Observation Beehive Part I - Bringing Bees Indoors!

Check back soon, I'll get to writing this as soons as I can. I always add secrets in the blog for my fellow old school "readers" that can't stand videos starting every time they try to read a news article!

Observation Beehive Teaser Trailer

Design|Build - An Observation Bee Hive!!!

I've been charged with the task of designing and building an indoor apiary for a Seattle based clothing company!!! I'm pretty excited because I had wanted to do one of these for a while and this one is bigger than I could really find indoor space for. There are some really cool challenges to building an indoor bee hive, not having to mention bees getting loose in the store! This store has already been built out and the display floor is arranged so this build needs to mesh with the existing decor.

Since the store has a warm feeling of repurposed construction materials from salvaged wood and patina metal, I dug around for some matching materials. Since the specification for the beehive was three deep frames wide and three deep frames tall with optional space for six honey supers, I figured I'd need to use metal to get the strength and aesthetic I was after. I was able to get in the shop and spend a good day or two welding up the observation frame. It's great really getting into the groove of a project and not watching the clock and just enjoying the craft.

Stay tuned for the finished product and I hope to have enough media captured for a video on my YouTube channel!

Jason Michael Kotarski Observation Beehive 

Jason Michael Kotarski Observation Beehive

Jason Kotarski Bees Beekeeping Apiary Honey Permaculture Welding Ironworking Metal Fabrication Furniture Office Furniture Commercial Design Build Architecture Nature 

Woodworking- Carving a Bowl from a Root with the Graff Speedcutter - Jas...

Update!!!! Check out the awesome grain on this finished bowl on my channel

Jason Michael Kotarski- YouTube

Found this piece of root wood and decided to try out the new Speedcutter disc from Graff. Ended up with a little bowl that would be a great presentation piece or centre table piece! I'll put it up on the Amazon Handmade store so someone can have a unique conversation piece for the holiday's!!!

Jason Michael Kotarski on Amazon Handmade

Graff Speedcutter Angle Grinder Blade

Part IV Installing Sapele on the Wood Accent Wall

Well, I'm finally getting some progress on the wood panel accent wall. I'm going to also link some of the tools I used in this project below if you want to check them out. The tools I use are the ones that I have found are the best bang for the buck. Are there better ones, yea for some of them, are there cheaper ones, of course, but I use these daily so I need them to give me the best performance at a reasonable price so that I can get the job done.











Jason Kotarski
Jason Michael Kotarski

Part III Wood Panel Accent Wall

Getting some panels on the wall and decided in order to stretch out the 1 x 10 Sapele boards so I can use the best ones and have left overs for smaller projects. Simple Board and Batten style panel and a handmade piece of trim from the router table. It all sits behind a black entertainment stand and stereo components. It's going to look pretty slick once the beautiful Mahonganhy like Sapele goes on top and the black flat screen is mounted to the wall. I'll come back and install the media boxes from the back side as the closet is the next to be redone! I added a layer of 1/2" sound board over the sheetrock so with 5/8" Gypsum, 1/2" fiber Soundboard, and 3/4" Sapele we should get get reflection from TV's rear speakers back into the viewing space while absorbing sound with the sound board and gypsum. And don't worry, when we redo the closet next we'll add Roxul Safe and Sound in the wall cavity, another layer of soundboard and GWB.



To be slick about it I used leftover 3/4" A/B Sanded cabinet grade plywood with 1/2" bead board. That made the 1/2" soundboard and 3/4 Sapele flush! More contemporary than I typically design but hey, something new!





Check out the 15 Gauge Nailer from Porter Cable

Social Media and My Generation

I have found that there are two sides to my generation (and other generations as well but I'm not in those generations so I can't speak to that) when it comes to social media, those that can't live without it and those that have to live without it. A classic case of the have's and have not's. well not exactly.

When social media came out I was in college and like most found it a great way to share experiences across the globe as my network grew further and further in terms of distance. I couldn't keep up with it then and I sure as hell can't keep up with it now. When social media started creeping into the lexicon of my work colleagues I was immediately concerned. For the social butterfly this was an eureka moment if there ever was one but for me, I saw the danger in friending my boss for them to see my monster catch out on the water while I had the flu.

As the movement spread, I remember the first time I heard someone say they were the Social Media Director, and a couple of agencies posting adverts for social media coordinators. Sure, there has been some sort of Public Affairs and/or customer relations but this seemed dubious to me. Someone had an office (bigger than mine) that was on Facebook all day? Meh, I had my own projects to work on and they could have their fun.

Turning to today as I struggle to find the centre point in my triangle of entrepreneur, technician and manager, I have realized how freaking time consuming this all is. So much so that I have less to show on my social media because I was busy working on social media. It is the same as working on a portfolio in the old days when you had to physically carry the portfolio around and the construction of the portfolio was as important as the elements of the portfolio. You would spend so much time crafting your portfolio that there wasn't much to put in it!

So, it' 10:20, break time just ended and all I have to show for it is a handful of emails, posts, updates, editing, and general buggery. I wonder how many more platforms will be created this year?

So if you haven't checked out my sites (or ever read this anyway) I'll up date this when I create a copy and paste list of all these sites as links.

Jason Michael Kotarski.com
Spatial RecognitionDesign.com
youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/jkotar20
JasonMichaelKotarski.blogspot.com
twitter @_KOTARSKI_
Facebook SpatialRecognition
twitter @SpatialRecog
Houzz Spatial Recognition
Thumbtack- Spatial Recognition
Porch- Spatial Recognition
Linkedin- JasonMichaelKotarski
Craigslist Jason Michael Kotarski
Craigslist Spatial Recognition

Permaculture- Installling my first beehive

I've been planning to so this for over five years. I would go to beekeeping speaking events, check out books from the library, search and research articles and forums on the net but never did it. I have always had animals, dogs, cats, etc.... but never any livestock or an apiary. I finally decided to just go ahead with some leftover pieces of plywood someone had given me. They're  plywood but at least they are 3/4 inch, 7 ply, A/B cabinet grade plywood! It did occur to me as I lay on the couch drifting into sleep that I forgot to add and entrance. OOPS! No worries, I'll get the jigsaw and do a quick little cut, I should have time still before any swarming occurs. It's still hovering around 40 F so I'll get to it.

I learned through my research that black or dark colored clothing was the worst option for beekeepers. Well, the plywood used to be a school theatre set and it was already painted black. Turns out it's not that bad actually for the hive and more than one long time beekeeper noted they do better than their other colored ones. Well, it is what it is and if they can make a hive in a old tire I think they'll be fine. Besides, I think they'll get morning sun to warm up and afternoon shade to stay cool along with a breeze off of the lake. Well, I guess we'll see!!!

Now, remember that blueberry mead I made? Oh yea, it'll bee back soon!

The Beauty of Big Leaf Maple - Acer Macrophyllum

As I wait for the clouds to part and return to dodging rain drops I thought I'd follow up from the Infinity Loop Inlay with some pictures on using Big Leaf Maple for the top of the Gate-leg Table the "Mrs." I went into some description in a previous post about how the figure is coming so I need to show it and explain my thinking (or perhaps unthinking) on the arrangement. So, like I said before this is my first opportunity with this species and I still recall the day we first discovered Acer MacroPhyllum! It was on the trail on the 65 acres we rented,

Jason Kotarski

Sure, it's a quintessential Big Leaf Maple photograph from the Pacific Northwest but we were just floored. Now, how I came upon working with this wood was pure happenstance. After seeing a Gate Leg table in a few places the Mrs. requested one be built for her. So alas, the challenge began. I enjoy woodworking and my favourite challenge is sourcing, felling, and milling the trees myself. Radiance and Nautalis were sourced from storm damaged trees and some architectural remnants. So I thought I should continue the tradition, at least one more time. It takes alot of time this way and pieces may take months if not years.

Having found what I thought was oak, I started the drying process so I could start planing out a slab and see what I might have found.

Jason Kotarski

Since it looked somewhat like oak, to me at the time, I started shooting photos off to my brother the arborist. Some what cryptically as I already stripped the bark off, so I went back into the woods to find it and send a text that looked like this.

Jason Kotarski

By those two photos, we were perplexed but he narrowed it down to the Acer family. Thankfully, a week later, Spring sprung and I found the little branch growing out of the storm damaged tree! And...... alas the tell tale bloom!

Jason Kotarski

Jason Kotarski

Great! I start doing some research and terms like quilt, flame, birds eye, spalt, and punky start flowing. Now I'm getting excited, violins and guitars abound during my research and I start getting the itch do build some. I have my requested dimensions for the table, now I need to figure out how to get to them. Having found two split halves I plane down to the heartwood and find some magnificent figure. I decide these two pieces have to be the wings of the Gate Leg and represent the "Heart" so to speak.

Jason Kotarski

Having several large rounds on hand I start splitting more, first halving to find book matches, then quartering for smaller pieces. Towards the outside of the tree I start to find a whole new figure. In my research it appears this is referred to as mineral staining.

Jason Kotarski

This will also most likely be the figure for the frontispiece on the drawers as well. It really gives the wood direction so I separated it from the "Heart" to show that the wood originally came from the outside portion of the tree. I went back into the woods for more and came out with some logs that were just rotten with Tinder Polypore growing on them. I used my machete to hack down to something solid and when I found the solid portion of the heart I shaved a clean area of about nine inches, finding spalted streaks of green and black and red. I figured this would be fitting to be the next section of the table to show off the spalt and the life cycle of the tree.

Jason Kotarski

I took this photo specifically to show the spalt because after I attach the final banding this will not be seen.

Jason Kotarski

I wanted to show off the face grain and spalt on this piece but I wanted to show one more aspect of this wood in the furniture piece as a whole. This band represents both spalt and quarter-sawn figure. By planing the first two sections down I was able to show the quilting and mineral stain patterns in the face grain. By quarter sawing the last section I hope that the flame figure will come forward. Sadly, I have not yet found birds eye or burl for this project. Those two figures would make this a looooooooooooooooonnnnnnggggg conversation piece!

Jason Kotarski

The piece on the left has sanding sealer on it to help show the figure. After the final edge band is installed, the entire piece will be sealed, sanded a ridiculous amount, and finished with several steps of finish.

The Updated Website - Jason Michael Kotarski

I have finally updated my website and will be fine tuning sections as the Autumn progresses into Winter and the rains begin to fall. I also hope to add more to this blog as the weather changes.

Without further ado Jason Michael Kotarski !!!  Not much different than before but the portfolio section is about to be reshaped to better display the variety of past projects as well as some "in progress" projects since my projects tend to take years.

Since creating the Nautalis coffee table top, the inlay has worked into my business card, my website, and has slowly become my defacto "logo". Although my logo is actually my signature and I intend to order a brass wood burning stamp with it in the future.

Jason Kotarski, Jason Michael Kotarski 

Woodworking- Inlaying an Isometric Infinity Loop in Big Leaf Maple

I am about to make a shift in the direction of this blog. Most likely to the people who have read this far along, it's for the better. Two marathon training blogs is enough. So I want to change the topic! I have found a very new and interesting species of wood that was previously unavailable to me; Acer Macrophyllum, Big Leaf Maple.

I have worked Maple before, it is hard and it is beautiful. However, Eastern Maple is typically easily identifiable and consistent. Big Leaf Maple on the other hand is wildly variable and takes on multi-dimensions in regards to figure. In the upcoming articles I am going to chart the construction of the Gate Leg Table. Since, I typically name each piece of furniture, this one is going by the working title of The Mrs.

The Mrs. is going to have an Oak frame constructed from a salvaged pallet. No, it is not going to look like a pallet, it is going to look like a piece of furniture. You can follow my youtube channel JKOTAR20  if you want to see how I went about it. The drawer faces are going to be flame figured Big Leaf Maple, just one of the many figures this wood presents. The top of the table is going to be primarily Big Leaf Maple with some inlay decorations. The centre is going to be from the centre of the tree, or the heart. This figure has beautiful grain patterns with streaks of color throughout and amazing quilting. The surround is going to come from the outside of the tree and will display some very interesting flame patterns. These will be shown in later posts, so for now, lets get on with it, shall we?

The centre of the The Mrs. is the main focal point of the table and when the sides are down, the only part that stands out. So to make this even more appealing than the grain already provides, we are going to inlay two things, one is a small, ever so slightly noticeable piece of copper. When all is said and done there will be a very delicate copper line between the three band inlay and the surrounding pieces. On both ends of the table are going to be inlaid infinity loops. And that is what I am about to show!

Jason Michael Kotarski

So this is actually pretty easy once it's all laid out. Let's start with the degrees, 30 and 60. By setting up the table saw with the push block set to 60 degrees, we create the two points of the loop.

Jason Michael Kotarski

Now that the two points are set we can go to the sliding compound mitre saw for the next cuts, at 30 degrees. With the saw set at 0 (90 Degrees), the line should be be right through the centre. 

Jason Michael Kotarski

So, we need to shift this to the 30 degree mark to get the angle we need. 

Jason Michael Kotarski

This is one of those times where the laser is very helpful with double checking the correct angle! This cut will also give us the angle for the next cut which will in effect be like a return. 

Jason Michael Kotarski

  Now all we need is our parallelogram to give us the distance.

Jason Michael Kotarski

Et, voila! Now, time for some good ol' fashion chisel work!

Jason Michael Kotarski