Fourth Saturday No. 3.
The log round prints… continued, on this our third Fourth Saturday. On the first, we prepped the rounds. On the second, we printed them. The final step was to frame them. Which meant turning 1x3 lumber we picked up at Home Depot into frames. Jumping ahead to them hanging on our bedroom wall. Very cool.
First, we have to rewind a few dozen steps… For the frames, I had in mind a beveled inner edge. So I broke out the table saw.
K helped. It was kind of a ghetto setup. The wood for the frames was only 3/4" thick and the fence didn't get that close to the blade. So I had to prop up a 4x4 to act as a makeshift fence. I set the blade at a 15º angle to cut the bevel. Then ripped away.
To give a surface for the prints to mount, we glued scrap 1x2s to what would become the inside edge of the frames. Once the glue dried, I whipped out the chop saw to miter all the corners.
K brought out coffee. She's pretty awesome. Like, the best.
Next, I broke out the set of old Craftsman corner clamps I picked up at a garage sale years ago. Glued each of the corners and, for extra measure, stapled the backside of each corner.
In this many-many-step process, then they had to be sanded and lacquered. We wanted a clear finish for the clear pine. Last year, when we sanded and refinished a pair of counter-height stools K has had since her second apartment, we tested lacquers. The one that didn't yellow the wood (in reality, yellowed the wood the least) was the Minwax Polycrylic.
Umm, then… we had to mount the 4-foot square prints (the frames we built were a mere 42" square). We were fortunate and found 40x60" foam core sheets at the Hobby Lobby in town for $6 a piece.
While we measured and mounted, outside the weather was what we're discovering is typical-for-the-east-side-of-the-Cascades in spring. In a word: epic.
The final steps were gluing the mounted prints to the inner frame, letting them dry, and leveling them with each other on the wall. A process, all told, for sure. Totally worth it.
Since we were building frames, I figured I'd make a bunch of them. We had mounted some various art and prints a few months ago, after all. It'd be nice to get them up on our walls.
The 4x12" owl and larch drawing was given to us from a friend for our wedding. K loves owls and the tree is, well, the larch tree under which we were wed. Yeah, it's good to hang it before our fifth anniversary.
This rendition of Fin Dome above Rae Lakes in the Sierra is a woodcut carved and printed by Tom Killion. Print number 100 of 170. Hand-signed, in pencil. K gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago. When she and I backpacked to Rae Lakes, her six months pregnant, we scrambled up close to the spot we think Tom must've been when he sketched this.
I've long-admired Killion's work. The whole art form of woodcut printmaking, in fact. Killion's technique takes after Japanese woodblock. It's super-intricate. Stunning, really. Yep, good to finally get it up on our wall, too.
Among what we had to frame was this map from my 250-mile hike last summer through the Sierras with my friend Matt. Coffee stained at the top from when my mug tipped over inside our tent as we hunkered down during a Sierra storm at Blue Lake. It's creased from having gotten wet, stuffed inside Matt's pocket as we hiked twenty miles, forded a lake, through the rain, dodging lightning. We tossed our maps after the trip, but I saved this one. That day was epic. The map reminds me.
Back though to our fourth Saturdays. What will we do this month?
First, we have to rewind a few dozen steps… For the frames, I had in mind a beveled inner edge. So I broke out the table saw.
K helped. It was kind of a ghetto setup. The wood for the frames was only 3/4" thick and the fence didn't get that close to the blade. So I had to prop up a 4x4 to act as a makeshift fence. I set the blade at a 15º angle to cut the bevel. Then ripped away.
To give a surface for the prints to mount, we glued scrap 1x2s to what would become the inside edge of the frames. Once the glue dried, I whipped out the chop saw to miter all the corners.
K brought out coffee. She's pretty awesome. Like, the best.
Next, I broke out the set of old Craftsman corner clamps I picked up at a garage sale years ago. Glued each of the corners and, for extra measure, stapled the backside of each corner.
In this many-many-step process, then they had to be sanded and lacquered. We wanted a clear finish for the clear pine. Last year, when we sanded and refinished a pair of counter-height stools K has had since her second apartment, we tested lacquers. The one that didn't yellow the wood (in reality, yellowed the wood the least) was the Minwax Polycrylic.
Umm, then… we had to mount the 4-foot square prints (the frames we built were a mere 42" square). We were fortunate and found 40x60" foam core sheets at the Hobby Lobby in town for $6 a piece.
While we measured and mounted, outside the weather was what we're discovering is typical-for-the-east-side-of-the-Cascades in spring. In a word: epic.
The final steps were gluing the mounted prints to the inner frame, letting them dry, and leveling them with each other on the wall. A process, all told, for sure. Totally worth it.
Since we were building frames, I figured I'd make a bunch of them. We had mounted some various art and prints a few months ago, after all. It'd be nice to get them up on our walls.
The 4x12" owl and larch drawing was given to us from a friend for our wedding. K loves owls and the tree is, well, the larch tree under which we were wed. Yeah, it's good to hang it before our fifth anniversary.
This rendition of Fin Dome above Rae Lakes in the Sierra is a woodcut carved and printed by Tom Killion. Print number 100 of 170. Hand-signed, in pencil. K gave it to me for my birthday a few years ago. When she and I backpacked to Rae Lakes, her six months pregnant, we scrambled up close to the spot we think Tom must've been when he sketched this.
I've long-admired Killion's work. The whole art form of woodcut printmaking, in fact. Killion's technique takes after Japanese woodblock. It's super-intricate. Stunning, really. Yep, good to finally get it up on our wall, too.
Among what we had to frame was this map from my 250-mile hike last summer through the Sierras with my friend Matt. Coffee stained at the top from when my mug tipped over inside our tent as we hunkered down during a Sierra storm at Blue Lake. It's creased from having gotten wet, stuffed inside Matt's pocket as we hiked twenty miles, forded a lake, through the rain, dodging lightning. We tossed our maps after the trip, but I saved this one. That day was epic. The map reminds me.
Back though to our fourth Saturdays. What will we do this month?
