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I spent the last two days (Friday & Saturday) at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, TX as a vendor at the annual DFW Swap Meet. Unlike the April ordeal at Texas Motor Speedway, this was only a two day event . . . actually more like 1-1/2, because many vendors started folding their canopies just after noon on the second day. Suzanne spent half of each day there, helping me set-up and tear-down our display. The weather was clear & sunny with temps in the upper 80's both days, which was right up near the record high for these dates. After the last four months of mostly temperatures in the mid-90's, this was deemed excellent weather by the locals. After two outdoor swap meets this year I have found that two-days is my limit for this type of event. The DFW Swap Meet takes place in the outer reaches of the asphalt parking lot in front of Lone Star Park, a horse racing facility. As a new vendor at this event I was allotted a spot at the back of the show area. However. many people made the trek all the way to the end of the aisle, either on foot or on their mobility device. Some brought their own gas or electric carts and many rented electric mobility chairs at the venue. (I might make more money renting out mobility devices) As one would expect, Saturday was the busy day. I sold one item on Friday - a business car holder with a C2-Corvette emblem and a 'Vette crossed-flags emblem, both mounted on a vertical wood stand with the business card holder affixed to the front. I asked the fellow what he was going to do with it and he said it would be a Christmas present for his mother-in-law. I asked what she would want with a Corvette business card holder and he pointed to his companion and said, "This is my father-in-law and they have five Corvettes." Sounds like a great use for it to me.
Saturday tripled my Friday business. Three items to two buyers. The last buyer was a fellow I met at the April swap meet. He had purchased an item there that I had not yet completed - he admired the spot-light clock I had sold earlier, so I made another for him on order. Then he gave me two Rambler/AMC items for me to mount for him. This time he bought a Harley-Davidson engine cover plate on a block of mesquite wood and the table lamp built on the hollow end of a mesquite log.. He also said he will send me another AMC item to be mounted for him. The outdoor swap meets are focused mainly on people who are looking for parts for their own car projects. Not many people are shopping for decorative or gift items. What I have gained at this type of venue is contacts with people who share an interest and are potential future customers or sources of material for me. I am doing one more show this year - the annual November bazaar at the Denton Senior Center. I did well there with my automotive stuff last year, so if this year is similar I will try to focus on this type of venue and avoid the outdoor parts swap meets next year. I did my second-ever show this weekend in downtown Denton. It was a one-day event, open from 9 AM to 3 PM. A much better length than the four-day ordeal this spring at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. Suzanne did the show with me. We were required to be there by 7 AM to set up and get out of the way for the show cars. It had begun raining sometime in the early morning hours (as was forecast), so when Suzanne and I arrived at seven, we were told to come back at eight due to the weather (it was effectively still dark due to the cloud cover). Which we did and proceeded to set up our canopy, tables, etc. Fortunately there was no wind and the rain was light. We got set up by nine and the rain tapered off and ended by ten. Above are some photos for context, in case you are not familiar with Denton. Denton is still a small town, centered around the county courthouse, even though it is located at the convergence of two interstate highways - 35E and 35W. It boasts two universities, both over a century old. The areal photo on the left looks generally north with the courthouse just above center. The center photo of the Courthouse Square looks northwest. For the annual Arts & Autos event the streets immediately adjacent to the Square are closed to traffic, making a large pedestrian mall for the public to enjoy the free event. The right photo shows one of the adjacent blocks across from the courthouse - our booth was located at the sidewalk along the courthouse at the center-right edge of the photo where a sidewalk to the courthouse entrance intersects the street. The afternoon temperature barely exceeded eighty degrees, whereas it had been in the mid-nineties all the week before. The sun set on a dry and tidy Courthouse Square. The car exhibitors had taken their cars and awards home and the vendors had had a productive Saturday afternoon. I sold seven items to five customers. I also distributed almost thirty business cards to local car enthusiasts, some of whom told me they had automobilia at home that they might like to have mounted for display.. All in all a pleasant and productive day.
So what else is there to say about Ireland? More castles, tower houses and manor houses. In the photos, they all look pretty much the same. We visited the Cliffs of Mohr on the Atlantic coast - if you have never been to the Pacific Coast they are remarkable, but I grew up on the Oregon Coast, so it was not so special. We visited a Work House where poor people were housed during the potato famine of the mid-1800's. Families who were housed there were separated, parents from children, men from women, boys from girls and put to work to support themselves, but not to compete with the local economy which was struggling also. We stopped at a cathedral ruin on our way back to Dublin which is reputed to be where St. Patrick preached. We learned some interesting facts about St. Pat. His official color is light blue [not green]. He has never been sainted. by the Church. He is actually an amalgamation of two or more missionaries who came to Ireland to spread Christianity in the fifth century. The name Patrick likely was derived from the Latin "Pater" (father) and was bestowed as an honorific for the Christian missionaries who came to Ireland after the withdrawal of the Romans from Britain. We ended our trip with two full days in Dublin. That was very cool. We went by the front of Guinness Brewery in St. James Gate, There is no tour of the brewery, just a museum open to the public. We did tour the first new distillery in Dublin in a century. We wandered through Temple Bar and toured Trinity College. Ate more Irish dishes. Sheppard's pie is good, but Irish stew is my favorite. So there you are. Ireland is the only place I have visited outside Oregon where I could imagine wanting to live. If Donald Trump is elected, that is where I am moving.
The banner photo is of Dunguaire Castle, modernized in 1642 by the mayor of Galway. Its original construction is apparently lost in the mists of time. Ireland may seem like England's poor cousins to us, but it has its own rich history going back to Roman times - although Rome did not actually get to Ireland, which was a mixed blessing. Since the native clans in Ireland were never conquered by the Roman legions, after the withdrawal of Rome from Britain, England had the benefit of Roman roads and infrastructure, whereas Ireland was still pretty much a wilderness. But eventually the Anglo-Normans invaded England's little neighbor to the west and medieval commerce and wealth - as well as rule - came to Ireland. England colonized the Emerald Isle nearly 500 years before Chris Columbus discovered the Americas. Vast land grants were made by the English monarch to both native Irish and to expat Anglos. English laws forbade the intermixing or intermarrying of English with the Irish, but those laws came too late and fell on deaf ears. An aristocracy grew up in medieval Ireland and mighty castles. churches and manner houses were built over the ensuing centuries. Two centuries after the improvements to Dunguaire Castle, a much larger and more elegant home was built near the town of Killarney in the Tudor style with sixty-five rooms. We rented a car (2016 Prius, it turned out) for our entire stay in Ireland and used it to travel from town to town. Except for the few motorways, or "carriageways" as the Irish call them, the "highways" from town to town are narrow, shoulder-less strips of asphalt. Like all English and former-English colonies, they drive on the left. The colors of the center and shoulder stripes are the reverse of our paint colors. In the towns, there is no traffic or parking enforcement, so people just stop their vehicles where they find it most convenient and other traffic must go around. Driving the Irish countryside is largely a white-knuckle exercise for a Yank. When in Dublin we used the "hop-on, hop-off" bus which gives a guided tour of the major city sights and allows you unlimited access for a 24 hour period. The Prius stayed parked for two whole days.
.Since the south coast was the earliest settled area of the island, it has lots of historic structures. Even the outer parts of the old city have ruins of the old fortifications. The above photos show large remnants of the 13th century city walls that still stand, surrounded by modern structures with the citizens walking by in pursuit of daily activities. Waterford is in the southeast of Ireland. Outside the immediate downtown areas the countryside is lush with vegetation, forests and lakes. This is much the case with the entire south part of the country. From here we went on to Killarney in the southwest corner. The boat ride took us across three separate lakes connected by streams that run through the Gap of Dunloe. That put us on the other side of the mountains from civilization, so to get back we rode in a horse-drawn "jaunting cart." The ride winds up a one-lane road that goes between two mountains and follows a stream down the other side to a pub where meals and refreshments are available and you are picked up by a bus for the return to town. The next installment will show photos of one of the several "tower houses" that we visited. The banner photo depicts it. Many fell into ruin after it became impractical to maintain such a family home, but now have become tourist attractions. They are great places to visit, but few of us would want to live in one.
In July Suzanne & I spent two weeks in Ireland...actually two weeks minus one day because we could not get off the ground at DFW on the appointed day due to a storm going through Chicago where we were to change plans for the trans-Atlantic flight. So we got out the next morning on a different airline, changed planes in New Jersey (after another weather delay) and got to Dublin a day late and one suitcase short. Suzanne's suitcase caught up with us the next day after we spent the day on foot in downtown Waterford. Suzanne had planned our itinerary and made reservations for all but two nights, which we left open on purpose so that we would have a little flexibility on where we went on our circuit of the Republic of Ireland. Ireland, like the USA, had to fight a revolution with England to gain their independence. That happened in the early twentieth century, but more on that later. The first real towns in Ireland were built by the Vikings. One of the early Viking settlements was Waterford. The oldest part of town is still referred to as The Viking Triangle - it was the original walled village. First walled with wood logs, then with stone walls. The ninth century Vikings built on a point where two rivers come to the sea on the south coast of Ireland. A wooden tower was built on the point at the edge of town. It was replaced in later centuries by a stone tower that still stands today and which we visited. The top-left photo shows the early Viking town with its wooden stockade and wooden tower.. In this view, the ocean is to the left and Reginald's Tower is on the point with the main stockade. Both the tower enclosure and the town were triangular shapes. Since it was the most substantial structure, it was where the chieftain lived and the records were kept - probably the first Tower Records. Waterford is believed to be the oldest area of continuous urban settlement in Ireland. Reginald's Tower marks the site of the first defensive structure built by the Viking settlers. The Tower is mentioned in the Irish Annals as early as 1088 thus making it the oldest civic building structure on the island. So you are by now wondering whether the world famous Waterford Crystal comes from Waterford, Ireland. Yes it does. In fact that was our very first visit after we arrived. I was surprised that the business, which was begun in 1783 in Waterford by two Czech immigrants, was entirely shut down for a century - from 1851 until 1947. So, there is no Waterford Crystal made during that period. Today the factory is American owned, although it is still very much a European business. I will try to enter some new pix and descriptions every few days. They will not be the same ones that Suzanne loaded to Facebook during our travels, although the subject matter will obviously overlap. So check back here every so often and I will try to make the narrative interesting.
Completion! Deciding the manner of illumination was not difficult. LED "bulbs" are too large and shine light in multiple directions. This ornament was designed with a relatively small opening at the base of the Lucite head such that light shines up into the rear of the head and is diffused out the front. The only LED solution is adhesive light strips with the LED buttons pointing up. I positioned two such strips side by side under the opening beneath the head and connected them in parallel to the power supply wire. The only difficulty was the matter of sealing the base of the ornament to the top of the wood block so that light does not leak out sideways. To solve that I put some brown door & window sealant on the underside of the ornament; when it dried I trimmed it to in effect become a gasket. Top, left is the completed project with the light off. Photos #2-5 show it with the light on. Photo six is the amber head removed from the metal housing, showing the hand-written notation, "GUTENECHT 2016". I would infer from this that the orange head insert is a reproduction, made in 2016. If so, it is an excellent copy. There is slight light-seepage around Chief Pontiac's head, but that is minimal and presumably occurred with the original. I applied a darker finish to the wood because of the darkness of the ornament caused by the wearing away of the chrome. A word about the original finish of the ornament. The two top photos were taken when the ornament arrived. Someone had tried to freshen the look of the piece by putting a coat of silver paint on it. Most of that had worn off. The two bottom photos are the ornament after stripping and polishing. The underlying metal is in quite good condition, with no serious corrosion or damage. The original chrome has worn down to the copper undercoating so that the underlying copper plate (a common practice in chroming pot-metal) shows through, giving a darker appearance than just chrome. Although this hood ornament would be a good candidate for rechrome, I would advise against it because that would eliminate the lovely patina that use and age have imparted. The classic car world has recently come to appreciate well-preserved and original pieces over fully restored ones. I think this piece looks terrific in its present state.
I have finished the oak block. The cracks and insect bore-holes have been filled with epoxy, the surfaces sanded and a coat of wax applied. I work primarily with wood that has come from felled trees from wild-fires, development or simply from natural causes. This means that a given piece will have cracks, bore-holes and sometimes spalting. Above are views of the .oak base after filling, sanding and waxing. Without the ornament in place and with. The next step will be to install the LED lighting and connect it to the power supply.
I have two candidates for the base of the 1953 Pontiac ornament. One is an oak block with slight spalting; the other is a pecan block with extensive spalting. "Spalting is any form of wood coloration caused by fungi. Although primarily found in dead trees, spalting can also occur in living trees under stress or even in thriving trees." (Wikipedia) I have roughed out the pecan block to fit the ornament. The pecan is still moist (which is what allows the spalting to occur) and slightly soft (which will require stabilization after it dries). The oak block is dry and firm. I will also cut the oak block to fit the ornament and then decide which to proceed with.
Below are the oak and pecan blocks, rough-cut to accept the client's 1953 Pontiac hood ornament. I like this oak piece for the project because it is now dry and stable, requiring only the filling of missing wood with epoxy. This is a process that I use on the majority of my works. It adds interest to the piece and makes the material whole again. Before the pecan can be used it will need to dry - a slow process that will likely take some weeks, even in the warming summer weather. Then it will have to be stabilized because it is generally softened from deterioration that has progressed beyond that in the oak. But it is usable and will show nicely when it is dried and stabilized.
Given that the oak is ready to go and the pecan isn't, I will proceed with the oak block. The pecan can be reshaped and used for another project when it is ready. |
CategoriesAuthorI am still trying new show venues to find those that provide the most effective exposure for my works. Archives
October 2020
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