Hot New Couple

Here's something wicked sweet for local yokel types... The friggin Bohn house, which is down our street, and I've blathered about before, is going to get a remodel job by friggin Dick Clark Architecture!



Dick Clark, not the old sad brah you'll see on TV this week, but the local architecture firm, do some of the badassedest stuff in town. I could blather on and on about the lofts, n homes, n remodels these cats have done, or you could just go to the website and see for yerselfs... or check out their flickr page. That house is going to be a dooooooooooooooooooooooooozy! Invite some friendly neighbors over for cocktails lucky new homeowners! Did I mention I got a used laptop for xmas, as to not intrude on sleepin baby claire and blog blather on the computer in her room? Now you know. And will be kept mo up to date on the world according to bald.

Place for Coffee... Coins

Yer baldness made him his first commissioned thangs. Got to make a coffee table and side table for this super cool lady I met in the rock and roll circle. Sadly, these pics are from inside our house, instead of her house next to the trillion records and old jukebox.



I did some inlay style stuff with walnut and maple veneer, and slapped it on some purty baltic birch plywood.



The coffee table is actually 4 separate pieces with a slight gap in between each. Attempt one caused the table to implode on itself. I'm no physics genius, but after attempt two, proper supports were in place, and the table stood up proud.



In addition to tablemania, I whipped up this coin collecting type wall hanging doodad. My sister needed her one for a group of fancy coins she's been accumulating. It does require a small balancing act, as too many coins on one side yields a crashing coin conundrum. Anyhoo, anyone who needs a gappy table, or place to put thine olde coin collection lemme know. I'll bang it out with bald hands.

House O Slots

This ole brah of mine that I worked with at Crestview Doors saw the post about the slots for old razor blades, and told me that if he ever went into architecture again, he'd make a house full of slots.. a slot for old shoe laces, pens outta ink, yer skinny jeans... sounds awesome. help out the environment with less waste to the land fills, and insulate your home at the same time! Long as it ain't banana peels and expired hamster slots, your walls with be filled with old treasures for years to come.

Bathroom lookin Sharp!

Been watchin quite a few DIY shows these days, pertaining to bathroom renovating and the like. Just saw this one where they ripped out an old medicine cabinet, and found about 700 used razor blades behind it.



Word has it, that back in the olden days, medicine cabinets were made with a slot in the back where jolly fellows tossed ye olde blades after their shave and moustache waxing. Our medicine cabinet is from said days. What is lurking behind that cabinet? Probably an army of old razor blades will be the least of our problems.

Merry Christmas. Have a toilet.

Julie and I are giving each other a new bathroom for Christmas. The master bathroom is a disaster. Well, it's so small, it's hard to qualify as a disaster. We've been looking for some inspiration, and I always remembered this bathroom from some Apartment Therapy Color Contest way back when. Small, rad and woody. Right up my alley. Now to find super fancy, high end stuff for super cheap. Already sold my locks of hair, so the cash is gonna have to come from somewhere else. Stay tuned. Get ready for dumpy bathroom pics in the near future.

The Good, The Bad and the Bloody

It's been a weird time in Baldland. Luckily for me, some lovers of woody stuff bought items from me, which I was glad to make. My fingers that were lopped off by my X-acto knife were not as glad.

A couple days earlier, some drunken coed smashed into my Mini. I followed her trail of car guts to her smashed piece of crud a few blocks away. Bad guys lose.

I screwed up one of my vase numbers, so I sliced it down into these little dainty pieces o wood that I stare and and wonder about... what to do with these?

On a positive note, I got to take in some Tuesday evening rock with Cheap Time at Beerland. Got to see rockers that still are doing that every nite of the week, whilst I go to bed early/get up early. But I have a sweet baby that makes it all better. And sucks up all my bloggy time.

Fo Sho Case!

Having me an Etsy Type Job today. Signed up for a showcase to do some showcasin. Maybe it'll help sell people some super cool stuff for the holidays. MAYBE. They do need it. YOU NEED IT! Why buy boring crap as presents when you could buy my cool crap?

Bent Wood Clock and THEN SOME.

Got another thing cranked out here at the baldmanmodpadgarage. It's a bent wood clock!



Basically, I've used the same mold I use to make the lampshades, but with a twist. By "twist" I mean clock hands. I also used thicker veneer to take a harder beating, and since light doesn't need to shine through it, it works out great.



I used a couple pieces of maple veneer, then a piece of walnut, and finished it off with maple again. I cut some slots in the sucka to let the walnut show through. Came out pretty okay! Have it up for sale HERE.

Speaking of my wood veneer lampshade, here's one hanging in the Angela's house! Looks good with all her rad furnishings... Thanks for sending me the pics!!

60s Appreciation Day

The other day, Claire and I went to check out some garage sales around the neighborhood. We spied this uber cool 1960s Tripod Floor Lamp, and snagged it from this old hippie dood, who told us it still has a "grow bulb" in it. To grow what, hippie man?



Claire was all, "let's get it anyway, we can snazz it up!" So we did. We put a nice coat of paint on the lamp, and switched out the grow bulb for something a tad more pleasing. It's currently residing in our living room and looks good, but I also put it up for sale in ye olde shoppe, just in case someone likes cool stuff.



Speaking of 60s appreciation, The Mullens rule that school... one of my favorite bands, and Claire and I listen to their song Esmerelda literally 5 times a day. I would have my hair cut just like these chumps, making Julie happy that my follicles hate my guts.

Toy Box/Record Cabinet II

Onward through the fog... Welcome back for part two of this beast. Here we have the toybox done glued and screwed, ready for some finish and maybe another piece of wood on the top? Thank God Julie's been working out b/c there ain't no way even a bulked up man such as myself can move that monster into the living room alone.



Here's a closeup of the old door chunks turned toy box siding. Looking pretty good door chunks!



Here's the combo living in its permanent new spot between the living room and the dining area.



I had some help with the installation. Still have to put the kid friendly hinges up on thar though, which Claire pointed out. It has yet to pass her final inspection.



Got the bamboo lamp up and ready for records and toys galore! Might have to move the Jenn Ski print up a tad.



Success! Finished! Onto the next thing... Bentwood clock.

Toy Box/Record Cabinet Take One

I finally wrapped up this toy box/record cabinet number, and have some pics to share. Basically, it's two pieces, but they'll be right next to each other and I wanted em to have some similar features. This is an old TV stand thing we got at Target many moons ago that was hiding my records. I started taking it apart here. I reused the majority of this guy, but changed it to fit in with the mostly birch plywood toy box I whipped up.



I didn't use the same top for the record cabinet, but I did reuse the hardware to make things easier on my own self... (though there had to be some wicked precise placement of these little buggers).

I covered the side panel of the cabinet with a thin plywood to match my toy box, and also did me some painting of the open space so basically none of the dark wood shows (except fer in with my records, where no one will go but me... and I don't like me enough to make that area pretty).

Here's the actual toy box getting some real low brow clamping action. When the baby starts crying in the monitor, it's time to throw heavy concrete blocks on the thing instead of gittin everything just so... babies don't care about pretty clamping, just about eating mac and cheese and cheerios or whatever. Anyhoo, here's a little insight about the front of this toy box... well, let us jump down below, shall we?

When I worked at Crestview Doors, we'd have tons and tons of wooden rectangular window cut outs, since the CNC machine cut through the solid wood doors to put windows wherever. The inside of the doors where butcher block style wicked heavy doors. I always thought the butcher block innards looked kinda cool, so I grabbed some of the cut outs, ran them through my table saw so they were all the same thickness, and glued em together. Table Saw and I became pretty good friends, but I had to leave certain pieces a little thicker than the average b/c even though we were getting tight, Table Saw was still all, "I swear to God, I'll eat that hand bro," so the thick cut guys gotta stain, and the others got a clear coat. I made up some doors to go on the record cabinet piece to match the toy box, which can be seen here. Part Two is coming... right now it's time to take a shower, and...

Intro 2/ Kick Out The Jams - MC5

Bookin It, Baldy Style

You're not gonna believe this one, since I'm still not really believing it myself. So Design*Sponge is going to put out a book next year. I got an email asking if I would like to put my filing cabinet planter in it. Crazy! Sure! New pictures are being taken, and your favorite new read of the 2010 Holiday Season will be put out by Artisan Books. If this guy is going to be 400+ pages, I can only assume the planter will have a minimum of 100 pages of coverage... that is if Artisan wants to sell a quazillion copies. As if you hadn't seen enough of this yellow attention hog, here's a new shot with some new plants, as others decided they'd prefer death to living in a filing cabinet.

Bookin It

These days are gloomy and dreary, but Claire, Chester and I still get out for a walk here and there. We try walking between the raindrops, but it only works so well...



I've also been checking out a buncha library books, because doing so is free. Most books are about making the most outta small houses, in case Claire ever gets a sibling/it starts raining money. I was flipping through this book, Natural Remodeling for the Not-So-Green House, and I says to myself I says, "Self- Claire, Chester and I walk by this house ALL THE TIME!" They bumped out their attic space with a couple cool dormers. Today we double checked that it's the same joint.



And it is!!! Maybe we can become friends, and they can fix up our attic for us. I've also been reading Making It Lovely, and checking out the bitchin job they did on their attic nursery. I'm hoping, when we do make over our attic, that the door into the new space is magical... Like crossing into a Narnia-sized world that holds an office, new bedroom, new bathroom, new winterwonderland filled with mystical creatures, etc.

Big Foot Lamps

Doods, I can't even tell you about my current life of baby chasing. It's bogged down the bloggin hardcore. On the off chance that I get one spare minute, I've been building this toybox/record cabinet contraption, so anyhoo... Here's a post all the same! By this rad company called Kozo Lamp.

These characters has gone bonkers in the plumbing supply aisle, and created these super cool lamps. They almost look like little robot aliens designed to help you study/read/clip yer toenails in the dark. I just put up a support on our drain pipe curtain rods. Also, Apartment Therapy just rambled about the cool stuff smacked together with such piping. The baby calleth. Stay tuned for this wild first attempt at toybox making. For seriously cool/funny commentary on such a world, go read Mod Mom. That Edward Cullen post kills me every time I read it.

Bent Wood Test Tube Vase

Here's the outcome of my latest vacuum-pressed wood over a mold type situation.



I can actually make two at a time, which is nice for me, since I can only make half of a lamp at a time.



The holes across the top of the arc are drilled diagonally, not that you can really tell by the way these flowers are zig-zaggin. Maybe someday I'll learn to take pics that are a good representation of these items. Til then, check out my lamp cords in the background, and buy buy buy em up HERE!

Mold in the Bag

Bald Breath been trying to make something new in wood world, but babies, bugs and plumbing disasters been holding him back. But finally, lucky me got to get out in the 103 degree heat today to bang out something new. I created a new little mold and routed out 12 pieces of MDF to glue together.

I'm becoming a total router pro these days, and did em pretty fast.

Here's the mold all glued up and sanded down. I'm prepped to bend some new thick veneer over the top of this, and slip it in my vacuum bag. I knew widthwise this little devil would fit in the bag, but upon trying to do so, the height became an issue, and twas too tight. I had to hack off a couple of beautifully routed pieces which broke my cold heart.

Here's my wood sitting pretty over the mold and in the bag. Thinking about sawing it up, drilling some holes, dropping some test toobs in, and making a little froo froo multi bud vase type number. If that sounds hazy it's because it is. Deets to come. Looking to sell something on ye olde etsy site that doesn't break the bank to make and ship. Anyhoo, back outside to clean up my mess... Sure it's gone up a degree or two by now.