Friday 18 May 2012

Far Out!

I've been messing around with circles as a decoration and the way they wrap around curved edges giving a cool pattern. This piece was an experiment with the circles and I just fancied making something with bright 'whacky' colours for a change......
Its made from a piece of Beech kindly given to me by Mark Rhodes some months ago. The base ends in a soft point so that the form sits tilted forward. The name came about because my wife said it looked a bit 'retro' and 'far out' LOL! It is six inches wide and three inches tall.

Friday 4 May 2012

The Blood Urn

Well I couldn't just make things for the stall without doing something from my head filled with ideas!
'The Blood Urn' is more of a 'squarer' shaped vessel than what I usually produce and is coupled with the matching sphere to hopefully give a Human(ish) form.
I have tried to create the look of something very old and important and had the idea in mind of a burial urn containing the ashes of some great tribal leader or warlord, something to be revered by the leader's people for eternity. The striking blood colour, brushed with gold showing both the strength and wealth of the 'occupant'. I know that's a bit waffley but having an idea or theme really helps me get into what I want to produce, hopefully giving it a bit of feeling....LOL!
The piece stands around 9" tall and is mounted on a quarter of a circle base with a small rectangular panel of matching embellishment to help tie the whole piece together through all three elements. The colours are all acrylics and the texture has been created with these by the method of application.

Been a while....


Firstly I would like to apologise to the regular readers of this blog as I have not made a post for over two months. It is and always has been my intention to make a blog entry at
least once a week to keep things fresh and share with you all what I have been up to. I literally haven't turned a thing since the end of February until yesterday. I never really meant to take such a long break but have been busy working(the day job) and putting my spare time into my 'Reef Aquarium' which had been
getting neglected and badly needed a revamp.
The break from turning has however allowed me to look afresh at what I'm doing and hopefully allowed me to move away from some of the subconscious influences of others work. Anyway it felt damn good to be back on the lathe and making those shaving fly!!!
Tomorrow we will be having a stall at my sons preschool 'Spring Fling' event, so I have made several pens and 'Spinney Mushrooms' which always sell well at any event where children are present! I will of course have much more of my usual fare for sale too as well as donating something for the raffle. It was good to get my eye back in making these simple items. Now I just have to keep my fingers crossed for good weather and a wood appreciating, money spending public!