Couldn't get it right

Hi All,
I have been very busy trying to finish the walking stick. I made a knob for it and did a bit of pyrography to finish it off.

I also used my Dremel to do some inset carving on the flowers and the stalks. I also burnt the background to give it some contrast.
Here is the finished stick.

I hate to say it but I don't like it. A lot of work for nothing. I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong.
Was it the wrong shape ? Too big? Was the pyrography over the top? Would a plain knob have been better? I'd love to know what you think.
Anyway, I decided that I could do better and did another one; a different shape and no pyrography.

Yes I know, and I can hear you laughing. My wife thought it jolly funny and made all sorts of lewd comments. Another wasted effort. Well perhaps not because it has helped me the solution. I need to make a smaller knob, which isn't all that easy. Let me explain.
The reason the knob is so big is because about an inch of the end of the stick is inserted into it. This is done to give it strength and I thought the design would be simple and look OK. Evidently I was wrong, so now I need a new design.
I have decided to use a ferrule to joint the stick to the knob which will give it strength and allow me to make the knob much thinner and smaller. Hopefully this will give me a balanced stick. I have sent for a piece of tubing to make the ferrule and when that gets here I will turn a new knob. With a bit of luck it will be in time for my next post.

I'm still doing art on the ipad and have just finished painting some crab apple blossom with a honey bee . It is the first time I've painted a bee. If you are interested, I have done a short video to show how I painted it.

If you enjoy it please subscribe, it costs nothing and if you don't click the bell icon, you won't even get bothered with notifications.
Any comments, I'd love to hear them.

Inlaid pot

Hi all,
With the big gardening jobs behind me I have managed to get creative during the last week. I finished the pot that I've been turning and it came out quite well. The lid is perhaps a little on the big side, it probably should have been slightly smaller, but overall it looks ok. The lid looks better in real life because the angle of the photo has made it look even bigger than it is.

The turquoise inlay looks very nice in the top of the lid and the one around the side looks okay too. If I did it again I would make it a little bit wider but I was worried that I wouldn't have enough turquoise powder to complete it. I shouldn't have worried because I had loads left over but it was too late then. I can't remeber what the wood is, I think it is Panga Pang. but it doesn't matter because I won't bother with it again. It was very hard and created one hell of a lot of dust when I was working it.

If you saw my last post you will know that I'm also working on a carved and pyrographed walking stick. I have drawn on the rest of the flowers and outlined them with the pyrography iron. I have also started carving the stems and leaves.

I used my dremel with a small rosebud shaped burr and it worked very well. It was accurate and quick. I did all of the carving in the garden which makes a change from doing it indoors where I have to have the dust extractor running which is very noisy.

Besides working with wood I've also managed to get another painting done. We have a couple of polyanthus plants at the bottom of our garden.

It's a beautiful little plant with flowers similar to a primrose and I thought it would make a nice painting. You can see how I got on if you watch this short video. I did them on a blck background to make them stand out.

I also explain a bit about going digital. If you enjoy the video, please subscribe, it costs nothing and if you don't click the bell icon you won't even get bothered with notifications.

Thanks for looking in.

Pyro stick

Hi all,
Are we having some bad weather or what? Every year is the same. We have a few nice days that gives me a chance to catch up with all the gardening jobs, then the weather turns foul so I can't sit in the garden and enjoy the fruit of my labour. But even worse, while the weather is bad, the weeds still keep growing, so when it goes nice again, instead of enjoying the garden it will be back to weeding and mowing.

Still I have a plan. Later this year we are having the  front garden, and part of the rear garden, hard landscaped with slabs, blocks and gravel. That should save me some time next year and I'll be able to do more stuff that I like doing.

On the woodworking front, I have decide to concentrate on the walking stick that I began a couple of months ago. I have done a patch at the top of the stick by carving some flowers on it.

I drew the flowers on first with a pencil then carved out the shapes with a Dremel using an inverted cone shaped burr. Then I used my pyrography iron to burn and re-enforce the shapes. At this stage it looked a bit rough around the areas where I'd done the carving, so  I filled in the whole of the background with my pyrography iron. Instead of my usual spoon tip, I used a wire tip on a hot setting and just kept poking holes in the wood.

It was very therapeutic and the contrast it gave made it visually more appealing. Now all I've got to do is more of the same on the rest of the stick. I am looking forward to sitting in the garden and doing it soon when the sun comes out again. And, I will also be doing a carved knob for the top of the stick, so I will be getting on with that too.

In the evenings I'm still doing a bit of digital painting. I have just finish a a pair of magnolias which I am very pleased with.

You can see how I went about paint these on a short video I did for my Youtube channel "The Armchair Artist" by clicking on this link.

Please take a look and, if you like it, please consider subscribing. I will upload a new video of each painting when I complete them.
Thanks for looking. Any comments or questions I would;d be pleased to receive them.