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lily/tools

updated tue 3 may 05

 

mel jacobson on mon 2 may 05


i make at least 80 percent of the tools that i use.
i hit garage sales all the time.
buy up anything i can find in hand tools.
i use those 50 cent flat brushes for my painting.
i make brushes from golden retriever fur. (get it while she
naps.)
friends have given me entire horse manes. make big brushes
from that.
i love tools.
my eastwing hammer is my best.
i always look for and buy `craftsman`.
i get that wonderful veritas catalog from canada. love it.
for car work, i never use cheap crap...it will kill my fingers.
i bought an entire big bamboo tree just to make hand tools
for the pottery.
i love bargains.
every kid at hopkins high had tools that they made for throwing.
no cost. i never have bought a kemper kit. hate them.
we get strips of cherry and walnut for burning in our kiln.
we make wonderful tools from that. free.
i make all of my own turning metal tools, except that
what phil has made for me.
all the instructions are in my book.
i love home made tools.

i see the hordes at nceca...filling bags with every sort of
tool. spend hundreds. i just smile.
i have never purchased anything at nceca. barb brown gave
me a nice brush from china...it is too nice to use...it just hangs
next to my horse hair brush of the same size...i am wearing out
the horse hair one. and i love the brush from barbara, will do something
with it one day...i hope a nice thing.

i love tools, good tools that fit my hands...worn tools from years
of work. i love to go to farm sales and just touch the tools...all
grease covered...and think of the years of service. feel the stalls
in the barn that horses have rubbed the wood as shiny as a japanese lacquer
box. buy whatever i can from that farmer, now dead.

i have a tool box in every building at the farm. a nice steel box with
hammer, screw drivers, pliers etc...all from farm sales.
i have a big yellow box with everything i need to be mobile.
my daughter calls and says...`dad, come over with the yellow box.`
she has a note on her refridge...in emergency call 1 800 DAD.
so, yes home made is wonderful...but now days few can make anything.
like tom turnquist mentions in his letter to the editor/cm/this month.
`not much left for craft...obscene, awful art, no craftsmanship`.
and, he is correct. kids are being taught that stuff. given big time
permission to be obscene and sexual for public display.
i know...`mel, you just don't get it.`
well for that i repeat. bullshit. i know who is not getting it.
that bullshit that is passing for art is nothing. and the people that
teach it are nothing. and, never will be.
make tools.
smile. be proud of what you make with great craftsmanship and knowledge
of materials. remember, people will still be using my pots a thousand years
from now...maybe just one, but it will survive.
joe and mel are working with a project for donald jackson to do his
calligraphy on clay slabs..fire them for the future.
fun idea. it might even have some value.
mel

from mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
website: http://www.pclink.com/melpots

Mike Gordon on mon 2 may 05


Don't ya just love your kids??? It brought a tear to my eye! 1-800
DAD-- LOVE IT !!! I still remember the calls from my daughter, ....
Dad, my cars doing something wierd!Thanks Mel, Mike Gordon
On May 2, 2005, at 2:41 PM, mel jacobson wrote:
> i have a big yellow box with everything i need to be mobile.
> my daughter calls and says...`dad, come over with the yellow box.`
> she has a note on her refridge...in emergency call 1 800 DAD.
>
> from mel/minnetonka.mn.usa
> website: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
>
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