Visit TheDancingGoats on ETSY:

http://www.etsy.com/people/TheDancingGoats

Unique Turned Fiber Tools in Native American Hardwoods

The formula for a Russian Spindle includes a Wood Turning Tool that is simply amazing.

Russian Spindle Ingredients

The English Oval Skew from Robert Sorby has cut the turning time on these complex spindles in half…

 No tool is probably responsible for turning more turners away from the lathe than the Skew…When things go wrong with this tool, they become the object example of what not to do…& most turnings on the bad end of a Skew mistake do not survive. It's Oval profile makes for a smooth surface on a long cut...

 I will use it nonetheless & its application drives all other thoughts from my mind while in use…Very much of a Zen like experience when used well...There is really no other way to make a cut across the grain of a burl and leave a mirror smooth finish. The Burl in the Photo is spinning at 1100RPM and is stopped with a 1/4000^th’s second exposure…This is one photo from the Time Lapse Sequences previously posted on You Tube!

See Http://TheDancingGoats.com

The ImaginariumForge attempts to illustrate the creative muse that inspires TheDancingGoats
Our work is available on ETSY: http://www.etsy.com/people/TheDancingGoats

The Other Bee:

Osmia lignaria is the Native American Bee

Close up of the OMB Catalpa Hive Body

The Orchard Mason Bee is a shy and gentle master pollinator. I use a 6 inch by 6 inch block of end grain Catalpa mounted to an Ash frame...The Females will lay their eggs in a 5/16th inch hole by preference, but I put a few 3/8th's and 1/2 inch holes in the block, so that I can stick the cocoons in there for a hatching chamber if I need to order some. The smooth holes are 5 inches deep. There are 5 broods in this hive, each with about 30 little ones. The males are at the front of the mud plugs and are mostly expendable, just like in a Honey Bee Hive...

One of 4 OMB Hives that we keep at Oak Knoll Farm

Try putting up a hive and see if the little holes get plugs of mud in them before ordering your OMB's.

I made and gave one to a friend and he had OMB's fill its space within a week...

They are 'The Bee in Black' Watch out for the BIB...They are hard to spot...

Just Google: Osmia lignaria  for lots more info...

I got mine from Leon at http://www.jjcardinal.com/ and they seem to be happy at

Oak Knoll Farm.

New Video of the Bees at: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats/videos

See Http://TheDancingGoats.com

The ImaginariumForge attempts to illustrate the creative muse that inspires TheDancingGoats
Our work  is availble on ETSY: http://www.etsy.com/people/TheDancingGoats

I never tire of the mysteries of a Bee Hive…Their little lives are so very foreign to our nature…Their difference and dedication is admirable and fascinating. Manipulation of the hive is not something we do lightly & will always have a purpose associated with it. Making room for the growth of a new hive and making sure they can lay in enough stores for winter is our main priority…The new video shows us adding a new layer or Super to the hive...

Honey Bees building new comb and laying in the goods...

Visit: Http://thedancinggoats.com

What happens When in a Honey Bee Hive?

The next layer down in the hive is full of activity

Adding a new layer or super to a hive is done as a part of the growth of the hive. A healthy hive will grow and if they fill it up, they may decide its time to go...Or many of them will...Always mysterious to figure them out. We watch the Hive closely and when the last two outer frames are being laid in a Super, its time to add a layer to the hive.

A new Frame being filled with Honey by the Girls

This process works the same in both the 8 Frame & 5 Frame Hives we use. These photos were taken during the Time Lapse I posted previously

For my ETSY Customers: See Http://thedancinggoats.com

The Light from the Andromeda Galaxy left there at the start of the Pleistocene, two and one half million years ago…

The beginning of the great grinding planetary trials by ice and fire for Gaia…Cycles of wild climactic variability that have tested our kind so hard, we have been left with only rumors and myth. A vast span of experience with no real memory or continuity of history.

Science is only now starting to unravel the mysteries.

The fantastic mysteries in Astronomy & Ecology always help me keep things in perspective…

The Imaginarium team on ETSY held a contest a while back, called ‘Born in the Wrong Century’…As a Maker, Craftsperson, I have always felt that I was born 10 centuries too late to fit in, but in light of recent scientific discoveries, perhaps it was 10 centuries too soon…

 Like Merlin, who traveled backwards through time…Born in the wrong century…yep… That’s the genesis of the cycle in my Tolkien-esque Imaginarium soliloquy...

 From the Imaginarium:
There was a time, when every piece of fabric was hand spun…That time will come again…
Every sail on every ship…Every garment…The tents that kept out the night, hand spun all.
The spindle in all its forms is one of the oldest tools. It will probably be with us at the end of all things.
When, every sail on every ship…Every garment…The tents that keep out the night, will be once again, hand spun all.

New Time Lapse at: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats

Today see one hour of Bee Yard activity in one Minute!

Oak Knoll is a small farm and our bees polinate our orchards...They are Italian Honeybees...We have been feeding them using an Amish Style Feeding System
During the Great Drought of 2012...There are two hive styles in the video. An 8 Frame Amish Hive and a 5 Frame Garden Hive with added Supers on both. I think the Bees like the 5 Frame and to me it resembles the hollow logs they seek out in the forest...They will need 80-90 pounds of honey to safely get through the winter...
My Amish friends are much too modest to advertise, but they make wonderful Cypress Hives at a very resonable price.

A 1000NM Deep IR View of the Bee Yard



New Time Lapse at: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats

My customers always ask how I get the burls that I turn so smooth...The secret is the 'The English Oval Skew' Another example of 'Beauty & Peril' in my work...Peril from its use...Beauty from the result...The Oval Skew requires great concentration, but produces a result like no other...A lateral cut with this tool leaves a turning with a glass smooth finish...I keep it razor sharp...The English Oval Skew’s Oval profile allows me to make a smooth lateral cut across the grain of the wood, including burls…The surface it leaves is amazing…Sanding in both directions with the reversing motor on my Antique Atlas Screw Making machine is the other secret to the smooth finish on my turnings…Fiber folks are a discerning group and a sticky turning just will not do when it comes to fiber tools!

Persimmon Russian Spindle

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingGoats

Makers…It is what we do. Combining the old with the new…Just one more path on Frost’s, Road Less Traveled…

We make things. We will be posting time-lapse videos of the making process that may be interesting to folks in the traditional crafts & our customers. We will also be providing free lessons on a variety of traditional craft practices. I will have a coupon code in caps at the end of most the videos valid on our ETSY site TheDancingGoats…

Today, see a Russian Spindle made in 30 seconds...

Enjoy

Honey Bees. At Oak Knoll farms, our Honey Bees are not a commodity…

They are not a thing. They are a living super organism…
They are our friends and they pollinate our orchard.

An 8 frame Amish Hive ready for deployment.

Of the Genus Apis, Honybees appear to have arisen after the K-T boundary, some time around 60 Million Years Ago. The girls are in charge in a honey bee hive & every member has only one goal…The good of the hive and queen. The boys are expendable...

The Girls tending the little ones...

The Honey, so valued by the omnivore clan, Bears, Us & etc…is there for protection against hard times…It is estimated that it takes 80-90 pounds of honey to get a hive through the Winter…I wonder how many hives get to keep that much honey…Ours keep all of it.

An interesting natural history note: They really don't like dark clothing, could it be that they associate it with clan Ursus?

The smoker that is used by most keepers does work & the bees respond by appearing to be getting ready to abandon the hive…They stick their little heads into the combs & its my guess that this is a forest fire response…We found something better…Bees love sugar water and we feed them during lean times…They love it…The red bottle in the last photo, is filled with sugar water & is our way of calming them during hive manipulation.

One spray of that and the bees forget the big slow moving primates and go for the sugar water every time. Stick or Carrot? I think we will stick with the sugar water!

This weekend is Yuletide in July…If you are not familiar with the poetry of Robert Frost, you should be!

 Use this coupon code in TheDancingGoats on ETSY…FROST…

 You will get 10% off this weekend, July 14^th and 15^th…

 As always, your business is much appreciated,

 Robin

Beauty & Peril…

 A recurring theme in my artwork…I like to know what makes a thing work…To see inside…To push tools and materials to the limit and sometimes beyond…

The results can be wonderful…or not…When it does work though, it is worth the effort every time.

 Turning Air, as it is called is an example of Peril first, and then Beauty…This Cedar Burl came off of a bluff where there is an ancient fire scar in the Ozarks. One slab of a great root section...Just getting it safely mounted to turn was a challenge.

 I call Woodturning in general a Zen practice…Turning Air like this piece requires a focus of concentration that excludes all other thoughts…and slows time way down…

Today, Beauty and Peril found its balance and produced a result like no other…Sweet Combo…

About the name: The Dancing Goats...

The Dancing Goats Folk Ways Studio is dedicated to the preservation & restoration of the lost arts and folk ways. Http://thedancinggoats.com 

The Dancing Goats or The Merry Dancers to the Scots, the French knew them as Les Chevre Dansant...Revontulet from the Finnish
All names for the phenomenon we call the Aurora Borealis or Northern lights…
Shrouded in ancient mystery, they are beauty made real & terrible.
Like Galadriel, the Aurora held secret peril for the unwary. Disrespect them and they could reach down and whisk you away…

http://www.space.com/16498-northern-lights-clapping-sound-explained.html

Another example of Folklore proven true...

The Aurora Borealis has long been regarded with deep respect by the circumpolar cultures familiar with the phenomenon…I know Alaska natives that are secretly terrified by them…Among the stories are sounds and behavior that science has long scoffed at. The article in space.com now supports the lore that the Aurora makes sounds…Makes me wonder about the other stories, where people can be carried  away off into space by the same phenomenon…

The Dancing Goats at The Waterloo Sheep Festival, Waterloo IL...

http://lanahandspunknits.blogspot.com/


The link connects the Blog of a customer that has helped me refine styles of Russian Spindles…

For 3 decades, I made and sold my turnings, mostly tops, toys, candle sticks and everyone’s favorite, a real ships hour glass with 3 turned posts and turned top and bottom…A few years ago one of my customers asked if I had ever made any drop spindles…Made 3 & they sold. Made 6 more, they sold…Made a dozen, gone. Hundreds now reside in new homes...

My research has led to an avenue in turning that is amazing…Spinning & Weaving tools traditionally are all made of wood & most of them are turned objects of one sort or another. Every cultural tradition had some sort of spindle for dealing with some sort of fiber…

 The craft site, ETSY has been nothing short of amazing & the social features of the store and sales allow easy & positive customer interactions and some of the best involve direct feedback that help me make better tools for this highly specialized craft market.

The photo shows 3 modified & 1 traditional Russian Spindle and one French Spindle…In general, the Russians are weighted heavily towards the bottom & the French spindles are weighted just below the middle…These are pre spinning wheel technologies…Based on Archaeological excavations, the spindle is one of our earliest tools…

 Thanks Lana!

Tolkien: The Master…

Most all of the inspiration for my work is derived from JRR Tolkien’s writing. Not just LOTR that I read while in college, but the rest of his work and letters that tell the tale of how LOTR grew out of his experiences during both World Wars and the stories he told his children…The inspiration for the Hobbit was written for his children while he was in the trenches of World War One…It wasn’t long after reading LOTR, that I started picking up all of the JRRT material I could find and about the same time, I started wood carving in an attempt to bring Tree Beard the Ent to life…Not long after that, I started doing craft shows, selling my tree spirits...I have made and sold hundreds  of them over the last 30 years...

Tolkien’s letters describe JRRT’s fascination with Deep Time and all of the history that has been lost and forgotten…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2167731/Britains-Atlantis-North-sea--huge-undersea-kingdom-swamped-tsunami-5-500-years-ago.html

 There is a great article today in the Mail about Doggerland & legends of this place are reflected in JRRT’s great work…

 I will be writing a lot about Folkloric inspiration and the flood legends are among the best of what is known as cultural memory.

No known writing survives from the time of the melting of the glaciers 100 centuries ago…But there are lots of flood legends in every culture…Coincidence? I think not…

 There is a seed of truth buried in Folklore and as JRRT illustrates in the scene at the walls of Moria, when the wisdom of the mighty fails, the simple stories of folklore might have the answer…

 Look for us at Http://thedancinggoats.com , I sell Woodcarving Tools and Antiques on Ebay & My Woodcarvings, Woodturnings & other handcrafts on ETSY…Plus a half dozen regional shows in the Midwest every year...Just search for 'TheDancingGoats'...

The Imaginarium Forge: A Maker's overview of the creation process that drives The Dancing Goats.com...A window into the fire that burns on the Bone Screen...

Maker Notes on:
Woodturning
Woodcarving
Spinning
Weaving
Craft Shows
Festivals
Imaginarium Forge Library
Oak Knoll Farm
Beekeeping
Rug Hooking