Crankin' out the boxes

I finally finished a box that has been on my mind for the better part of three years. I've attempted it before but none of the attempts suited me well enough to give it as a wedding gift. Now that the couple has been married for almost three years, I've finally finished the box. There are still things about it I don't like and I think they're things that most people wouldn't notice. I really enjoyed making it and the dovetails are almost as good as I'd like them.

I'm also working on a series of little boxes. One will, I hope, find a home next year in the charity auction for Foothills Academy and the others will be under Christmas trees. I'm in good shape with the ones I'm making for gifts. I have two left to do. The parts are all cut and the next step is to prepare the surfaces and glue them up.

We continue to make slow progress with the budgies. Today I took them to the vet's to get their wings and nails clipped. Of course, that meant I had to catch them first. They have been eating out of our hands for a while now and Manx doesn't hesitate now to come down from his perch and hop onto the hand when we have millet for him. I managed to catch both of them and neither tried to bite me. That is quite a milestone. They still don't like to be caught but they don't panic as much as they used to. While they were in their travelling box I took the opportunity to give their cage a good cleaning. We're hoping, now that they're clipped, that we can coax them out of the cage and begin to do some clicker training with them.

Life in the fast lane

Since my last post (rephrase that) Since I last posted to this blog I've been busy doing all sorts of things. The latest adventure was a trip to Victoria for a four-day intensive in graphic facilitation and graphic recording. Christina Merkley from whom Richard and I both took a workshop a couple of years ago, is moving out of the graphic recording and facilitation field and into graphic coaching. This was her last class so I decided I'd better get on it. It rained quite a bit but the views from the hotel were still gorgeous.

I've been interested in visual mapping, cognitive mapping, mind mapping whatever you'd like to call the animal since the early '80's. I've used visual maps to prepare for workshops I was giving, summarize content for students and give unit outlines as well as to make my own 'to do' lists.

This was the practice facilitation map that a group of four of us produced. There is software to whiten the background but my photos weren't good enough to really make that effective.

About four years ago I came across a book called Mapping Inner Space: Learning and Teaching Visual Mapping by Nancy Margulies with Nusa Maal. The book is well used and well loved as evidenced by the dog-eared corners, sticky tabs and paper clips to mark various pages. What I particularly like about the book is the format: it used one page of written text and on the opposite page is a visual map. When I got the book I started looking around on the web for information and discovered Christina Merkley in Victoria.

Working with Christina was a great experience. She wanted a volunteer to work with to produce a career map so I volunteered. I have the map which, unfortunately, doesn't fit anywhere in the house. I can unfold it between the living room and the kitchen to get a look at it but it will have to stay folded up for the most part. I'll take some pictures of it. Also, Christina had our conversation and the mapping process as we talked videoed for You Tube. I haven't checked to see if the back of my head is a movie star yet but it will be up eventually. I'm not sure how I'll use my developing skills in the graphic recording and facilitation area. I'm not that keen on facilitation, too much like teaching but I have volunteered to do some recording of meetings. I'll see what turns up.

I had a couple of minor adventures going through security at the airport both in Calgary and Victoria but that's a story for another day.

The other thing I've been enjoying since I got back is my box-making. I've made a box with curly maple and some of the walnut out of Mum and Dad's bedstead. It got water damage when it was stored in the atic so none of the auction places wanted it. I figured that a series of boxes would be a good way to use the wood and there's quite a bit of it there. I won't post a picture until I get it finished but it's the best dovetailed box I've ever made. It's still not where I'd like it to be but the four years of cursing and swearing and bloody-mindedness are finally starting to pay off. Rob Cosman has a new saw coming out which I think will also help my accuracy.

I'm back to using mineral oil on the boxes. I used a spray laquer on one of the last ones I did but it is so stinky I had to use it outside and even then the fumes got into the garage. It's too cold out now to do the work outside so I plan to do some more experimenting with mineral oil and wax. I'd like a semi-gloss finish and I'm trying a number of coats of oil over several days before I wax it. I'm going to do the same thing with the wax: several (many?) coats over time. It won't be as fast as the spray finish but at least I'll be able to do it in the house in the winter.