Johnny Taylor

Ever have one of those days........

2012-02-24T08:14:00.001-08:00

Well I've produced a lot of shavings today and have nothing to show for it........ My day started out good, with no 'must do today' work on and this combined with an incredibly warm sunny day for February. I decided to take myself off for a nice walk along the beach to soak up some of that lovely sunshine, I strolled along with the mp3 player entertaining me and lots of thoughts and ideas flowing through my brain. It was so pleasant that I sat down on the sea wall and just watched the waves gently roll in and the seagulls cruising around the blue sky.....it was very nice!
After walking home I had some time with my children, a spot of lunch and as my wife had guests with kids coming for a 'play date', I retired to the shed for a spot of turning. This is where it all changed!
I firstly set out to make a hollow form for a little idea I have, I turned the outside, sanded it, hollowed it out and somewhere along the way managed to chip the edge of the opening!! Removing the chip somehow created another larger one and that was that, piece destroyed.....!!
Slightly fed up with myself I decided not to make another form right then and figured I would make a thin bowl for a pierced piece I want to do as this would be simple and quick. The outside was turned and sanded and I hollowed the bowl out and finished the inside. I then proceeded to remove the mounting spigot with very gentle cuts( something I have done so many times previously) when 'BANG' and my bowl was sprayed around the shed! I thought 'OK, fair enough' this is bound to happen sooner or later when removing the chuck mounting from such thin turned pieces and I took another blank from the shelf.
This time I didn't even get to finish hollowing it out, I managed to turn a 1/2" wide section half way down the side paper thin and rendering this 3rd item useless and what was worse this time it was definate 'driver' error!!
Somebody once told me things always go wrong in threes!! Needless to say the shed is now locked and thoroughly defeated I have retired back to the house!

All At Sea.

2012-02-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

I have had an idea to make a few loosely based nautical pieces for a while. This piece actually represents the second work in this series. I thought one of the 'pointy ended' seed like forms I occasionally make would suit the appearance of a streamlined sea going vessel and I had the perfect piece of bone dry English Elm hiding under the bench for the job!
I had two sketches for the sail part, one being a large piece that would reach from the 'mast' to the very end of the hollow vessel and be pierced and the other a more 'yachty' design. I went for the second option as it gave greater scope for capturing a feeling of motion, with the sails filled by the wind and the whole thing displayed at an angle, hopefully conveying the feeling of a fast yacht being propelled through the sea.

The 'sails' are made from very thin turned Sycamore that has a hint of spalting to it and the 'mast' is Beech. The base is made from a square of Mahogany which has been carved and coloured with acrylics. The form is mounted to the base by way of a thin brass rod which cannot be seen .

Something a little bit different....Pipes!

2012-02-17T03:25:00.000-08:00

Tim enjoying his new pipe!

My good friend Tim James who both made and maintains my website, www.woodturned-treats.co.uk , asked if I could make him a new pipe as he had dropped and broken his favourite one. I naturally said, with slight trepedation, 'Errrr well, probably? OK then" , but after watching a few youtube videos on the subject and a little reading to learn the internal layout of bowl and draw hole, I felt more confident.
Now although the preferred material for pipe bowls are Briars, these are not readily available locally, several other timbers however are suitable for making these, one of which is Olive wood. Unfortunately I didn't have any of that either, but very kindly Nick and Jane Arnull sorted me out with a few pieces to get me going (thanks chaps!).

Contemplating the Universe.....

The hardest and most important part of the whole process is getting the holes right as the draw hole needs to enter the bowl at the very bottom to ensure the pipe is a 'good smoker' but with being careful and lots of measuring it came out just about right. The top of the bowl was then turned in the chuck and the first part of the stem between centres, this leaves the two ends sticking out from a block and the rest of the shaping is done by carving and sanding. The mouthpiece is simply turned from Indian Rosewood with the oval shape to go in the mouth shaped on the sander. The bowl was finally rusticated with some texturing, finished and buffed and she was ready to go!!
Tim was most impressed with his new pipe and I spent a few minutes trying it out myself, a bit naughty as I gave up smoking a year ago...............

Got Wood!

2012-01-22T08:04:00.000-08:00

I've acquired a few bits of wood after the latest windy days. There are a few large spalted Sycamore logs at the back and the rest is Walnut!! A whole tree of the stuff!! The Sycamore is the rest from the milling post and is all around 18" wide. The Walnut trunk at its thickest is about 20" down to 12" and there is several bits of 6" or so branch wood(some bigger) Spot the cup of coffee for a size comparison! All I need to do now is mill it........

Messing About With Copper Leaf

2012-01-20T11:50:00.000-08:00

I quite enjoy playing around with different finishes and techniques when it comes to decorating work and this piece was no exception. I do seem to have an ongoing like for metallic materials and effects at the moment, particularly when used with other colours and textures.

This form started out this morning as a block of Elm that hadn't been used as it was a fairly poor example of a beautiful wood. I chose it as I thought the openness of the grain would look good with the colouring technique of base coating with white that would hopefully show in the open grain after airbrushing with several light coats of stain. The white is also applied in such a way as to leave a very slight texture that gives the final colours a nice matt finish to contrast the bright copper leaf.

The stains have been built up purposefully uneven to leave a slightly 'mottled' appearance to the coloured area of the form. The same colouring was also applied to the both the bottom area and the lid prior to the application of the copper leaf as a base coat. After it had dried, I rubbed at the copper leaf to give a distressed look and break through to allow some of the colour to show from underneath.

Finally it has been topped off with a simple yet delicate finial of Indian Rosewood for a nice dark contrast to the rest.

Milling!

2012-01-13T13:19:00.000-08:00

buzz buzz!

Well as the old saying goes 'Its an ill wind that blows no one any good'. A big Sycamore blew down near my Father-in-laws and the farmer who owns the land lets him clear up fallen wood for firewood. Thankfully he thought of me before sawing it all up in short lengths for the fire. I helped him get the wood and and got my 'share' in the form of several 14-18" wide 4 foot long sections and a few smaller pieces to play with too.
Then came the problem of how to process such large and heavy lumps of wood efficiently to dry. Chainsaw mills are ridiculously expensive for what is after all a few bits of straight metal, so I thought a home made one was the way forward. Now I am no metal worker but luckily for me my best mate Andrew 'Burger' Burton is a dab hand with the stuff! I drew up the plan and worked out the sizes, Burger brought some old box section he had and between us we knocked up a mill frame yesterday afternoon. The 'fun' was in trying to get everything perfectly square, this was even more important as the frame only clamps at one end of the bar and so has to be perfect to get square. even thickness slabs.
The picture shows the first log being cut using the mill, my 20" bar Ryobi (cheap and nasty) chainsaw is clamped in and I'm pleased to say it all works perfectly
I know I'm not wearing the proper safety gear in the pic (a bit naughty but it was just a quick test run on one of the thinner logs) and would advise anyone using a chainsaw to use proper equipment at all times.

Blue and Green Vase.

2012-01-09T12:56:00.000-08:00

I seem to be getting several things completed recently, which is good!
The reason I made this vase was to try out a method of undercoating colour to give a very matt stone like finish with acrylic paints. I'm quite pleased with the result after the airbrushed blue to green fade.
I do not know how this piece will look after a few days as the Sycamore its made from is from a tree which blew down last Friday! It does, I think, have a good chance of survival as it is turned very thin and I have turned very green Sycamore to a finish before without any problems.
Still whatever happens to it, it is always great fun to turn wet Sycamore with streams of shavings flying from the gouge and a free shower from the spinning timber to boot!

Magma Bubble.

2012-01-08T14:41:00.000-08:00

This little hollow form(5" tall) was an idea that came to me from the making of the spheres in the previous post, the shapes reminded me of oozing lava, as these things invariably do this lead to me thinking and coming up with this idea. Its basically based on how underwater erupting lava looks, the way the outer part of the lava hardens and darkens and then is suddenly cracked open by intense pressure to reveal just for a moment new, fresh hot magma for the cycle to begin again.
The piece was first turned,then carved, hollowed out and finally decorated. The 'lava' section has been airbrushed and the upper and lower pieces have been textured by pyrography, ebonised and then had a small amount of silver acrylic applied thinly over the outside allowing the deep parts of the textured area to remain jet black. The small finial is turned from aluminium to tie in with the silver over the ebonised part.

Emergence

2012-01-04T14:28:00.001-08:00

Its been over a month now since I have posted anything up here or indeed since I have been able to produce any work! All four of us(wife, son, daughter and myself) have had a really nasty little virus that many people locally have had that lasts six weeks! As a result I have used much of my spare time looking after the children, one is two years and the other just nine months, so its been lots of nose wiping and comforting!

The other big thing that has happened is that I have been diagnosed with a medical condition that has prevented me from entering 'deep sleep', feeling very tired has been the way of my life for a long time. After tests(and to cut a long story short) the sleep specialist at the local hospital told me my condition was so severe that I might have not bothered to go to bed at all for all the good it was doing me!! I am now receiving treatment and the fog of tiredness is lifting, this leads to the design of the piece pictured opposite.......

The basic idea of the design is to show the colour emerging from the dark spheres, where the spheres represent parts of my mind and the colours are thoughts, brighter, sharper, quicker, all emerging from the darkness of my own tiredness. The 'stand' is representative of the mind as a whole(its physically keeping the spheres together as one thing) and the spheres can be seen through windows in it. I wanted the 'stand' to appear 'rough' or 'rustic' like something ancient hewn out of stone as I thought this would be a good look for the piece.

I don't know how it will be seen by others as its quite a personal thing to me, so obviously carries meaning for myself......

Midnights Little Flower

2011-11-22T12:55:00.000-08:00

Finally managed a to get a long overdue opportunity to get a new piece of work done and a blog entry!!

Just after finishing work on the potato harvest I managed to injure my back to the point of not being able to turn or do very much of anything at all, other than say "ouch" quite a lot!!

To cut a very long story short, a friend recommended a chiropractor, I went along albeit a little bit sceptical to be honest but after three sessions of massage and 'manipulation', I'm really pleased to say that I wouldn't even know that I had ever hurt it!!

Anyway, on to the important stuff! The only turning I have done since the

beginning of October has been basic stuff for customers, door/drawer knobs,

a few pens to sell around Christmas and a couple of small plain bowls. I can only say how pleased I am to have a bit of time for turning what I want to turn again!!

'Midnights Little Flower' is the fourth piece in my 'Dark' series of work, although perhaps not as darkly themed as some of the others it is, to me at least, still something of the night. I hope the title is pretty self explanatory of the design, I have used cold colours, especially silver and purple to give the piece a 'lit by moonlight' feel.

Done!

2011-10-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

Finally, as of 3pm today, the potatoes are done!!!! I arrived home to find a quick carving job for me to do for my kids......

I'm spending a long overdue day with my wife and children tomorrow and then finally Tuesday I'll be back to turning!!!

'TATERS (or potatoes if you're not from round here...)

2011-10-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

No time for turning this last week or two!!! Its the annual potato harvest and I help the farmer who lives just up the road from me every year. My job is mostly sorting out the 'seed' potatoes to be planted next spring and involves me picking out all the 'manky' ones and throwing them in a big box..... Its tough manual labour but it is kind of nice as its the only work I do where I am not in charge and therefore have no responsibility if anything (or indeed everything) goes wrong!! This last week has been early starts and late finishes but things should be a little less intense in the coming week, hopefully allowing me to get a few little turning jobs I have out of the way.

Anyway in the absence of anything creative to share, here is a picture of me being silly towards the end of the day and laying among some 'taters in the hopper that the trailers tip into.

The Eternal Prisoner

2011-10-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

'The Eternal Prisoner' is a sculptural piece I have been working on lately, it was going to be the fourth piece in the 'Dark' series but evolved from its original idea through sketches and subsequent thoughts on what it is trying to say and has therefore moved away from the original plan.

The 'prisoner' is represented by a decorated sphere inside a 'spherical skeletal' cage, there is no way out of the cage, that is the ball does not fit through any of the holes, no escape! The prisoner ball is representative of new ideas, new ways

of thinking,of living, freedoms, desires, new technologies and explorations(both physical{space} and psychological). There are several simplistic, subtle shapes and designs in the decoration of the ball, from eyes(which the prisoner looks out of the cage from) to wings(freedom) All these being stifled by the constrains of the world(the cage) these being outdated tradition, religion, tribal mentalities, greed and the self imposed financial world(it doesn't really exist, we invented it!) that tells mankind 'We can't afford to go further'. Through all this the prisoner looks out, wishing they could be free.

The carved ring is there as a symbol of eternity, the silver colour added to it and the other parts are to emphasise this, silver being a precious metal that does not rust away.

Bowl and Spoon 2

2011-09-29T12:37:00.001-07:00

This is the second bowl and spoon set I have made and I think I will be doing a few more. For me the matching spoons add something to a bowl,( no, not just literally) making it a much more ornamental/artistic piece, rather than a simple receptacle for fruit or keys!

The decorative band on these has 5 bars with a pyrographed brickwork design on the middle 3. The band has actually been dyed blue but the yellow of the timber (Acacia) makes it appear green.

The bowl is 12" wide with a gentle inward sloping rim and the spoon 11" in length and is turned from a single piece of wood on two axis. The design on the spoon is identical to that of the bowl but is slightly bigger as making it the same width would not have looked right.

I have a few ideas for future sets involving mounting the spoons but that is something to be thought about more before making them.

Fiddling with patterns.

2011-09-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

As the title suggests this piece was about making patterns or more specifically, patterns using circles around a hollow form. Some interesting ones can easily be made simply by overlapping circles in various ways and then filling in parts of the overlapping pattern, be that with colour, texture, piercing etc. This particular pattern occurs 3 times around the form, if it is turned 60 degrees the pattern is different as shown in the second pic. The overall effect is what seems to be 2 different patterns both occurring 3 times around the form but each being made from the other. I hope this gives a nice visual appeal as the decoration can be seen in 2 different ways.

The dark areas are filled with random dots burned in with a pyrography unit, the edges of the burned in areas are made purposefully imperfect to compliment the well worn looking patina to the finish to give that well worn and old look that I seem to be producing lately.

The whole form was dyed royal blue after the pyrography and a silver gilt cream rubbed over sparingly to give the metallic patina. The finial is aluminium and timber used Acacia.

Teapot no.2 'Magic Teapot'

2011-09-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

Well when I made the last teapot I said I wasn't going to get into making them and here I go making another one!

This one is a slight revision of the firsts design, I wasn't happy with the spout on the first or the position of the handle. On this one the spout and handle leave the body of the teapot at the same place as each other(only on different sides!), which I feel gives the piece more balance. I have gone for a 'fatter bellied' pot as well, the sort of shape that I hope wouldn't be out of place

on an old ladies tea table!

I'm much happier with the shape of this one and the angle of the 'contemporary' handle sits at, this handle even feels good and stable when you hold it as if to pour.

The decoration is based on the common this time of year Psilocybe Semilanceata mushroom, there is one sprouting up from the lid(hence the slight upward reach of the lid) and more in a ring design around the top.

Six months on....

2011-09-12T00:59:00.001-07:00

Well here we are, six months on from starting this blog. I began my writings here on March 12th 2011, four days after the birth of my lovely little daughter Daisy and my first post was a picture of her and myself grabbing 40 winks on the sofa! So it seems right to post another picture of her now marking a milestone in my blogging and her life. She is pictured here this time with her big brother, my son Dylan (2). As I took the picture he spotted a spider crawling up the wall he's pointing and exclaiming "There's a big spider Daddy! Put it outside."

I can't express what these two mean to me, I just can't put into words the feelings I get when little Daisy smiles at me or Dylan comes and gives me a kiss on the cheek out of the blue and says "I love you Daddy." All I can say is life with my own little family is so much more than it ever was before in my youth, when I thought I was having the best time going.......

Anyway here we are, I've enjoyed this first six months of my blog and am pleased that it has, as of ten o'clock this morning received 2175 pageviews, and attracted 15 followers(something I wasn't expecting!). I hope it remains interesting for you all to read in the coming months and as enjoyable for me to write.

Thanks all,

Johnny

Teapot.

2011-09-09T12:49:00.001-07:00

This is the first teapot I've ever made, its not something I think I will get right into making but found the exercise in how to fit it all together interesting and indeed 'educational'.

I came up with the idea a while back after seeing many designs posted on various forums and yesterday I stumbled on the webpage for the AAW's Teapot Auction and was reminded of my design. This coupled with the fact that I fancied a change from turning the things I've been doing lately....

My idea for the design was for a 'traditional' shaped body for the teapot with a contemporary twist in the design of the lid and handle. The topper on the lid is to make a 'T'(the symbol for tea!) shape, the handle is simple but modern looking(I hope) being made of two 'peg' shapes. The 'old dirty metal' finish was achieved by colouring it with a base coat of black with silver gilt cream applied very sparingly using my finger! My finger is the only tool that seems to be able to create the uneven coat I want by way of a great deal of rubbing! The dimensions are 4" high and 7" long.

Bowl and Spoon

2011-09-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

The continuing wet weather is keeping me from the day job but is allowing me to be productive in my turnings, so I can't grumble too much.
I haven't made a bowl (to be just a bowl) for ages and this Acacia wood I have with its yellowish tones was just begging to be made into a bowl with a nice purple band. Yellow and purple are just such a great combination. The band has been pyrographed with random vertical lines and also had some metallic gold rubbed in unevenly to give an old, worn but luxurious look.
The matching spoon I admit was an afterthought, I figured it adds another dimension to the piece, it is also the first spoon I've ever made and I did just wonder whether 'I could'! It is by no means perfect but I feel it does compliment the chunky 'rustic' feel of the bowl. Not that any of that matters now, my 2 year old son spotted the little spoon and loved it, "Daddy make spoon for my in shed?" he said. Well what could I do? He's never asked for a turning so sincerely, so I said "Just wait until Daddy has photographed it", he sat patiently beside me while I took the photos being as good as gold, when I had done the little lad ran off with his new possession. I guess I'll make another spoon for it.......

Light Speed

2011-09-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

Here is my latest offering, thanks to a rainy afternoon and my wife having her friend with a 2 year old daughter round for the kids to have a Sunday afternoon 'play date' as they seem to call it, I got a bit of time to myself in the shed :) and what's even better is they sent me out coffee and pink wafer biscuits as I worked!!
This design has been around in sketch form for a while, since I was doing lots of pointy ended forms a few months back.
The design is based on the idea of a particle travelling through space at the speed of light (maybe I've watched too many physics documentaries!!) The form being the particle itself, rounded at the front in the direction of travel and coming to a soft point at the other end. The base is to represent the space its flying through and the finial represents space/time being warped by the particle as it flies along at the cosmic speed limit. A better explanation might be that of the shock wave that can be seen infront of a plane about to break the sound barrier only in this case with space and time rather than air(OK my physics may be a bit shaky.....).
The base is made from an offcut of Elm, ebonised and then 'metalised' by rubbing a tiny amount of gold paint over it which gives a nice,dirty bronze like appearance . The finial is also a small piece of surplus Elm that has been steamed for about half an hour and then set in shape before finishing. A few coats of satin lacquer provide the finish.

First piece turned with the new batch of Acacia.

2011-09-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

I was quite keen to try out a piece of my newly acquired Acacia to see how it was to turn. I managed to get out to the shed at a fairly reasonable hour and clutching my third cup of coffee of the day, selected a suitable piece of the timber. I went for the smallest of the blanks I had cut yesterday which was 6" wide and 4" thick and set about making a side grain hollow form. I'm loving the grain patterns you get in these side grain forms at the minute and am probably making far too many of them!
I must admit that turning the Acacia is a delight, for such a dry timber (this is absolutely bone dry), it cuts like a dream and I was sending long shavings across the shed in streams :) A light touch on the outer finishing cuts with the gouge sharp leaves a fairly nice surface with ease. The hollowing was just as easy and the Keltons once again made really light work of the process, although with this particular shape my laser guided captured bar hollowing rig hasn't the reach to get right into the corners and as a result I have to do what is the most awkward bit by hand with the hooked Kelton in a handle (they fit nicely into the big Munro handle). I must order some steel to make an articulated one which I'm sure would reach into the very corners of these with ease and with the simplicity of laser guidance.
The hole is 7/8 of an inch wide with a flush fitted lid in Bocote and an aluminium finial. The finished piece measures just over 5 1/2 inches wide by 3 3/4 inches tall (without finial).

Wood!

2011-08-31T10:42:00.001-07:00

My dry timber stock is running very low and timber is getting more and more expensive. Yesterday I ventured down to the local timber yard in search of something to top up my stock without hurting my own less than full wallet too much!

I had a rummage through their 'dry timber shed' and discovered three, four inch thick chunks of Acacia, air dried and been there for years as the wood yard guy told me. I asked for a price and he said £15 each, I didn't say anything for a bit and let him try to find me other stuff before I said " £30 for all 3?" He agreed and I took them away.

I took them over to the new, unfinished workshop, which houses the 'big'(not that big) bandsaw to process them. I got a good few turning blanks from it, these are on the left of the picture. Ten bowl/side grain blanks, the biggest of which is twelve inches wide and the smallest six inches, seven end grain four inch square by six inch long blanks, three eighteen inch long two inch squared spindle blanks and a few small bits for pens(I hate making pens but people do like to buy them!) Not bad for £30.......

The right hand side of the picture is the last of my four inch thick Elm stash! I'm pretty gutted about this coming to an end as English Elm is hard to come by and this came from a big tree(which you don't see any more) with nice 'big tree' grain patterning. Just six, five inch side grain blanks and six four inch square by six inch end grain ones and thats it :(

I have also acquired a large piece of Ekki which is really dense and my piece is difficult to lift! I don't know how it will turn and may regret getting it..............

What I really want is a supply of three or four inch thick dry Sycamore but I can only seem to find two inch!

Elm and Aluminium Hollow Form

2011-08-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

I haven't made it out to the lathe for a good few days, the day job, family, and a fine test match performance by the England cricket team have kept me away!! Lukily(for my turning) today has been a very wet Tuesday in Norfolk and I found myself with an afternoon of no distractions in the shed, just me, a coffee, loud music and shavings!

I started out to make a small Elm hollow form which I wanted to carve and embellish to fit with my current series, but my plans for this were scuppered by finding an internal(to the blank) knot with holes and cracks........ Time for plan B!

I have been collecting up some of the shavings from the aluminium I have been using in recent work to use for something such as this. I turned the shape for the form and filled the holes with the aluminium shavings, packing them in as tightly as possible and soaking them with superglue. A quick sand with some 80 grit paper makes light work of bringing the surface of the aluminium into line with the rest of the form. After hollowing and sanding to a final finish, several coats of oil have been applied, allowed to soak in and buffed to bring the Elm up nice and dark and bring out those rich colours in the grain. A small amount of silver gilt cream has been rubbed into the surface to give a hint of silver in the open grain and a flush fit lid with an aluminium finial to tie in with the filler job and gilt cream. The form is 5" wide and was hollowed with the Keltons, which I am still massively impressed with!

I'm hoping to get some more turning time tomorrow, I have another piece in the 'dark' series under way and a few more ideas of things I want to try out!

Claw.

2011-08-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Here is the third piece in my 'dark' series. This one is a part turned, part carved sculptural piece. As the title suggests its based on a claw, more to the point, this would be the claw of a nightmarish creature whose grip could not be escaped!

The shape is more or less based on half of a crabs pincer but with the long hooked slightly beyond round 'over-reach' of a velociraptor's claw. It also has three sharp aluminium spikes/spines along the back of the claw, I hope these make it look much more of a fearsome weapon!

The claw itself is made from Mahogany, this is for two reasons, the first is that I had some mahogany board laying around and am no great fan of it as a timber for turning! The second and most important reason is the open grain structure of Mahogany, this gives a nice visual texture to the otherwise smooth claw through the ebonising lacquer. Again a square white plinth seemed the right mount for the piece to sit on, it was never an intention to have the whole series sitting on these but now the first three pieces have them it may well be a recurring theme on further work of this series.

Kelton Hollowers

2011-07-28T08:37:00.001-07:00

After a six week wait my set of 5/8" shaft Kelton hollowers arrived(I had to wait for some to come into the country). With the hectic way my life is currently it has taken me another week to try them out!!

Wow, these things are fantastic, my captured bar hollowing rig loves them! I'm easily halving the time it takes to hollow a vessel with these as they cut away the excess wood so quickly and effortlessly and leave a decent finish from light finishing passes. All this is easily done through a hole of less than an inch across. They are easily the least 'fancy' looking hollowing tools I have tried and by far my favourite to date!

The piece pictured to the right of this text was the first thing I have hollowed with them, a fairly basic shape

made from a piece of fairly rotten Elm(well half rotten, the lighter half in the pic!). I was so impressed with the hollowers I put another 'better' piece of Elm on the lathe to make a wider, flatter form to test how the Keltons could reach far into awkward corners. Using my captured bar rig I could only reach within half an inch of the desired thickness right at the shoulder, so I put the most curved hollower in a tool handle from one of those expensive hollowing tools and could easily reach all the way. The best bit about this was that they work as a handled tool just as easily as they do in the rig.

This second form was turned side grain as the Elm has such a wonderful stripe to it in this orientation. The lid is a piece of ebonised Beech and the finial is turned from 6mm diameter aluminium bar.

The bottom line here is I wish I had the Keltons right from the start, I have four other specialist hollowing tools, two of which were pretty expensive and in my very humble opinion they don't hold a candle to these beauties.

Dark Of Heart

2011-07-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

Dark of heart is the second piece in what I'm planning to do as a series based on the ideas in the post below.

This one is a bit darker in thought, it is representative of the darkness that lives within a corner of all our hearts, the monster within, anger, hatred, etc.

The 'monster' has a large mouth filled with spike teeth to bite into its victim, its body is covered with backward pointing spikes so

that once its bit in to its victim its not coming out!! A nasty piece of work indeed! We try to not listen to it, pretend its not there and keep it down inside but its always lurking deep inside.....

The form itself is ebonised Elm, I used Elm as I wanted to have the open grain as texture on the monsters 'skin', it has 32 individual aluminium spikes, 22 on the outside and 10 inside as teeth.

Its a bit more sculptural than much of my usual fare but was a lot of fun to think up, design and produce.

Monochromatic Dreams

2011-07-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

This represents one of those sudden changes in direction in my work that come rushing into my mind now and then, maybe I've been working with Elm and soft natural looking curves for a bit too long recently and my creative subconscious has given me a kick up the backside with thoughts of angular shapes,shiny metal, black, white, a more contemporary/futuristic style and a sculptural feel......

The idea of adding metals to my

work has been fed by the 'Brass Finial' series and the thoughts of high contrast satin black with shiny silver in a darker, spiky, almost industrial way seem very appealing at the moment.

This first piece based on these ideas was formed entirely in my mind and not on paper, hence the title 'Monochromatic Dreams'.

The 'bowl' section is ebonised Beech, there are nine polished aluminium spikes and it sits on a square of Mahogany coloured with white acrylic paint.

Last in the Brass Finial Series.

2011-07-18T02:58:00.000-07:00

This is the last piece in the current 'Brass Finial' series. For this piece I decided to explore a different angle of presentation. It ties in with previous footless/pointy end pieces I have made but they have all rested either in a cradled way such as the 'pod' in this blogs banner or been held in position with a hidden weight inside and no stand/base whatsoever. I tried out a few different shaped bases but settled on a flattened cube shape,I cut this from a cracked and holed piece of Oak to give the base a solid but rustic look, this is to tie in with the slightly rotten Elm the form itself is made from. I hope the base gives a 'bold' look to the whole piece.

3rd in a series.

2011-07-10T11:12:00.001-07:00

This is the third Elm form with a brass finial in what is turning out to be a 'series' of pieces along those same lines.

I would like to think that this one represents a refinement of the design of the previous two and will try to give an explanation of the thoughts behind the design of the piece .

I have made this piece slightly more curved in form and must admit to being very happy with the overall shape of it. The finial is slightly simpler than the previous ones as on reflection I felt it being made of something as bright as the brass it would be better being simple and elegant rather than having too many shapes in the design. The 'lid' has also

been produced to be a flush fit rather than a lid that appears to sit on the form, this once again I hope simplifies the appearance of the form and gives more elegance and flow to it. A textured band around the top adds a bit of contrast and the gold accents on it tie in with the brass finial. The finial itself has been turned,sanded,finished to a shine with wire wool and finally treated with two coats of satin lacquer to give the 'brushed' appearance seen in the close up opposite.

The piece also features a bit of an experiment to make the grain stand out more but I need to try it out a few more times before revealing what it is.

Brass

2011-07-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

I've not had much turning time in the last couple of weeks and when I have managed to get a bit of time I've been messing up! I don't know why this happens but every now and then I have a week or so where everything I touch turns to...... well you know, the brown stuff! Luckily it always passes(no pun intended) and I can feel things starting to go right again! I often wonder if others get these little phases?

Anyway, after destroying a piece that had taken a lot of time on and off yesterday I decided to

make something simpler or at least more straight forward so produced a couple of lidded forms.

The first one (top right) is 6" tall

with a 3" brass finial, the brass was 'different' to turn, I have made bullet shaped legs for bowls in the past but this was the first proper turning I have done with it. You know when you get the cut right as you make really long curly shavings of brass, most satisfying! The lid is made from a small piece of Bocote I have left over from the knobs a few posts down.

For the second one I decided a black form would look great with the gorgeous Bocote and shiny brass finial. This form is a bit smaller at 4" with a 1 3/4 " finial. Mostly I'm just pleased to be making things that are coming out as intended again!

Flower Box

2011-06-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

This was made for a competition on a UK woodturning forum, its a bit experimental and probably won't do well in the competition..... It has however been a fun experiment with form, colour and most importantly using one shape going through another. The design as the title suggests is based loosely on that of a flower in bloom, with the box part being the centre and 'seed part' at the back and the skeleton collar being the petals or should I really say representative of petals.The central box part is a small piece of

Elm which had been saved as a spindle blank but was just wide enough to be utilised for this

project. The 'petal' part is a small 4" offcut of Beech, it has been coloured with acrylics and spirit stains.

That just leaves the inside of the box which has been textured and coloured to give the appearance of hammered bronze, the rough texture is also like the inside of the seed head husk of a flower with dimples where the seeds were.

Bocote Knobs.

2011-06-15T15:44:00.001-07:00

I had an order from a client for 40 knobs in Rosewood, I bought the Rosewood blanks and made the first dozen a couple of weeks or so ago. When they were picked up I found out they were Bocote! I must admit to having little knowledge of exotic timbers, I knew they didn't look like the only other piece of Rosewood I have turned but figured there must be natural variation in the appearance......

Thankfully my client really liked them and they were still in keeping with what he needed!

The picture shows the other 28 knobs for the order, they do not have any finish applied by me as this is done by my client later.

Its good to get into production mode now and again, the different approach and mindset needed for repetitive turning and each individual item produced in minutes not hours!

I have just learned from a chance post somebody made on a forum that Bocote is also known as Mexican Rosewood!

Ordered me some new toys!

2011-06-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

The current set up on my captured bar hollowing rig comprises of a Munro 5/8" shaft with a modified Sorby cutter and holder from an RS200KT, this doesn't work too badly but does lead to a bit of vibration through the length of the cutter tip and also means the tip sticks out from the left hand side of the tool shaft which makes getting right into the centre of the bottom of a vessel a challenge even with the tip dead straight. After a chat with a good friend mine, an accomplished turner on what is best, I decided to treat myself to a set of kelton hollowers for the rig! This medium set has a 5/8 shaft so will go straight in the captured bar handle without any modification.

Now I just have to wait for them to be delivered................

A 'Proper Job!' WIP

2011-06-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate enough to be offered this old lump of Oak, filled with rot, deep cracks and some burr. Now I'm pretty sure looking at the condition of it most turners would have said "No thanks", but for me it looked perfect and was soon brought home. I have a 'thing' for really old Oak and its almost a case of the rougher looking the better! The stuff gets really hard almost rock like with time but develops so much character and a gorgeous colour that always brings me back for more! A piece was soon chopped off with the chainsaw and mounted on the lathe for roughing into a balance, very slowly at first as old cracked pieces of timber are not the most predictable and

I have been caught out before with bowl blanks coming apart at speed and do not wish to repeat the experience ,this thought being especially brought

home by the sad events in the woodturning world of late.

After getting the rather

irregular shape into some kind of balance,the speed was increased a bit and the outside of

the bowl was turned leaving a small spigot for

mounting on the chuck. Note that I have kept some of those deep grooves that lead into cracks, these are to be a feature and help bring home the feeling of great age I want for this piece.

At this point the two lines were cut and burned in with an old guitar string wire burner and the pattern pyrographed in around the band. To keep with the old rustic appearance the pyrography was made imperfect, the spacing between the 's' shaped elements is exact(I think that's important) but the forming of the 's' themselves was done by eye with no alignment lines drawn around first. A very generous amount of masking tape was then wrapped around to hold it together for hollowing the inside of the bowl out.

Even with all the tape tightly wrapped around, during hollowing there were a few cracking noises, the walls of it moved around and vibrated terribly and I began to think it wasn't going to

make it! However after some gentle and nervous hollowing I ended up at the stage pictured opposite. The vibrations and movements left me with various grooves inside the bowl that just could not be turned away(you can make them out in the picture) So the only option was to find up the sixty grit abrasive and smooth

out the inside the hard way!

Most of the tape had by now been split by the force of the moving cracks, so it was all removed

and a new 'patch' of tape put over the cracks to keep it all together while it was reversed for the mounting spigot to be turned away. It was then signed on the base and a satin finish applied over it inside and out.

All that was needed now was to 'repair' the two major cracks. This is where the title 'Proper Job'

comes in, I knew I wanted to use crude staples to bridge the cracks but needed to source some that were in keeping with the styling of the bowl. It turns out that staples are all galvanised, which was not going to give the look of great age and rusticity, it needed rusty ones!

I set off driving around the local back roads in search of old gateposts that may have some really old staples in, I found some embedded in some posts left in by an old railway line which has been turned into a public footpath, the wires they once supported long gone. I prised a few out and got some whole ones, although most were so corroded they just snapped upon me trying! I'm really pleased with the finished piece as it has turned out just how it envisioned in the minds eye.

Successful day.

2011-06-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today was the craft fair in the little village of Edingthorpe. I must say I wasn't expecting too much from the day, it being a small 'out of the way' village.

We arrived at the church which was acting as the 'hub' for the villages event (open gardens,craft fair, local food) and found the lady in charge, "Ah, the woodturner, I have kept you a nice spot inside the church" she said and led us inside to an area between the front pew and 14th century Rood Screen, which has some really good paintings of some of the Apostles on, some worthwhile information on this can be seen here. As we set up the lady in charge returned with cups of coffee and chocolate biscuits for us, she also said we would get a free lunch of the locally produced food that they were selling outside! This was an unexpected and really kind gesture by the organisers and set the day off on a happy note.

I had taken a 6' table with one low shelf at the back and black cloth to cover it all over. We made up the display with a selection of 'craft fair' produced pieces, some of my artistic pieces, which I knew likely wouldn't sell at this type of event but I wanted to show what I do, I also photocopied the cover and page featuring my piece from a copy of American Woodturner and made it into an upright display.

The first hour and a half I had a few conversations with interested people and it was nice that my art rather than the functional items was drawing the attention, a few people wanted my website address but nobody bought anything, I began to think that we were in for a repeat of the last(and only other) craft fair we took part in, where we had a lot of interest and barely any sales.

Then we got brought our 'free lunch'(who says there is no such thing!) and while trying to eat it, it happened, more people were showing up and things started to sell! I'm not saying it was a mad rush but we continued a steady pace of sales right up to 5 o'clock when the event finished, with two very nice older ladies who bought a clock and two pens right as we were about to pack up.

All in all it was a very pleasant and successful experience, we met some nice people who showed a genuine interest, picked up a commission, ate some nice food and made a decent amount of money to feed the bank account! I shall be taking part in this little village event next year too!

Little Bowls

2011-06-09T15:08:00.001-07:00

With the craft fair just a couple of days away, I find myself making several small items that can be turned, decorated and finished very quickly. These small bowls are all turned from what were offcuts from other projects. I took all my odd shaped, offcut and generally random pieces of wood that take up valuable workshop space and cut them into whatever sized blanks I could. It was surprising to see how many useful small bowl and spindle blanks you can get from odd pieces you may on another day call firewood and dispose of! The combination of fast production and small pieces of 'offcut' timber mean that these fun little bowls can be sold very cheaply, I know a lot of woodturners don't like to sell things for too little but I feel 'why not' in this sort of situation, after all, I had a fun couple of hours making these, the materials are minimal and its for a community event.I have also made some fun spinning mushrooms again from scraps of wood and really quick to produce which can also be sold very cheaply. I must find time to make some pens up before the fair too, something I don't really enjoy but people always seem to want to buy!

These smaller and cheaper items will be sold next to my more usual work which will be on sale for more usual prices but hopefully I will have something on my 'stall' to interest different sorts of people.

Website improvements

2011-06-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

Well the new website only went up two weeks or so ago but my good friend Tim James who put it together for me wasn't happy with it. The gallery wasn't quite right and there were issues with the quality of reproduction of the images when enlarged, there were also a few more minor niggles with it that I won't go into now!

Anyway here we are two weeks later and a second new website has been uploaded to replace the first! Once again I need to thank Tim for spending his time helping me with this(I say 'helping', I mean 'doing' it for me!!!). The whole thing is a big step forward with amongst other things, an improved gallery, a picture of me(!!) and the one bit I have done......getting my webcam up and running again!

Please do take a look at the website and let me know what you think, both Tim and myself would like to get some feedback on our endeavours!

Small Forms

2011-06-02T14:24:00.000-07:00

With the craft fair fast approaching I have been trying to produce some affordable but attractive items for my stall. The easiest way to do this is to make some smaller items which greatly reduces the amount of timber used and time taken. Its also a great way to try out a few ideas quickly which can be built upon later or not depending on how I feel about the end results. The small vessel opposite is just a little under three inches tall and about the same wide. The lines around it are cut and then burned in, they are slightly wider around the widest part of the vessel and narrower at the thinner base. It is my hope that this effect gives a natural appearance to the bands in the way they relate to the shape, accentuating the curve to the small base.

The second small form on the left here I am not so sure about, its a little bigger than the first and a fuller shape. The thing I don't like about it is the way the close together banding makes the base appear much wider than it is in 'real life' . I include it here as I found it fascinating how such a subtle thing as a close banded texture can change the way the whole form of a piece can look.

New Style Band Decoration

2011-05-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

I'm currently producing things suitable for the craft fair we will be taking part in on the eleventh of June in the quaint little village of Edingthorpe in Norfolk. It will be held at the beautiful and fascinating thousand(ish) year old village church in conjunction with the 'Edingthorpe open gardens' event.

I have some gorgeous pieces of English Elm and I am making a couple of 'usable' bowls from it to sell. Me being me I couldn't leave them quite plain! The band on this one is a new style for me.

Flat top beads. burned with a wire burner between the bands, dyed and finally a tiny amount of silver gilt cream which just changes the appearance of the band in a really subtle but pleasing way.

I really like the look of the band and I think I will make an opposite version, that is, the flat beads over the entire outside of the bowl with a natural band around it where the band is on this one. That however is another project for another day!

A Proud Moment

2011-05-29T14:44:00.000-07:00

I was extremely happy to discover that my sculpture from last June entitled 'Entrance To The Other World' was published in the AAW's April 2011 edition of 'American Woodturner' journal. It was really nice (and almost shocking) to see it published along side works of other respected woodturners.

I think this is my proudest woodturning moment to date, right up there with that magical moment of producing my very first bowl on the first day of owning a lathe!

I do not get the magazine normally but thanks to the editor (and fantastic wood artist) Betty Scarpino, I am currently waiting for my copy to arrive from the US courtesy of the AAW. I hope to frame it and put it on the wall (wife allowing!) as it is the first piece of work I have had printed in any publication.

Website Revamp.

2011-05-26T02:54:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to say I finally have a new, better and most importantly up to date website. It is not yet perfect and there are refinements to be made but it is up and running. The gallery page needs more images added, my webcams not working just yet but I hope to sort that any day but as a 'bare bones' website I'm pretty happy with it so far.

I need to give my good friend Tim James a huge thankyou for taking the time and having the patience to put it all together for me and for continuing to make small improvements to it. Tim I shall be making you something special in the shed by way of thanks!!!!

Please take a look and let me know what you think of it, just click here to view.

Simplicity

2011-05-16T13:12:00.001-07:00

My sister persuaded me to have a table at the craft fair in her village in early June, I have only done one of these before and at the time swore never to do another (I didn't enjoy the experience much!). That will be two years ago by the time we do this one and so I'm hoping it may prove to be a better experience this time around.....

After agreeing to do it, it occurred to me that I didn't have any 'craft fair fayre' as it were. I don't think it would be very successful if I turned up with a table full of my creations without a

collection of more simple, affordable items with me. Having this in mind I have started to make a few smaller, practical,items that I hope will appeal to people browsing the fair. It will also use up some of the smaller pieces of wood that inevitably build up through being too good to throw away but not really big enough to be used in any of my designs! The small bowl pictured above was made with this in mind, it was an offcut of endgrain Elm from a hollow form made a while ago. It turned out to be a lot of fun to produce, at just 3" wide and about the same in height

it took very little time to produce and yet still gave me the satisfaction I get from creating any pleasing form. The textured and coloured band I just couldn't resist adding as I think they completely change the 'feel' of the piece and go with that gorgeous Elm grain and colour so well.

The next one is a simple curved shape bowl again Elm although this time 10" wide with just a couple of accent lines to give a bit of interest. Again it was a nice quick piece to produce and I hope is more practical than most of my usual work. Of course I will have some of my more creative pieces there also but I need to make some more easily saleable items such as pens, coasters etc

Amazing Old Oak

2011-05-13T15:56:00.001-07:00

Just a very quick post of this wonderful old Oak tree I took some pictures of on my travels. I had a friend visiting and I took him to see this old tree, it must be incredibly ancient and is in the 'growing down' stage of its life. I have looked at this tree several times before but never noticed the human figure at the top(right hand picture), who seems to be gazing out, perhaps the spirit of this several centuries old Oak.

I hope it continues to survive for many more years to come in its quiet spot surrounded by wild flowers. I must admit to often looking at trees ad weighing them up in terms of how many bowls I could turn from them but this really brought home the thought and appreciation of how long our timber takes to grow and what a precious resource trees are.

Carving fun!

2011-05-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

What a hot day today has been! The workshop seems even hotter than outside too. I have spent my day mostly between working on the piece pictured, drinking coffee in the sun and playing in the garden with Dylan! He comes up to the open workshop door(he can't get in!....safety first!) and with the sweetest little way says "Daddy, outside please", I just can't say no to that.

Between the playing and coffees I made this small hollow form to try out my new 'Microplane' rasps on. These were recommended to me by a friend who could not speak too highly of them, and after using them I can see why. They are far better than a 'surform' although they work on the same principle, the finish achieved from working gently with the 'fine' blade requires not much

sanding(thats always good in my book!)

The form was turned from English Elm to a thickness of 5mm as I wanted the finished piece to be quite light in the hand. The carving was mainly done on the lathe with the form mounted between a friction drive and tailstock as this seems to give good access to the sides of the piece. The last inch or so at the top had to be done with the piece cushioned in a vice. It was then hand sanded down to 320 grit, the top ring textured and coloured with acrylics and a coat of oil applied to the main body.

There could easily be many more designs done around this idea as it is so versatile and tidily produced with the new tools.

Fruit de la mare!

2011-05-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

Sunday night of another four day weekend! And what a great weekend I'm having so far! My wife wanted to see that wedding and as determined as I was to get on with something useful, I found myself 'drawn in' to watching it, with the occasional mad dash into the garden to keep Dylan entertained!

After it was all over and a spot of lunch the family went out and I resumed my earlier plan of turning something! There have been a few marine based pieces on the wows lately and it reminded me of a shell form I had sketched a while ago. I also thought it would be a good item to use a similar texture effect to

the bowl posted below. The hardest part was going to be carving the four spiral twists which make up the shell, I have only tried this once before and it was a single spiral on a scrap piece

of wood which I did without having the best tools for the job, needless to say its not on display anywhere!! I didn't know how this one would turn out but I am always of the attitude 'if you don't try you'll never do it'. I started by hollowing out the form to a thickness of 3/4" , I did this very roughly as I was considering it an experiment and didn't really expect to get the finished carving right, I now wish I had of finished the inside better!

The turning and carving were all done Friday afternoon, the texturing took most of Saturday but at least was done sitting in the sunny garden! The texture is built up one dimple at a time with a pyrography unit, the pattern following the spirals as you find in many shells. This was then cleaned and dyed a red/orange colour and gold gilt cream sparingly applied with an oil finish.

After all that texturing today was spent as a family day, we had a nice five mile walk in the sun by the river and then chips in the car by the sea later!! Tomorrow we are invited to my brothers for a BBQ :)

A decorative bowl.

2011-04-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated this blog for far too long! I have been so busy with my family and the day job that I just haven't had the chance to do much turning.

I have however been working on some bowls in the few spare moments I can manage! They are all very different and this first one is the most decorative one of the three, it is also the smallest at 8" wide. I wanted to create

a bowl that looks very luxurious and yet very old and worn, like it has been passed down through generations and has great importance to the owners, perhaps

a ceremonial object used very occasionally but for many, many years linking back to ancestors long since gone and destined for those yet to be born. This is an idea that very much

appeals to me but seems to feature little in our culture and 'throw away' society, I think that if we did have a greater appreciation of those ancestors gone before and the future generations to come, we might take greater care of our planet, looking forward beyond our own lifetime instead of just the short term.

The bowl is made from Basswood, it was turned,textured with a pyrography machine one 'dent' at a time, dyed dark purple, gilt cream rubbed on then mostly cleaned away to give it an old hammered metal appearance, gold leaf applied to the inside then parts rubbed away with a brass brush and gilt cream applied over these 'holes' to give a well worn look. There are several hours work tied up in this but I really have enjoyed making it!

Illness!

2011-04-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

I've not been able to do any turning or have time to update my blog for a week and a half thanks to pesky illnesses!! Last Monday Dylan had to go to the hospital for an x-ray on his thumb as he had hurt it, thankfully it wasn't broken! By Tuesday he began vomiting violently, we found out the hospital has a serious Norovirus outbreak and sometime in the three hour wait to get his x-ray the poor lad got infected....

With the new baby in the house we had to keep Dylan away from her to stop him passing on the infection, this in essence meant keeping him away from my wife as much as possible too. So I became his primary carer.

The inevitable happened and by Friday, when the little lad had recovered, I got it too!! Now Dylan being twenty months old dealt with his illness remarkably well and remained active and playful throughout the whole thing. Me on the other hand being an adult, couldn't get out of bed until Monday, couldn't eat a thing and existed on a diet of Ribena!

The good news is we both feel better now and neither my wife or four week old Daisy came down with it! I also managed to get out to the shed for a while this morning and made one of my pointy ended organic forms and will post it here tomorrow!

The end of a busy week and developing an idea.

2011-03-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

Wow,Friday evening already and here I am typing my blog in bed with a cup of tea at 10pm! I have had a really busy week and am very tired! Due to the nature of my 'day job' I have very little to do over the winter months(good for turning time!!) and then suddenly spring arrives, the phone starts ringing and 'pow' I'm busy again(good for my bank account!!) This week I've had two days of grading potatoes for the local farmer, a day and a half mowing lawns and a day spent digging up fir trees and barrowing soil!!! Oh the joys of manual labour!!! Still, the moneys good and the sun has been out all week, so it has been nice to be outdoors. Luckily I managed an afternoon to devote to my passion and make some shavings fly!

I finished work Wednesday lunch time and came home to find the family out for the afternoon, they had gone to see the 'inlaws', so it was off to the shed for me! After making the piece posted

previously, the ideas continue to come on a theme or at least a style and it continues to develop into something else. I really liked the colours on the 'fire' based bowl and started thinking of a new design based on a supernova, using the same colours. The result is shown opposite here, the

description of the design is as follows "In the death of a star, it sheds off the outer layers of itself in a supernova, thus creating a nebula of gaseous filaments and dust, in this case leaving a dark remnant behind"

I began to wonder how much wood I was

removing in these pierced bowl forms and found

up some very accurate scales.This piece started out as a 10" by 2" Ash bowl blank weighing more than a kilogram(2.2lb) and was turned into a 2mm thick round bottom bowl, this weighed

88g(a tiny bit over 3 oz), I then marked out my design and did the piercing work, sitting in the warm sunshine at the garden table, after quite a bit of sanding to ensure the removal of fluffy fibers and clean inside edges of the holes I reweighed the piece at 28g(1 oz). It was then airbrushed with acrylics and lacquered to finish, the final weight of the piece after drying out the paints is 31.4g(1.108 oz).

Piercing is addictive!

2011-03-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

As soon as I had pierced the 'lid' for the piece in the previous post, I sat it on the top of the headstock of the lathe upside down and knew that a bowl with this styling was going to be the next thing I produced. I made a few sketches over the next couple of days and came up with the design for this. Today Georgie had some friends over to meet the baby, not wanting to sit amongst women in 'baby talk' mode and them more than likely not wanting me there, I made for the refuge of 'the shed' with a coffee and my mp3 player to plug into the stereo,happy days!

It was nice to be able to have the door open and the heater off while I was working, spring finally seems to be arriving in Bacton, the daffodils are coming out and the birds are singing!

The initial thought for this piece was to make a simple 'open' bowl shape to pierce but I decided after a bit of a think that a wide rim ogee style bowl would allow the piercing to be shown off better.

My thoughts on the design are based on fire, the 'skeleton' part of the bowl is representative of the flames of the fire dancing away from the black part, which is being burned. Its no more complicated than that.

After turning the ogee bowl I got out a big extension lead and sat in the sun doing the piercing, Dylan saw me from the window and made his wish to join me in the garden known in that special way a nineteen month old can! He took great delight collecting the pieces I was cutting out off the lawn and arranging them on our garden bench, he loves being outside and currently also loves being with daddy, which I love!

After the piercing was done it was time for me to feed the family and then to put Dylan to bed, only then did I get to go back out to the shed,to break out the airbrush and colour my piece!

All in all a nice Sunday afternoon and an end result that I am happy with! I now have four days of 'real' work to look forward to this coming week.....

Experimental Piece.

2011-03-17T02:03:00.000-07:00

My parents looked after Dylan yesterday and Georgie took baby Daisy to show her off in a visit to her colleagues. Seizing my chance I made a dash for 'the shed' . I have had this pointy ended 'organic' Elm hollow form hanging around for a while with no 'lid' or finish. It was in my collection of 'I'll finish it later when a plan for it comes to mind' pieces. I don't mean to have unfinished work everywhere but I often get sidetracked and leap into a different project leaving things half done, but its often a good thing as it allows different ideas on how to finish them come to mind at some point, without being forced.

As many ideas do this came to me while laying in bed waiting for sleep to come, for me this is a time when various ideas and designs race around my mind without any of the distractions of the day breaking my chain of thought. The first thought for this was a disk cut out into three points to make a steady 'stand' to keep it still but as I imagined it I began to picture a wrap around style, similar to an acorn cup but made with a skeleton design, with a gap between to allow the full form to be viewed and also allowing

the piece to roll and center itself on the densest area of wood, adding another dimension (or keeping it) of movement/freedom . The skeleton design of course leads to the cup looking worn or corroded/rotten/eaten away and influences both the colour used and finish. I have used unnatural colour to contrast the natural organic look

of the form.

It is also the first piece photographed with my new lights and graduated background, which I hope leave the piece standing out better in the picture with the distraction of my old crumpled white background finally gone!

Some texture inspiration.

2011-03-13T13:07:00.000-07:00

As said in the previous post I have been snapping away at things of interest on my walks, I think its going to be a great way of having textural inspiration at hand and a good way to study things without appearing odd to others holding my head 6 inches away from random objects for minutes at a time!

The texture on the old timber sea defenses is great, I have no idea how to recreate this but it really does give me something to think about, this would look great on a sculptural piece or wall hanging.

The same old timber defenses have these corroded bolt heads in them. The speckles of colour and grainy appearance of the decayed metal is great and something I'm planning on using. It not only can be used to show decay but also great age, the effect of the rust bleeding into the timber is something I never would have thought of without taking the time to do this. This picture especially has ideas flowing from it for me!

I love these weather and tide worn old timbers the staining where the iron was,the enlarging by nature of the man made holes, the weathered bleaching and opening up down the endgrain. It makes me want to run out and buy a shot blaster!

Enough rambling, I'm eager to get back into the shed in a few more days and produce something!

New things!

2011-03-12T05:55:00.000-08:00

I have created this blog 4 days after the birth of our second child, Daisy, a really nice moment in my life. My 19 month old son Dylan has taken to her brilliantly and rather than our fears of him being ragingly jealous coming true he mostly just wants to kiss her on the cheek. It has to be the sweetest thing I've ever seen. Looking at the life my wife and I have created in these two fills me with a really nice warm feeling. Family life is by far the best thing I've ever experienced :)

There hasn't been any time for work over these few days since the birth but there has been a bit of time to sit back and think in the quieter moments of the day,when the family are napping. Time to think a bit about what I'm doing

creatively and where I want to go with it(I haven't come up with an answer yet!).One idea was to start this blog where I can post more thoughts and random things that influence what I'm doing,rather than just posting work on internet forums to be disected by people with no clue as to where I'm comming from and often can't seem to see past their own blinkered ideas.

I have also decided to try and soak up a bit more of the different environments around me,the colours,textures and shapes that surround us both natural,manmade and where the two interact. I'm trying to carry my camera with me to document these where possible, even if I don't know how or when I'll use them! I'll post some of them here for 'food for thought' . All this means more walks,which can only be good! Dylan has been enjoying them so far,we've visited the beach a few times this week to give my wife a bit of quiet time with the new arrival.