Spirals

There is something about spirals and movement that intrigues me, whether it is the way in which I get drawn into them wondering what exists where the eye not see I don't know, but I keep returning to them as a form of exploration. Probably it is down to my eclectic taste and short attention span of any one thing,

Anyway, here are a few more spiral pictures I have been working on of the same form with differing light filters. Produced for no other reason that as I say to explore my mind, and well, mainly because I like them. :-)

Crack bowl

Today I was just about to go out for a trip to get some timber when a friend Chris Hill that I first met as he came to me for a lesson some time ago. Since then we have become friends and every now and then on a Friday we get together, have a few coffees and talk about turning, swap ideas etc.

While in the workshop we were going through a some tooling ideas when I noticed a couple of maple bowls that I had failed to place in bags after roughing out that had cracks running from the rim into the base. Not all the way through but it brought up the subject of how to use bowls/forms that have failed/cracked instead of throwing them and the various possibilities.

So the crack was sealed with CA glue with the bowl being turned to a thin wall. Using a rotary carver a shape was cut from the bowl after discussing the process and deciding on the orientation of the piece.

A previously made plinth was found on a shelf and a large marble sprayed black. The pictures are of the piece that we came up with.

No planning was given to the cutting of the bowl and I think we were fortunate to come up with this serendipity design.

Often it is good to meet up with other makers and to chew the cud so to speak, swap ideas and think differently about how we normally go about our work.

Thanks for the company Chris and the donuts ( take note George) and the brain storming.  

A bit more carving

This is the sculptural piece previously shown.

You may not see a lot of development as I am continuing to refine and deepen the carving in order to [produce  a much greater depth of contrast and interaction between the lines and surfaces.  I have decided that I want each and every surface/line to flow in compliment with the next but to be unique and different to all other curves/lines within the piece as a whole. Symmetry on this piece seems not to be the way it wants to go and the more organic the piece becomes the more I feel connected to it.

This is not an easy task and has to be slowly achieved over much down time to think,with the piece  taking time to evolve and to allow what I have carved to register with my thinking. It is often only after time spent looking at a piece that I see parts that can be refined for the better, as well as initial ideas that could be  altered and developed. 

I don't see how I can develop a piece if I don't spend time closely observing and taking in the piece as a whole, reflecting on what I think about it and how I may alter it. This for me just can not be achieved in anything but a prolonged period of thought, or the piece will end up shallow and contrived.

So as mentioned before, the piece is being developed in an organic way. The original plans/drawings have gone out of the window.  By spending time looking at each individual aspect of the piece I can alter a specific part, altering this then has a direct effect on the rest so I have to look again at the whole piece before continuing

Another week reflecting upon the carving and I hope that the base form will be complete ready for me to look at the surface texture and finish. But it will not involve two Weeks of physical carving, perhaps two more full days will see that finished, with me not being sure when I will get back to physically working on the piece due to having a book to finish.  But to rush in just to finish could ruin a more creative solution which does not surface during the short term.

But after all this if I do not think I will be able to progress with the piece it will just sit on the shelf.