91

March

Well another month has passed and I'm still going strong with my ring a day project. I was able to make a ring each of March's 31 days. Here's a photo of all the rings I made for each day this month.

The past 3 months I've managed to make a ring each day. Some days I was making a ring around 11pm but so far I haven't missed a day without making at least one ring. Here is a photo of all the rings I've made so far for my ring a day project. 91 rings so far.

Along with my ring a day I also sometimes make a few extra rings in a day. Some are for custom orders while others a just ones I decided to make as an extra one for the day. In March I made 53 rings in total which means so far this year I have made 144 rings. So far this year I've sold 69 rings of which 31 were sold in March. So far this year every month has been better then the last, both in the number of rings I've made and the number I've sold. Let's see what April brings.

90

Pickin' Wood

I've decided that I'm going to narrow down the woods I make my rings with. Right now I have rings in my show made out of Argintine Lignum Vitae, Bocote, Chakte Viga, Cocobolo, Ebony, Guayacan, Lignum Vitae, Louro Preto, Mopani, Osage Orange, Pink Ivory, Purple Heart, Redheart, Rosewood, Tamboti, Tulipwood, Wenge, Ziricote, and maybe a few more. I love working with a few of these woods, while others I despise working with.

 I've already decided that I'm going to cut out are:

Argintine Lignum Vitae

 some of the rings seem to turn green after some time

Purpleheart and Ziricote 

these woods are just such a pain to work with that i don't really want to make a ring out of them unless someone really wants one

Bocote and Louro Preto 

because they seem to never sand smooth or some are just to week and break too often. 

Cocobolo 

 because people don't seem to like them.

I still have some of these woods for sale in my shop, but I don't think I am going to renew then once the listing expires. Eventually I think I might post these rings in one group listing, or donate them.

I would like to get to the point where I have around 10 consistent woods that I work with. I'm testing new woods every so often but the last few haven't met what I think is needed for a good stable ring. The woods I stand by now and love to work with are:

Guayacan 

Ebony

Chakte Viga

Osage Orange

Pink Ivory

Redheart

Tulipwood

Mopani

Tamboti

I would like to start making more rosewood rings, I just need to find a good source. All these woods I feel extremely confident in their strength and durability. If someone was to ask me which ring would last the longest I would with no hesitation say Guayacan. That's not to say that the other rings won't give it a run for it's money. It's just that Guayacan is just above all the most durable wood that I have, because it is by far the most durable wood in the world. But it's also one of the easier woods to work with, some of the lighter woods are actuly some of the harder ones to sand and saw.

Finding a consistent supply of good grade stock is also a challenge for some of the woods a I work with. I try to buy as much as I can when it's available, especially wood from the same tree. There are some woods, such as Guayacan and Tulipwood, where the wood varies greatly from tree to tree. Sometimes I can't match a ring for someone because I just don't have any more stock from the one they want.

Anyway, I just thought I would share about the woods I'm sort of picking through and choosing to make rings with. 

89

Bill Nye The Science Guy

Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill...

I use to watch Bill Nye all the time, both on his main show and when he would be on Almost Live. I like to watch these old clips and catch glimpses of 90's era Seattle.

88

New Music

Sigur Rós - Ekki múkk from Sigur Rós on Vimeo.
From the new album Valtari. Video by Jónsi's sister, Inga Birgisdóttir.
http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/valtari

87

The Scar

I was working a little bit on a special section of the wowona today I've come to call the scar. It's a patch that was done sometime in the past on one of the outside planks. The outside of the plank has this really large knot that must have partially spit open. The patch consists of many copper nails and small trunnels attempting to hold the piece together. From the back side it's hard to tell there is even something wrong with the front. Today I removed a lot of material on the backside to expose the tips of the copper nails. We are going to attempt to remove these nails and replace them once the plank is carved.

Here are some pictures of the scar.

Here is the back side carved down revealing the tips of the copper nails.

86

How I Make My Rings

Here is a video showing just what goes into making one of my wooden rings.

Making A Wooden Ring from Ian Gill on Vimeo.
This is how I make one of my wooden rings. This particular ring was made from ebony and is for sale along with many other wood rings in my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/IanGill

85

200th

Today I made my 200th recorded ring. I'm sure I've made mote then that but some have broke or gotten lost or whatever, but I officially have 200 rings recorded in my little black book.

I recorded a video of myself making this ring. Once I have it completely edited and uploaded I'm going to share it on here. This ring is currently for sale in my etsy shop, snag it while you can.