Wednesday, November 24, 2010

BEWARE Very Personal Post

"Things turn out best for those who make the most of the way things turn out." ~ Jack Buck

I feel this is just a short chapter of my life and I am wondering how long it will last. School is fine. I have been better. I would love to write that everything is wonderful, that I am having a blast, but this experience is kinda hard for me. And why you ask.....I am not at a highlight of my life. I am not happy. I am discontent, self searching. This is the truth and maybe I should not be writing this for everyone to see, but everyone I have talked to thinks what I am doing is great...How come I don't see that? It is unique I agree. I have never been lonelier and so discontent though. I keep waiting for things to get better, don't want to jump in or out of things too quickly. I have met some great people up here. I would think I could find some solitude living up here, but so far this is not the case. I know there is also another quote out there that says something like don't wait for the world to change, be the change you want to see in the world. So something needs to change, and I need to be the one to take action. I am lost though....what do I want I ask myself?? Will things get better if I keep with what I am doing?

Friday, November 12, 2010

Be Well

Boy do I feel better after ordering more tools. I feel like I'm keeping up, which could normally be a bad thing. One thing my roommate mentioned after making a hefty purchase on scroll gouges is after spending that much money, you feel like you can't quit building, you are stuck. I feel that too sometimes.....but wow what a week! It went by so fast. Yesterday I spent all day scraping. Can you imagine...7 hours of scraping. That is how a lot of the process is right now. Somewhat slow and precarious. The other students are all a little ahead of me, but I keep plowing along. Which reminds me....snow is in the forcast and my wardrobe isn't quite cut out for -40 weather, but I guess I can't do much else than take it as it comes.

We did some technical drawing today of our violins which went better than the first time, but I still got aggravated because I can't see what the drawing needs to look like. It seems like the teacher is sooo picky, but that's not really it. He has a good eye.

I have found a band I am getting interested in Crooked Still out of Boston, Massachusetts. There's some good and haunting music for ya.....anyways getting late/early. Be well.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Today at school

Today at school I finished my edge thicknessing. I used a fingerplane, uneven divider, and channel gouge to slowly bring the edge to 4.2 on the maple and 4.4 on the spruce. That gives me .2mm to file on each. Which I will be doing tomorrow, so yes that is all I have been doing for two days now. One thing I have to constanly keep in mind is grain direction. It the grain and tool don't agree, one thing that may happen is tear out. Instead of taking out nice slivers of wood, you end up taking chunks.....not ideal.

In one of the earlier steps of sawing out the rough shape of the violin, which we established with the rib assembly, we used a bow or frame saw...another handy hand tool. I really liked this saw. It had twine that you would twist to put tension on the blade which you need to use it, and the blade could also move for cutting curves and C bouts. There are still techniques on using it that we were showed, but it was definitely less terrifying than a machine. I felt very in control. It is something I could see myself having in the future.

I also asked my teacher about why he has stuck with using hand tools for so long and what he thought about tuning the plates. He says the note the plates ring at is not as important as FLEXIBILITY, but I can see how they might go hand in hand. And for the reason he does not use machines.....he is a purist and has been there, done that. I admire that he only uses hand tools, but I'm not sure what road I will be taking, but then again I have just started and don't have much choice right now anyway. We are becoming good with hand tools and using our eye which will inevitably help us be better machinists if that's the route we take.

I thought I would have more free time not working anymore...nope I am excellent at filling that up. Haha and now my roommate wants his computer back so so long everyone!