Performance is  equal to your Attitude times your Talent

P = A x T x K

Performance is equal to your Attitude times your Talent times your Knowledge

P = A x T x K

Your PAY is equal to your Attitude times your Talent times your Knowledge

Well, the troops have completed their first class (of nine) as this is the last day of this Color Theory class. The first half of this class was time spent on a number of color mixing exercises, the second half was devoted to matching the color samples that I produced for them. I was very pleased with the outcome of this class and their abilities to use the language of the artist. When a color match was not going well, they would speak the language to each other and with me to problem solve. Excellent.

Education in action.

Using only eight colors were used to match those colors. All of the unused stains were to be put into a quart container we will call the “sludge bucket”. Normally this material is destined to be hazordous waste and is paid to be hauled away. Not here………

“stain sludge” container

For their last board to color match, unknown to them, I used the stain from the “sludge” container. For their grade they had to match the color and also provide the formula they used. A number of “A” grades were earned.

With that completed, the next hurdle was to find a chair in the shop and match the color of the splat back.

Here’s Tom working on matching color

Another student, Casey, matched his splat back rather quickly, so I instructed him to repeat the color match. But he had to use the stain in the sludge bucket as the main base to begin his color match. In other words, use the “waste” stain to begin and end the color match. He applied the “waste” stain on his plywood, modified it with his color kit, sealed the plywood, and then modified the “waist” stain for a glazing technique. All of this was performed in less than 30 minutes.

Casey color matching the color on this chair

Good job troops. Tomorrow we continue on with your color knowledge performing Spot Repair on damaged wood.

This is only our second day back and we are in the lab putting theory to practical application. Day one was introductions and then right into what is involved with the coloring of wood. My goal for this portion of the program is to help them understand how to mix colors together to achieve a one step coloring system on raw wood. Later on we will use this information to use multi-step coloring systems to create custom colors or to match the color of an object that is brought to us to match.

We have many weeks ahead full of intense learning and I will try and keep you up to-date on where we are at.

Carry on,

Mitch

Creating color from scratch

Students creating colors from scratch

Carry on,

Mitch

The Wizard behind the curtain………..  Michelle Veit

Graduation!

Because Wood Finishing starts with a “W” it 1) means we’re awesome but also 2) means that we’re last in line for graduation.  So we had to wait for just a bit. Like an hour. But that’s ok because we had Dave, Ben and Rick (three rule breakers who managed to get in the “graduates only space”) to chat with us.  Here’s your VIP access to backstage at graduation!

Graduates!

Dave's face means this is the picture I leave you all with.

So now I really AM signing off.  It was a pleasure to be your blog master!  Goodbye!  Adios! Cheerio! Yavakh tsag bolchikhood baina! (That’s Mongolian – I thought I’d throw it in)

And my usual farewell parting to everyone:

Toodles!

We had quite a year! Day one we all met each other – went around the room introducing ourselves and telling everyone why we were here.  Some of our stories have stayed the same and some have changed – only for the better though!

A HUGE thanks to Mitch for such a great school year.  His patience and willingness to share knowledge, and his dedication to our education and continued success knows no bounds.  His connections to places and people makes for such a unique and well rounded education.  Thank you, Mitch!

On the last day of class after everything is cleaned, everyone “signs the tube.”  “The tube” is actually a vent that, since 1989, classes have decorated and signed.  (I have pictures of early signings but they’re on my computer that’s packed in my car. Under baskets of clothes and furniture. So you’ll have to wait on that.)

Caroline just put the finishing "2012" touch on the tube. Now onto signing!

A heart added for good measure.

The last signature.

A beautiful tube indeed!

The class of 2012!

Thanks to Mitch for letting me be the blog master!  I hope you’ve all enjoyed reading and experiencing what we’ve been doing the past 9 months.  Hopefully it’s shed some light into the awesome that is the Wood Finishing program, as well as bring back some memories for past grads and answer some questions for “wannabe” grads.  Good luck out there!

1) A “maverick” chair ie. a chair that doesn’t need to match any other chair or table.  Abilities to pilot an F-14 with Goose is a plus.

2) A table and 4 – 6 chairs. All have to match.

Plus anything else we want to throw in.  For example, we have some guitars, desks, misc. tables, etc. being worked on around the shop.

You might also remember that instead of a normal 3 week long class, this last class is 6 weeks long.  WE HAVE 3 DAYS LEFT.  How crazy is that?

There’s not much to talk about as you have a jist of what we’re doing, so I thought I’d show a bit of what everyone is working on.  Although I didn’t get each person to pose next to their projects, I made sure to get a picture of (at least) one piece that each person is refinishing.  My only regret is that I didn’t get before pictures! So you’ll just have to imagine this furniture being scratched, missing pieces, showing previous repairs, missing veneer, having water stains…every bad thing you can think of.  Then be amazed at the finishes we’ve produced!

Some of these projects are still in progress. Get ready for lots of pictures!

Goodness! And that’s only some of the pieces. There’s even more that I didn’t show you.

Pretty good, right? We’ve certainly come a long way in 9 months.

The sander also came out with an optional vacuum – it supports different power levels, additional hoses and other attachments. So naturally we have to inspect it thoroughly.

Afterwards we took a raking light and some stain to the freshly sanded board to see if it left any marks.  It came off pretty clean!

Applying the stain

And looking for marks!

He managed to give us a great amount of information in about an hour and a half…as opposed to the usual 5 hour lecture he gives.

Things that were covered included:

How to properly store and label hazardous waste (we got to see pictures of good and bad examples).

How to categorize your waste and then take care of it accordingly.

How you can transport hazardous waste.

Programs set up in Dakota County to help businesses with their hazardous waste.

Etc. We ended up asking a lots of questions too.

It was very informative and although some of us won’t be living in Dakota County, his slideshow gave us some great guidelines to follow.

Thanks for visiting, Dave!

Here’s some pictures of us doing our thing.

As you can see from the pictures, we’re doing a variety of things.  Regluing, stripping finish, putting on new finish, sanding, making parts, color matching, spraying… All of those previous classes and assignments are coming together for a furniture finale!