Finally catching up on the Twitch VOD of this since it happened in Australia on Australia time. This past September I was approached by @stringerplz part of PA crew to make some roughly hewn tiny boats for a game of Pirate Borg to be played at PAXAUS. The timeline was a little tight but the project intrigued me and so away I went on their commission to make four ships inspired by the age of sail to be crafted in such a way that they may look like ships made by pirates for an ongoing tabletop game.

Initially I thought I would design them in cad and do the outlines on the cnc mill but they were just too tiny for that to make sense so after some research into the profiles and estimated sizes (1inch per 50ft of ship) I printed some outlines and cut them out by hand.

Since they needed to look hand carved in the end I selected the most dense carvable wood I had on hand to use which was some European pearwood which would be heavy enough to support the masts and respond cleanly to a blade finish.

As much as possible I stuck to traditional tools (chisels, rasps, files, saws, knives)

To achieve the "hand-carved" look but still have it look nice I spent most of my time shaping the ships general figure and then used a spoon carving finish technique which I've generally seen referred to as a "blade finish" but its making lots of small very smooth surface cuts to create almost facets.

Once a ship was nearly finished I painted the ship body with india ink to replicate age of sail carbon black paints that were often used on most ships of the age (pirate or not) and would be something a pirate could produce in a number of ways with things on hand. The masts were all made with brass rod which could be shaped from brass nails and rivet posts which were often used in nautical applications where iron would corrode. The sails are all made out of template linen and the thread is a mix of cotton thread and bookbinders linen twine. I did my best to simulate at least a suggestion of the correct style of rigging for each ship type with the frigate and galleon having large square sails most folks attribute to pirate ships but the sloops were historically "gaff-rigged" which was a four corner sail that used a gaff bar instead of a cross beam to hang the main sail.

I'm glad Laura (@stringerplz) reached out to me b/c I had a lot of fun with the project and it did make me a little interested in making mini hardwood boats, though maybe a bit larger than 1" per 50ft scale.

I'm really pleased with how well they managed to portray a little naval scene on the stream and it seemed like folks liked them. I especially appreciate seeing Limithron the creator of Pirate Borg's reaction in the twitch chat.

You can watch the twitch recap of the stream here:

(https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2588534837)

I started a little thread on bsky last week about an odd (for me) commission I took wherein a neighbor needed a new handle and frame for their magnifying glass. Hard up for money as one is, I took them up on it and have been working away at figuring out how to make a magnifying glass frame and handle out of wood without it being too bulky or too fragile.

The magnifying glass itself was a small rectangle which wasn't as much of a problem to deal with than the curvature of the lens. Mitered Corners at this size would have been kinda week without splines and I don't have a 1/16 kerf saw to cut tiny splines into tiny miters so I went with overlapping butt joints. I also needed to figure out how to fit the handle on at an angle and by extending the frame out I could extend the overlapping frame on that corner out and construct the handle in a similar way with a 45 degree angle on it and some small support pieces.

I quickly realized that my plan for 4 layers was going to be too thick so I used some canarywood I had on hand as the foundation layer b/c its strong and glues well.

The second layer I made with walnut b/c I felt that would be the appropriate color wood to go with the canarywood and the magnifying glass vibe.

They wanted the handle to be bigger and more "pear" shaped so I figured I would just overbuild the handle and then shape it down to its final proportions. The canarywood I had on hand was just scraps which were too thin for the full handle width so I edge glued a strip of walnut and canarywood to the thickest piece I had and then cleaned it up and cut the 45 degree miter onto it. You can see in the picture above how the miter supports the frame and passes under the walnut frame piece above.

The next step was to glue the bottom miter from above with a walnut strip with the opposite miter on top of it and then added some little corner strips in to provide additional support. Even though they get mostly filed off by the end they still provided structural support during the glue up phase keeping everything aligned and supported.

After the glue had all set I cut away the support strips and used a curved file to cut an initial profile for the handle connection.

The next step was to take it to the bandsaw and rough cut in the handle shape.

Some steps got skipped in the course of "figuring shit out" here for photos but between the rough cut and the above picture was some initial shaping and sanding on the belt sander and finding a large flat piece of 1/8th walnut that I glued onto the walnut side and then pressed and reshaped to add a little thickness back and to add some additional support on the walnut side. This brought the thickness to the right point where I could countersink the brass bookbinders screws I planned to use to tension the lens in place. Sometimes also called "Chicago screws" this type of hardware is 2 pieces a large "male" flathead bolt with a short threaded post and a female bolt with a threaded receiving post. I only needed the "male" flathead part and the threaded post so I cut the receiving post into pieces I could then glue into holes drilled into the frame. This allows the screws to be turned through the threaded post and provide tension on the lens.

You can see on this side how the 1/8 flat piece of wood is essentially a veneer that hides the joinery lines on the walnut side. It was for support but it ends up being a nice effect.

Sometime and a lot of sanding later the frame is ready for finishing. I went with a simple mineral oil finish which is common for tool handles.

Once the finish was (technically mineral oil is a treatment) set and I had given it a few buffs with some beeswax polish I decided to add some felt strips to help cushion the lens and also reduce the amount of tension coming just from the screws. I think the end effect is quite nice.

I have yet to give it to my neighbor. We normally just kind of pass by each other gardening on our sides of the fence and its been raining a lot which keeps him inside so I don't know how well it will be received yet. We'll see!

I can't remember exactly when I started collecting hellebores other than it was in the past decade and my first plant (an Onyx Odyssey) I lost to improper care (fungal rot). Despite this rough start I have been successful keeping my hellebores alive since and in the past couple of years have started trying to develop crosses of my own.

The road to hellebore cultivation is somewhat longer than most perennial flowers. While they will cross relatively easily by hand (and even better by bee) the seed development period is fairly long, taking several months to develop ripe pods of thick tick-tac sized glossy seeds. The first hurdle to cross when raising your own hellebores from seed is to collect them at the right time. Unlike most seeds folks are used to dealing with which are good for several months if not a few years if kept well, hellebore seeds are best planted fresh from the pod and chance of germination drops of sharply after a few days unless kept somewhat moist and or refrigerated if their planting medium isn't ready. If buying hellebore seeds online (not recommended) make sure the supplier has listed the date collected (it should be within 9 months) and that the seed has been kept cold without freezing. Collected too late is one issue, collecting too early is another. For the best chance at getting healthy hellebore seedlings you should begin monitoring the seed pods when they start to get plump late spring/early summer. If the pod starts to open at a gentle touch or starting to open already NOW IS THE TIME to collect the seeds.

Once you have hellebore seeds and have hit the time window for freshness you now face your next hurdle of getting them to germinate. It takes up to 9 months for hellebore seeds to germinate in optimal conditions. Most of my seeds taken fresh germinate around the 7 month mark and no earlier. This is deep in winter territory with most of my seedlings showing up through January and February. Prior to this the seeds in their planting medium are best kept outside somewhere shady and kept from drying out. I have had the best luck using straight coco coir as the planting medium in 1+ gallon pots for moisture retention with the seeds planted 1/4 - 1/2 inch deep.

With your seeds in your medium and your pots in the shade you now need to protect them from birds, bugs, slugs, and other seed eating beasties. I find that 1/4" galvenized wire/hardware cloth or even some outdoor mosquito/bug screening works best.

Once winter hits I move my pots out of the shade and out on the patio where I can monitor them a bit better with the previously mentioned guards in place to keep creatures out of the seeds. Once germination starts larger less close knit guards can be used and allow for some air circulation. Once you have seedlings popping up the first trial is over, hellebores have incredibly hardy seedlings and readily take to transplanting once they start putting up their second set of leaves (i.e. true leaves).

Once the seedlings start looking fairly hardy I start teasing them out of the coco-coir medium and potting them up individually in 2" pots with a mix of coco-coir, aged compost, fresh compost. Measuring isn't too important here, I just go for a fluffy planting mix.

Now comes the second trial with raising your own hellebore crosses. Keeping them alive for 2+ years. Its very rare that hellebores with flower in their first year, if they do you've done something incredibly right or gotten lucky. Most hellebores will not produce blooms until 2+ years of maturing and the first time blooming is rarely true to their mature color.

My first successful hellebore seedlings and plants I planted out into this side bed garden a year or two ago and they are just starting to show some results. This years seedlings will go into 1+ gallon pots and live in a little colony on some raised planting shelves I'll be making later....

Someday when I have some robust adult plants with colors I like that are different from existing cultivars I'll face the 3rd hurdle, a trial I have yet been tested with... dividing hellebores...

In the mean time though my parent plants are healthy and my seedlings are doing well and they give me a wonderful bit of (goth) color at a time of year when few other things are growing.

Below are my Parent Plants developed by professional growers and hybridizers.

Gardening has become a real obsession of mine over the past decade. What started as a hobby of starting some seeds for a vegetable garden has grown into a yearly ritual of spending the dark winter months preparing for the return of the sun and all the wonders of the plant world.

For the first time in several years I'm not doing any vegetable starts. The seeds I have on hand produced acceptable plants last year but feel like they have aged out of having the real vigor needed for our short warm season. I don't feel like buying new ones and its already past when I would need to start pepper seeds so I'm opting to just pick up vegetable starts when the soil outside is already warm enough for them. They just got in the way and attracted too many shield bugs and black fly anyway.

This winter I've devoted myself to perennial industry. Now that I'll be a returning gardener in the Vanwa community garden program I get priority for securing a plot this year and I plan on using it for my dahlia program. If I can get two plots all the better (there were still a few abandoned plots last year even after I took over the one I managed to get late in the season.)

Im switching up my seed starting program too. Instead of using 72 cell plug trays to start I'm doing larger 4x4 germination trays and then transplanting successful seedlings into the plug cells or 2x2 pots. We'll see how it goes. My goal is to have a full 10x20ft dahlia gardens worth of healthy young plants ready when the community gardens open in April.

The other perennials I have going are cuttings of mahonias I took in fall that I'm rooting and attempting to grow in to vigorous plants to be planted out in shady areas of our yard in May. I have the go-ahead to take over as much of the front lawn as I wish (as long as I leave some paths) with flowers and shrubs and I'm running with it. Many of my "rejected but still pretty" dahlias from last season ended up in new garden beds in the front yard and I want to fill them out with native plants and flowers for a real pollinator haven.

To fill out the remaining beds I've been selecting a variety of native tall flowers. Nettle Leaf Horsemint which is an oversized kind of Agastache, Farewell to Spring, Sea Thrift, Sea Blush, Blanket Flower, and Western Coneflower.

One of the things I'm also trying to improve this year is labeling my seedlings. I've done stick in tags and other forms in previous years but at some point I just give up on labels and start guessing based on how they look. This year though I have a capable laser printer which I'm using to print up labels I can trim on a cheap-o paper cutter and label as needed.

So far its working.

I would love to figure out how to recoup the funds I put into this "hobby" but trying to figure out local sales is rough or breaking into the garden show scene... not that I am too eager to go back into the convention circuit.

Maybe I can figure out a little stand.

With the success of my dahlia seedlings this year I am hoping to start building more towards my goal of having a flower farm/nursery where I produce, provide, sell, and show my own cultivars of dahlias and hellebores. The goal is to pick up more posts on raising and developing new plants as posts here in addition to social media. We'll see how it goes. As for now though you can see a current overview of my seedling plants in development on the new https://cengaldre.com/garden-works/ Galdrecraft Gardens page.