'Nut'

'Nut' is the second piece in my new 'Welded' series. This one has gone a bit rusty......
 I thought it would be interesting to make a threaded bar insert and a nut but to leave these in natural wood. I liked the idea of doing it this way as it's the opposite of what you may expect, that is, a turned vessel is usually wood (I know it is but you get the idea) and a nut is generally metal.
 I have made the threaded bar from Mahogany which has the added bonus of being naturally rust coloured, the nut and hollow form are Sycamore.
I have a few more ideas for these but need to work out a few methods to get the results I want for the next ones.........

 I made the threaded bar much longer than needed so that it can  be turned further out or in, which gives the piece a nice 'fiddleability'(new word? lol)

Small Elm Bowls.

 I was asked by a gallery who sells my work to provide them with some more small plain bowls as they tend to sell ok.
 I made a batch up of mostly Sycamore but also used up these two small pieces of Elm that had been laying around for a while and were in the top of a box of bits and bobs. I was quite surprised at the lovely grain and warm colour of these when I had finished.
 They are five inches wide and are finished with nothing more than a bit of oil, which is my favorite finish for Elm as it really seems to bring the best out of it.

'Junk Pile'

Here is the first item from the new workshop! The workshop isn't quite finished, there is a bit more rendering to do and I have yet to get some armoured cable to supply the electricity(currently using a couple of extension leads...) but apart from that, the lathe is in and there are benches to work at!!

 I've been wanting to make some things in this 'welded together' style for ages. I've seen loads of stuff welded in the past and have always thought it looks cool. I came up with a plan to make the 'welds' which worked so well that I only did a test piece of about six inches long before doing it to the main vessel here! The colouring is airbrushed on and just copied from looking at some pictures of the burns (more importantly the colours) created by mig welding.
 I made the vase from Elm as its open grain structure would show through the decoration giving the keen eyed observer a clue to its true wooden nature. The piece is quite tall for me at seventeen inches(430mm) but was a lot of fun to turn. With the lathe now on a stable concrete floor I may do a few more larger pieces.

'Rust'

 The new workshop is not yet finished but I really needed to make something, its funny how being away from producing new work and generally away from creativity starts to get to me. lol. 'Making' has become such a large and important part of my life and  my own creativity seems as if  it just needs to come out and be expressed! (That sounds horribly pretentious when I read it back....)

 This piece has been rolling around in my mind for a while, I wanted to make something that represents impermanence and fragility, mainly due to my fast approaching 40th Birthday and for the first time my realisation that I'm impermanent and thoughts of my own mortality, the 'rusting bowl' represents this well for my mind.

Anyway, I would like to wish all the readers of this blog a very happy new year, I'm hoping 2014 will be a great year, I am very much looking forward to getting my new workshop finished and working in the lovely area we are lucky enough to now live!