173 William Shatner Twilight Zone

I finished this Piece July 18, 2012 but I dated it 08/11/2012 because that is when it will be signed by William Shatner when he is at the Chicago Comic Con. I have not posted for a while because I was on a 16 day trip to Europe and was busy working on this major piece.

For this Piece, I decided to track the actual man-hours that it took from start to finish. It took roughly 50 man hours to complete because it is very large 23" x 36". I hid a lot of images in this piece, but essentially the primary idea I had was to have William Shatner looking at himself in the two Twilight Zone episodes where he was the star.

I guess if anyone asks, I can post detailed photos of the different sections so you can try to find the hidden images.

172 Sox Diamond Signed

I was informed that fans were allowed to get 2 autographs from Alejandro de Azo when he appeared at Chi-Town Collectibles - 322 N. Wolf Road (Mount Prospect, IL) June 21, 2012 so I decided to make another White Sox themed piece #172 Sox Diamond.

I also learned of a Bill Melton signing 06/23/2012 at the Bass Pro Shop in the Gurnee Mills shopping center, so I took both pieces to the event. Unfortunately, when I arrived at 11:50 am for a 12:00 PM signing, I was informed that I was too late, and the line had been cut off at the person in front of me. After I complained for a while, the crowd management team said I could hang around if I wanted, but there was no guarantee I'd get an autograph. This was a dual event with Shawn Michaels (HBK) and most of the fans were waiting for him. I was there for Bill Melton though. After waiting for about 45 minutes, Bill Melton came outside and was signing items for anyone who walked up to him, so I hussled over to him and got both pieces signed. I also let Bill use #171 as a support so he could sign a blueish colored Whitesox Jersey.

The picture below shows Alejandro de Aza in the act of signing #171. When I first handed the pieces to him, he said "That's Cool". It sounded more like "Ass Cool" or "at school" but certainly he seemed to like them. The day before, Alejandro was hit by a Cubs pitcher. I heard about it on the radio, but didn't see it so I asked, "Where did you get hit by a pitch yesterday?" He looked up, smiled, and said, "Right here" as he motioned to his right hip.



171 White Sox

I interrupted piece #170 and completed #171 because Tuesday, I learned about a Chicago White Sox, Alejandro de Aza, autograph signing in Mt. Prospect, IL 06/21/2012. I didn’t have a White Sox themed piece to get signed so I needed to make one quickly. Since I have my kids on Wednesdays so I knew I wouldn’t be able to work on it Wednesday at all. I had a single day to complete a piece if I was going to have one ready.

For this piece, I needed a simple logo that wasn’t very complicated and yet looked good. I wasn’t sure what ready blanks I had so I chose two different potential designs while I was at work Fortunately, I had a nice 11.5” Diameter Basswood plaque that was perfect for the round White Sox logo. The blank has some imperfections, but I knew I could execute the design, get it signed, and then do some post autograph touch up.

I only used the shading tip and the mini flow tip for the entire piece.

As you can see, I started by burning around the edges of the letters and the Sox Logo. I left the Timestamps visible so you can see approximately how long it took between steps.

I signed it on the inside rim since I didn't want it to be confused with the player autographs.

I definitely was not quite as careful or as precise with this piece as I normally would be, but time was of the essence so I went as fast as possible.

170 Guiding Light Work in Progress

For this post, I thought it would be educational to take you though the process as I'm creating my latest piece. The first picture shows the blank moments before I started woodburning. The picture was taken while the woodburner was heating up, and it shows the two pieces of Poplar glued together to form the rather large 22.5" wide by 24 " tall blank. It already has the keyholes for hanging on the back, and the design is already drawn on the blank though you can't see it very well until the third picture.

This piece #170 is called Guiding Light, though I had thought about "Christian Light" and "North Head Lighthouse" when I was conceiving the piece. Whenever I burn a piece, I typically burn the darkest parts first, then the lightest parts, and then work my way ever lighter and darker until I meet somewhere in the middle like building a bridge. This is not 100% as there are times I just feel like I need to work on a certain area before another area. In this case, the Jesus figure is to be hanging on a cross in front of the blackest section I can make. I therefore wanted to make sure the Jesus part was simply outlined so I could burn the black part and know it was properly spaced.



I next did a general outline of the cross, then I started to burn the blackest section. As you can see, I went completely around the cross first. This required rotating the piece several times so that the lighter part was always to the left of where I was burning.

The fourth picture shows the completed black section. You should know that I had to stop a couple of times to clean off the black buildup on the woodburning tip, and also to rest because the woodburner gets VERY hot when burning the blackest section.

I next worked on the roof of the keeper's house, along with the windows. I then started on the lighthouse, and was doing some of the darkest and lightest sections of the tower. The right side of the tower will be dark, but I started it off lightly because I found that darkening it in waves yields a more uniform look than trying to hit the desired color right off. I was really working mostly on the left side of the tower, but I find it helps me to balance it out by shading a bit on both ends when shading the lightest sections. If I only do the lightest sections, it makes it hard to see the ultimate balance

Sometimes I wait to sign a piece until its done, but in this case, I decided to sign it while I had the mini-flow tip hot in the burner since I might not have a need for that tip again at all. I imagine the rest will be accomplished with the shading tip and the knife edge tip.

Even at this stage, I'm not 100% certain about the entire piece. Today I was thinking about the clouds and the sky and was debating whether to burn the clouds and leave the sky unburned, or burn the sky and leave some of the clouds unburned, and others clouds lightly burned. I'm leaning toward burning the sky not the clouds, but I'm not sure. What I will likely do next is work on the details of the tower at the top to see how balanced it looks. I'll likely start out with the knife edge tip on a dark hot setting and burn the guard rail. Then I'll work on the glass section and that will likely lead me to a decision on the clouds and the sky.

158 Carolina Luiz

This is a piece I made for my girlfriend, Carolina Luiz. Her birthday is 08/15 so I chose to use the 158 number for her long awaited piece since it is just a jumble of her Birthday.

While it was in the process of making the piece, she made the comment that a part of her hair was sticking up and made her look like her head was an apple. In order to alter it so that she'd be happy, I made some extra patterns on the pillow on which her head is resting. I also made her an apple piece and told her she was the "Apple of my Eye".

166 Kenosha Lighthouse

This is a piece made with the intention of selling it. Eventually, it will be displayed in an Art Gallery called Forever Grateful in Kenosha, WI.

Initially, I drove to Kenosha in order to set my work up for sale in that gallery. The problem was that the gallery wanted people to be able to buy an item and walk out with it, but all  my pieces to date had been commissioned pieces and were unavailable for sale.

The gallery owners suggested I create pieces to sell, and recommended Lighthouses, Kenosha Streetcars, Packer's, Bulls, Brewers, Cubs, and Fantasy pieces such as Dragons and Fairies. I don't have a plan to do any fantasy pieces, but I'm working on several other pieces to display.

This piece is burned on Poplar, and uses colored pencils for the colored parts. I usually prefer to have a piece that is only wood burned, but the Kenosha Lighthouse is a bright red and so ultimately I decided it wouldn't be the Kenosha Lighthouse unless it was red. After I colored the lighthouse red, I had to add color to the rest otherwise the lighthouse would be too dominant.

156 A Game of Pool (Twilight Zone)

I love the Twilight Zone. It is the greatest TV show of all time and I am an avid collector of all things Twilight Zone. Since there were 156 episodes, I decided to dedicate #156 to The Twilight Zone. I nearly did a James Best Black Hole themed piece, but settled on the episode, "A Game of Pool" for the theme. It's one of my favorite episodes, and I love to play pool myself. The episode was wonderfully written, and marvelously acted. The effort required for this piece was monumental (60+ Hours), but I think my love for the show comes through clearly.

Below is a portion of what I burned on the back (Side "B") of the piece. I'd write more, but wondered if anyone would even be able to read what I listed and if so would they really feel wanting for more?

Episode	Original Broadcast	Writer	Episode Name	Comment or Quote
***	Season 1		***
1	10/02/59	RS	Where is Everybody?	This is an absolutely hysterical town and I'm growing very fond of it.
2	10/09/59	RS	One For the Angels	I'll take all you have.
3	10/16/59	RS	Mr. Denton on Doomsday	How dry I am.
4	10/23/59	RS	The Sixteen Millimeter Shrine	Any part you get at this studio won't have to go through an agent, we can set it up through the community chest because it will be charity.
5	10/30/59	RS	Walking Distance	Come on Bobby, do as your mother says.
6	11/06/59	RS	Escape Clause	I'll take your money, but you bore me.
7	11/13/59	RS	The Lonely	Oh my dear god I forgot her.
8	11/20/59	RS	Time Enough at Last	There's all the time I need.
9	11/27/59	CB	Perchance to Dream	There's nothing to be afraid of Edward, it's only a dream.
10	12/04/59	RS	Judgment Night	Adrift in waters like these, you don't think that's serious?
11	12/11/59	RS	And When the Sky Was Opened	Say uh, what's it like up there in outer space? Well, its … its like way out.
12	12/25/59	RS	What You Need	He pitched for a couple of years for the Cubs.
13	01/01/60	RS	The Four of Us Are Dying	My cut is more than a cold swim.
14	01/08/60	RS	Third From the Sun	This world as we know it won't exist much longer, it's about to blow itself up.
15	01/15/60	RS	I Shot an Arrow Into the Air	If he dies, he dies, but nobody gets behind and push.
16	01/22/60	RS	The Hitch Hiker	I'll write an affidavit, we'll get a notary to sign.
17	01/29/60	RS	The Fever	He made me put it in the machine.
18	02/05/60	RM	The Last Flight	I wanted so desperately to escape that I did escape.
19	02/12/60	RS	The Purple Testament	I wrote those names down yesterday.
20	02/19/60	CB	Elegy	I don't blame the judges, you're the prettiest of them all.
21	02/26/60	RS	Mirror Image	Go back over there and sit down and breathe through your nose and let me read my magazine.
22	03/04/60	RS	The Monsters are Due On Maple Street	How about a firing squad at dawn Charlie?
23	03/11/60	RM	A World of Difference	I don't know you, I don't know any of you.
24	03/18/60	CB	Long Live Walter Jameson	We love a rose because we know it will soon be gone.
25	03/25/60	RS	People are Alike All Over	EARTH CREATURE in its native habitat
26	04/01/60	RS	Execution	When you're dangling at the end of a rope, it don't matter whether you're 1 foot off the ground or a 1,000.
27	04/08/60	RS	The Big Tall Wish	A fighter don't need a scrapbook Henry … he's got the whole story cut into his flesh.
28	04/15/60	CB	A Nice Place to Visit	Now I know I'm in heaven.
29	04/29/60	RS	Nightmare as a Child	Do people look familiar to you sometimes?
30	05/06/60	RS	A Stop at Willoughby	I'm a not very young, soon to be old, very uncompetitive, rather dull, quite uninspired, average type guy … with a wife who has an appetite.
31	05/13/60	RP	The Chaser	Why don't you take a flying jump at the moon?
32	05/20/60	RS	A Passage for Trumpet	I'm haunting ya. I'm a gh(ost) boogie boogie.
33	06/03/60	RS	Mr. Bevis	Officer, did you ever have one of those days?
34	06/10/60	RS	The After Hours	Somebody ought to latch on to an efficiency expert or something.
35	06/17/60	RS	The Mighty Casey	Are you kidding? He pitched one inning last week and only allowed 6 runs. That makes him our most valuable player of the month.
36	07/01/60	RM	A World of His Own (Season 1 Finale)	She's not so drab.
***	Season 2		***
37	09/30/60	RS	King Nine Will Not Return	Jiminez? Blake? Connors? All right now piece it together.
38	10/07/60	RS	The Man in the Bottle	It's not an heirloom, I found it in an ash can.
39	10/14/60	RS	Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room	What have I got to say for myself George? Not much, two words… I resign.
40	10/28/60	RS	A Thing About Machines	Thomas Jefferson wrote the entire Declaration of Independence with a feather quill and it took him only half a day. {Barbara Stewart's brother contacted me about the death of his sister}
41	11/04/60	CB	The Howling Man	The devil has power to assume a pleasing shape.
42	11/11/60	RS	The Eye of the Beholder	If it was mine, I'd bury it in a grave someplace.
43	11/18/60	RM	Nick of Time	Same kind maybe, but not the same answers.
44	12/02/60	RS	The Lateness of the Hour	Everything built to perfection father. Everything designed for a perfect life.
45	12/09/60	EJN	The Trouble with Templeton	You know there are some moments in life that have an indescribable loveliness to them.
46	12/15/60	RS	A Most Unusual Camera  (Th)	That's pretty clever.
47	12/23/60	RS	Night of the Meek	Christmas is another thing finer than that.
48	01/06/61	RS	Dust	There's nothing in his sentence that says he's got to be tormented by a pig who sells trinkets at funerals.
49	01/13/61	RS	Back There	I'm an engineer. {Like me}
50	01/20/61	RS	The Whole Truth	I got more lemons per square foot than a fruit grower in Salinas.
51	01/27/61	RM	The Invaders	A house untouched by progress.
52	02/03/61	GCJ	A Penny For Your Thoughts	Nimble Runner 5:1.
53	02/10/61	RS	Twenty-Two	Room for one more honey.
54	01/20/61	RS	The Odyssey of Flight 33	The fourth is available to any honorable and single male crew member.
55	03/03/61	RS	Mr. Dingle, The Strong	Now that's not the best of all possible manners is it?
56	03/10/61	CB	Static	Radio, I'll tell ya, radio is a world that has to believed to be seen huh? Ha Ha Ha.
57	03/24/61	CB	The Prime Mover	Jr. go out and get yourself a pair of roller skates.
58	03/31/61	CB	Long Distance Call	When I get that old you can get the shovel and dig the hole.
59	04/07/61	RS	A Hundred Yards Over the Rim	I've been put here for a reason.
60	04/21/61	RS	The Rip Van Winkle Caper	A year or one hundred years. Chances are Mr. Decruise that we are now in the year 2061.
61	04/28/61	RS	The Silence	He's got the most miserable habit of whispering sotto voce.
62	05/05/61	CB	Shadow Play	This world does not exist, it’s a dream of mine, a nightmare. Can't you understand that? {I have the meat fork seen at 7:00}
63	05/12/61	RS	The Mind and the Matter	I'll take hold when I can achieve that millennium, that absolute perfection that comes with solitude.
64	05/26/61	RS	Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?	She's just like a science fiction, that's what she is. A regular Ray Bradbury.
65	06/02/61	RS	The Obsolete Man (Season 2 Finale)	1,300 people were put to death in 6 hours.
***	Season 3		***
66	09/15/61	MP	Two	Hear ye, Hear ye. Know ye by these persons that I do hereby declare peace upon the entire world.
67	09/22/61	RS	The Arrival	You can save us all a lot of time if you could avoid personal hypothesis so we can keep the air clear and not clutter it up with 6 dozen theories.
68	09/29/61	RS	The Shelter	What about air? Will you bring your own air?
69	10/06/61	RS	The Passersby	Black is the color of my true love's hair.
70	10/13/61	GCJ	A Game of Pool	A legend doesn't die just because the man does.
71	10/20/61	RS	The Mirror	Not what I want, what they want!
72	10/27/61	MP	The Grave	Now I got a $20 gold piece … that took me 20 weeks to save, that you won't do what I just said.
73	11/03/61	RS	It's a Good Life	Is it a real good thing that he done that?
74	11/10/61	RS	Death's Head Revisited	Why didn't I kill you when I had the chance?
75	11/17/61	RS	The Midnight Sun	One woman just stood in the middle of the room and cried.
Episode	Original Broadcast	Writer	Episode Name	Comment or Quote
76	11/24/61	RS	Still Valley	I'm a witch man like my pappy afore me. He was a 7th son of a 7th son and I was his 7th son.
77	12/01/61	CB	The Jungle	Driver, the light's green.
78	12/15/61	RM	Once Upon a Time	Don't point with my tools please.
79	12/22/61	RS	Five Characters in Search of an Exit	For our purposes, this is the universe.
80	12/29/61	RS	A Quality of Mercy	You're a lousy soldier Cassarano.
81	01/05/62	GCJ	Nothing In the Dark	I know it sounds crazy but it's true. I know it's true.
82	01/12/62	RS	One More Pallbearer	You refused to lead an assault on a hill.
83	01/19/62	CB	Dead Man's Shoes	Try Tequila … with a cube of sugar.
84	01/26/62	EH	The Hunt	Three nights ago, I saw blood on the moon.
85	02/02/62	RS	Showdown with Rance McGrew	He put English on that; He deliberately made it curve.
86	02/09/62	GCJ	Kick the Can	Hey mister, that's our can, we're playing.
87	02/16/62	EH	A Piano in the House	I hate to come home every evening and be confronted by that lugubrious expression of his.
88	02/23/62	MP	The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank	He's been fighting in that work like he's a year behind.
89	03/02/62	RS	To Serve Man	We're looking a gift horse in the mouth.
90	03/09/62	CB	The Fugitive	You so much as talk to her, I'm gonna call the cops!
91	03/16/62	RM	Little Girl Lost	I can't hear her anymore. What? Tina? Tina !! {Crocodile tears}
92	03/23/62	CB	Person or Persons Unknown	I see you're gonna require more proof. Well that can be arranged.
93	03/30/62	RS	The Little People	You some kind of a camel Craig?
94	04/06/62	RS	The Trade-Ins	You walk away pops, the game's over.
95	04/13/62	RS	Four O'Clock	Look at the; Look at them out there, the dregs, carrion, leeches sucking us dry.
96	04/20/62	RS	Hocus Pocus and Frisby	Why I can predict fog, smog, rain, hail, sleet, & snow 24 hours before it happens.
97	04/27/62	RS	The Gift	Unidentified aircraft, or something crashed into the hills of my village late last night.
98	05/04/62	RS	The Dummy	In a moment, Mr. Etherson and his knotty pined partner will be booked in one of the out of the way bistros. That small, dark, intimate place known as…the Twilight Zone.
99	05/11/62	RM	Young Man's Fancy	Mother's favorite was Eddy Doucher.
100	05/18/62	RB	I Sing the Body Electric	Melissa, Lavinia, Melvina.
101	05/25/62	RS	Cavender is Coming	What's the signal for I'm sorry?
102	06/01/62	RS	The Changing of the Guard (Season 3 Finale)	When I was one and twenty, no use to talk to me.
***	Season 4		***
103	01/03/63	CB	In His Image (Season 4 all on Thurs)	Luck had a great deal to do with your creation.
104	01/10/63	RS	The Thirty-Fathom Grave	You're the champion of the fleet when it comes to being at ease.
105	01/17/63	CB	Valley of the Shadow	All the rooms are taken.
106	01/24/63	RS	He's Alive	And this minority will not stop till it's the majority!
107	01/31/63	RM	Mute	Somebody's got to undo what her parents did to her.
108	02/07/63	RM	Death Ship	Captain, something glittered down there.
109	02/14/63	EH	Jess-Belle	She'll come back if she's a mind to.
110	02/21/63	CB	Miniature	I pretended to believe them because if I hadn't have done that I'd still be in the hospital.
111	02/28/63	CB	Printer's Devil	Well can't you ever get mad at anything around here except chairs?
112	03/07/63	RS	No Time Like the Past	… vacuous speeches about a country growing strong by filling its graveyards.
113	03/14/63	RS	The Parallel	Some chicken colonel back at the base is gonna be running home in his undershirt.
114	03/21/63	JF	I Dream of Genie	Mothers never wait up for the daughters he dates.
115	04/04/63	CB	The New Exhibit	Those figures are not to be touched.
116	04/11/63	RS	Of Late I Think of Cliffordville	Mr. Feathersmith $1,412.14 is quite a little nest egg considering. {Julie Newmar 8/16 Birthday}
117	04/18/63	RR	The Incredible World of Horace Ford	Sure the eyes have to light up. What do you want to ruin the whole thing?
118	05/02/63	RS	On Thursday We Leave for Home	Night like a cool hand just brushed past tired eyes Jo-Jo.
119	05/09/63	CB	Passage on The Lady Anne	Not it Madame, she. This ship happens to be a lady.
120	05/23/63	RS	The Bard (Season 4 Finale)	Three legs of a spider. I found me an ant.
***	Season 5		***
121	09/23/63	RS	In Praise of Pip  (Mon)	Work the gun, not the jaws.
122	10/04/63	RM	Steel	They'll hear him in the back of the room.
123	10/11/63	RM	Nightmare at 20,000 Feet	I'll see us crash first.
124	10/18/63	RS	A Kind of Stopwatch	You think about that now.
125	10/25/63	RS	Last Night of a Jockey	How do you like it in there? You comfortable?
126	11/01/63	CB	Living Doll	Just seeing how it works.
127	11/08/63	RS	The Old Man in the Cave	We already have an authority. We've had him for better than 10 years.
128	11/15/63	RS	Uncle Simon	You know, you're the only woman I know who looks as though underneath her clothes she wore clothes.
129	11/29/63	RS	Probe 7 - Over and Out	I can offer you companionship.
130	12/06/63	RS	The Seventh is Made Up of Phantoms	I'm checkin' myself in with the medics, man for the rubber room. But I'm gonna make a reservation for 3.
131	12/13/63	RS	A Short Drink from a Certain Fountain	The world doesn't begin and end with Flora anymore.
132	12/20/63	RD	Ninety Years Without Slumbering	So you and the clock were born at the same time so to speak.
133	12/27/63	EH	Ring-a-Ding Girl	Oh that's the way you do it in Hollywood.
134	01/03/64	EH	You Drive	Faulty connection or something. The lights just kept going on and off by themselves.
135	01/10/64	RS	The Long Morrow	It will go 70 times faster than the speed of light.
136	01/17/64	JM	The Self Improvement of Salvadore Ross	Why can't I want something in my life and get it?
137	01/24/64	CB	Number Twelve Looks Just Like You	I don't want to look like everyone else, I want to look like me.
138	01/31/64	EH	Black Leather Jackets	Man I said that's it.
139	02/07/64	RM	Night Call	It's obvious she doesn't believe a word I've told her.
140	02/14/64	BS	From Agnes - With Love	State the first prime number larger than the 17th root of 9,355,126,606. Five. Its right.
141	02/21/64	RM	Spur of the Moment	Ann just came riding back as if the devil himself was chasing her.
142	02/28/64	AB	An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge	I see each tree, I read each vein, I hear each bug upon each leaf.
143	03/06/64	CB	Queen of the Nile	Why don't you tell me how old you think I am? {Ann Blyth 08/16 Birthday}
144	03/13/64	MG	What's In the Box	Marriage is a floor mop and two pounds of hamburger.
145	03/20/64	RS	The Masks	I've always been an affable man.
146	03/27/64	RS	I Am the Night - Color Me Black	He said I lied, and boy he wasn't throwing no bouquets at you neither.
147	04/03/64	RS	Sounds and Silences	Now there are only 99.
148	04/10/64	RS	The Jeopardy Room	A bad death is the death of a butcher.
149	04/17/64	AS	Caesar and Me	I know who robbed the Karaoka club last night.
150	04/24/64	EH	Stopover in a Quiet Town	Touched him and he fell over dead.
151	05/01/64	MG	The Encounter	Say, where'd I leave that pig sticker?
152	05/08/64	RS	Mr. Garrity and the Graves	That's a very fine piece of deduction except howscome he left his wagon?
153	05/15/64	RS	The Brain Center at Whipple's	What the devil can I do with pride? Can it? Bottle it? Wrap it? Produce it?
154	05/22/64	AW	Come Wander With Me	Well I'll tell you one thing daddy; You sure got a swinging shop here.
155	05/29/64	RS	The Fear	I don't think there is much here for me or for that matter anyone else.
156	06/19/64	EH	The Bewitchin' Pool (Season 5 Finale)	We've got to go home.