From Boatshop to Gallery

Taping the deck to the hull, again.

Back home, to the kayak
My boatshop time is running out. Spring is here and we need the gallery back. For a couple of years now we host the Deer Isle - Stonington High School student art show. It's a good way for the community to see what the students are up to in their art class and nice for the students to see their work in a gallery setting. It's a good time for us to paint the walls and rehang the gallery with new work for the season. ( The art teacher does most of the work, hanging the show, and keeping the gallery open.) But it means I have to move the boat out for a few days. I really wanted to get the deck fiberglassed before moving it, so it would be stronger, but had to settle on getting the deck attached.

In the top photo I am taping the deck to hull. This is it, if I don't get it lined up correctly, I'll have a crooked boat. Luckly, I spent a long time getting it lined up the first time I taped the deck to the hull, when I epoxyed the deck, so it wasn't too difficult this time. Just few extra push pins and clamps this time.


Then I epoxy the seam, later filling any gaps.

Now it's really a kayak.

Time to move out. Removing the cradle.

I have to admit there was something a little sad about taking the table apart. I had grown fond of the old crate table, splinters and all. The boat is far enough along that I should be able to finish the rest on saw horses. I have to say that although the boat is taking longer than I thought, it has been very enjoyable.

The boatshop dissapeared for a few days and my studio has moved back home. Within several hours it was a gallery again.

Deer Isle - Stonington High School Art Show Opening Reception

This Old Shack

B movie?

This isn't a still from a bad movie but a shot of our week "vacation". This is me trying to break up some concrete. We spent almost a week in New Hampshire working on this little shack. The place is beautiful, we spent time with my parents and a friend, but the weather was so windy and cool it was hard to be outside. I did get a couple of paintings done. And the cat had a blast playing outside.


We replaced the old mossy roof. We, being Michael and my dad; I was wheelbarrow girl, carting off the shingles and going on hardware store and donut runs.

The new roof.

It looks like we will have to replace the sill, and more. But that will have to wait until the fall.

So you may be wondering what this construction project has to do with "painting, art, boats, and living on the coast of Maine" but it does indirectly. This little shack will be a sort of studio/work/storage area. It is tiny, but can get paint on the floor...... and it needs us.


The day we left we had beautiful weather. Here is my mom in her Chesapeake Light Craft Mill Creek that my dad build for her a few years ago.

links for this blog
CLC Mill Creek

Fiberglass inside of hull

We've been away for a week but here are a few photos of the boat before we left.

The inside of the hull is fiberglassed using two pieces of cloth. The cloth starts a couple of inches below the edge of the hull. The green and blue in the photo is tape that holds it in place until I am ready to saturate the cloth with epoxy.


The excess cloth from one end is used on the other.


I was worried that the cloth wouldn't fit and I would have to patch some pieces together, but it worked out perfectly, with less than an inch to spare.

I somehow forgot to take photos of saturating the cloth with epoxy (could be because I had my hands full of epoxy) but it looks about the same as the other parts of the boat that have been fiberglassed. I am getting better at this fiberglassing by now, and didn't put on a saturation coat of epoxy first. I was running out of time and I seem to have the problem of putting too much epoxy on rather than too little.

Most of the fiberglassed areas on the boat have a couple of fill coats over the fiberglass cloth. The inside of the boat doesn't need it, but I put an extra coat on the area where my feet will be so it's not as rough. But I do wonder if the roughness of the cloth will be a problem to clean or be rough on items stored in the boat.