Show-and-Tell TR

[Sherri]

While the rest of you core folks are out there bagging ice climbs and alpine summits, I've been toastily toiling away in my warm workshop. So, in lieu of a putting up any freshie-type TR's(which I guarantee you will NOT ever see from me, brrrr ), here's the fruit of my latest labors. It is a 3' x 4' mural/mosaic made entirely from wood(cedar, pine, and aspen.)

 

 

I call it Winter Light.

 

 

 

 

 

Approach: trail to workshop is about 30 feet long--level, grassy terrain easily navigated in tennis shoes(watch out for dog poop)

 

Gear notes: scroll saw, band saw, inflatable sanders.

 

Difficulty rating: felt like a 5.9 since it was new design, but probably closer to 5.8 in actuality

[ZimZam]

Nice stuff Sherri. My brother does that. There's a lot of time and patience put into that.

[denalidave]

Very nice. Did you do the approach free solo or w/full belay?

[rmncwrtr]

Beautiful Sherri!

[Sherri]

Thanks, Zim Zam. I think there's more folk doing the intarsia on the east coast than on the west. (assuming your brother is back there?)

 

Denali, I know the approach well enough to solo it most days, but I always keep the risk in mind(poopy shoes and ensuing anger at spouse for not scooping yard, tripping over dog toys, not knowing if I'll be back to the house by dinnertime, did I miss any good spray ...)Sometimes I use the porch railing as aid, though. I don't want to become yet another victim of complacency.

 

Rmnc: not as beautiful as you. :kisss:

[marylou]

Hey, that's really cool, thanks for sharing.

[Dechristo]

nice very, Sherri!

 

so, are the colors represented more true in the first or second photo?

[high_on_rock]

Beautiful Sherri-doll, and the art is nice too

[Sherri]

Beautiful Sherri-doll, and the art is nice too

 

Together we make the world a beautiful place. When do we get to see your next masterpiece?

 

 

Thanks, DeC and MaryLou. Figured folks could use a little eye-candy to warm up a winter night.

[TREETOAD]

Very good!!

[Alex]

Do you sell your art?

[billcoe]

Figured folks could use a little eye-candy to warm up a winter night.

 

Damn straight Sherri, and may I add that is the best Trip report I've seen in a long while!

 

Wow! Impressive stuff there. 5.8?, 5.9? ...hmmm.... it sure looks 5.11+ as a minimum! .

 

Thank you!

[Sherri]

Ha, ha! You're welcome, Billcoe. We could say it's a Beckey 5.8.

 

 

 

Yes, Alex, I sell 'em. This one's getting installed at our cabin; I did a maple branch railing that has some carved maple leaves in it, so it's as if the leaves blew off the winter trees, and landed on the railings...I'm artsy fartsy like that.

 

Here's a shot of the railing(this section doesn't show the carved leaves though):

:

 

 

Just finished a design for a salmon stream mural next, which should be fun, doing all the hundreds of river rocks out of different woods. It's going to be a long winter.

Edited January 2, 2008 by Sherri

[AlpineK]

That's some nice stuff Sherri.

[sobo]

That's some really bitchin' work there, Sherri. But I'm a bit concerned that your vertical rails don't pass the UBC's 4-inch sphere test...

[ClimbingPanther]

wow, that's awesome! thanks for the post.

[Sherri]

You've got a good eye, Sobo! But they'll pass all right...I couldn't get that small child's head to stick through anywhere I tried. Didn't help that it was crying and lubing up the rails, but, even so, I think we're good to go.

 

Passing code is always an interesting challenge when going custom and "coloring outside the lines", but in both houses I've built and finished I have found that the inspectors like to see so much care and thought going into one's work. If I make a mistake, I want to know. I have nothing to gain trying to pull the wool over their eyes on something that's not up to snuff. Not my style.

 

This is one I did out of log posts and electrical conduit for the stiles. I cannot begin to tell you the pains I went through to make sure those things were even and precisely to code, each and last every one of them. Inspector took one look at it from the ground and said it passed. I had to MAKE him go up and measure them. (I put too much work into them to NOT have them measured, DAMMIT. ).

Edited January 3, 2008 by Sherri

[Dechristo]

That's some really bitchin' work there, Sherri. But I'm a bit concerned that your vertical rails don't pass the UBC's 4-inch sphere test...

 

funny, that's the same thing I thought.

[Sherri]

Actually a bit less than 4 inches apart at any given point. Keep in mind that they are not dimensional lumber that are perfectly in line and plumb to each other along their full lengths. Slight bows and bends in varying directions close gaps from angles other than what can be seen from than straight-on. That's what I love about this stuff, you can get some real illusions going.

 

 

[Dechristo]

I'm trying to remember the lateral strength requirement...

 

...something like 150lbs/sf, as well. You might get nipped on that one.

[Sherri]

These branches are dense and stout, more so than you'd expect from other woods of the same diameter.

 

The delicate appearance is a deliberate element of the a design--I wanted the space between the branches to appear tenuous, like they were actively flexing toward/away from each other--not an indication of its strength, or lack thereof.

 

The inspector isn't worried about them, but, you're right, DeC., there's a lot of specs to factor in when you embark on this sort of project. I always err on the safe side and "build for bear" as Kelly likes to say.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JosephH]

Beautiful work, would love to see more pics of these buildings...

[Sherri]

Hey, thanks Joseph.

 

Here's one of the hearth mural. I used sandstone, tile, flagstone, and cedar.

[Dechristo]

I always err on the safe side and "build for bear" as Kelly likes to say.

 

A builder acquaintance puts it another way, saying he designs bearing in mind the "ravages of a two-hundred-pound, drunken child".

 

 

Edit: beautiful stove surround, but around here you'd definitely get nailed for the use of cedar in the heat shield.

Edited January 3, 2008 by Dechristo

[Sherri]

I always err on the safe side and "build for bear" as Kelly likes to say.

 

A builder acquaintance puts it another way, saying he designs bearing in mind the "ravages of a two-hundred-pound, drunken child".

 

 

Edit: beautiful stove surround, but around here you'd definitely get nailed for the use of cedar in the heat shield.

 

That does sound scarier.

 

We'd get nailed for a combustible being in a heat shield here, too. But the surround is not a heat shield(which is a surround that uses an air gap between the wall and the surround material to reduce clearances so that you can put the stove closer to the wall). I've done that type, too, but not here. In this case, the entire surround fall outside of the mfr's and county's req'd clearance from combustibles. Camera angle may be making the stove corner look closer to the wall than it is. Thanks, though.