2 more maps finished

[Smallpatch]

 

 

I think I will let the moms and dads worry about teaching them where the other two lessor states are!!.

  Gloss and glitter used on the states and satin used over the acrylic paint  around the states.

The glitter shows up more than the picture shows......

[Gene Howe]

Two more nice ones. Keep this up and Rand McNally will want to hire you.

[Gerald]

Boy and Girl I presume. That was fast

[Smallpatch]

Gerald I didn't even think the red and blue were for b and g. Its just that I have more red and blue stains. Every thing that I have stained red in the last 15 years has come from 1 quart of red dye stain. That's how potent this stuff is. A strange way I bought 7 quarts of the dye stain back then.. I was looking for a certain brand of Lacquer I use to use when I had my furniture shop in Lubbock back in the sixties.....This was a Benjamin Moore Paint store I went in and they said nope never heard of it...well then what kind of dye stain do you carry. None at the moment but the corporate office wants us to start giving classes on staining and finishing wood and they have sent us some die stain and supplies to use in the teaching classes but no one here knows nothing about wood finishing so this stain is just sitting there...So I got a good bargain on that stuff. So every thing I been building that needed staining has come from those 7 quarts of different color stains...I never use a oil base stain like minwax. And I have no  idea what formula minwax is now. And those small bottles of water base colors I just bought from Michaels three of four weeks ago is the first I have used of that kind of stuff...I use to use kids water colors for the state maps I started building maybe 15 to 19 years ago. This works good and is cheap and it doesn't take much for each state but is time consuming wetting the colors and melting enough to stain with. The stuff from Michaels I just squeeze out a little on the wood after shaking it and it is fast and not much mess to clean up after I am through. I only use 1 very small brush and then have to rinse it out for each color... and thinking for young kids they don't care for wood colors.....

[Cal]

Very cool projects Jess.  The blue one gives the impression that the U.S. is an island...

[Gerald]

On 5/23/2019 at 5:44 PM, Smallpatch said:

The stuff from Michaels I just squeeze out a little on the wood after shaking it and it is fast and not much mess to clean up after I am through. I only use 1 very small brush and then have to rinse it out for each color... and thinking for young kids they don't care for wood colors.....

I tried water based colors in Trans Fast and just could not get the concentration I wanted. Now Turners are using many brands of alcohol based stains (dye) . I have been using Chestnut Stains

Craft Supplies is one source.

 

Another brand is by Chromacraft and I have some of it and works well. This is the home site but available other places.

 

New to me is Hampshire Sheen . Wood World of Texas has it and also have Chestnut.

[DuckSoup]

 A lot of color on those maps Jess, look good.

Nice looking bells @Gerald.

[Gene Howe]

I've never tried it but, some folks say concentrated un sweetened Kool Aid works, too. Bet it raises the grain, though. Wonder if it mixes with alcohol? Something else to try. 

[Smallpatch]

  Any water base color will raise the grain if flooded on and left there for a while.. Most of the time I smear the color on and then right quick I dry it off not giving it time to raise anything.... best way for me to leave the grain of the wood showing... Its hard to see the actual color after I added lots of glitter for me and the young folks. Also using maple wood does not raise the grain as bad as if I were coloring pine or any other wood not called hard wood. 

  I still have some boot and shoe dye which use to be easily bought but anything that smells bad the govt. made them stop making...

  I  remember when the govt had the makers of red dye like what was being used in kool aid and other things to stop making that formula for it was causing cancer.

  The govt does okay lots of things that causes people to die like cars and planes and boats and ice picks and forks and ropes and car tires and cell phones and tractors and the list goes on and on like babies and just people in general for they are whats causing lots of people to die all the time.... and it just seems like society wants to blame other folks so the lawyers can get in on the money end of it.

 

[Gene Howe]

Most of that stuff doesn't kill people. It's the idiots that don't know how to use it that are to blame. Because of lawyers, they've idiot proofed so many things so as to make t hem nearly unuseable.

[Gerald]

8 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

 Also using maple wood does not raise the grain as bad as if I were coloring pine or any other wood not called hard wood. 

 

That is why I like the alcohol based colors , no grain raising.

Red #2 was discovered to cause cancer in believe it or not a Russian study in 1971. In 1976 FDA banned it for human consumption. This was not the red in M&Ms but because of consumer confusion or misinformation RED M&Ms were removed until 1986.

[Cal]

21 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

some folks say concentrated un sweetened Kool Aid works, too

 

21 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

Wonder if it mixes with alcohol?

 

Sounds like a waste of a good grain alcohol to me Gene... let us know if you try it out.

Wait a minute, were you talking about a drink or something about woodworking?

[John Morris]

First off, thanks Jess for sharing the mapping adventure, I like the series.

I have a question, I noticed Texas got a ton of glitter, what are trying to tell us Jess?

[Smallpatch]

John I'm thinking lots of Calif folks have found the taxes here are easier to handle. Plus it seems like lots of foreign people have chosen to make Calif their new home but it also seems like lots of those people are trying to change America into what the countries were like that they escaped from.

  Another thought...Next time you stop to get gas or are in a store shopping, just politely try to start a conversation.  Then if you ever drive through Lubbock or Odessa or here in Breckenridge, Tx try to start that same conversation with any one from those three towns I mentioned. Especially people say are 50 or older and have lived in this area all their lives...you better have lots of extra time on your hands cause most of the time they will talk your head off!

  I do this all the time and in cities like Ft Worth or Dallas they will never turn and face you and certainly won't say anything...

[Gene Howe]

Went to the mail box yesterday. Ours is among a row of about 30 because the road to our homes is too rough for the PO vehicles. Anyhow, Mr. Miller, the first guy to build out here in the late 60s, was getting his mail. We had a nice long conversation. Three others stopped by and joined in. That just doesn't happen in Phoenix.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Gene Howe

[John Morris]

3 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

John I'm thinking lots of Calif folks have found the taxes here are easier to handle. Plus it seems like lots of foreign people have chosen to make Calif their new home but it also seems like lots of those people are trying to change America into what the countries were like that they escaped from.

  Another thought...Next time you stop to get gas or are in a store shopping, just politely try to start a conversation.  Then if you ever drive through Lubbock or Odessa or here in Breckenridge, Tx try to start that same conversation with any one from those three towns I mentioned. Especially people say are 50 or older and have lived in this area all their lives...you better have lots of extra time on your hands cause most of the time they will talk your head off!

  I do this all the time and in cities like Ft Worth or Dallas they will never turn and face you and certainly won't say anything...

Amen to all you said Jess, spoken truth, all of it. Just a quick comment, and a general one, in California we don't even know our neighbors, barely, not anymore, I used to know all them, we had block parties, we let our kids run to each-others home and just sit down for dinner, we all a big family looking both ways down the street. Now I can't even communicate with many of my neighbors, I have tried, but it's really sad, we are a world apart from each other.

Quite the opposite in Mt. Pleasant Utah where my Army buddy and his family lived, we'd visit them, it's a small town, it's just like you stated Jess, the warmth, the closeness, the friendliness, I felt like I came back home when I visited a place I had never been too, I didn't want to leave.

[Gene Howe]

Too bad. I guess "neighbor" just means someone who lives close. Around here, a neighbor might be a half mile away. But, friends, nonetheless. Maybe, if they lived closer, we wouldn't be friends. Thankfully, we'll never be able to test that.