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Hello from Kalamazoo, Michigan!

Kristine Thompson

Kristine Thompson

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11
Location
Kalamazoo, MI
Happy to learn of this group...I came here by way of my 3-month-old (very expensive) Stickley cherry dining room table. My cat scratched various spots all over the table top, with her hind claws, as she chased the table cloth around the table top yesterday! I’ve shed my tears and I’m now in solution mode. Dave Hawksford’s name appeared and I’ve prepared an email to seek his advise and hopefully someone in my area will be recommended.

Then I realized that someone, in this group of woodworkers, may be interested in helping me prepare an entry for the Grand Rapids’ International ArtPrize. I’m at least halfway finished with 14 oil paintings of the Stations of the Cross. All 14 are started so I can share my current progress
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. They are 30 x 40 inches on professionally stretched linen. Besides the paintings, two other components will be paramount to the exhibit, i.e., the frame and the venue where they’ll be exhibited.

Is there anyone interested in building the frames? I would supply the material and ask that the labor be as close to voluntary as possible. I’ve spent hundreds of volunteer hours so far, as my priest asked me to do them for our church. If there were prize money, we would share, after my initial costs are covered. ($160 per canvas plus oil supplies and the cost of the frame). This is the first time I’ve asked anyone publically, so I’m not sure if it’s even something anyone’s interested in. There is more to this story, but I won’t go into it unless you are interested.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and considering if you might be interested. I will need help locating the right framing material, so that would be part of your task as well. I’m sharing one of the 14 stations so you can see the unfinished quality of my work.
Kristine

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Welcome to the forum, Kristine. :wave: I'm a bit too far (and stretched a bit to thin already) to help with the frames, but here's hoping someone in your area can help or direct you to someone else who can.
 
Hello from 11 miles north of Kalamazoo in Plainwell Michigan, Kalamazoo is my birth city. I love your painting and the Grand Rapids art prize is a great format for local art, I wish you the best there. For me, I don’t have the time, maybe the talent the art prize, but hopefully someone will chime in. And as for your repair, Dave is the man for advice for repairing your scratched table. Glad you found us and best of luck with this year’s art prize🙂
 
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Welcome to a wonderful group of oddly assorted people and talents. BEAUTIFUL painting!!! All the luck in the world with your endeavors. Dave is the man, I in person watched him remove a scratch at a demonstration, it was magic! A little rub here, a little of this, a little of that, more rub and GONE! Look forward to seeing more of your work and hope someone can help.
 
Don Baer said:
Hi Kristine and welcome to the group, there are a number of members in your area but I will let them intro themselves. BTW my wife was from Kalamazoo.
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Thanks, Don.[emoji4] I always enjoy running into people from Kazoo. Where do you live now?I’m 65 and lived my elementary years on the corner of Douglas and West Main - right across from Stowe Stadium tennis courts. Lots of fond memories of the old downtown and the exhibits of taxidermied animals, enclosed in black cases, that you could check out at the Kalamazoo Libarary’s museum and take to school for show and tell. Moved to Vicksburg for Jr high and highschool (lived on Indian Lake) and had a great education in fishing and water sports!! Haha! Still love to fish....but water sports are for the grandchildren anymore. [emoji4]


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Vaughn McMillan said:
Welcome to the forum, Kristine. :wave: I'm a bit too far (and stretched a bit to thin already) to help with the frames, but here's hoping someone in your area can help or direct you to someone else who can.
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Thanks you, Vaughn. Woodworking is such a productive and welcomed skill. I’ve always enjoyed watching craftsmen at work and marveled at the beauty of a well done project. Frank Lloyd Wright and Norm Carver were very influential in our home expansion and the detail of the crew we hired was phenomenal! You make people happy when you put your heart into it!!


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Jonathan Shively said:
Welcome to a wonderful group of oddly assorted people and talents. BEAUTIFUL painting!!! All the luck in the world with your endeavors. Dave is the man, I in person watched him remove a scratch at a demonstration, it was magic! A little rub here, a little of this, a little of that, more rub and GONE! Look forward to seeing more of your work and hope someone can help.
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Thank you, Jonathan! That sounds very encouraging about Dave. I’m hoping there will be someone in my area that has the same type of skill. Woodworking projects are often a long term endeavor, just as these 14 paintings have been.

I’m a professional musician by trade (piano-bar singer/songwriter) and only in the past 5 years have I seriously attempted art. Nothing like diving right in, huh? Talent always enjoys fresh challenges. 3 pieces of Rachmaninoff were my last classical piano attempt and then I tripped on a chord at my art studio and broke the MCP joint of my third finger on my right hand. I’m 3/4 back to stretching those fingers (Rachmaninoff is notorious for big hands) but not sure that I’ll ever play as well again. Woodworking and fingers also hold countless stories!! A bit scary for me!


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Tom Niemi said:
Hello from 11 miles north of Kalamazoo in Plainwell Michigan, Kalamazoo is my birth city. I love your painting and the Grand Rapids art prize is a great format for local art, I wish you the best there. For me, I don’t have the time, maybe the talent the art prize, but hopefully someone will chime in. And as for your repair, Dave is the man for advice for repairing your scratched table. Glad you found us and best of luck with this year’s art prize[emoji846]
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Thank you, Tom! I’m sorry that won’t work out for you to help me. I’m really hoping just the right person will appear on the scene. [emoji4]

I’ve lived in Galesburg country for 30 years now. Gull Road is nearby and has really grown!! We take G Ave to 32nd, to M 43 through Richland to get to Plainwell Ice cream! It is delicious, but Mooville (in Nashville) has the whole farm and petting area for families. Have you been there? It’s a bucket list item for sure!

The snow is beautiful this morning! I bet you have a bit more, being closer to the lake. This is enough for me. [emoji23][emoji4]


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Good morning and welcome. South of you also but I'm afraid picture frames, especially those that would be worthy of your art, are not my forte.
 
Kristine Thompson said:
Thank you, Rennie. What is your level of furniture repair for scratches? Are you familiar with the type of finish on a Stickley?
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I usually make things that need repair, not the other way around. :rofl:

Although I make furniture in a Stickley style I am not that familiar with the original finishes, or even those used on contemporary pieces made by Stickley. Dave's your guy on anything to do with finishes. Best wait for him to advise.
 
Rennie Heuer said:
I usually make things that need repair, not the other way around. :rofl:

Although I make furniture in a Stickley style I am not that familiar with the original finishes, or even those used on contemporary pieces made by Stickley. Dave's your guy on anything to do with finishes. Best wait for him to advise.
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Sounds good. We have a summer home on the Thornapple, in Hastings, and had a woodworking business make a cool hanging bookcase on a huge hinge to hide the furnace area. One of those cool ideas of hidden room. They did a great job but the house is settling and they’re going to have to readjust the “easy” swingability! We spoke to them about making a coffee table and didn’t end up with one yet. Do you have a website? I’m always interested in handcrafted furniture, etc.


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I grew up 4 blocks from where you were, spent a lot of time at Stowe Stadium. What elementary school did you attend? We are the same age and if you went to West Main Elementary, we may have crossed paths back then.
 
Tom Niemi said:
I grew up 4 blocks from where you were, spent a lot of time at Stowe Stadium. What elementary school did you attend? We are the same age and if you went to West Main Elementary, we may have crossed paths back then.
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I went to Woodward K-5 and then my folks built on Indian Lake in Vicksburg. Did you go to Hillside for Jr High? Those were turbulent times!!


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