Wine season 2011/2012 oficially closed!

Hello! Who said this blog is only about woodworking ? I'm afraid it was me who did that :) But, it's high time to change it.

Sorry in advance for the photos. They were taken by a mobile phone, because I didn't have any other camera when I was at my grandparent's today.

Last year, exactly in October, Julia and I (with a big help of my grand grandmother, yes, I still have grand grandmother) collected a lot of grapes from my grandparent's garden. It really grows twisting around the trees there, hangs like lianas over paths and it's creepers are so old that they are covered with bark. It makes the garden look amazing. I really liked the time I spent there harvesting fruits and I suppose Julia liked it as well.
We picked about 30 kg of grapes and then filled two big wine bulbs (I don't know how do you call it - a big bottle for wine-makers) with grape juice - the ancestor of our wine ^^
It really has been working since November, this wine was really 10 months old before bottling, that's amazing how sweet the grapes are that the wine needed so much time to calm down.

And, here they are. 30 bottles of 2012 red wine from Gran'papa Dzwończyk 'vineyard'.
In the photos you can see 6 bottles with red marks on the labels - that means the are yeast-free and ready to drink (I've bottled them two or three months ago); 24 bottles of the wine - made with a little help of wine-yeast; and two bottles of something I called black wine - bottled liquid from the bottom of the 'bulb', a suspension full of yeast, remnants of grapes and so one.

That's it, now they need to mature in a dark and calm place to get more tasty and less pungent.

I should thank Julia for designing and making the labels. They look really beautiful and make the bottles look much more elegant and professional. Thank you, Julia!

Step two.

  As I promised, I attach some photos and description of the step-stools I've already made.

  They are made of pale oak. Hand shaped and hand sanded. The concaves in the legs were firts cut with a handsaw, then roughly shaped with a rasp to be finally symmetrically cut by a router with a flush-trimming bit and a template. I wish I've done it fully by hand, but there's always a problem with symmetry when cutting in curved line. But, the seat was totally shaped by a handplane, I made it slightly rounded and sunken for extra comfort when used.

  I think I should write more about the design. I saw the original stool when Julia's mom used it in their garden. I liked it very much and managed to make my own. That step-stool was really rough and old, it was one of those which had been used in Polish households in XIX and XX century for peeling potatoes and any other house chores. On top of that, Julia's stool was really not-so-well looking, after those years it needed extra support for legs not to collapse. So, I realised I can make one especially for Julia and her mom. That's how it started. 

  It's dimensions and outline (basic design) are similar to those of the previous stool. Made of five parts, nothing complicated. And that made me even more creative, having to make a simple thing not simple and unique. If you read my blog, you know that I hate nails, and more than nails I hate screws. The stool is assembled only with beech dowels, which keep it really sturdy and tightly. No glue, no metal.

Then I made another one for our shop on Etsy. Dark rustic one, antiqued by using my simple secret method. Enjoy!

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Harvesting fruits.

Hello! Finally, I have photos of my little cabinet, still unfinished, but there's only one step to do. This description will be short and informative.
I've installed a couple of stretchers which support six drawers and their rails. The stretchers and rails are made of oak, hardwood to allow drawers to slide smoothly. That's really important thing when making drawers and their supports. In my last cabinet I, as my woodworking knowledge just started to crawl, made the rails of balsa, I had some little 'sticks' so I managed to use them there. It was the softest wood I could ever use, that's why they don't really slide well. But hey, now I know!

Up there is a snap of the cabinet top finished and waxed. You won't see how polished it is, but you can admire the beauty of wood I used for it. It's really great and it's still the most representative part of the cabinet. Until...

Yep. Until I finish sanding and waxing the drawers, which combined together build a next pattern of the wood grain. The design of the drawers is similar to the one used in the previous cabinet. Grooves fitting solid rails, great for small drawers like those. Bottoms of the drawers are not glued, just loose fit in grooves I made in the sides. Aha, and they are made of striped pine wood. Beautiful, istn't it ?

Last step: sanding the drawers' fronts and applying finish to them.

Then you will find the cabinet on Etsy. Stay tuned!

Something different

I don't feel like a painter or even sketcher. What's more I'd feel more convenient as a drawer in a desk than the one behind it. But sometimes it just comes to me and I have to make a use of it. And here, 'it' is for an inspiration.