Acorn Dish

Hi all, and a happy new year; let's hope it's a peaceful one. I am also hoping that it is going to be very creative. I'm full of ideas at the moment and can't wait to get on with them. The only problem I have at the moment is the temperature. It is colder than a polar bear's nuts in my workshop and now that I'm getting older the cold is really getting through. When I was in my prime and we had proper winters I can remember having many fishing sessions where I would have to break the ice before I could cast in.

In fact, whenever I doubt the doomers and gloomers about the truth of the temperature warming up I recall my own experiences and have to admit that they are right. During the seventies and eighties I was a member of Stone Angling Society which held its annual Christmas fishing match at the beginning of November. A bit early you might think, but the reason it was held then is because in December the canal would always be frozen over. Now however, our local canal is rarely frozen over even in the deep depths of winter.

Anyway, I mentioned in my last post that I had made a small dish and some acorns for my wife. Here it is.

This in fact is my first bowl, which is turned from a  piece of tulip wood. Hollowing out a bowl and shaping the sides is completely different from turning pens and lidded boxes, but after watching a few youtube videos about how it is done I took the plunge. I am pleased with how it turned out; the pyrography was straight forward as was the turning.

My only gripe is the orange colour of some of the acorns. I have a set of 10 wood dyes but for some reason it doesn't include a brown, so I had to mix my own by adding orange and green together. I guess there was too much orange in the second batch of acorns that I made. Ha well it's not the end of the world, I will make a few more when I get a minute if the weather warms up a bit. And who knows, if I get really desperate I might even put the heater on, well just for a few minutes.