Origami Crane Earrings

I saw a pair of these in a store and thought to myself, "I can make those." So I did.

Cutting.


Folding.


Lacquering (clear nail polish, really).


Installing gold hardware.


I folded these cranes from origami paper purchased in a Japanese bookstore nearby. With full-size cranes, you can get away with thicker paper, but these tiny birds needed the thinner paper. Plus, the patterns make for some pretty earrings.



The origami paper was originally 6" square. I cut it down to 1.4" in size. Once folded, I applied 3-4 coats (lost count, really) of a clear nail laminate, making the cranes stiffer and more durable, with the added benefit of giving them a glossy look. The jewelery hardware is 14k gold plate. From cutting to the hardware, each crane took no more than one hour.

Wooden Gymnastic Rings - Complete(?)

Finally got those coats of spar varnish onto the rings. They are a little slippery but with gymnastic chalk the friction improves quite a bit. I've only did a couple pull-ups on them with a false grip (necessary for doing muscle-ups) and that was pretty tough, but then again, I haven't hung from a false grip or done muscle-ups in months. The upside is they probably won't tear your wrists up when transitioning down from the dip to the pull-up portion of the movement.

Regardless, the rings are gorgeous. I expect the surface texture to improve as they are used more. Voila:

The Tough Mudder 2010

The Tough Mudder is a footrace...well, kinda. It's a footrace if you just count the 7 miles up and down steep ski runs...but then you also have to consider the log walls to scale, icy ponds to cross, and the FIRE you must run through near the end of the race!

According to the website, the Tough Mudder is the "toughest one day endurance race on the planet." I registered for their NY/PA state event, one of twelve events that are qualifiers for the World's Toughest Mudder Series Final, location to be determined...

Anyway, the NY/PA race is being held on May 2nd at the Bear Creek Mountain Resort in Macungie, PA. If you are up for a good challenge, you should sign up now! There are also spectator tickets available. And NO, I'm not being paid by the Tough Mudder organizers to say all this, I'm just genuinely PSYCHED to be in a race where I get to swim through mud and hang from rope bridges!



See you at the starting line!!!

Joshua Tree - Part Two (The Storm)

Continuing on the meeting people groove, I met Kevin and Kim and did my first couple climbs in the park. Kevin led the classic hand crack Double Cross (5.7+) and then I led Orphan (5.9) which started with stemming, then went from a finger crack all the way to a pretty nice offwidth/flare. Good times.

I climbed with a new partner just about every day, doing routes like Super Roof (5.9),The Flue (5.8+), and Pigpen (V4).

Also saw some folks set up a highline between two formations; I got this cool shot from below.



Then came this sunset, foretelling some pretty nasty weather...



And the rain started to come down. And kept going...and did not stop for nearly a week. My new friend Joel and myself hid in our Kiwi friend Diane's tent for the first two days, but when we were told the system was going to last for at least a few more days, all three of us got a ride out of the park and rented a motel room for a couple nights. By the time the rain stopped, it had rained more than it had in the past FIVE YEARS. Pretty intense.



It had snowed in the park! Still a bit of clouds...but then they cleared!



And then it started snowing again. Joel and I hid in a cave. Better not to get too excited yet.



With the next couple days showing some promising weather, Joel and I gave our best shot at routes like Fisticuffs (5.10b), a burly overhanging fist crack, and O'Kelley's Crack (5.10c), which had everything from finger jamming to wide hand jamming. I onsighted the first, but we fell our way up O'Kelley's...and every inch of it was 4-star material.

While we felt a little worn the next day, we decided to hitch a ride out to Geology Tour Road, where 4-5 routes in the guidebook had caught our interest. We met a couple from Vermont, Hilary and Brad, and convinced them it would be a great place to go climbing! Also, to please give us a ride.

We managed 4 routes that day: warmed up on Thumbs Down Left (5.9), then Joel led a wonderful stemming corner called Lightsabre (5.10b). I was up next, groveling my way up Between a Rock and a Hard Place (5.10b), which involved one of the most grueling exit moves I have ever done; a bit like squeezing through a vertical drainpipe with nothing to pull on with your hands or push on with your feet.

We finished up on the imposing Centurion (5.10d)...or more accurately, it finished us up. We were both extremely tired by this point and flailed quite a bit. I had an exciting moment: when halfway up the route, with no more cams to place, all the rest of my cams flipped sideways and were rendered useless. Joel had a hell of a time cleaning them, too, as the rope was pushing them deeper and deeper into the crack.

Wooden Gymnastic Rings

I made these beautiful rings from roughly 20 plies of birch plywood (no, I didn't make the plywood from scratch). That is, a piece of 1/4" birch plywood sandwiched between two pieces of 1/2". The process goes roughly as such:
1. make 9" square blanks
2. glue and press them


3. cut the outer circle (bandsaw)


4. cut the inner circle (power drill and jigsaw)
5. light sanding inside (spindle sander) and outside (bench sander)
6. round over the edges (table router)
7. patch holes with wood filler
8. hand sand until the cows come home


9. 2 coats of spar varnish (working on this last step, I don't have a good place to dry them at the moment)