Three Part Finish: Friday Update
This week I finished the trees. I am quite pleased with how they turned out. For construction lumber they look really nice, almost like a professional made them.
The best part are the little hooks for the stockings. Being able to customize where the hooks are is a nice touch, that way the client can move the stockings around, add, or subtract based on the visitors each year.
Finishing
The finishing process for these was a 3 part process. All parts were new to me so I’ll share what I learned about each.
Part One: Shellac
I have never used shellac, let alone sprayed shellac. I knew I wanted to use it as a seal coat and spraying seemed like a fast way to get it done. The purpose of the shellac was to sealed the wood so no sap bled through and to prevent any blotching or discoloration in staining. The shellac went on easily, just point and shoot, and it dried very quickly. 10 minutes after spraying the trees were ready to go.
Part Two: Gel Stain
I used General Finishes Gel Stain in Java. The color is really dark, almost black even. But when in the sun it turns to a handsome dark brown. My favorite part was the color consistency. Using traditional stains always seems to blotch, especially in softwood, but this gel stain went on like paint and kept it’s color nice and evenly. After it goes on, I waited for half an hour and gently wiped off the excess, careful not to remove too much stain and making the wood look streaky.
Part Three: Lacquer
I was planning on using polyurethane, but I knew I wanted to spray and opted for cans of spray lacquer instead because I had heard it dries fast. It applied as easily as the shellac and dried, ready for a recoat, in two hours. That was much better than polyurethane and I prefer the feel of the wood after the lacquer has dried. Doesn’t have that plastic feeling of poly.
Hooks
Last time I described the stocking hooks, but I did not have them complete yet. Well here they are.
For some reason they look like little elephants to me. That’s all I could think about as I installed them, so that’s fun. The way they work is the U of wood wraps around the top of the tree stretchers, making the hooks movable. And they are strong. I didn’t test them but I’d say they could easily hold a stocking, many even two.
Video Editing
I have the video edited and I was planning to launch it this week, but I was gifted a cold from my children and I need to finish the voiceover after I stop sounding like Kermit the Frog. So rather than enjoying a nice build video, I’ll share with you my video editing process.
I edit along the way, taking my footage after each session and cutting it way down. For perspective, if I’m cutting boards on the table saw I will keep the camera running the entire time until I’m done, but I only need one cut in my video. So I’ll take the shot that I want, 6 - 10 seconds, and throw away the remaining 10 minutes of video. Multiply that by each and every action I make means I generally take an hour or two of raw footage in a three hour working session which I then need to cut down to one to two minutes.
This process is what I call the first cut. By completing my first cut in stages I save a lot of time for my final cut. Generally I take 10 hours of footage down to 20 minutes, which is daunting to do in one sitting, but by breaking it up it’s much easier.
Then I can move on to the second cut which will take that 20 minutes down to 15. This is where I watch the video and when I feel like I am getting bored I know I need to cut the video. I try my best to get this right before adding voice over and graphics because it’s harder to cut after those extra layers are in.
After I feel like it’s done, I show it to my wife and she identifies specific areas she lost interest so I can target those to cut the video down even further.
I am still a beginner at this, but every video I make is improving. There’s a learning curve I am still climbing.
This weekend
Today, 2/3 is my wife’s birthday. This weekend we are heading to the coast for a mini vacation to celebrate. My mother-in-law is in town watching the kids so we can really relax and enjoy our time together. We are both looking forward to a break and to recharge, but this also means I won’t be working on anything this weekend.
Next week I do plan to start a new project for a client. Two simple floating shelves with a great story, so tune in next week and I’ll tell you all about that project.