Hip Hip Hurrray

Hi All,
At last it looks like the cold weather is finally going. It's been a very cold and long winter, I'm in my sixties and can't remember a worse winter than the one that is just ending. There may have been of course, but I can't remember weather like we had last week.

The only good thing that has come out of my cold enforced with drawl from my workshop, is the fact that my art work is getting better. I have been experimenting with acrylic inks and pencil sketching.

The image above is a clematis that I did with acrylic inks. I use them like watercolours but find that the colours seem much brighter. The downside is that they dry very quickly and once dry you can't do anything with the pigment because it is permanent. That is why most watercolour artist stay away from them. To me it is a blessing, because once they are dry and permanent I can put another glaze over the top and be sure that the layer underneath won't be disturbed. In the past, when I've done this with watercolours, the bottom layer has mixed with the new layer and the whole thing turned a bit muddy. This doesn't happen with acrylic inks.

Here's a couple of anemones also done in acrylic ink.

I have also been doing a bit of sketching with a pencil.

These are fritillaries and were quite fun to do.

So I have enjoyed the benefits that the cold weather bought, but I am desperately hoping to get into my workshop this week to make some shaving. Please keep come back to see how I get on.

Tulips

Hi All,
Sorry that it's been so long since my last post but this damned cold weather just won't go away. I know it's winter and cold weather is expected but we should have a had at least one or two decent days this year. I guess I've spent about three hours in the workshop since Christmas and I'll show you the results in a minute.

You may be wondering how I'm spending my free time while I'm not turning, carving or burning wood. Well the answer is, I've been concentrating on drawing and painting. I'm getting old now and unable to stand at the lathe all day so I need a hobby which allows me to be seated. My thinking is that over the next few years I will do less turning and more artwork.

Anyhow, let me show you a couple of the arty things I've done while taking advantage of the cold weather. Here's a couple of tulips that I did recently and I'm quite pleased with them.

The tulips are very colourful but sometimes it is nice just to do a sketch using graphite and pencil. Here's a couple of fritillaries done using that medium.

Right, going back to the three hours that I managed in the workshop, here's what I've got to show for it.
I'm having a go at carving a small wooden carp that is about 2.5 inches long.
Here it is after cutting it out on my new scroll saw.

After that I managed to carve the main shape and sand it down a bit. I have also marked out the space for the eye.

For those of you who don't recognise the shape, it is going to be a mirror carp and I' hopefully going to do the scales with a gilding past. Not sure how that will work out and I'm not sure about the eyes either. Should I buy some, try making some out of resin or just paint them in? I'm not sure myself yet so please watch this space to find out.

I've got lots of projects waiting to be tackled as soon as the weather warms up, I'll keep my fingers crossed, perhaps it will be next week.

Last Earings

Hi all,
You may be pleased to note that this will be the last earring post for the foreseeable future. Not that there is anything wrong with earrings, but I need a change.

Here is a pair I turned from a walnut pen blank.

They came out rather well and look quite nice on my wife. I also made a pair out of an ebony pen blank; I love working with this wood. I wanted a white band in the earrings to contrast with the black of the ebony, so I cut a thin groove with my thin parting tool and filled it with white Milliput. Milliput, if you don't know, is a two part epoxy putty. You simple mix equal amounts of the two parts, fill the hole, or in this case the groove. Then leave it overnight to let it set, then you can carry on turning in the normal way.

Here are the finished earrings.

They look quite classy even though I do say it myself. So that was it for the end of the year and since then I've only managed one other items. It has taken the best part of three weeks to complete because the amount of time I can spend in my igloo cum workshop has been hampered by the ridiculously cold weather we have had this winter. Or am I just getting nesh?

Anyway, I decided to have a go at turning a pen and carving a snake on it.

The markings are done with my pyrography iron and I think it came out well. I'm not sure about the head of the snake, I think that could have been better, but for a first attempt it isn't bad, certainly a change from earrings.

By the way, the inspiration for the snake came from a You Tuber called Mike Stinnett, who carves snakes on walking sticks. Here's a link to one of his fantastic videos

So that is us up to date. Rumour has it that we might be getting some warmer weather this week so I might be creating something. Not sure what yet but if you come back in a few days who knows what you might find.

If you've got any comments on the snake or anything else please let me know.

Earings and Pendant

Hi all,
The weather is still grey and cold and my workshop is still colder than a penguin's pecker. I haven't turned a stick since Christmas and I'm getting lathe withdrawal symptoms. I promised to show you a few of the jewelry items that I turned for my wife's surprise Christmas presents so I will do that shortly. However, before that I'll show you what I've been doing indoors to keep myself sane.

Some of you may already be aware that I like doing a bit artwork. Not that I'm good at it, but it keeps me happy and in the warm. I'm trying to improve my skills by doing a bit of a sketch everyday and here is one of the first that I have done.

It's a goldfinch painted using Winsor and  Newton water colour markers. I hadn't used watercolour markers before, and to be honest, I couldn't understand why anybody would use them instead of traditional watercolour paint. My wife gave me a a set of 12 for Xmas so I had to give them a go. Actually, I was quite surprised at how easy they are to use and so very convenient, especial if like me, you have a shortage of working space. All you have to do is put a bit of colour down and then blend it in with a waterbrush. They work like magic and I'm very pleased with them,

The reason I did a bird was, (if ever the weather warms up) I'm going to have a go at carving a bird out of wood, so I thought that drawing one or two would give me a feel for the shape when the time comes to get my knife out.

Right, back to the jewelry I made my with for Christmas. The first is a pair of earring, turned from a piece of sapele and burnt with a wire.

They came out quite nice although I did have trouble with the CA glue finish. I had to revert to friction polish to get a good shine.

The next thing I made was a pendant, which the photograph below fails to show properly.

Although it doesn't look like it on the picture, I can assure you that it is perfectly smooth with a CA finish that came out like glass. It is a really nice thing and just goes to show what can be turned by sticking a couple of pieces of 6mm plywood together.

I'll save the other two pair of earrings for my next post because I've seen this weeks weather forecast and it's going to be another cold one. Roll on Spring and I might be able to get some more turning done.

Surprise

Hi all,
Christmas is well and truely behind us now, where the hell did those two weeks go? It only seems like a few minutes ago that I was beavering away trying to get some surprise presents turned for my wife.

So what did I make her? Well, her main present was a box with a surprise inside. Here is athe outside of the box which is turned from a 3 inch square of lime. I carved the heart and then textured around it with my pyrography iron using a stippling method. Here's the top view. I know I'm an old romantic, but what can I do.

Inside I wanted to give her a surprise, so here it is.

A bumble bee in a box. You don't see many of those about. The bee is turned and carved from lime. It has wire for legs and wings made from a plastic tomato box. He is resting on the centre portion, or seed head of the poppy and he is well and truely fixed with epoxy glue, so he won't be coming out in a hurry.

I think it is a reasonable try for my first attempt. I might do another and make the bee smaller and more refined, but that will have to wait until I have some time and the weather warms up a bit. At the moment my workshop is colder than a penguin's pecker so I'm not getting anything done.

By the way, I was worried that when my wife opened the box that she might get a shock and chuck the thing up in the air, but she didn't. In fact she was quite overcome at the efforts that I'd gone to for her and it bought a tear to her eyes.

I did also make a few bits of  wooden jewelry for her and I'll show you them in may next post because if the weather doesn't improve I won't have anything new to show you..

I leave you with another picture of the bee in a box.

Pyrography box

Hi all,
At last the weather warmed up enough for me to get into the workshop. I still had to have one bar on the electric fire, but at least I could manage some turning.

Here is the lidded box that I said I was going to make in my last post.

It is turned from a 3inch square piece of lime. I use lime because it is a light coloured wood that shows up the pyrography and it is easy to carve. After turning it I drew the flowers on the lid and then carved out all of the wood around them. I also did some shallow carving on the flowers to give the petals a fluted look. This stops them looking flat and helps the light bounce off the paint.

After carving the flowers, I burnt around them with my pyrography iron using a spoon tip. I then changed the tip to a wire point and burnt the large black areas between the flowers. For the paint. I raided my wife's craft cave and used some paints called "Sparkling H2Os" I used a white and pink and they came out very nice.

I then burnt a textured line around the sides of the main box before giving the whole thing several coats of  Chestnut's melamine spray gloss finish.

The box now sit alongside its little brother on the mantelpiece

Here is a picture taken from above. Here is a reminder of what its little brother looks like.

In the new year I'm going to do another piece in the same style to make up a trio, so please what this space to see how it comes out.

Currently, I am working on Christmas stuff which I can't show on here yet in case the intended recipients see it. I will take pictures when they are done and post them on here after the big day.

Anyway, I doubt that I will be posting again before Christmas so please let me take this opportunity to wish you well, I hope you have a merry but peaceful time and Christmas lives up to its promise for you.

Turned carved and burnt

Hi All,
I've given up carving the netsuke, not because I didn't enjoy the process or the results, but because it is so time consuming when I've lots of other projects I want to get on with.

The first of these projects was a little pot. The inspiration came from a small ceramic lidded pot that I found in a junk shop. It was only about 2 inches (50mm) tall but I just loved the shape. Anyway, I purchased the pot for £1.50 and took it home for reference.

Here is a picture of the pot after I'd turned it and you can see the flower design that I have burnt in with my pyrography iron .

Please note that the funny shape at the bottom of the pot is just for mounting it in the chuck and will be cut off when I'm happy with the pot. I have left it on for two reasons. Firstly in case I need to put the pot back onto the lathe and secondly it provides an nice handle for the carving work that will come next.


Here I have relief carved around the flowers to make them stick out in the final piece.

You will also notice the two black line that I have burnt around the pot to give a clean and neat border to the carving and the pyrography texture that I will do later.

In this picture you can see the texturing I have done with my pyrography iron and if you look really closely you will see that the petals of the flowers have also been carved.

Once all the carving and texturing was done, I painted the flowers and finish it off with a melamine spray.
Here is the finished pot complete with lid and a coin to give it a bit of scale.

I hope you like it, I thoroughly enjoyed making it and think it looks great sitting on my mantelpiece. The only problem is that it look a little lonely so I'm going to make it a companion. I like to have a decent idea about what I'm going to do so I have done this drawing of the lid of the box to give me a guide.

Now all I've got to do is turn it, carve it, burn it and paint it. If you would like to see how I get on please watch out for my next post. If you have any questions about this post or any others I will be pleased to help.