Friday, December 17, 2010

And the winners are....................

I know that everyone out there wants to know who the winners of the cookie contest are.  So here goes.  Drum roll please.  Of all of the enteries from all over the US it turns out that the winners are relatively local.  Both are from Maine.  How about that?  Have I rambled on enough yet?  1st name drawn was Clare Marron and the 2nd name drawn was Tracy Wilson.  Congratulations ladies.  You will be receiving your dozen assorted cookies next week.  Don't forget to come back here and brag about how good the cookies are.  Glen & I would like to thank everyone for entering our little contest here.  Remember you can always go to Glen B's website and order cookies to be deliver to that special someone or to your own door.  Happy Holidays everyone!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Contest Time - Win Free Cookies!

Everyone likes cookies, right?  And everyone likes contests, right?  Especially easy ones!  My buddy Glen has started a website for his families homemade cookies.  They have been making them for years and selling through stores in his local area but they finally decided to open a website to share the cookies with a wider audience.  They make 6 different kinds of cookies.  Trust me I have tried them all and they are very good or to quote one of my daughters "Dad, these are awesome!"  Check out Glen B's Homemade cookies by clicking here.  So to the contest.  First off, the giveaway.  One dozen assorted cookies shipped directly from Glen B's to you.  We will choose two winners and each will win a dozen assorted cookies.  Two ways to win, we will pull one person's name from all of the people who reply to this post, either comment on my blog or facebook or twitter and say that you want to win.  One winner will come from all of the people who are signed up for my email newsletter.  So if you haven't signed up for the newsletter yet better get crackin'.  You can do so by going to my homepage and there is a spot on the lower left to sign up for the newsletter.  We will pull the two winners names on Friday, December 17th at 1pm and the winners will be announced shortly after that.  Sorry but the contest is open to residents of the United States only.  Good luck!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Happy Holidays!

Wow, it's been a while since my last post.  It has been an unbelievable 5 1/2 weeks since that last post.  I have been to New York City, twice, for shows and than home to fill orders and get ready for my last show.  Some how we even managed to squeeze Thanksgiving in there.  I then left for Chicago for my last show of the year and had a great time out there too.  I would like to thank everyone who came out to the shows to see me.  It's always great to see old friends and to meet new ones at the shows.  The drive to Chicago and back encompased over 2500 miles mostly in snowstorms both coming and going.  For now it's back to the shop to fill orders for Christmas and then maybe a day or two off.  After that I will get back into the shop and start preparing for next year which promises to be quite busy.  I also have some design concepts rattling around in my head that I'm just itching to try.  I promise it won't be nearly as long until my next post.  Until then I wish everyone a very happy holiday!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Winged bowls


Winged bowls?  What are winged bowls?  Bowls that can fly?  Well not with out help anyways.  I like to make a shallow bowl that has the natural edge all the way around it.  But the natural edge has to extend out from the top of the bowl a few inches on a couple of the sides.  Just to add to the challenge, I usually make these wings no more than 1/4" thick .  I look for wood that is longer than it is wide.  Which means that the wings may extend out several inches from the sides of the bowl.  In the case of the two pictured here one is 19" x 15" and the other is 17" x 13".  I also try to find highly figured wood because along with the natural edge this design shows of the figure of the wood to the utmost.  But see for yourself.

Front of a York Gum Burl winged bowl 19"x15"x2"


Back of the York Gum Burl winged bowl

Front of the Maple Burl winged bowl 17"x13"x1"

Back of the Maple Burl winged bowl

Thursday, October 28, 2010

A light smile for you.

When I was taking pictures the other day of the tea lights that I had just made I couldn't resist doing something a little different with the shot.  So here is a smile just for you.  Enjoy!

It seems quite apparent to me that I haven't been getting nearly enough sleep lately. 

Monday, October 25, 2010

Tea lights anyone?

Original style tea light
Newest style of tea light
Well to say that the last 2 1/2 weeks haven't been tough would be a complete lie.  The hard drive went in my laptop on the 7th and I didn't get it back from being fixed until the 20th.  Everything to do with the business was on the laptop.  Other than a few printouts that I had I didn't know what I had for orders.  So therefore I didn't know what I owed and to whom I owed it.  Don't get me wrong I had Quickbooks backed up but I didn't have anything to put the back on so I had to wait.  Of course once I got the laptop back I then had to load all of the programs that I use back onto it.  All in all a very frustrating couple of weeks however it's behind me now so onward and upward.   Well that was until today when my computer kept freezing up so back to the repair shop it went to see what's wrong with it this time.  Which was probably the underlying problem to begin with that made the hard drive crash.  So I'm doing this entry from my kids apple and believe me nothing is the same as my pc.

One of the orders that I knew that I had was for some Tea lights.  I had a design that I had made a few times so I made those for the order.  I wanted to be able to offer another design in the tea lights and when I was cutting the wood for the original design I came up with a second design.  Both are pictured above.  I hope that you can give me some insight into which design that you like best.  This is just about the shape and not the colors.  Thanks.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The making of a pepper mill for Saltwater Grille

I get asked all the time about how I make a pepper mill.  While I was making a pepper mill for Saltwater Grille in S. Portland, ME I thought that I would take pictures of the process and give a brief explanation of how I go about making a mill.  I know, genius, huh?  So what follows is the process that I used to make an 18" pepper mill.








Here I have roughed the pepper mill to round between centers on my lathe.  I have cut in for the head and will now take it to the band saw to cut off.













There is a lot going on in this picture.  The mill body is being held in a 4 jaw chuck at the head of the lathe.  I have a steady rest (white thing with orange wheels) holding the free end of the body.  I am working at the foot of the body.  I have already smoothed the end up with a detail gouge.  Making it slightly concave so that the mill will sit evenly on a table or counter.  I've sanded the end, drilled the larger hole and what you see is me drilling the hole that goes completely through the body.  I will drill about 3/4 of the way through the body.  Flip it around, smooth the other end making it flat (not concave) and drill in from that end.  I do that because it makes the through hole perfectly centered in the mill body.













With the body drilled out I then work on the head.  In this picture I am holding the head in the 4 jaw chuck and have already turned a tenon to fit inside the through hole of the body.  This helps keep the head aligned with the body.  Then I've drilled a hole for the drive plate (basically a round washer with a square hole in the center) and am now drilling a 7mm hole about 3/4 of the way through the head.  I will flip this around in the chuck and trim the head to the finished length.  Which is about 1 7/8" in this case and then drill in again with the 7mm drill bit.  This hole is for the square drive shaft to come up through body, drive plate and to connect with the adjustment knob on the top of the mill.


















Pictured here is a special tool that I made to hold the head so that I could turn it separately from the body.  As you can tell from the picture it's a really complicated tool.  A block of wood, turned down for access to all parts of the head, and a 7mm drill bit epoxied into the wood.


















Here is the highly sophisticated tool with the head of the mill on it ready for turning to shape.













Here the head has been completely turned and now the tailstock of the lathe (round cone) will be pulled away so that I can have access to the entire head to sand it.















Here is another highly sophisticated tool.  This will actually slide into and hold the foot of the body without marking up the wood while I turn the body to shape.










Here is the body being held between the tool above and the tailstock for the final turning to shape.  At this time I will cut the shoulder down to meet the head and roll beads or rings onto the body (in this case 3 separate areas of beads/rings) and then turn the areas down to the final shape between the beaded areas.  Everything will be sanded and then a finish will be applied all before it's taken off from the lathe.  Once it's dry I will buff the head and body with 3 layers of wax, the last being carnuba wax.  The last thing that I do is assemble the mechanism into the mill and it's done.

Here is the finished mill.  This one and a few more can be found in use at The Saltwater Grille in S. Portland, Maine.  You can find Saltwater Grille at 231 Front St and on the web by clicking on their name here Saltwater Grille.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Gone to the Beech.

Gone to the Beech tree that is.  In the picture here there are eleven pieces, mostly logs, of a beech tree that I had given to me.  In exchange for all of the wood I have to make a few pieces to give back.  The tree was taken down to make way for development and the developer was glad that someone could actually use the wood instead of it just sitting and rotting.  So I left home this morning and drove the 1 1/2 hours it took to get to the site where the tree is.  I cut up three of the pieces to make into bowls and vessels.  I filled the back of my pick up with short pieces of log and bowl blanks.  In the picture the pieces don't look that big but most are over 24" in diameter.  For instance the piece pictured on the bottom left was about 54" long and about 26" in diameter.  Nice!  Some of the wood has already started to spalt, the process that wood goes through when it starts to break down and rot, which means the pieces are going to have extra character and lines running through the finished pieces.  I'm figuring it's going to take another four to five trips to get all of the wood back home but it should be well worth it.  I will post some pictures when I have some pieces done.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

First International Shipment

Wow what a week it's been and it's only Wednesday.  I've been trying to figure out why I'm so tired this week or maybe I should clarify to say more tired than usual.  I sat here and started looking at my shipping printouts and realized that I've already sent out an incredible amount of product this week.  Since Monday I've sent pieces to Cleveland, OH., Baltimore, MD., Washington, D.C., Gardiner, ME. and Montana.  Thursday and Friday I am shipping to Bangor, ME., NJ, PA, MA & MD again.  The one that I am most happy about this week is the mill (pictured here) that is going to Ontario, Canada.  This marks my first international shipment.  Don't get me wrong I have pieces that are all over the world but they have all gone to a customer here in the US and than have been taken over or shipped by one of my customers to it's final destination.  The mill order to Ontario was from a customer in Canada for shipment to Canada.  Hopefully it's just a start of things to come.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

What to do with all that zucchini? Try this

I understand that this summer has been a great summer for growing zucchini and that a lot of people have an over abundance and are looking for things to do with it.  This is one of my favorite chocolate cakes.  My mother used to make this for us when we were kids (and she still does on occasion).  It calls for zucchini in it and believe me even the pickiest eater will not know there is zucchini in this cake.  So here goes:

Marilyn's Chocolate Zucchini Cake Recipe

1 stick magarine
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chocolate bits
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine margarine, oil, eggs and sugar in a large bowl.  Add vanilla and milk to mixture.  In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cocoa.  Mix together and than slowly sift into first bowl.  Mix together and than add zucchini, chocolate bits and nuts to bowl and thoroughly mix together.  Pour batter into a greased 9" x 13" pan.  Bake for approximately 45 minutes.

I got a laugh when I looked at my mothers recipe and saw that it actually called for Oleo instead of margarine.    I haven't heard it called Oleo in years.  Does anyone remember calling it that?  Warning you might be showing your age if you do.

Enjoy!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Dailey style pepper mill

8" Dailey style pepper mill made in seven color laminated wood
I promised in a post a while ago that I had one more pepper mill design to share with you.  The last design would be the Dailey style and yup, you guessed it, the design is named for my family.  I don't make very many of this design and you won't find it on my website, at least not right away.  I don't remember now which turning symposium that I was at but I saw a gentleman named Mark Sfirri demonstrate offset turnings.  Basically you start off with your turning just like all of the others but after a little turning you move the center line over a little bit and turn some more.  You can do this as much as you would like provided you either don't run out of wood or break the piece.  I thought it would be cool to try offset or off center turning on a pepper mill.  The difference between what I had seen Mark do and what I wanted to do was that I actually have a 1 1/16" hole running right up the center of my mills and he was using a solid piece of wood.  So with the hole in mind I set out to see exactly how far I could push this design without breaking through into the hole in the center.  What you see pictured above is one of my first attempts.  I was happy with the outcome and now I'm eager to try the offset turning on other pieces like candle sticks and goblets.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Shop Foreman

Hi Everyone,

I thought that I would introduce myself.  My name is Hershey B. Dailey and dad calls me the shop foreman here at Dailey Woodworking.  I actually like to call myself shop dog extraordinaire.   I have Dad busy at the lathe working on orders so I decided to write this post.  I don't want to brag or anything but things just wouldn't run smoothly without me.  I like to greet people and whenever dad stops I am immediately up to find out why.  He thinks that I want to be petted but I am actually trying to make sure that he doesn't take a very long break.  We've got a couple of cats here as well, Twix and Snickers.  They seem to be useless though.  All they do is eat, sleep and well you can guess the rest.  Oh, I've got to go he looks like he's trying to take a break and I've got to keep him working.   We've got a lot of orders to fill.

Hershey B.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Pictures from Center for Maine Craft demo

I promised that I would post pictures here from my demo at the Center for Maine Craft on August 7th.  I had a good time demo at the Center.  It was a perfect day with the temps just about perfect for an outside demo.  Thanks goes out to the Center for Maine Craft for having me and to Dennis Curtis from Dennis Curtis Woodturning for helping with the set-up and take down.  I demonstrated making bottle stoppers and you will be able to see a couple on the lathe in the pictures. 

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Where the designs come from

You can be one of the first people to see my four new color combination's all pictured together.  I also had the opportunity to turn them in my four most popular shapes.  I get asked all the time how did you come up with the designs for your mills and grinders.  Well, I will tell you the story behind each design and try not to put you to sleep while I do it. 

My most popular design is the Morrison Style (all of my designs are named after important people from some part of my life) and the design for it came from the Victorian era.  I don't know why but as I progressed through a series of shapes it just reminded me of a picture that I saw of a woman dancing at a ball.  From the head to the tapered waist to the ruffles at the bottom of the gown.  On the mills instead of ruffles I put beads or rings which help tell the mills apart on the table or counter.  One bead for salt and three beads for pepper. 

The Rybec Style is just a classic shape that came to me when I was playing chess one day.  It is my version of a rook done in an hour glass shape.

The Strout Style is based off from a mannequin.  My older sister was away at nursing school and I went to visit her for a weekend.  I think I was 5 at the time.  She was working part time at a clothing store for nurses and for some reason that shape stuck with me and makes for a pretty cool shape for mills.

The Haynes Style originally started out as a cross between the Morrison and Strout Styles but I just wasn't happy with the overall shape.  So I kept playing with the shape until one winter day I was outside breaking the icicles and ice off from the eves of my house and I realized that a droplet of water would be a great shape.  So if you turn the mill upside down you will see my version of a water droplet.  Complete from the moment when the droplet is about to break free and becomes very elongated (everything below the head) to the moment when the droplet has just broken free (the actual head).

There is one more style, not pictured here, that I don't make very often and it's called the Dailey Style.  The explanation for that however is going to have to wait for another time when I have a picture of it to show you.  

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Grinding week

It's been one of those weeks where it seems that everything has been a grind.  Well it's been mills and grinders all week so that's probably why it feels that way.  I did manage to finish up one hollow vessel this week.  I really like the way that it came out.  There was almost as much open space as there was wood.  I would say that better than one third of the vessel was open air.  But take a look for yourself and the picture can not begin to show all of the natural voids in this vessel.  The vessel was turned out of Oak Burl and finished with a spray on lacquer.  It's about 6.5 inches high by 8 inches in diameter.  Normally I scrape and sand the inside just like I do the outside.  However in this case the tool marks combined with the burl figure made it look like the walls of the Grand Canyon to me.  So I left the tool marks as is.  Artistic license I guess.  I have another long week of mills and grinders coming up this week and than I'm off to Baltimore for my last wholesale show of the year.  When I get home I will be here just long enough to see my two girls off to their first days of school and than I'm off to my first retail show of the year in Bar Harbor, Maine.  It's a new show for both the promoters and for myself so let's hope for a good turn out.  I'll have more about that in another post. 

Friday, August 6, 2010

Woodturning Demo

In case anyone is in the W. Gardiner, Maine area on August 7th I will be doing a  woodturning demo at the Center for Maine Craft. It is located in the W. Gardiner rest area which is accessible from Routes 95, 295 & 126. I will be demoing outside from 10am to 1pm.  If you have any questions you can call the center at 207-588-0021.  I will also have some of the things that I make with me for everyone to see.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Herbie Ornament

3 piece Herbie Ornament
Herbie has been such a large part of what I have done this year that I guess it's only right that the first two posts here are about Herbie.  I was asked to design an ornament made out of the Herbie wood.  So this is what I came up with for them.  This is a 3 piece ornament that I hollowed out the center globe to lighten the overall ornament.  The dimensions of the ornament are about 2 inches by 7 inches and that includes the twisted wire on the top.  The ornament weighs less than one ounce total.  The cross on the top is made from twisting together jewelers wire and there is another piece at the very top (that you can't see) to go over the bough of the tree.  This is going to be a limited edition with only 100 ornaments being made.  If anyone is interested in an ornament they can be bought from the Town of Yarmouth Community Services.  They are taking orders for them now with delivery starting in October.  The cost will be $75 each and they can be ordered by calling 207-846-2406.  Just ask them for a Dailey Ornament.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Herbie and my weekend at the Yarmouth Clam Festival




I spent the weekend of July 17th & 18th demonstrating at the Yarmouth Clam Festival in Yarmouth, Maine. The festival was celebrating both Herbie, the oldest Elm tree in New England, and Frank Knight. Frank is the 101 year old man who used to be the caretaker of Herbie. I was asked to go down and turn a few hours each day using some of the wood that I have from Herbie. For those that don't know Herbie was 217 years old and was afflicted by Dutch Elm disease and was taken down on January 17th, 2010. I have been asked to make products for the town to resell. I have been making bowls, pens & bottle stoppers out of the wood from Herbie. It turned out to be a great weekend weather wise. I was also interviewed for articles in two different newspapers. I've included links to both articles so that you can read them if you would like to. I also was asked to be on the WMTW-TV channel 8 Sunday Morning show. Cam interviewed me while I was turning a bottle stopper. I've been interviewed before and I've been on tv before but it was the first time that I was turning live on tv. Unfortunately there isn't a link to the interview so I guess you will just have to trust me when I say it really did happen. Here is the link to the interview in the Maine Sunday Telegram and here is the link to the interview in The Forecaster. If you would like to learn more about the Herbie project you can find more info on my webpage devoted to the Herbie Project. I had a lot of fun at the festival and met a lot of people. I would gladly go to the festival if for no other reason than to get another strawberry shortcake. The thing was big enough to make a meal out of all by itself. A big thank you to Nick Waugh for taking the photos that I have used here.