Building a Ping Pong table

I used two sheets of 1/2 Baltic birch plywood to build this Ping-pong table. Baltic birch plywood is a good choice because it is sold in 5 x 5 sheets.

Hang a grid painting with the French cleat system

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Make an Encaustic grid painting

Click the link to see how I made this encaustic grid painting with  the new Encaustic Boards by Ampersand 

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Make a smooth surface with Encaustic paint

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I’m in the middle of making a grid painting. The painting will be made up of 25 encaustic color blocks. This painting is designed to hang on what is known as a French cleat system, which ensures that the painting will hang level. Because each painting is hung individually, it is also possible to change the arrangement of the panels in the painting, which would in turn change the painting as a whole.

I was recently listening to a Charlie Rose interview with the painter Damian Herst. They were discussing Herst’s most recent work, “The Polka-Dots.” As you may know, Mr. Herst does not paint his own pictures, and the only exceptions he gives to his assistants that do the painting is to not have two of the same color next to each other, and have the colors be chosen at random. Herst merely acknowledged one of his assistants when they pointed out that it would be more random to actually have two dots of the same color next to each other.  That comment, got me thinking, and I designed this painting, to give the viewer control of the of the color placement, working within guidelines  set  by me.

Tips on Designing & installing chair rail and panel molding

I just finished making a scale model for a chair rail and panel molding project, that I will be installing in a few weeks. to see the video I made on this project, click on the link.

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Art Commissions and special projects

A few weeks ago a client asked me if I could make a painting with seagulls. At first I was a little reluctant, but now I am really happy with the results. the painting is acrylic and aluminum leaf on 140 lib hot pressed Arches paper.

If you would like to learn how to use aluminum leaf, click the link to see a video where I guild a frame, it's basically the same process.

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Use Frog Tape to make graphic art

I started Using Frog Tape to tape out my painting on paper, and It works really good.

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Truss system for shed, barn or tiny house

I’m build a tool shed for my lawn mower and garden equipment.  Most of the building practices can also be applied when building a tiny House.

In this video I build the truss system for my shed, I decided to build the trusses before the wall because I wanted to use the shed platform / foundation for a level surface to design and build the truss system.

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Shed, tiny house, barn foundation / platform

I’m building a new storage shed for my lawn mower and gardening tools.  I’ve noticed that most sheds tend to rot from the bottom up and are often home to ground hogs and skunks.  Because of these issues I’m taking a little more time and effort to prevent that from happening to this shed.  Hope you find this video helpful

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 Material and cut list for this 10’ x 16’ shed foundation / platform

Material list

  2  - 2x6 x 16’ = ledger boards    pressure treated

13  - 2x6 x 10’ = floor joist      pressure treated

 1   - 2x6 x   8’ = for building up the corners   pressure treated

 4   - 2x4 x 10’ =  for building up the corners and the framing for the apron    pressure treated

 1   - 4x4 x   8'  = corner post  pressure treated
 2   - sheets ½ inch treated plywood for the apron

 5   - sheets ¾ inch plywood  for floor

 3   - cans roofing cement

 1   - 12’ x 25’  4 millimeter plastic roll vapor barrier

 3   - boxes 4’ deck screws

 1   - box of washers

 8   - 4.5” lag bolts

Cut List

cut list is only for  ledger boards and joist, other cuts are subject to your building site

 2   - 2x6  x 16’    = frame /   ledger boards

13  - 2x6  x 9’9”  = floor joist

How to make a shadow box frame

In this video I build a shadow box frame for a painting by the artist Stuart Shils. I've made a few videos on how to make frames, so in this video I focus more on the painting and finishing then the building. So if you need a bit more information, check out my channel for more videos on framing. To see paintings by Stuart Shils copy and paste his name into Google images.

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