Sky Watch Friday- 3-26-2010

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My post today is a view of a great sunrise we had on March 22,2010.

As I opened the curtains early that morning I found that Grandfather Sun had already been painting the skies with color, to greet us as we looked outside and prepared for the day.

Wonderful color in the East, what a way to start the day.

A view to the North as the Sun kisses the mountain closest to us and brightens the sky.

Not to be left out, in the North West, there is beauty also.

Soft Pastel colors in the South West.

And, just for good measure, a great show of color in the West.

Construction of a Black Walnut Flute

Today I will take you on an adventure on the making of a Black Walnut Flute.

This Flute is tuned to the Key of F#, and has a One Inch bore.

To get a more detailed view , click on any photograph to enlarge.

I start out with a 2 inch square piece of Black Walnut that is 24 inches long.

The next step is to split that 2 inch square in two..done with a saw.

The next step you can see in the illustration drawing, is the routing out of the Slow Air Chamber and the Sound Chamber, this is the bottom half of the flute.


The next step is the routing out of the top part of the flute and cutting the Air Exit and Entrance holes as the drawing shows.


The flute is then glued back together tightly and then shaped and a finish put on it after drilling the fingering holes and tuning.



This is the finished flute with the Block (howling Wolf Head) on it, to channel the Air from the Slow Air Chamber, over the Sound hole leading into the sound chamber.



Also shown is the fingering holes that are drilled in and tuning the flute by the placement and size of each fingering hole.( a process that takes alot of experience, and practice to do).



I next cut 4 pieces of Iridescent Mother of Pearl in a diamond shape and inlaid them into the Walnut wood, sanded down flush with the wood and polished.

A close up look at the Block( Wolf Head) carved from Aromatic Red Cedar, mounted on a block of Black Walnut.

I know I didn't give you all the details of constructing the flute, there are just too many , and practice, practice, makes one become better at it.

Work Shop Tour-Day Three

Today is Day Three of the Shop Tour, I hope you have enjoyed looking around and seeing some of my work.

Come with me and we shall see some more of what resides in my crowded shop that may interest you.

As usual, click on any photograph to enlarge for a closer look.

This Gourd in the foreground I call the "Buffalo Gourd", it has a Buffalo that I drew on , then wood burned in and to make it stand out, I carved away all the hard shell around the head to make it stand out in relief.

I next cut some Star shaped pieces of real Turquoise and inlaid them into the gourd and sanded them down flush with the gourd surface and polished them to a high gloss.

Sitting next to the Buffalo gourd are two of my Gourd Bowls that I made.

Here are Two Gourd Art pieces, the bottom one has 4 different Eagle pictures on it

Each Eagle picture is different, I drew them on then wood Burned in each and created a Four Directions design on the bottom.

The Gourd on top is a design I came up with that has Feather Fans wood Burned on it, and a symbolic design of the Four directions.

I also cut 8 pieces of real Turquoise and inlaid them into the Gourd.

This is a Black Walnut Flute blank that I have glued up and ready to shape for a new flute.


One of the Flute Racks I made to hold the flutes I make.



Another Flute Rack full of flutes, with the Hawk Flute laying at the bottom.



A close up of the second Flute Rack..showing a bit more detail.

This is a Buffalo (Bison) skull that I made..using a head of a Cow Buffalo that my friend who owns a Buffalo farm gave me.

I skinned it out and fleshed it..followed by boiling off and light bleaching.

This concludes Day Three of the tour of my shop, I hope you enjoyed our tour and come back often to see what I post and leave your comments.

Work Shop Tour - Day Two

Today is Day Two of the Work Shop Tour.

Come with me as we walk around the shop looking at different things that reside there.

You may click on a photograph to enlarge for a better view.

I call this one the "Lizard Gourd" because I drew on and wood burned in the Lizard you see here, then cut and inlaid Real Turquoise into the Lizard spine shape, also I cut and inlaid Real Turquoise into the gentle curving line you see on the front of the Gourd, sanded all down flush with the Gourd surface and polished to a glossy finish, and mounted the gourd to a base so it would stand by it's self.

This is my sound system , where I play some good working music , to keep me company and inspire me while working. I play different music ,some is Native music, and some from other CD's, as well as the radio.

Note the Horse on top of the sound system?..it is a piece I carved from Black Walnut.

Also there is a Dance stick I made from a Buffalo (Bison) Rib Bone and did the beading on, and cut and inlaid real Turquoise Diamond shaped pieces into the bone and polished.

This is a Scrimshaw piece I did several years ago , it is done on Plexiglas, and then framed in a nice wood frame.

Scrimshaw is an old Whalers Art...it resembles Pen and Ink Drawings, but is done by actually scribing in all those thousands of lines and then filling in with Ink or Artists Acrylic Paint, to create the picture.

I did this one as a personal challenge...just to see if I could do it..it took several weeks of work to accomplish. It hangs on the wall just above my work bench.

This is a gourd Art I did that I call the "Cougar Gourd" because I drew on a Cougar and wood burned it in...then I made it into a relief carving by carving away all the hard shell from around the Cougar..making it stand out in relief.

The gourd also has another carving on the back side of just the head of a Cougar.


Sitting next to the "Cougar Gourd" is another Gourd that has some very Rare Picasso Marble...which is scenic...a very rare occurrence in the Picasso Marble.


Some more Gourd Art pieces and one 13 inch hand drum covered with Buffalo (Bison) Rawhide and a feather painted on it....also a Gourd Drum that I made, and the "Hawk Flute" I made from Black Walnut,(with a solid Hawks Head carved on the end of it).

On the shelf above...some more Gourd Art..including 3 more with real gemstone inlay.

This is a Gourd I call the "Horse Gourd" because I did a carving of a Horse Head on it after drawing it on and wood burning it in then carving out the areas you see showing in the white..I also drew on and wood burned in designs in the Gourd and carved out the white areas and then cut and inlaid Real Turquoise into several places, and burned in a border around them and colored with leather dye.

This concludes the Tour for Today...come back tomorrow for the Third Day of the Tour.

Feel free to leave comments...and Thank you.

Day One Tour of My Workshop

As promised today is the start of a Tour of My Work Shop..Day One...

Click on any photograph to enlarge for a better view.

The shop is 12 x 14 ft...I wish it were bigger....one never seems to have enough room.

Below is a photograph of the work shop I built next to our Log Cabin, so I could work in some comfort inside. It is heated and air conditioned and has a 100 amp electric service that I put in, and is insulated and sheet rocked.

The Workshop

One wall of shop with shelves for my Art



A shot of the hand carved Eagle (one piece) carved from an apple tree, which stands 4 ft. tall from the base to the tips of the wings, also notice the big Powwow Drum I made from Cedar covered with Buffalo (Bison) Rawhide both sides, see link included to see the Powwow Drum clearly..
http://eaglesbrothersgourdsandart.blogspot.com/2008/11/powwow-drum.html

Some of my Lapidary Equipment and my old hat and a Peyote Gourd rattle

A Beaded Feather Fan nearly completed and some Buffalo Hump Bone ( for the handle) beaded Gourd Rattles.

A 24 inch Hand Drum..Buffalo Rawhide covered, steam bent Maple frame, with hand painted Feather on it.

One of the Gourd Art pieces on the shelf, a Navajo Woman.

Click here to see this post of the Gourd Art

http://eaglesbrothersgourdsandart.blogspot.com/2009/10/new-gourd-art-107.html

Some Gourd Rattles, the second from top has a Buffalo Rib bone used as a handle..all are beaded by me, and one Buffalo Jawbone War Club just below them, using glass seed beads, one bead at a time in the Peyote Stitch, also called the Gourd Stitch.

That concludes the first day tour of my workshop, come back tomorrow for a further tour.

Your comments are welcomed.

A Tour of My Workshop

I am going to try something a bit different in the next three days.

I am going to take you on a tour of my workshop, to show you some of my work, and where I spend nearly every day at least 6-10 hours passing my time creating Art.

My Art takes many forms, some of which you have seen already in my posts, such as Beaded Gourd Rattles,Dance Sticks, Buffalo Jawbone War clubs, Beaded Feather Fans, Beaded Turtle Shell Rattles, Gourd Drums,Powwow Drums (Large),Hand Drums, Etc.

I will break up the tour in 3 segments (posts) because each post will contain about 7 photographs.

I will start the tour on Monday March 22.

Now that I have given you something to look forward to, please come back and take a look, Looking is free.

Sky Watch Friday

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My Post today is of a great morning sky we had on March 15, click on any photograph to enlarge for a better view.

Morning Sky in the East

Morning sky in the North East

Morning sky in the North West

Morning sky in the South East

Morning sky in the South West

New Wood Flutes 3/17/2010

My post today is of two new flutes I have just completed.

Below are photographs with explanations of each, click on any photograph for a larger and better view of the details.

Black Mesquite Wood flute

Another view of the Black Mesquite wood flute.

This Mesquite Wood flute I made has a One Inch bore and also has a block (Bird ) carved from Aromatic Red Cedar, I followed the grain patterns of the Cedar wood to create what I call a "Wind Spirit" ( see at the bottom of this post for close up details ).

This flute is tuned to the key of E and a 6 hole flute.

Note: Black Mesquite Wood is a rather Rare Exotic Wood, and is Very Hard and close grained, making it very difficult to carve.

This is a block (Bird ) I carved from Aromatic Red Cedar, also I call it a "Wind Spirit", because I followed the grain of the wood which clearly showed me what it wanted to be for the Rambutan Wood Flute that follows below.

This is what one side looks like.

The other side of the "Wind Spirit" on the Rambutan Wood Flute.



This is the Rambutan Wood flute with the" Wind Spirit on it.

Rambutan Wood is a very Exotic Wood from Indonesia.


Rambutan Wood is also very hard and close grained, but has very beautiful wood grain and patterns and is also very difficult to carve.

This Rambutan Wood flute has a One Inch bore and is tuned to the key of E and is a 6 hole flute.


This is the Block ( Bird ) that I carved from Aromatic Red Cedar for the Black Mesquite Wood flute. "Wind Spirit"

I followed the grain patterns on this one also, because it showed me what it would be by the patterns in the wood.

This is the view of one side.

This is the view of the other side of this" Wind Spirit" Block ( Bird ).


Note:

Both Blocks ( Birds ) were carved from the same Cedar board which was very figured in grain.

Both Flutes were finished with Tongue Oil, several coats, and as each coat was dry I used OOOO steel wool to make it very smooth before putting on the next coat.

I then put two coats of Paste Wax on top of that and buffed to a high gloss.

Spring-Sky Watch Friday

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My post for today is from March 9, of the early evening sunset.

Click on any photograph to enlarge for a better view.

Start of the Sunset in the West

Just about 5 minutes later in the West


Sunset in the West about 20 minutes after the first one.


( Notice a strange Greenish light developing in the Dark Blue area )

Sunset in the South East

Sunset in the South

Sunset in the South West