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Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15950

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 21 7:28 am Post subject:
Glad you have sorted that out with her Gregotyn, and that you will move the horses yourself if she doesn't. The stick chopper sounds a good idea. We have decided to have a quiet day today as we are worn out, so only a couple of charcoal deliveries to make. Firing the kiln again soon.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Fri Jul 16, 21 2:15 pm Post subject:

I have just been blowing my own trumpet for a while only to press the wrong key-I have an excuse-my hands are wide and my fingers are short and fat so I hit 2 keys at once, and everything disappeared to that little haven in the sky! I had a good day collecting a wooden pallet from a farm machinery dealer yesterday and did the demolition and de-nailing process. All I have to do now is cut to length. The bulk of the wood is 4-5 ft long but there were about 10 pieces around 9ft long seems a shame to be cutting that up for firewood, but it had to go. I used to be so careful when demolishing these pallets, but now I use a chain saw, save hours.
Although I lose a bit of wood as i don't bother to measure it you can make a good guess with the eye and it all fits in the bag and no roping saving time. To do the chain sawing I use a baby electric saw lots of fun because it is small it is light to handle and the battery seems to last for ages. Expensive but no mixing of fuel. Got to go time is running out!

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15950

Posted: Sun Jul 18, 21 8:09 am Post subject:

We have been getting double length pallets from a window company. Nice quality wood, and some really nice long screws to hold it together, so won a few of those for future use. Burns reasonably well too. We got an electric chainsaw a little while ago, and it is very useful for small jobs. Think the largest we have done is about 10" cross cut of a tree that had come down across a path, but usually used for smaller work.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Tue Jul 20, 21 11:21 am Post subject:

The pallet I had this morning had a tractor mower inside at some point this morning, and now is in 3 pieces in the back of the pickup. They come dry, so I break up as fast as possible and get into the drying shed-a cover of tin over which, was a shed, half of which blew down and left a roof with a clear blow through and I get all the year round dry wood and no effort on my part! I am hitting the firewood quite hard now to get a good stock, with an aim to get anywhere over 5 nets a day, with 20 being the target to get winter stock while the weather doesn't demand thick clothing!

Got to go times up!

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15950

Posted: Wed Jul 21, 21 6:09 am Post subject:
Useful to have a drying shed. We have a log store, and our aim is to build a covered storage place for our pallet wood for the kiln. Not sure if and when it will get done, but we live in hopes. Having everything dry does make life a lot easier. At present our problem is excess heat, but this very hot weather is only supposed to last a couple more days thank goodness.

gregotyn

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Posts: 2201
Location: Llanfyllin area

Posted: Tue Jul 27, 21 2:58 pm Post subject:

Well I said I was hitting the firewood as hard as possible, it appears that the 'fire lighters' of this area are having more fires to compensate for being at home, and so I am hardly adding to the winter stock. I have got 2 new suppliers for pallets, one by accident and the other was recommended to come to me as I used a lot! I am getting enough wood to keep me going. The lads are keeping the wood I would have normally taken from where I worked, for me to collect as often as I can get there, which surprises me as I have never set out to win or be part of a popularity contest, or was popular when I worked there, and also was not popular when I used to go looking for my tools when they disappeared, which they thought was funny, move the old man's tool box was almost a game, but wasted so much time. Now I waste my own time! I wondered how I ever fitted in a job as well as working at home!
At least the stock is building up for winter-about 300 nets in stock now and I am doing about 15 nets per day due to getting up earlier in the morning an improvement on last week by 300% a day The incentive to get up early is no longer there, but when I see the wood pile getting bigger, I have to get up. The hand operated "chopping machine" does a good job, and I split three blanks at a time, so I am more productive than I was, at least twice! I also find it easier to put the bad splitters on one side till I am at the end of the blank cutting and then demolish them all at the end of the "run", chopping them by hand. I have become more efficient by demolishing all the available pallets, de-nailing first then sawing and then chopping straight into the nets, a massive improvement on how it used to be!

The local 'phone works dept. have decided to replace a telegraph pole which has been knocked down a few weeks back and have now closed the road to my local village from the local town. I was just coming down to the library earlier when a woman from the doctors needed a route to get to the next village, but the road closure stopped her, so I went on a 15 mile detour to show her the way then returned back, via the same route, all for a medicine delivery-I wonder if it could have been my medicine?

My horse grazer has taken the horses away to a new pasture across the road from me, leaving all the piles of manure in the field which I told her to collect up, and where to place it in a heap at one end of the field. So she will have to go. I don't understand why these women don't follow simple basic instructions of good husbandry! got to go time up.

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15950

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 21 7:43 am Post subject:

Glad you are getting on so well with the kindling. We have found a new supplier for pallets too, and husband and son went to get some from him yesterday, as well as some long ones from the window place. I think son also got some old decking from a neighbour who does refurbishments rather than building from new, so plenty at the moment.

Local road closures can cause chaos. We had one a couple of years ago that wasn't signed very well. Result was we had to tell the council to get it properly signed before the police needed to be called, as the poor lad stopping traffic wasn't local and had no idea where to send people, so they were insisting on going through.

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2571
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Sun Aug 15, 21 11:56 pm Post subject:

Mistress Rose, a charcoal question. On Saturday I sat in on a Make Ink! Zoom class, making ink from foraged material. Black walnut hulls, red cabbage, turmeric etc.

One student showed a small Altoids tin. She'd put some twigs in it, closed it up, then heated it on a barbecue grill. The twigs became charcoal. Which could be used for drawing, or pulverized and mixed into a carrier (fluid) to make an ink.

You are the only charcoal expert I am aware of. Do you have any comments or useful suggestions?

TIA

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46192
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Aug 16, 21 1:27 am Post subject:

not a charcoal expert however i have used and made charcoal in assorted ways

for drawing, willow is good, small metal containers such as sweet or baccy tins are useful kilns for such things, fill it with sticks, roast em in a fire til they stop smoking, cool well before opening

i have no idea how to make a large batch of drawing quality

re ink , paint etc

massive subject, i know a bit

plant pigments are fugitive, pretty today brown stain in a few weeks

minerals, iron oxides in many forms can be made into very good art pigments
how to do it depends on what you have, any iron rich swamp, stream or deposits?
a fe2+ spring that oxidises to fe3+ is a good start
if you have i can give you useful "sanguine chalk recipes
a bit of fancy sieving by fancy i mean rough but precise, a bit of mixing the slime and "glue"(maybe some talc depending on how hard you want them)

carbon minerals(ashes and tings as well) have assorted properties, most will make a mark or can be ground and used as part of a material
charcoal in the raw, or ground and compounded is sort of black, special charcoals are quite black

oak gall and fe2+(see spring, mine run off or other)gives a decent black ink

other minerals are fun
slate makes a good grey, chalk does dull white etc

to make nice stuff takes pigment and media, the latter is also important when making "paint" or "crayons"

if the pigment is gritty it is not as good as fine
pestle and mortar is not ideal
muller and slab as it is known to colourists is ideal for grinding pigments

basics is you can make marks with many things, some are easier than others to get the look you want, some last some do not

Jam Lady

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 2571
Location: New Jersey, USA

Posted: Mon Aug 16, 21 1:49 am Post subject:

Thank you dpack. You always seem to know something about everything. But really, I was just asking Mistress Rose about twigs in an Altoid tin chucked in a fire because it sounded interesting and she's the charcoal making maven.

Our instructor for the Zoom class is also rather knowledgeable. Making natural inks is his business, he's written a book (not that being a published author is a guarantee of knowledge, but . . . )

Black walnut hulls were pretty much the focus of this first class. They make a substantive dye / ink, no mordant needed.

https://bellewood-gardens.com/2021/About%20Ink_2021-08.html

Oak galls and some rust / prepare in rusty iron pot (difficult to find in these days of stainless steel / non-stick everything) for oak gall ink but I think I'll start with something simple such as turmeric in alcohol, red cabbage with salt and white vinegar - cleaning vinegar for choice, more acidic than kitchen vinegar.

I'm playing, not making ink to write for posterity.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46192
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Aug 16, 21 2:31 am Post subject:

rust is fe 3+ and useful as pigment but not for the ink thing
fe2+ from spring or iron sulphate is the chap

5 years at art school did not teach me the make paint, it gave me opportunity to play with it a little

shhhsh, i was shocked at how little my tutors knew about materials or techniques

the drawing "pastels" are rather yummy, if you have decent fe 3+ fines depositing/ed out locally:wink:

in 5 yrs i had one good tutor in etching craft, he was the technician, my "art tutors" were not good on method or materials, some were good on content

art is ace, how to make darkness or shine more interesting is always a fun game

ps i had to be stroppy to have use of "oil" based paints in wk one of "big"art school, their terror set in later when they got to know me

making "paint" is a gateway to ......

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46192
Location: yes

Posted: Mon Aug 16, 21 2:40 am Post subject:
"Thank you dpack." i know less than nowt about most things and i am willing to share the art materials theme is worth playing with. Well-prepared "dirt" can make good paint etc

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15950

Posted: Mon Aug 16, 21 8:04 am Post subject:

Yes, that would work Jam Lady. We have made charcoal in the kiln using a larger tin. We put suitable lengths of willow offcuts in and packed it out with sawdust to keep them as straight as possible. Sand might be an alternative, but some might stick to the charcoal if it got too hot. This is real drawing charcoal. A friend is experimenting with a variety of materials for making charcoal in her kiln; I know she has used bramble, and I think things like ash and birch might be worth a go. We are thinking of trying some of our willow, which is not the normal basketry type, but it means debarking it first, which might be a bit of a chore.

There was a small section on the TV last night about pigments. They were in the Lake District, and some of the slate there contains iron pigment that is fine enough to use as paint without any further treatment. As they were using charcoal and probably chalk as well, I would think they would stabilise the work after finishing it, with some sort of fixing spray.

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