Same Items, Better Pictures?

So I've been needing to take nicer pics of my stuff.



I've been busy. Maybe even too busy to post about this guy I made last! I needed a nightstand, so here's the dood I whupped up.



Also going to put pics in that Plywood book, so I got a new camera, a cheap chinaball light, and a white background.



Also, the Supermarket HQ peep like my stuff, but won't set me up on their site til my pictures, "look better."



Hopefully these pictures will do the trick. If not, I'll open up a photography studio in the spare bedroom.

BaldManLawSuit?

I was cruising the vimeo website watching a superrad video on the guy who makes adrift mobiles, and ended up watching another video by cool Spanish Lampmakers LZF Lamps. At just past 3 minutes into this video, I saw THIS SHOT. Real fast.



Is this for real??? I felt a little bit like I was losing my mind. Those bear a striking resemblance to this guy I've been making in my garage for the past couple years...



I mean, it's just that I came up with the whole shape, and assembly on my own, and I guess it's possible that someone in Spain was doing the same thing at the same time, but... Anyway. I checked out their website to see if this those were available for purchase, but I didn't see that they were. They musta felt that international suit brewing in my gut. Their lamp craftsmanship is way outta my league, so just gimme this brahs! Gotta be too uncanny right?

What Time is It? Plytime.

I've been goofin around with some plywood these days. I cut some strips of it, and made a clock. I was moving em around trying to figure out what might look good. I ended up making the "3" and "9" positions square instead of rectangular like this here.



I also ended up painting the insides of the squares green, for that extra sumpin sumpin factor.



Looks like this clock will end up in this "making stuff from plywood" book put out by Storey Publishing. Details to come on that... Til you learn the ins and outs, you could just buy one off me here in ye olde shoppe.

Get Ready Freddy

Julie and I went away for our 13th weddin anniversary. Headed west to Fredericksburg. Mostly full o shops and the like, but still has lots of cool old buildings around, like this here Keidel Memorial Hospital down the street from where we stayed.



We enjoyed us a required two nite's stay at the Roadrunner Inn... It was perched atop a couple cool shops on Main Street. (above: Julie checks baby status from cellular)



Twas full of swanky mid century modern type artifacts, as well as this flat screen tv, which was in direct eyesight of the super cozy bed, and could play The Soup like nobody's business.



We ate a tasty meal at what was known as the Cotton Gin, now not-as-cool sounding Cabernet Grill. Romantic topics of discussion ranged from attic renovation, to baby schooling, to property tax protesting. Upside to the meal, other than its taste: I didn't pull a dead fly out of my mouth as I had the night prior at a different fancy restaurant, which shall remain nameless.



Trendy cool shop, Red, was directly across the street from where we stayed.



Sad how many cardboard animals are killed each season.



Austinite woodworker cool brah, Brian David Johnson, gets around! Spotted his wood vases right away. Someday, when I have more time than my daily allotted babynaptime, I'll get on the ball and make stuff, get stuff into stores, and sell the stuff. Til then, I'll blog about others that do it. BRING IT YEAR 13! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY JULIE!

Bathroom Chronicles: Cabinets. Thine Last Enstallment

So I had me this wild notion that if I started with some veneer and some MDF, I could make bathroom cabinets.



Boo to the Yah. I had to include some white paint and hinges, but besides that, and some basic math, it came to fruition. I went ahead and put some veneer on the edges of the cabinets as well, in case my doors didn't line up, they could act as a mistake eraser and make the cabinets a bit more pro.



Luckily, the doors worked out, and nothing came crashing down when we loaded them up with our titanium weight towels, and my wide array of hair product.



I also did some book matching with the veneer which turned out looking purty good.



After removing Julie's bathing suit from the shower walls, the green tape from around the window, and making the messy bed seen in the mirror's reflection, I took this shot. Photography is hard work, yo. Currently looking for a maid with a keen eye.

Pools, Wood Books and MORE POOLS!

It's summer yo. Tons to do, but I've made a pact with Claire that we are hitting every public pool in the city of Austin this summer. That may/may not be a diseasey disaster waiting to happen, but life is to be lived, right? Yeast, be damned! I originally thought there were 19ish pools to hit throughout the city, but I just checked, and it's more like... 40ish!! Best we get started! So far we've only attended one Splash Pad near our house (which ruled), and ma'n'pa's backyard pool, which does not count. Also going to go to some fancy FOR-HOMEOWNERS-ONLY pool next week, which i ALSO don't count, but the little lady and I will happily be snuck in. It's a wet wet wet wet world out there, and we are here to get sogged.



In other news, I've been tentatively asked to participate in a book about chumps making crud out of plywood. We shall see if it comes to fruition, but it sounds good. Stay tuned for more exciting news regarding wet diapers and wood books!

Dad's day, Claire's away, No time to play

It ain't easy being at the spray park with the paparazzi all up in your bidness, but our baby finds a way to cope.



She took my dad and me to eat for father's day... out of the limelight and into the burritos! Zocalo!!! My parents pulled a fast one on me, and took my child away for 5 days... Tis bittersweet. I began/yet have not finished several needed projects.



This dood's stereo that's been in our backyard for months has finally been sanded down quite a bit, and had a couple test runs with the finishing. It's gettin somewhere.



I took down some old lady blinds, painted window trim and put up some new blinds. This is the most finished project, hovering around 94 percent complete.



Julie got me this awesome book for father's day... Yeah brah, that cover is real plywood!



The book got me in the mood, so I wobbled down to the local cool wood store, and picked up this here gigantic piece of bending birch plywood. That project to come is entitled, "New Nightstands". Julie calls it, "Get That Giant Piece of Crap out of the Dining Room", yet she only calls it that in her head.



I'm whipping up some cabinets for the bathroom that are in the following condition. They've got a ways to go. This is the small top cabinet.



This here is the bottom large cabinet. If they were running a marathon, and being on the wall with towels in them was the finish line, I'd say these guys are on Biggest Loser and are walking eating cheeseburgers around mile 7. Someday though, they'll be a sweaty puking mess, but they'll be on that wall, by god!! Going to get claire tomorrow, so we'll see if anything else gets accomplished. I have yet to begin the bathroom finishing details that we paid someone else to do, however, so add that to the mix.

Where them Wares at?

These days I've been screwing around with sites to upload some pics for potential customers. Customers that want something on the woody side. I checked out carbonmade a while ago, and bounced around with behance, and maybe I'm coming back to you, carbonmade. I need a pro photographer to be my friend. One who is sickgood at taking pictures of stuff/things. Anyway, here's this new thing I set up whilst a baby slept, instead of cleaning the house like a good househusband should.

"But do you have that in a dark wood???"

Welcome to the dark side, y'all. I've got a couple new(ish) items up for sale. Same ole song and dance, with a new twist. The Bent Wood Test Tube Vase is now available in a super slick red gum veneer, and looks like a little bit of all right.



Also making its first appearance on the baldman stage, please welcome the Longboard Pendant Lamp in Walnut Veneer. I've had many a person ask me if I had any pictures of this lamp in walnut, but I never had anyone buy one, and a serious lack of time to just make one for show... but then someone bit the bullet and ordered one so here she is. I really like it. Maybe others will too. Others with gaping holes in the ceiling, money in their pockets, and walnut on their minds.

Food, Wood, and Neighbor

Another man alone meal. A SLIGHT upgrade from chilimacandjaps, but the leftover mac and cheese and the TV tray bring me back to square one. However that ribeye was grilled to perfection .



I finished this little shelf I was working on for the bathroom. It turned out pretty well.



Took this closeup of the grain at the bottom of the shelf. I could go for a swim in that golden deliciousness.



Back outside to the humid Austin Wonderland. Funny sidenote before I go. Our neighbor Maria from a few houses down came up to my nasty ole backyard a couple days ago and says to me... "Hey, are you the Baldman?" The internet, I tell ya... it's a magical place. She let me dig through some wood they were going to get rid of, b/c she's awesome... She also couldn't find my email on this ole site, so maybe I'll figure that out someday. I can tell you it's this though... BALDMANMOD [at] GMAIL [dot] COM! UN [til] NEXT [time], bruthas [and] sistas!

Bathroom Chronicles, Part Four: Fairly done.

Welcome to the new bathroom.



We no longer have to swing the door open, and squeeze by the sink to get to the toilet. Cool. (Also going to build a wall cabinet to go beside the medicine cabinet here.)



Nor must I stand sideways to take a shower.



The Hansgrohe fixtures gleam crisp and clean, whilst ebay brought down the prices lower than any ole bathroom center or lowes or what have you.



I'd say the nicest part of the bathroom would be the tile and the frameless glass shower enclosure with it's chromey hardware. I'd also say the worst is the contractor's workmanship on the details... say, when you put our toilet back in the house from being outside for months, maybe spray out the leaves in the tank first. I could go on, but I won't.



Oh, we've got some lighting up in thar.



Currently working on this little wall rack made out of sweet gum. Looking pretty alright. Still lots of work to do/issues to fix in this bathroom, but I can shower... and very occasionally shave.

mirrah mirrah...

To distract my mind from being swallowed by the bathroom and our contractor woes, I bought this here mirror off craigslist for 15 bucks. It was made in 1974, and was covered in a walnutish laminate that was in pretty good condition, but not that cool overall, except for its rad shape. After a little primer and a can of red spray paint, it turned into this doooozy. We'll see if this "big mirrors make the room look bigger" talk is all a farce or not. I ain't crossed into any alternate universe on the other side of it yet, but I'd like to think I have a huge afro on that side.

Bathroom Chronicles, Part Three: Shower Tiling Complete

Yo's, sorry for the delay... you see, tiling takes years sometimes. See that hole? 2.5 hours of drilling to get that. No lie. That's 30 minutes of straight drilling, til the drill battery dies, then repeat another 4 times. INSANE.



Luckily, Pa is a master measurer, and the hole lined up with the shower head pipe perfectly. If it didn't, I was going to sell the house As Is, and move as far away from that Tile Hole as possible. Who needs a shower handle and shower head on the same wall? Not this tiler.



Done grouted, caulked and ready for the EFFIN CONTRACTOR TO SHOW BACK UP TO FINISH HIS PART OF THE DEAL! Seen the bro for 2 hours the past three weeks. Said he'd send his son over this morning to do some work. It's almost 2pm, so he must have been in a bad car accident, I'm guessing. I'm currently boxing up a horse's head, and having it hand delivered to a certain good-for-nothin wasterofmytime.



30 dollar tile saws bought off craigslist do the trick... Especially if the trick is to go from clean to covered head to toe in tile dust within 5 minutes.





The upside to the contractor downside is South By Southwest rolled through town. We saw some rock. Julie and I ended it with Thee Oh Sees, who played within 12 inches of our barstool at beerland. Luckily, we kept all arm movements to a minimum, so we don't have broken hands from wailing drumsticks- I guess stages ain't their bag. This was shot a few days before the show we were at. It was similar, except this show has people dancing on the ceiling.