This is the place to share pictures, videos, poetry, short stories.....whatever you do that makes you proud.  It could be pictures of your family, gradkids, pets.  Just share your pride with us.

I grow tomatoes...these are from a few years ago but I just planted this years crop.

I do woodworking:

Jane, I love your tomatoes! I love home grown produce

Love the tomatoes and the woodworking!

I make porcelain dolls







And other things

Kath, your porcelain dolls are awesome!

Thank you Shawn! They are reproductions of the French and German dolls from the late 1800's early 1900's.  My kiln and molds are in storage now, but my dream is to have a place where I can set them up and work on them again.  One day....

Originally Posted by Kath Smith Fairbanks:
Thank you Shawn! They are reproductions of the French and German dolls from the late 1800's early 1900's.  My kiln and molds are in storage now, but my dream is to have a place where I can set them up and work on them again.  One day....

Wow, you really do make them from scratch! I used to work in a ceramic factory so I can guess there's more to it than just mixing up puddy and baking it, and your results are so beautiful. I can see them being very much a collectable.

I can relate to dreams. I'd love to build a bigger workshop. And so long as we have dreams, the arts still live

I love to make them. ;-)  But there is more to it than one might think.  The glass eyes alone can cost from $60 to $100 and when you fire the porcelain, it shrinks by around 20% so you have to use your best guess whether or not the eyes you purchased are going to fit correctly once everything is fired. Porcelain can be finicky. The paint colors also fire less brilliantly than when you paint them on, so that is another guessing game.  Each doll is unique because of those factors.  Thank you for appreciating them!

LOL....Shawn.  To say you do woodworking is an understatement.  I've always wanted to learn but got sidetracked by having kids.  You really have made some beautiful things.  Is it your living or your bliss?   Are you always working on something?

Kath, your dolls are absolutely beautiful.  How long does it take to make one?

Originally Posted by Jane Jackson:
LOL....Shawn.  To say you do woodworking is an understatement.  I've always wanted to learn but got sidetracked by having kids.  You really have made some beautiful things.  Is it your living or your bliss?   Are you always working on something?

Kath, your dolls are absolutely beautiful.  How long does it take to make one?

I love the finish on the wood too! Beautiful!  I've always wanted to try woodworking.  

It takes a couple of weeks to finish a doll if everything comes together right.  They are 24 to 30 inches tall.  They are expensive to make with the right materials.  Sigh. I wish I was making them now.

Originally Posted by Kath Smith Fairbanks:
I love to make them. ;-)  But there is more to it than one might think.  The glass eyes alone can cost from $60 to $100 and when you fire the porcelain, it shrinks by around 20% so you have to use your best guess whether or not the eyes you purchased are going to fit correctly once everything is fired. Porcelain can be finicky. The paint colors also fire less brilliantly than when you paint them on, so that is another guessing game.  Each doll is unique because of those factors.  Thank you for appreciating them!

When I first started at the Ceramic Factory many years ago and heard that the top boss (sounds gangster like, lol) had a doctorate in Ceramics, I remember thinking "Why? What's so hard to understand about clay?" Well, in no time I learned that it's a very complex field. So I can certainly appreciate all that you said. I was gunna ask about the cost, I figured it wouldn't be an inexpensive hobby. I was curious about how you power your kiln? Is it gas driven? I never got to see the gas bills the factory paid, but I'm sure they were higher than I might have imagined. But in all that guesswork, I think your finished product shows a great deal of excellence.

Originally Posted by Jane Jackson:
LOL....Shawn.  To say you do woodworking is an understatement.  I've always wanted to learn but got sidetracked by having kids.  You really have made some beautiful things.  Is it your living or your bliss?   Are you always working on something?

Kath, your dolls are absolutely beautiful.  How long does it take to make one?

Awwww thanks Jane

I basically started my ongoing interest in 97ish when I bought my house. There were some minor things I really needed and because of the sizes they needed to be, it seemed to make more sense to build them then waste a whole lot of time trying to find something that I'd only end up making due with. At first I lacked all the major tools to build things right. But after I finally made that large investment in the necessary bigger hardware, then the hobby took off. I'm gunna have to probably take another pic of my wall-sized book case because the ones I've found in my archives just don't seem to do it justice so I didn't include that in my first post.

Anywho, it's purely hobby. I've had many requests, but time and experience in the computer programming field left me jaded about taking something I loved and putting myself 'to work' for someone else doing it. So I felt it best to keep woodworking a hobby until I had built everything I actually needed. And now, frustratingly so, I'm out of wall space to build new things, lol. So my plans now are to begin replacing every Sauder (store-bought press-board things) piece with actual wood. I have built some things as gifts for people though. One example was the miniature dresser I included above. But it's not something I do regularly because my workshop isn't heated so it's a late spring to early fall thing

Originally Posted by Kath Smith Fairbanks:

Originally Posted by Jane Jackson:
LOL....Shawn.  To say you do woodworking is an understatement.  I've always wanted to learn but got sidetracked by having kids.  You really have made some beautiful things.  Is it your living or your bliss?   Are you always working on something?

Kath, your dolls are absolutely beautiful.  How long does it take to make one?

I love the finish on the wood too! Beautiful!  I've always wanted to try woodworking.  

It takes a couple of weeks to finish a doll if everything comes together right.  They are 24 to 30 inches tall.  They are expensive to make with the right materials.  Sigh. I wish I was making them now.

I know, some hobbies can be really very expensive. One thing I've always not budged on though is trying to save money by using cheaper things. I know I'd never truly be satisfied and I'd be disappointed with myself in the end.

The finish is a red mahogany stain with polyurethane finish. But my ex chose the blue paint color on the walls behind my projects and the two colors clash bigtime, lol. Actually, my house has a LOT of plaster in it and I'd like to remove that and actually replace all that with a more rustic tongue and groove board look. But that's what I like, and I'm not sure how it'd effect the resale value of this house.

Originally Posted by Jane Jackson:
This is the place to share pictures, videos, poetry, short stories.....whatever you do that makes you proud.  It could be pictures of your family, gradkids, pets.  Just share your pride with us.

I grow tomatoes...these are from a few years ago but I just planted this years crop.

I see a great Pasta sauce in that...

Originally Posted by Shawn Ishness:
I do woodworking:

Wow...amazing work!