Addison

Welcome! I hated to miss MiniCon this year, but the three-hour drive just wasn't going to work. Can't wait to hear about it!

I'll start out by admitting that, no, I did not just create this account. I actually joined back in 2011, posted a few times about some allomantic table woodworking I was doing, then never came back. Never finished the project either. :-\ Anyway, hi! My name is Addison Smith, and I live in northern Minnesota. I'm a big fan of BWS' Cosmere work (haven't read any non-cosmere), and, moreover, epic fantasy. I discovered Sanderson's work, like many, when it was announced that he would be finishing the Wheel of Time, and got hooked! So, about me... I'm a writer, first and foremost. I started out with flash fiction about five years ago, and have slowly been building my way toward the lengths customary in the epic fantasy I love so much. I am... very far from that point. I'm working on a story entitled, "Under City" right now, and expect to finish it at around 40,000 words. That will make it by far the longest thing I've ever written. I've been a member of a few different writing communities over the past few years, but decided that, while I am a writer, the communities I really want to be a part of are the ones with all the fans. Since it was Elantris that gave me the desire to write in the first place, this seemed the best place to be. So, that's about it! I can't wait to meet all of you, and thanks for having me. *sneaks over to the creator's corner*

I got an email the other day from Becky Wilson at Dragonsteel Entertainment that put my Mistborn Table on hiatus. I will finish it soon, but there is another project I have to get completely "mapped" out first. I am working on a woodcut map of Roshar. I'll pretty up this post with a screenshot. The plan is to cut and pocket the whole thing to a depth around 1/8" and then cut out the individual regions as inserts and stain those inserts in different shades to set them apart from each other. The email I got from Becky though was in answer to my request to send a couple of thin pieces of wood to Brandon to get them signed. I want to mount one of them in a pocket below the cutout of the map. The other is just in case I mess something up with the first. So that is what I am working on right now. Because of all of the tiny lines that go into making a map, there is quite a bit of work to be done before actual cutting, and even the cutting process will take a very long time (When I had it at 10.75" long, it was about 80,000 lines of gcode for each pass with the tool, and about 13 passes. It it now about 16" wide if that is any indication)

Actually, it wouldn't be terribly difficult to mill one of the symbols a lot larger and from a molding plastic... Now I want Jello. :-\

Thanks for the ideas guys. I think what I'll try first is sanding my 1/8" wood down to something thinner than what I need before milling the pieces, then use something (like wood putty) under them to build them up.

Hello again! I am still working (slowly) on that Allomantic Table and I have run into an issue. I'll post the centerpiece again to make it easier to explain. I am cutting out the inserts for those symbols and having a heck of a time. First off, I stained the centerpiece and wasn't happy with it. The stain brought out some huge cut marks that I couldn't really see before, so I sanded the whole thing down a bit and got rid of the stain and the marks. I restained it and it looks much better now. I got a piece of 1/8" thick wood to cut the symbols from to put in the 1/8" pockets. Well... Either the wood wasn't really 1/8" of I sanded a lot more than I thought I did (or both) because the symbols are in now way flush with the surface of the centerpiece. So I need to sand them. These symbols have a lot of sharp points that I made as sharp as possible, which means if I try to sand them they are going to break. I could put them into the pockets to stabilize them, but then I would be sanding the centerpiece again as well. I may be able to sand the 1/8" wood I am cutting the symbols from down to something that will be flush... I just thought of that. Typing helps me think... I will try that, but I am beginning to think that the wood won't work for the inserts, because it is just too fragile. Can anyone think of anything else I could use that would look good? I would love something I could just pour into the pockets, but I doubt I will find anything like that that looks good. So, crafty people, do you have any ideas?

Do you have any idea how that was done Rainbow? I am having a bit of trouble with my inserts and that looks great.

I decided to start this little bloggy thingy to keep track of what projects I am working on. I recently posted photos of the project I am currently working on, but I will throw them in here as well, for record purposes. I am working on a Mistborn Allomantic Table. (There's a bit of a pun there. It's a coffee table.) I'll just post some progress shots here for now. First off, I had to design the thing. I'll skip the boring details and just post the design I came up with. This is a top view. I modeled the table in Google SketchUp to make sure I had all of my dimensions right. Then I cut out the centerpiece. I have a small mill of my own, but it wasn't big enough to do this easily, so I enlisted the help of a huge mill at my dad's work. The entire thing was milled as one piece (though I had to use two pieces of wood, because I couldn't find a nice piece that was 18" wide.) I have already built the frame for the table. I would give you a photo, but the table is in my living room, which is a mess. :-P I am going to start staining tonight, following the stain pattern in the Google SketchUp model above. The colors wont be exact, but it will be the same light/dark placement. I will still have to put together a couple of 1x10"s for the top of the table and cut a circle in the exact center of them that is about 1/8" larger than the circular insert. I want it to be perfect, so I may wait for another opportunity with a machine at my dad's work. I am going to fill the holes in the allomantic table circle thing above with inserts of the symbols. Those inserts will be 1/8" thick and will be stained darker than the circle around them. I'll give updates as I make progress! P.S. I also milled this the other day, though I have no idea why or what I can do with it. Maybe if I can think of a large project that I could put blocks like this of my favorite books and series in. Any ideas?

Well done! I need one of those. :|

I am not so much into woodworking as I am into keeping myself from getting bored. After this I am thinking of learning a thing or two about bookbinding and making leatherbound copies of a series. This table actually started out a lot larger, as a full sized table, but I decided that was a bit much. I was going to have Atium in one corner, Larasium in another and was going to try to get BWS's signature on two pieces of wood for the other corners.

Thanks guys! I'll be sure to post pictures when I am done!

I think the lighter one is what I will go with, but I will see if anyone has any ideas first. Thanks!

Hey guys. I was wondering if I could get an opinion on something from someone with a good eye for design. I am making a coffee table with a centerpiece based on the Allomantic Table from Sanderson's Mistborn books. Here is the centerpiece. It is 17" in diameter. The symbols are milled to 1/8" of an inch and I am going to be filling them with 1/8" inserts stained a different color. The trouble I am having is with the staining. I made a quick little model of the project in Google Sketchup with two different color schemes. Primarily light: Primarily dark: The model doesn't show the symbols, because I am using the free version of Google Sketchup, so i can't import the file, but you get the idea. Also, the two 6" squares on the sides will have the symbols for the two metals that don't fit in the standard diagram (Atium and Larasium). The symbols will be the opposite color of the circle or square they will be in. So... Which do you think looks better? If you have any other ideas, I would love to hear them to. Thanks for the help! (While typing this up I looked at the model again and I think I am leaning toward the first one, but I would still love to hear what people think.) (Also, I posted this same thing on the Dragonmount Crafter's board. So if you are a member there as well, you aren't going crazy.)