Monday, January 17, 2011

Christmas concert

On Dec. 22 at 8pm A-daughter-in-law Sang in front of the J.C.Penney's store in downtown Alamosa. Here she is with Lori her accompanist.

This is M & Z watching. We all went and enjoyed her enthusiastic singing even though it was cold. I was the only one who had to take a few warm breaks and go inside the store.
More Z & A.
D looking over Lori's shoulder possibly singing along. It was a fun new tradition for us. It was a good Christmas concert, unfortunately not many other people passed by. I love to listen to A sing.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Wood Burned Nativity


This is a close up of the three wise men, They are all the same shape, but I wanted to make them look different. I am done, but not entirely happy with their appearance. I did make each vessel they are carrying look unique and that was one of my goals. I would like to make their clothing look more eccentric, but could not figure out how.

In this one you can see almost every piece except the standing sheep and the donkey. Each piece took a long time it seemed (a little like curling your hair one strand at a time with a curling iron). The whole idea of this wooden nativity, was to have a set that children can actually play with, which mine have, and the nicks and dents don't really show at all.
This close up of the sheep's wool, shows the swirls, that I made with an attachment I created from a piece of copper wire. It made a tremendous difference in the speed of this process. I tried to do it with the tip of the iron and it looked bad and took forever. But with the wire attachment it went much faster and looks more uniform.
Yea! A finished project! Just in time to put away for another year.
YEARS ago my sister and I cut these nativity pieces out of 2x4s and 2x6s. I have 2 sets. It took me a long time to decide how to finish them. One set I started to paint and one set I started wood burning. Then I stopped, and had children and put it off and put it off. This year I resolved to finish the wood burning ones.