'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!

New Workshop Progress!

The new workshop is starting to take shape with progress being made with the blockwork despite the November weather trying to stop us! I'm making a timelapse video of the build and this is it thus far!

Been Busy.....

  I haven't blogged for a while or indeed done any woodturning! Since the second of September I have been working on renovating our new home as quickly as humanly possible. We had thought it would take until somewhere around Christmas time to complete the work to the inside of the house but somehow by working really hard seven days a week, more often or not into the evenings and the help of our family we have not only finished but also moved in!!
 The downside of all of this is that my former 12' x 8' workshop has moved with us but become nothing more than a storage shed for all of my tools and timber as I have had to fit the contents of three sheds into it!!! Rather than buy another, larger timber workshop I decided that building a more permanent structure was a better route to take even though it will take time to build. Now I know nothing about building so I am relying on the expertise of my Father in law who is very kindly helping me with it.
 The new workshop will be 26.5' x 12' as this gives a footprint of the thirty square meters that is the maximum size of outbuilding that can be built before the cost and hassle of 'Building Regulations' comes into play. I hope to get the whole thing constructed in the next month and get back to doing what I enjoy doing the most, turning and making!!
 This morning with the help of my Father in law, Brother and Nephew I have the foundations filled with three square meters of concrete which we had to barrow across the garden from the back of a cement mixer lorry and I now feel that I have a proper start made to my new workshop!!! :)

A start.

Nebula!

Here is something a little different and a bit bolder and/brighter than what I have been doing of late!
 I treated myself to some quality airbrush paints, I got some water based ones called 'Wicked Colors' as I had seen them being used in a few youtube videos and the colours looked to be as vibrant as solvent based colours but with less toxicity and easy clean up!
 I've got to say I'm very impressed with them, both in how they colour and the way they spray. All this despite the limitations of my cheap 'ebay' airbrush (may have to treat myself to a quality one......).
 As the title suggests(I hope) the design is based on a nebula or more specifically the star forming region of a large nebula where the gases coalesce to create new stars.
 

Blue Bottle

I'm still playing around with this teardrop shaped vessel and finial combination. This piece like the others is made from Sycamore and is five and a half inches tall.
 Rather than carve, blast or texture the vessel, with this piece I decided to use a decorative colouring technique I have been experimenting with to create this stone/marble look.
 The colours are plain old artists acrylics and the finish is a lacquer that doesn't dry too flat and shiny which makes the piece feel nice in the hand and not 'plasticy as some high gloss lacquers tend to. 

Horse Chestnut Burr.

This little hollow form is the first piece from some Horse Chestnut that I was kindly given around eighteen months ago. The tree had blown down in a garden just up the road from me and the nice man who owned it called Paul came and asked if I would like some. I had a six foot trunk section that Paul kindly helped me slab up with my Alaskan mill which has a lot of nice burr in and several smaller burrs from other parts of the tree. This is from one of the smaller burrs that has dried out nicely in my wood store. As Paul would not take anything for the timber I am going to give him this little form as a thank you. It is just under five inches tall.