I know what you are thinking. Not another Stickman! Yep, another Stickman pattern. This time the little guys are in a heated table tennis match.
As you can probably tell by now I am enjoying designing these guys. The fun part is getting the poses right. I have received several suggestions for more of these patterns so you will see more soon.
Riku was born in Japan and now lives and trains on a small island in the Pacific. Riku is widely considered the greatest table tennis player in the world today and maybe of all time. His serve is so fast that opponents often complain of hearing a sonic boom as the ball whizzes past their ear. Riku will turn 72 on his next birthday. When asked what he attributed his long career to, he gave this quote. "Respect your body, mind and soul. Eat a healthy diet. Don't over-indulge and by all means never play leap frog with a unicorn. Riku is a very wise man.
Steve "The Designer" Good
Steve recently retired from blogging and joined the World Table Tennis Association. He is a bit portly to be a stickman but the spandex bodysuit he wears during matches conceals his bulges and makes him more streamline. Steve is currently ranked 106th in the world. Unfortunately the WTTA only has 58 athletes in the association. Steve was asked by a sports reporter what his goal was for the current WTTA season. "I want to continue to improve my back hand and try to end the season ranked in the top 100". Sounds like a reasonable goal.
Ouch!
Reenactment
I would be willing to bet everyone can look at this pictures and guess what happened next. I needed to drill a very small hole in today's project. I grabbed my set of mirco bits and chucked up the drill bit. With drill in hand I pulled the trigger.
Keep in mind that these drill bits are sharper than needles. I was drilling through 1/8" thick BB ply. With this combination, when you pull the trigger the bit goes through the ply in the blink of an eye.
It also goes through flesh and even a little bone just a quick. Yep, I inserted that tiny drill bit about 1/4" deep into my finger. Yes it hurt. As a matter of fact it hurt twice. It was deep enough that I had to give a bit of a tug to get it out. The trip out hurt worse than the trip in.
Some things have no reasonable explanation. I have no idea what goes on in a brain when a situation like this is taking place. Obviously the my brain was not processing what my eyes were seeing.
Assuming that my tetanus shot is up to date this is a relatively minor injury as workshop injuries go.
What is does do is make me think about why the injury happened. I was not tired, I was not in a hurry. I understand the physics of spinning drill bits and soft flesh. I have read and understand all safety procedures in the manual that came with the tool.(Not really but Norm would not be happy so I lied a little.)
My best guess as to the reason I made this mistake is this. I underestimated what the tool would do. I don't remember thinking that I could stop the bit in time but that must be what my brain thought.
The moral of the story is that even under the best of conditions you can make a mistake and cause an accident. The workshop can be dangerous. It is important to keep that in mind and be doubly diligent before preforming any procedure with tools. I got a gentle reminder tonight about safety.
Charles Dearing and Bear Woods Pay tribute to Rev. Billy Graham:
My friends Charles Dearing and Bear Woods have teamed up for a wonderful tribute and cause.
Charles is one of the finest Portrait style pattern designers in the world. His patterns are sought out by scrollers who want to be challenged and cut a masterpiece.
As I am sure most of you have heard, the Rev. Billy Graham passed from this earth last Wednesday. Rev. Graham was respected the world over and impacted the lives of millions.
Charles designed a wonderful portrait of the reverend and it is available on the Bear Woods website.
All proceeds from the sale of the Billy Graham patterns will go to the Billy Graham Evangelical Association as a gift from you and Bear Woods. This offer extends until the end of March.
I am also happy to report that Charles and Bear Woods are in the process of a collaboration that will bring many of his incredible patterns to the Bear Woods website for sale. They have a few up already and many more to come.
Click Image to Enlarge and see contest details.
January's 2WAYS2WIN contest had great participation so Stephen at Bear Woods and I want to do it again.
WAY2WIN #1: Click the link above and enter the giveaway. That simple. Enter everyday.
WAY2WIN #2: Post up to three photos of your wooden trains, planes or automobiles on the Bear Woods Facebook page.
Email Newsletter Readers: Remember that the Newsletter is just a copy of the daily blog post. To see the post in it's proper formatting click this link. If you ever misplace a pattern or any item you see here you can always find it on the blog. Everything stays on the blog forever.
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Let me teach you to create a beautiful wooden portrait pattern. I will show you everything you need from start to finish. The video will show you the free software program you can download for Windows or Mac OS. I will show you how to install the program and configure it for best results.
Then I will show you the technique to take your photograph and make a pattern from it. When the pattern is complete we will go in the shop and cut it.
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This DVD has 2,300 patterns published from 2007 thru 2017.
The DVD is $20 plus shipping. Ships to 60 countries around the world.
The DVD is $20 plus shipping. Ships to 60 countries around the world.
If you use the DVD on a Windows PC there is a simple viewer program to browse through the patterns.
The DVD also works fine on a MAC. The viewer program is not MAC compatible but there is an included PDF with all the patterns shown as thumbnails for easy viewing.
My two "Wooden Vases on the Scroll Saw" books make it easy.
The books are $12 each and available for instant download after purchase. Click for Video
Demonstration.
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