it seemed efficient at the time…

Since I possess powers of looking into the future, I can tell you that we're going to end up with sawdust "art" all over the front yard. But that won't happen till the end of March! 

Hey, how did she know?

I guess I was so busy looking into the future that I forgot to take pictures of sawing the wood to width. However my excuse is that when using the table saw, both people have to be on full alert. There really was no opportunity to take pictures and retain all our digits. 

Hijinks under the Table Saw!

I did get some shots of the next step; cutting the bevels. We'd had protracted discussion about beveling the edges of the wood. In my minds eye, I thought it might look a little dated. In the artist's eye (Michael), it would look great. Plus, it had the advantage of being the only practical way to ensure that the edges of the wood would line up and hide any imperfections. So the edges were all beveled. It was the right thing to do! 

Beloved bevels!

Perhaps you can see the level of alertness both participants needed for this kind of work! 

Those are bevel remnants. Thin long triangles of wood. Fun!

That's a bevel!

Next, we had to sand. And sand and sand. Again, as with the planing, ear protection is key to surviving the process without annoying "Wha?" syndrome. 

Orange cuties!

Sanding is not a very photogenic process. Nor is it terribly exciting, but it did give me a sense of accomplishment, and I enjoyed it.

So I set up my sanders!

Three sanders…

…three different grits. 

Oh yes, I had a little workshop set up for myself. My table top was an old door, and I had outlets and a light and everything! I masked up, squeezed in the Orange Cuties, and went to work!

Sanding

I love you, Walnut plank. 

I must say, I had more fun sanding these pieces than pretty much anything else I can think of. Mike says it's because I like fiddly work. Perhaps, but I have officially begun a love affair with wood that I think anyone who works with it must fall into. 

In between these activities, we just had to sneak peak at the soon to be Altarpiece. ( I looked it up- the name seems to fit what we are doing according to ancient church terms.) 

Altarpiece- all in Cherry wood!

Word to your mother: it doesn't end up being all Cherry…

So: Here's the results of weeks of work: 

Walnut

Cherry

As hard as we worked, the maple was left undone. Mike the hero had to drive to Grindstone in the middle of the work week to take care of mailing back the water pump that arrived broken. 

Broken bits!

Meanwhile he sanded the Maple. No pix. Just an exhausting drive and more work.

So until next time, keep on keeping on…

He measures up!