New Products

Just to let you all know I have added some more tools to my web sites of the Revolution range and other Crown tools to my web site. Items such as un-handle gouges etc to fit the Revolution system.

There will be more products added soon.

Finishing off

This was a piece that I showed earlier which is almost finished. Eventually it will sit on a low stand/base/plinth.

Nothing new here with it being only slightly different than the previous pieces produced in this series Instead of using a single piece of bamboo for the handle numerous thin pieces have been tied off with copper wire, again with me trying to embrace an interest in Wabi-Sabi and using this to move even further away from that which I am able to control as I make and passing some faith in intrinsic beauty of the natural materials being used.

Each piece of bamboo being individual means that I have to let go of the anxiety with regards to how it will look and just accept that it will end up as it is intended.

Although I have to say that it is very hard to resist the "fiddling" that I like to do to make it "perfect" in my western way of thinking. So letting go is not as easy as I would like to think, but that is why I try to acheive it as for me the "easy" path only rewards with "safe" results.

The base at the moment is in limbo as I need to think about how to proceed. Keeping to the philosophy I should possibly use an old, rotten piece of wood for it to sit and not a finely finished stand. Hopefully I will be able to find a suitable piece of drift wood or similar to put it on. As it does need to be the right piece of wood and not just any piece.

Due to being busy I have become disinterested in finishing a lot of my pieces as I know that I will not have the time to get absorb in them but will have to stop and start.

While this initially is frustrating it is part of the process of having time to think about the different forms that are "almost finished", with more often than not the restriction of not having the time yeilds a more considered result.

Keeping busy

Well I have been trying to get time to update my blog with some new work. I have the designs in mind and have started working on the first one but at this stage I do not have pictures to post.

The rest of my time has been taken up with teaching, demonstrating and a few other projects including starting to write a book on woodturning, plus a few more articles all of which have deadlines. Deadlines for me are a good thing as I try not to take life too seriously and can drift into a rather laid back approach to what I do.

More details of the book at a later stage.

So for this entry due to getting less and less time at the lathe I have imalgamated what would have been several entries.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks the first being from a demonstration at Stuart Mortimer's woodturning club. Click on the link to view Stuart's work.

On arriving at Stuart's I was met with the below sight. Two very large lathes with 17 foot lengths of wood being being shaped for a project he is involved in. You should have seen the size of the skew chisel. :-)




The club members who gave me a warm welcome and a very enjoyable evening, with some good banter. Mostly amongst the members themselves.



Turning the outside of a lidded form.







Turning outside of an offset lidded from, the second project of the evening.




Turning out the inside/making a recess for the lid.

The finished offset lidded form.



The pictures below are from several lessons through out the week.

I always find teaching very enjoyable and rewarding. Passing on what knowldge I have is something I endevour to do, especially as people can go away and put into practice what they have learnt during the day and keep the craft moving forward.

The first is from a "turn a bowl course", with the student finishing the base of a bowl followed by buffing to finish.


Here is another lady who has come back for a second lesson with me to make a lidded form.





The picture at the top is the latest article project for Wodturning magazine. A small sycamore bowl stained with blue spirit stain with an aged gold leaf band.

The golf leaf once applied is rubbed with wire wool to give it an aged look. If you areinterested in the project the get the latest issue 230.

Good day

But then isn't every day.!

Well it was 0600 this morning up and about getting the work shop ready, not that this is early as I am generally about at this time. But it gives me some quiet time before my daughters wake up and an avalanche hits the house.

Took a few pictures this morning while I was having a cuppa. The light was very poor and the sparrows were some distance away which meant the zoom was needed, so light again become a problem, but the image stabaliser seems to have worked.

Taking pictures of birds/animals is very rewarding as I can not rush or get impatient, it is all about taking time and getting close to the birds and letting them get use to me. So it fits in well with trying to cultivate a creative mind, through observation and seeing things that I may not have intended. Mind you I am in no way an amazing wild life photographer with it only being a recent interest, and even that is only when I get some quiet time to myself.

Anyway, another student today for a bowl course. Teaching as I have mentioned before is very rewarding, I have to look in fine detail about the way I transmit information in the best way to suit each individual. So I learn as much about myself as hopefully the student does about woodturning.

Back to the grind stone :-)

The first demo back after my trip was at North Cornwall Woodturning Club. Around two and a half hours away but worth the drive as I love the countryside and views in and around the erea.

The club is small in size but not in character and quality of equipment.

The day started with the turning of a small sculpture, followed by a wide rim carved and scorched bowl.

Then after lunch it was an offset hole lidded form/pot with carved finial, followed by a hollow form turned through the base and finally as an infill to finish the day off a small paper weight/ornament out of olive ash.

I stopped sanding in my demo's some time ago and like to concentrate on the processes of making various items.

The members seemed to enjoy the day as did I. But it would appear that it takes a little longer for me these days to get over jet lag hence the reason I look much like a red faced zombie in the last picture.

Thank you to Roger for taking the pictures, and all for an enjoyable day.

Then it has been teaching students bowl turning, a day off tomorrow to play around with a new design and then more tuition for the rest of the week.

Getting there

Well the Revolution video has stopped for today as I am preparing for a demo in Cornwall on Saturday. It will certainly be a bit different to driving on the American roads and take longer, but I don;t think you can better the English countryside for shear beauty.

Hopefully I will get the video finished early next week in between a couple of students coming for tuition.

Then I should be able to get back to working on my new designs that were started before my trip away. At the moment I am getting witdrawl symptoms from not being able to play with new work/ideas but the bills have to be paid and I can't think of a better way to do it.

Here in the mean time are a few more pictures of the AAW instant gallery.One of me going through my golf swing before the doors opened. Although people did manage to get in early somehow.! I think they must have crawled inthrough the air extraction vents. :-).

Woodturners are quite a resorceful bunch when they want to get to get their hands on tools and machines.