sink

Karen came over today and pounded on her sink. It is coming along nicely. We will grind it tomorrow on the inside. The stone is set up nicely for a cantilever posture.

sink

Scott broke the alabaster sink he was working on so he started on a diorite one from a stone from the La Sal mountains. It looks like it is going to come out well. The outside will be rough and the inside polished and drilled fro a drain.

alabaster

Before the feast part of the crew went for a hike in search of the green alabaster. We checked out some new spots. the were some nice views with the new snow. We packed out some nice pieces for a bowl and some lamps panels.The dogs were worn out at the end of the day.

thanksgiving

We had thanksgiving in Torrey, UT with friends and ate continuously

ash

We picked up a large ash tree from our neighbors house the other day. It looks like it has nice color

burl

Scott finished a ponderosa pine burl slab from the La Sal mountains on friday for a small shrine for a friend. We also cut a large black walnut tree from the Youth Garden Project. Thank to everyone for their help with it

cherry

We went to Green River, Ut on Saturday and cut and hauled a huge cherry tree that Howard was removing over there. We also took a ride up the river. It was very beautiful, all the farms along the river, the corn and melons and the cliffs. We went to the Tamarisk Resturant for fun, but the waiter wouldn't leave us alone and then wouldn't come back so we left with just a funny story about the resturant named after an invasive species.

biodiesel

We made our first test batch of biodiesel the other day and it turned out well. the reactor is almost finished and we hope to be making biodiesel for the truck some time next week.

article

Katy and Scott are the artists of the month in our local events paper the Moab Happenings. Check it out.

मोअब फोल्क Festival

This weekend we will be at the Moab Folk Festival It should be a lot of fun. We went to Torrey on Sunday and picked up the mill and brought back a bunch of filches for firewood and fencing for folks. Drove over in the dodge we bought. It is a diesel and pulls nice. We have been running it on b100 biodiesel from the gas station but are going to make our own soon( the reactor is almost built). We have been working on the sink and some jewelry. We were at the Youth Garden Projects' Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival this past weekend. Zack from the bike barn was giving hay rides on our trailer will built from poplar lumber from the mill.

basin

Today we went with Scott, Karen, Aiden, Pat, and Sienna, out to the desert to pick an alabaster stone for their bathroom sink basin. It was a lot of fun and we got some nice stones. We will post more photos later as we cut into the rock and shape it.

floor

We finally finished our russian olive floor! It is 2 inch slat flooring, nailed and glued. We finished it with a mix of pure tung oil and pure linseed oil. The kicks for the closet and doorway are tamarisk. It was nice to finish because there were no drying agents in either, so it smells nice. Next we will mill a chinese elm (another invasive species) floor 6 inches wide with tung and groove. Tommorow we have the farmers market and then next weekend we will be at the Sundance Harvest Market.

flooring

We have been laying a russian olive floor that we milled this winter. It will be nice and dark when we finish it. Look for the final picture soon. The next floor we try will be out of chinese elm, another invasive species that is very dense.

translucent

Scott finished this pink alabaster bowl yesterday. It is so thin it is translucent! The stone came from Bicknell, Ut.

Framed Image

Scott's stone sculptures and bowls are now represented in Moab at the Framed Image Gallery on Center street.

chestnut

Scott finished an Engelman Spruce burl bowl(top) and a chestnut bread bowl. The wood had been a mystery up until this weekend. We had cut up and hauled off a huge stump, everyone had a different idea about what it was, it turns out it is american chestnut which is basically extinct as a result of chestnut blight, a bacteria brought into the U.S. in 1904. Visit the american chestnut society for more info about the tree. This one was huge and must have been brought to moab by early settlers. It was across the street from HMK middle school at the house of the schools namesake, Helen M. Knight. Kind of crazy to find an extinct eastern nut tree in moab? The wood is beautiful.

more

Here are some more pictures of the table. There is one of the black pipestone infinity joint.

table

We have been getting ready for the Moab Artists Studio Tour. We finished a japanese style dining table out of black walnut. We cut the black walnut tree out of a yard behind the movie theater. It was dead but a bit wet. We slabbed it on the saw, stacked and dried it. This week with the help of Dave Sadoff, we joined it with hand turned russian olive dowels and clamped it. Lots of sanding later and sitting on top of solid black walnut blocks the table is finished. We sealed the table with pure tung oil, wiped on by hand.

helper

We are headed to Helper, UT for the Helper Art Festival which runs from Friday through Sunday. Brady finished a black walnut piece, Scott finished some salad tong sets and Katy finished a batch of knives.