...but not a total loss either. I started out this morning with a nice big cup of coffee, a Turning guide/manual, and plans to tun some bottle stoppers. Despite the cold and rain/snow mix falling early this afternoon, I had a good practice session on my nemesis, end grain turning. Once I had a few practice blanks turned and felt comfortable with the technique, I figured it was time to try a few bottle stoppers. I ordered a new style of kit which required a different mandrel from what I've been using. Unfortunately for me, I ordered the wrong mandrel. I need a 1 inch 8TPI adapter and I ordered the 3/4 inch 16TPI. Not a big deal as the mandrels are cheap, but more frustrating as it will be next week before I can turn these blanks I've prepped. Determined not to make it a total washout, I had a few additional kits I ordered to try something different. We've been taking art classes for the past nine weeks at the Toledo Museum of Art. The course is introductory drawing and the media is graphite pencils. Some of the pencils we were supplied with are the woodless variety, which are very nice to draw with, but a bit fragile. After snapping one of them, I found an extender kit which would make the nubs a bit easier to use. The kit has a 3/8in barrel which will allow most pencil stubs to "self-store" by flipping around the chrome holder. When stored, it has a nice rounded end. The opposite end houses a large replaceable eraser. The pencil extenders pictured here show the holder and one of my broken woodless pencils for scale. From left to right, I turned a spalted pecan and a Padauk which contrasts nicely with the chrome fittings. The last image is an additional Panache kit I had which I almost forgot about. The black enamel kit is dressed in Cocobolo with a ceramic rollerball refill.