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The weekly newspaper for Homer is aptly named The Homer News. This week’s edition had an article featuring Ted Heuer’s woodworking career.
You can read the article in its entirety here, courtesy of author Christina Whiting of the Homer News. Thank you, Christina, for featuring Ted in the news.
The Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival is an annual event each May in Homer, Alaska. In keeping with the “birding festivities” Ted designed and turned a collection of wooden shorebirds. We are now offering these little birds in our store – maybe they will flock to your home?
Turned Wooden Shorebirds
The first step is selecting a wood species with a lot of interesting grain and contrast. The correct wood will produce a turning that gives the appearance of wings and feathers. Our favorite woods for shorebirds are ambrosia maple, spalted maple, spalted beech, spalted birch, magnolia, and cherry.
Magnolia Turning Blanks
The second step is cutting the wood into rectangular blanks slightly larger than the finished bird. Ted turns each bird individually on his wood lathe – no patterns or templates are used – and basically “eyeballs” the shape. Some birds turn out to be slim. Others are on the portly side. As in nature, no two birds are ever exactly alike.
The third step is adding legs and bills. Ted uses ¼” dowels of birch or maple. The color of the dowel provides contrast to the bird body. Leg placement is tricky, and it all comes down to intuition and a few lucky guesses. Ted drills angled holes in the body for the legs and a hole in the head for the bill. All of Ted’s shorebirds are positioned as if they were feeding, as they need the tripod support of two legs and a bill for stability. But due to the angle of the legs, whether it be intuition or luck, no two birds are ever exactly alike.
Feeding Shorebird
The last step is applying finish. We use a durable Danish oil finish. Danish oil produces a satin sheen and repels dust and fingerprints. Ambrosia maple, spalted maple, spalted beech, spalted birch, and magnolia are all very porous woods and require as many as six or seven coats of finish. Each coat dries for 24 hours before the next is applied. These lightweight and porous woods act like a sponge and soak up what seems like their own weight in finish during coats one, two, and three. Cherry, which is a more closely-grained wood, soaks up less finish and requires only three coats. Applying finish requires some intuition, too. Apply one coat too many and you risk ending up with a slightly tacky surface. Experience tells you how many coats of finish are enough and know when to call it good. After the final coat has dried, we set the turned wooden shorebirds aside for a week or so to fully cure.
At the Finishing Station
We sell individual shorebirds in the store section of our site. The birds are listed by type of wood so you can select just the one you want, or mix and match to make your own flock.
A Flock
This has been a busy summer for Ted’s Woodshop. Our Homer summer has been unseasonably cool (downright cold) and rainy. The good news is that we haven’t run out of rain water for our gardens. The bad news is that, well, spring came late, summer hasn’t arrived, and it’s July already.
But we’ve been keeping busy in the shop. Ted spends a lot of his summer shop hours turning and finishing the items that are “best sellers” at Ptarmigan Arts Gallery and Diamond Ridge Art Studio on the Homer Spit. Ice cream scoops, pizza cutters, corkscrew bottle stoppers, pie and pizza servers, pens, cheese planes, and honey dippers all seem to fly off the shelves. Turning each item by hand, using no patterns or mechanically-aided guides, Ted juggles a lot of projects at once.
Check out our latest finished projects and a peek of what’s “in the works” by following us on Facebook and Instagram!
We spent considerable time in June getting ready for Ted’s July 7-9 solo show of camera trap photography at Ptarmigan Arts. We had a collection of turned wooden shorebirds, photo cards and prints, and metal prints available for sale. Ted was on hand to demonstrate his equipment and talk with visitors (many from out of town) about his photography hobby and living in Homer.
Camera Trap Photography Show
Turned Shorebirds
Ring-Necked Pheasant
In the last ten days we’ve sold four of Ted’s bowls. Some of these sales came through our online store and some through Ptarmigan Arts Gallery. “Southwest” and “Lucky 7” (both dizzy bowls), “A Little Rough Around the Edges” (a maple burl bowl), and an ambrosia maple bowl that I simply can’t recall — and why don’t we have a photo? — all have happy new homes.
“Southwest” Dizzy Bowl
“Lucky 7” Dizzy Bowl
“A Little Rough Around The Edges” Maple Burl Bowl
So while this continues to be a busy summer for Ted’s Woodshop, we’re always thinking ahead. The winter projects list includes “new bowls” and “fish trivets” and then who knows? There’s almost no limit to what you can do with some nice wood, a lathe, a finishing room, and boundless patience.
Ted’s Woodshop is a small woodworking business in Homer, Alaska. You may have noticed the bear and cub emblem, logo, and stickers that we affix to our work. We participate in the State of Alaska’s Made in Alaska permit program. We find that identifying our work as having been made in Alaska, by Alaskans, adds value to our product. Here’s what the program entails.
The State of Alaska’s Division of Community and Regional Affairs operates the Made in Alaska program. The program promotes products made, manufactured, or handcrafted in our state. As a program participant, one has to meet specific requirements. These include where the products are manufactured, by whom, and the source of the raw materials and resources used. In our case, we have two permits: one for woodworking and a separate permit for Ted’s camera trap photography. We renew our permits every year. Additionally, we pay an annual fee. Keeping our permits current entitles us to mark our work with the program’s emblem, signage, and stickers.
The official emblem of the program depicts a mother bear and cub. When you see that sticker, emblem, or logo on someone’s work, you know that you are supporting an Alaska business.
Whether you buy online, at a gallery or gift shop, at a Farmer’s Market, or in a retail establishment remember to look for the “Made in Alaska” emblem.
I have had an interest in photography since my grade school days. I also love wildlife and wild places. In fact, I spent a 30-year career working for the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Wildlife Refuge System. Beth (my wife) and I lived on a couple of refuges in the Lower 48. I spent the last 16 years of my career as the manager of the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge based out of Fairbanks, Alaska. This is the story of how I took up a new hobby — camera trap photography — here in Homer, Alaska.
Beth and I both got to see a lot of Alaska through our work and personal travels. When it came time to retire and leave Fairbanks we decided that the Homer area was where we wanted to live. We were fortunate to find a couple of adjoining lots in Kachemak City on the “bench” that had a good southern exposure for gardening — another of our hobbies. As part of an old hay field our lots offered a great resting/feeding spot for sandhill cranes. Our property also hosts the occasional flock of white-fronted geese and a surprising number of other wildlife species that pass through the area.
I had tried to get good sandhill crane photos for years with some limited success. Always in the back of my mind was that it would be neat to get the camera right down next to the cranes at their level or even lower. I started reading about camera trap photography and watching YouTube videos on camera traps.
Initially I bought a trail camera for about $100. Trail cameras have a passive infrared trigger that takes a picture when there is a change in the heat energy in front of the sensors, like an animal crossing in front of the camera. Unfortunately, that change in heat energy can also be due to the wind blowing leaves or grass in front of the sensors. Trail cameras are easy to set up. They work really well for documenting wildlife species that pass in front of the camera, including the date and time. They will even take short video clips.
I have hundreds of still images of cranes and pheasants taken with that little trail camera. However, I was never pleased with the quality of the pictures. Trail cameras have a very slow shutter speed (mine was 1/30th of a second) and a cheap lens that in theory is in focus from one meter to infinity. To get better quality pictures I wanted to use a DSLR for my camera trap.
After watching more online videos (especially one from Neil Jernigan called a “Photographers Guide to Camera Traps”) one point stuck with me. If you are going to leave a camera out in the open, unattended, subject to weather, animals, and possible vandalism you probably don’t want to invest in very expensive cameras and lenses. I purchased a brand new entry level Canon Rebel T6 with a kit lens, battery, charger, etc. for about $265. I looked at a lot of different types of triggers for camera traps before buying a very nice programmable passive infrared trigger from a company called Camtraptions in England. The wireless model I bought is about $200. Then I connected the Camtraptions trigger to my camera and set about learning to use my new equipment.
Using a camera trap is a lot different than the normal way of taking photos. A camera trap doesn’t try to perfectly compose a picture. It doesn’t strive to place the animal in the center of the frame. It doesn’t care if the animal is facing directly away from the camera. A camera trap doesn’t care if the animal is only partially in the view finder. Often it’s the wrong part of the animal in the view finder. It doesn’t care about the position of the sun or whether or not a cloud is passing over. A camera trap doesn’t care if the subject is in focus or how far the animal is from the lens. These are all things that the photographer has to consider when they are setting up the camera.
Since I set my camera on manual and focus on a spot where I think (hope) the animal is likely to be, I use a small aperture to give me more depth of field. My preference is to only set my camera out on sunny days, use a wide-angle lens, a fast shutter speed, and the small aperture. Even so, it’s not unusual for me to go through 700 or more images per session to get a half dozen decent photos. If I’m lucky I get one or two good ones — something I couldn’t afford to do back in the days of using film cameras.
There is something about getting up close and personal to animals with a wide-angle lens and a small aperture to get a lot of depth that brings a different perspective to wildlife photography. I hope you enjoy looking at these images half as much as I enjoyed taking them.
The 5×7″ cards available in the Store are printed by Bay Photo in Scotts Valley, CA. Each card comes with a standard white envelope. The cards are printed with a 6-color printing process, the best press-printed card process available, and are suitable for framing.
The cards in Card Sets 1-6 are available for purchase in any combination you wish. Email me at ted@tedswoodshop.com with your custom selection, and we will be happy to invoice you.
We also offer 5×7″ prints, with acid-free matting and backing, that are sized for 8×10″ frames.
Metal, wood, or acrylic prints up to 12 x 18 inches (maybe larger) are available for shipment directly to you from Bay Photo. Contact me for pricing if you are interested.
The summer challenge at Ted’s Woodshop is “keeping up” – keeping up with shop production, our responsibilities as members of our local artist cooperative gallery, and mowing/gardening/harvesting. Considering the challenges of the past year, we are grateful to have several Homer venues for selling our work. And in these uncertain times, we are grateful to have customers who shop with us through our online store.
Ted enjoys creating custom items for customers based on their special requests and preferences. Over the past few months he filled orders for a color-themed pizza cutter, a set of spiral pepper and salt mills, a matched set of mills, and stave pepper mill with matching salt shaker. The spiral mill set shown below is unique in that the design in each mill spirals in the opposite direction.
Spiral Mill Set
The stave pepper mill and matching salt shaker were challenging because the thin contrast pieces were made up of three thin strips, not just one.
Walnut and Maple Stave Mill and Shaker
It has been our pleasure and privilege to support the efforts of Loving Hearts 4 Paws, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides financial assistance to those who face catastrophic veterinary bills. This excellent organization, which typically has several online auctions throughout the year, has supporters across the country and has helped many pets and their families over the years. Although the organization’s hard-working founders are taking a temporary but well-deserved break right now, we are looking forward to 2022, when we will once again donate an “I Love My Dog” pen (or several) to support the cause.
“I Love My Dog” Pens
While summer in Homer is anything but hot … Ted has been spending more hours than usual keeping up with Ted’s Woodshop demand. Some of our best sellers this summer include cheese planes, honey dippers, Homer fish trivets, pens, ice cream scoops, and — surprisingly — Christmas ornaments.
Cheese Planes and Ice Cream Scoops
Stainless steel honey dippers are a new item for 2021. Ted uses yellow and black SpectraPly and adds a maple “stinger” to the tip.
Honey Dippers
Why did it take us so long to discover out that ornaments sell well in the summer? They are lightweight but sturdy and easy to pack. And we’ve been told that they make good gifts.
Ornaments
Thanks for reading our article. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram to learn more about what’s going on at Ted’s Woodshop.
Ted Heuer’s article titled “Turn a Ship’s Wheel Clock” was published as a feature article in the February 2021 issue of American Woodturner.
The article in its entirety can be accessed from this link: Turn a Ship’s Wheel Clock and is reprinted by permission of the American Association of Woodturners.
A client contacted me recently about a special order salt and pepper mill set. She was interested in my “dizzy mill” design. I adapted my process in creating a spiral mill set using walnut, maple, and cherry — woods that will complement the color theme in her home.
I laminated (glued) five identical boards that were 3″ wide, 13″ long, and 3/4″ thick. Using my bandsaw, I cut those boards in half to create 10 identical boards about 3/8″ thick.
Next I cut those 10 boards into 40 3-inch sections.
I found the exact center point of each section and drilled a 7mm hole all the way through. I inserted a 1/4″ dowel vertically into a piece of scrap plywood, which I had covered with packaging tape to keep glue from sticking to it. The holes in the center of the sections and the dowel kept the sections aligned correctly when I glued them together into turning blanks.
As I glued the sections together, I spiraled one clockwise and one counter-clockwise. This step in creating a spiral mill set is where I tweaked my dizzy mill process — otherwise, I would have ended up with two identical mills.
I moved to my wood lathe and rounded the blanks into cylindrical shapes. I then drilled a 1-5/8″ diameter hole about 1/2″ deep in the bottom of each blank and a 1-1/16″ hole all the way through. That hollowed out the blanks and made space for the grinding mechanisms.
Starting with the cylindrical blocks, I turned two matching mills.
I selected figured maple and figured walnut for the mill tops. Turning the tops was the final step with the lathe.
I applied a wipe-on gloss polyurethane on the spiral mill set, 14 separate coats in all. Between each coat, I hand-sanded the finish. The last step was to install the salt and pepper grinding mechanisms. The salt mechanism is ceramic and will not corrode.
I have one dizzy mill available online and am available for custom orders. Feel free to contact me. You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram.
I have been uncharacteristically quiet for a year. So many reasons. The sadness of watching my mother struggle through the final months of her life, tempered by the gift of being there until the end. Ted holding down the fort at home so that I could be with her and with my sister. As the lockdowns and travel restrictions increased, I found myself thousands of miles from home, uncertain as to when or how I would get back. Through it all, Ted took solace in turning wood in a world turned upside down. The resulting creations inspire joy and optimism for better days ahead.
The cooperative gallery in which we are members, Ptarmigan Arts Gallery, closed under mandate in the spring. It re-opened during the summer with limited hours and days of operation. Ted and fellow woodturner George Overpeck had planned for over a year to have a month-long exhibit at the gallery during July. Ted focused his attention on creating new turnings in the hope that the gallery could re-open. He spent months working on new dizzy bowls and lidded segmented spheres for the show. He completed a collection of stave pepper mills, wine goblets, and ornaments in between working on the complicated bowls.
“Cosmic Spiral” and “Cornucopia” Dizzy Bowls
Ted and George named their show “The Fruits of Distancing” — showcasing the results of time and talent invested while hunkering down.
“The Fruits of Distancing” Show
Normally by the week before Thanksgiving we are knee-deep in finishing up and packing items for two large holiday craft fairs. Those fairs have been a staple for us since 2008. Not this year. Fair sponsors cancelled both shows for 2020. We were relieved from the standpoint of personal safety. We were also relieved to not have to build up stock of the smaller items that typically sell so well at the fairs. There will be other years for holiday fairs. This unexpected but not unwelcome turn of events allowed Ted to focus on custom orders requested by clients. He enjoys the challenge of designing and creating the perfect item based on input from a client, but that takes time. And time is one thing we had this year.
“Balance” and “Tiger Eyes” Segmented Spheres
Ptarmigan Arts gallery closed temporarily in late October as a way to keep our members who take turns working as cashier safe. Covid cases continue to rise in our little community. The gallery has a plan to be open for the holiday shopping season, with Covid mitigation procedures in place, and we are looking forward to helping customers shop for gifts. Even so, like many of our artist friends, we are now working within a virtual world with a medium that begs to be picked up, examined, and touched. Zoom meetings, operating an online store – it’s been a challenge. We spent the last few weeks adding almost 50 new items to our Ted’s Woodshop website store and actively posting to our Facebook and Instagram pages. We hope you’ll visit us online and on social media and help us make our virtual presence better known.
My mother’s advice in this world turned upside down would be: “Wear your mask. Wash your hands. Put other people first. Make good decisions. Be responsible.”
Indeed. And Ted will keep turning wood in a world turned upside down.
Recently I’ve been making a number of segmented spheres. For my most recent, I took photos to demonstrate the process of turning a segmented sphere.
First I decide how large I want the sphere to be — this one is a little over 8 inches in diameter, about the size of a volleyball. I decide how deep I want the rings to be and how many segments I want in each ring.
I use a software application named “Segmented Project Planner” to determine the edge length of the segments in each ring.
Graph paper is useful when I plan out my design. I used figured maple, cherry, walnut, and bloodwood for this sphere.
This sphere has 36 segments per ring, and 22 rings, but the pattern in each ring repeats after 18 segments. So for this design, I only used 18 squares of graph paper.
I use my table saw and a shop-made miter jig to cut the segments for the rings.
After the segments are cut, I place the segments in the correct order on masking tape to keep them together while I glue them.
I squirt some Titebond III between the segments and use a large hose clamp to keep them snug while they dry.
When gluing the rings together, which I do one at a time, I use my tailstock and a flat spacer to keep pressure on the ring being glued.
Turning a segmented sphere begins before I have all the rings glued in place. I find it easiest to start turning the sphere, especially the inside, before too many rings are glued on and the top access gets too narrow.
Here I’m sizing the lid.
Here I am working on part of the base.
And here’s the final sphere. The pattern reminded me of strings of DNA, so I named it Double Helix.
Another of my segmented spheres named “Balance” is available in our online store here.