Making Little Surfboards

I've been perfecting my "shaping" technique when cutting out surfboards. I use a very sharp exacto knife and cut on the bevel, using quarter-inch thick pieces of rag foam-core and a template. Then they're sealed with medium and painted. If I seal the back first I get a nice curve reminiscent of a real sufrboard. Here are some examples:

 

The bottom and top of a new board.

 

 

 

Another view of five. These are the bottoms.

And the tops of the same five. 

 

 

Then there are six smaller ones I just finished, sort of...

tops

and bottoms.

 

 

These are fun and challenging to make. Someday, if I ever find a cheap real surfboard, or even recognizable bits of one, I'll paint on it. I have been searching...to no avail, of course.

I've also discovered that I can't upload images the old way--something about my new computer perhaps--so I have to put everything in HTML and post until I figure out what's wrong. Someone please tell me if you can see the images posted this way.

Summer's End, Work, and Dreaming

A great deal has happened since my last post, much of it trivial and silly--the normal every-day grind stuff of going back to work after a summer off. Here's a list then:

• surfing (or watching it rather)
• painting on little tiny surfboards, since I haven't found any real ones yet
• getting ready to retire from teaching art--this is my last year
• getting braces (no likey)
• losing another tooth
• entering a jewelry competition (I didn't get in)
• getting a new computer
• sending my sister my old one
• planning an addition to the house: a 576 sq. ft. studio above the garage (still no viable bids)
• planning a trip to Hawaii for spring break with my mom
• finding the perfect jeans that fit (!!!woohoo!!!)
• getting the perfect curtains to go on the clerestory windows: cotton voile
• writing a story
• studying Gaidhlig and trying out Level 4 at Slighe nan Gaidheal
• getting through every day...
• reinstalling my cool fonts onto my new computer (lost the Mason ones that I loved)
• learning how to use this new interface
• planning a birthday/retirement party on the Oregon coast

The list goes on, of course, but that's the way lists work. They never end.

some tiny surfboards (this is not all of them--I now have painted 24 of them, ranging from 8-10 inches)