Fogueres 2017

Being new in Spain, we are learning about the Fogueres festival that is held here in Alicante every year. Mostly it looks like everyone in Spain comes here to party for the whole month of June.

One really great thing they do for this festival is a competition. Local artists build these gargantuan paper maché sculptures. See my photos, these people take this competition seriously. I took these photos tonight when the Frau and I went for a walk to see them. Most of them were still under construction, but they still are beautiful. One thing I noticed is near every big one, there was a smaller one for the kids.

The winner of the competition gets to have their sculpture displayed in the local Fogueres museum, and the rest of them get burnt at midnight this coming Saturday.Im

Perhaps we should use this model for next year's June Chair Build?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is directly in front of our building.

Here is a view of it from our living room.

For a proper explanation of the Fogueres festival in Alicante, check out the official website.

A Woodworking Bench for 1 Euro 85

That's right - a buck eighty-five!

Curious?  Here's a photo:

My 1 Euro 85 cent  workbench

Oh, gosh! What's he on about now?

Let me back up a bit. Here is a photo of my new shop in Alicante, Spain:

My new shop.

If it looks like a home office, that's because it is. We recently moved to Spain. The Frau went ahead to pick out he apartment. She asked me what my MUST-HAVEs were for a place here. I told her that was easy, only one thing - a shop.

She said, "No."

While our place is beautiful, I am going to have to get creative with furniture building here.

A little aside - I would like to make a shout out to Ethan, the Kilted Woodworker, and to the NAF Benefits Office. And a big "Eff-You" to the Defense Finance and Accounting Services in Indianapolis. DFAS took ten weeks to get me a report I needed for some retirement paperwork I had to get done before I left federal service on Monday.

Since they wouldn't scan me the report or mail it to my German address, I had them send it to the Kilted Woodworker, who agreed to scan it to me when it arrived in his mail box.

Everything finally got submitted two days before the deadline and the NAF Benefits Office processed it in one day. Plenty of time for me to mail off what I needed to mail to them on the last possible day. Thanks, Ethan! I literally could not have done that without your help.

Back to woodworking:

I brought a very modest woodworking kit with me. Basically it was whatever I could fit in a plastic tool box I had. The idea now is to get some good woodworking in with the resources I actually have.

Yes, it's a bidet.

Ever wonder how to use one of these?

Me too. I figured it's the perfect hight to use as a sawbench for crosscutting.

Joking aside, I plan on participating in Reddit's Popular Woodworking School Box Build. My plan is to prove you can do decent work with far fewer resources than you might think necessary.

Today I took the bus (we don't plan to get a car) to a local home center to buy some construction lumber for this build. Their construction lumber was crap, but they did have some plastic-wrapped laminated wood that will work. I picked out two of the nicest boards of appropriate size I could find. As a bonus, this is the kind of laminated wood where the pieces that make up the lamination are full-length.

Some assembly required.

I also got some nice pine strips intended for molding that were clear and relatively straight. these bits are around 1/2", for the bottom and box moldings. If there is enough of something left over, I will do the till, too.

I also bought some brad nails and a couple of really nice brass box hinges, because they didn't have anything like the strap hinges in the article that would work. These should look very nice.

Here's everything in my wheelie bag while we wait at the bus stop.

Now that I am not in my beloved Munich shop (for at least two years), I have decided to focus more on the positives of my new workspace: There's a gorgeous view, plenty of natural sunlight, a computer is in there, and air conditioning.

What more could I want?

BTW, I was serious about using that piece of OSB for a workbench. Wait until you see how this build goes! I was at first tempted for a first project to be a sawbench, a bench hook, or some other piece of workshop convenience, but I decided to try an experiment, and do a full on furniture build without any of that.

Wish me luck!

Alicante, Spain!

It is true I have been quiet here and on other social media lately. Also, sadly I have been doing very little woodwork.

My chair is still in the same state as last posted: waiting to really be started.

There is a good reason, though, and that is the Frau got a new job in Alicante, Spain, and we will soon be moving there. We will keep our place in Munich, as she will come back to her old job in two to six years.

Photo courtesy ND Strupler.

Neither of us are currently completely satisfied with our professional situations, and we decided to make this change together.

For the past few weeks we have been organizing the move. I will end my career with the US Army after 19 years either active duty or Army civilian. I will miss it.

It is worth it, though.  One gets to travel through this life only once.

We have an apartment there already. Unfortunately, the Frau got to pick it out without me, so it doesn't sound like I will have all of the luxurious space for a woodshop that I currently enjoy. It will be interesting to see what kind of woodworking I will be able to do. It might just wind up to be spoon carving on a park bench.

But, that is OK. I will still have my shop in Munich that I will come back to. I will get to practice minimalist woodworking, and learn to be thankful for the space that I have. And, I bet I'll learn something.

Keep an eye out on this blog and on Instagram for news of our exciting adventure, and to see what kind of woodworking I'll get up to (although I predict it will be a bit slow for a couple months).

My apologies for abandoning my June Chair Build. Well, it's not so much abandoning, but postponing. Or, perhaps I could look at it as having started next year's June chair early!

If you are still working on your June chair, or by some miracle have finished it already, make sure to send me a note and a photo and I'll put it up! God knows, I'll need some material!