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Carol's Herculean Effort

Carol made a Herculean effort to get rid of her collections over the past 18 years in her shop.

I am here to tell you could not walk in that shop lol Carol never met a piece of wood she didn't love and had to bring home. Not to mention the 6 boxes of gourds stored in there as well. Boxes of winter clothes. ( closet space in this house is very limited) Add to this Bass Wood that had been collected over years to carve I was amazed at how much we had collected.

Thank goodness we knew one of the areas top wood carvers who in spite of being blind still teachers with the help of his wife. Every Saturday they have wood carvers who meet and carve at their home. They were so happy to take the bass wood off of our hands and were so happy to give it to them knowing it would be put to good use.  Thank you Jack and Jane!

It is a wonder Carol can still walk as hard as she worked to move heavy items and load  bags of things for the  area thrift shops.

There was winter tire chains, exercise equipment, hula hoops, exercise balls 3 exercise weights and bed tray,.  small vacuum, elec. fryer coffee maker, and way more too much to list but take my word it was a lot. We supplied 3 different thrift stores with enough books to open a small library. (they might cringe to see us coming now,)

But to her credit she has done a remarkable job and the shop is much more organized and clean.

It could use a paint job from top to bottom but not at this point in our lives. The shop still has a lot of wood stored under the hugs work table to be dealt with but it is not in the path so will have to wait till later. Still a wonder that it has come this far. I am thrilled and amazed. At the same time over a few months she has cleaned and emptied a shed we have that we have stored stuff in over the past 18 years. Gotten rid of so much and it is mostly empty now. We hope to make repairs as needed and use it to store gourds that have almost run us out of house, shop and chicken house as well as parts of the back yard. Last count we had approxmently 500 of the little beasties. Only trouble is they are small to medium and we use a lot of large gourds but they will fill in and we give a lot to other gourding friends, and our local patch members.

Hats off Carol super job. Guess that means I have to get busy( in whatever spare time  I can find and try to organize the art room. A two car garage that has also been converted into a art and craft space. A blessing after using the kitchen table so long.

I just hope to make as much of a difference as Carol has. With that I leave you now but promise to return.

Hugs and love to all my friends and thank you I value your friendship so much.

So proud to announce we have been added to the Proxxon design team . I hope we will be successful in letting everyone know how cool these tools are. Especially the tiny micro tools. ( perfect for gourds)

Looking forward to making some new items that have before been very hard too do with large tools. We have lots of large tools but sometimes they are too large or strong to use on a gourd or thin wood. Besides large tools are heavy and I am a little old dusty lady.
Wishing all a beautiful day and a productive day. Chase your dreams.
Hugs and Love Misty

My Love for Gourds

Some years ago when we had just been in AR about 7 or 8 years we planted a gourd crop. Who knows why? We were not working with them at that time just got the urge! So we did and so did they. We had a very good crop. They dried great and since we did not know what to do with them  we bagged them up into two large green yard bags and stored them in the attic. There they lived (sad for being unused) for many years.

About 5 years ago a friend showed us a Thunder Gourd. It was the same friend that had shown us some home-made soap. (Should have known this was going to be trouble.) We made soap and bath products until I developed cancer at which time we had to give up the hobby and shows. Now when she showed us the Thunder Drum I was all better. We thought it was ok but then she shook it and out came this thundering sound. Carol screamed I got to have one! I being the voice of reason said we don’t need to buy it we have attic full of gourds.

So we made our first of hundreds of gourds and fell in love with everything about them. How if you look at one long enough it speaks to you. Tells you what it wanted to become when it grows up. We never had a lesson but bought every book we could fine on gourds and what to do with them. Soon we had so very many gourds we could not keep them all. So we gave some to friends and family.  God bless them as these were not our best work, after all we were still learning.

My painting got some better then I started taking art about three years ago after a long absence from my early dabbling in Pastels. As time passed with all the time I spent painting and gourding things got better. Meanwhile Carol started taking watercolor classes and also has a natural talent for painting she has a good eye.
So with no further delay I will add a few photos of some of our more recent Gourds

This bowl is stained with ink & Woven at the top

  Carved Wave Bowl  Carved and stippled and with insets

Thunder Drum Front Side

      These are just a few samples of our gourds.

 For those who serve.

Thank you for stopping by to visit.

   

I love tools!   I love everything about them, how they look, how they feel and sound and what  they do.  If I must sand by hand I am an unhappy camper.  I just want a tool to do it fast and efficiently.   Besides, it always does a better job than I could do by hand.

    Let me tell you about my first two tools.   For an unknown reason, back when I was a young lady of about 15, (oh my goodness 45 years ago), I was given a Dremel rotary tool for Christmas, I think from Santa, aka Dad.  I had two brothers but I must admit I was usually his “helper” in the garage.  Well, dressed in my Christmas jammies I put in a bit, (the biggest one a cutting wheel), plugged it in, fired it up, and …dropped it in my lap.  I think I felt the vibration when it came on and thought I was being electrocuted.  It caught in my pajamas and wound until it could wind no more.  It stopped but continued to buzz and I was afraid to move lest it start again.  I was rescued, untwisted and unharmed. 

    My second tool I bought myself.   It was a scroll saw that I watched a man use at the county fair.  I think I was 25 or so.  I was so intrigued at how skillfully he used it.   I absolutely had to have it!  It landed on my kitchen table in my itty bitty apartment and stayed there.  No more cooking for me!!  I made tons of stuff with it.  What a workhorse.  I must admit I abused it.   That poor tool cut 2x4s for me when I started making some bigger things.  It is still alive and still cherished today. 

A  small sample of Carols work with a jigsaw.

Carol's Bio

Well hey there!  My name is Carol and just in case you’re interested I thought I would share a little about myself here.  I’m originally from California, being born and raised in San Diego.  I must admit to having a pretty much carefree young life enjoying all the amenities of a small (back then SD was not so big), but growing city.   I had the ocean, a good solid family, lots of friends, wild imagination, great health, and enough energy to spend all day on the run. My early life was… well…just as it should be.   Of course, you can’t stay young forever and life had to get a bit more serious.  In high school, I enjoyed science and always thought I would be a doctor.  But when I learned how much school they required I quickly changed my goal and became a nurse.  This ended up being a good choice for me and I enjoyed my work).  My nursing career spanned more than 30 years.  I had no children and lived with a man for 20 years as my “common law”, so they say in California.  He eventually turned traitor so I was looking for a change when I met Misty online.  She was working in Iceland but retiring to the US.  We became good friends.  When it was time for her to move back to the states I asked where she was going to live.  She replied with “someplace where the pace is slower and money goes further”.  I sheepishly asked, “can I come along?”  She thought I was joking and said, “Sure”.   Long story short we ended up in Arkansas.  I continued to work as a nurse first private duty then home health.  I turned 60 in October this year and retired in Dec.  I finally have time to pursue my hobbies of woodworking, carving, painting, gardening and what not.  I love tinkering with tools, fixing things, and creating art for the sake of art or just because.  I hope to live a long healthy life, (so far so good) because I have a lot left to do.  I could start by organizing my workshop.    Yikes.      Later, more to come about the workshop.  😊

Alberta Orlove Better known as Misty

A little history.

Am 76 years old worked for Civil Service for some 28 years. Retired from Keflavik Iceland in 1999. Navy wanted me to continue on as a Management Analysts part time to trouble shoot for Quality of Life (Also known as MWR) who has problem or areas that needed correction. I did that for little over a year when a health convinced me to once again retire this time completely.  I loved my job and it left me with a large void to have to leave it altogether.

When I told my friend I what I was going to do, she asked my (can I come too) I chuckled and said I guess so. I had no idea she was not joking. Little did I know she was dead serious. I was soon to find out.

I won’t go into my childhood as it was not always the happiest time of my life. I prefer to not look back. I did have a loving mother and lost her at age 23 to cancer. My father who was in the Navy called home and told my mother he wanted a divorce when I was three. He was the love of my young life. It has been hard getting over that I must admit. I think maybe I am not yet over it.

Married and lost a husband and two children both boys. Lost the youngest in an auto accident when he was 29. I recently lost my oldest son at 60 this past Feb.

I retired because even though I really loved my job and the feeling that I helped improve the life of our Military members and their families. I was on call 24/7 and had just found out that my eldest had been given a life expectancy of 5 years. I wanted a chance to enjoy a life outside of work. I felt if I didn’t retire I would not have that opportunity. Ok I think that is more than enough to leave here.
Will tell you am happy as a lark here in Arkansas where life is easy going and I have time to pursue my passions, painting is first and after that gourd crafting, gardening, fishing and I think blogging might soon fall in next.

Dragonfly in oils.  By Misty Orlove

How we wound up in Arkansas is another story and I will let Carol tell you thank you for visiting.