ALMOST

            This has been a week of “almost” events. I was Almost a professor. The local Community College needed someone to teach anthropology to 7 students. The problem(s) was that they needed me in 3 days! And to top it off, they wanted me to commit to teaching through May. The catch, besides not being able to take a full time job out of the area, was they only pay per credit hour or a total of $1754 from now through May. Hardly wages that I could live on and not have another job. Too few archaeological jobs that are based out of Kalispell is the issue. Oh well, teaching has never been on the top of my “to do” list anyway.

            There are more darning eggs listed on my Etsy page, the Juniper heart is ready for finish but I’m waiting on warmer weather so I don’t fumigate myself by spraying lacquer in the shop without being able to open the doors. Have 8 bowls and one party platter ready to list on Etsy as well (today’s task).

            Besides the projects left from last week’s blog I have added a rough cut slab of Oak to my list. It’s about 18” wide by 3” thick at the base and tapers down to a thin edge at the top, about 6’ high. Was thinking of putting a heron cutout shape on it, but am letting it stand where I can see it for a few days while I wait for inspiration to see if that is the “right” subject for this particular piece.

            I am taking over as the local wooden toy coordinator for the Toys for Tots group here in Kalispell (well for a few guys, not everyone) and have a meeting tomorrow with the 86 year old who has been doing such a great job for the last 10 years. Not planning any great changes, he just said it was time for him to step down and has been asking me for a couple years to take over. That’s one “almost” as well, I’m Almost someone important in the group.

Have been doing a “mentoring” session once a month for the local turning club with less than spectacular turnout, but keep getting one or two people asking me to help them with one aspect or another so I guess I’ll keep offering that for a bit longer. A friend of mine comes to help and if nothing else it gives me a couple people to have good conversation with. This coming Tuesday we are going to have a session on making and sharpening tools for turning. One person is brining steel to be made into bead cutting tools and another is bringing his grinder so we can get it set up correctly for him to sharpen his own tools at home.

The meeting with the person that wants some mold parts made for his casting business went well, but we are still on hold while he casts up some acrylic for me to try turning rather than the wood. There will be no movement or warping with acrylic but we need to know what the finish will be like before we commit to the process and price. Another Almost, in that it’s almost a job, but not quite yet.

And on that note, I’m done with the blog for this week, need to get bowls listed on the Etsy site and get busy making some other items from the list before I make it Any longer! Thanks for stopping by!