Progressing

Today I have been working all day on the first of the new series of work I have been developing. Many hours have been spent on the carving and refining and quite a few more to go. In the above picture there is the addition of a fabricated/cut/sanding piece of wood which adds a different dimension to the piece.

Working on th first of any piece is as much a learning curve of "how to do it", as much as anything else. Often when making how I percieve I will make a piece changes as I go along with new ancillery tools being made to make the job easier.  Also while working on this piece a few more in the series have come to light which is an exciting feeling as I know that when I finish this piece I can get straight into the next which is already simmering in the back of my mind.

Hopefully post some more pictures soon when it is finished but ther is quite alot of work to do.

Next

The piece I am working on at present is the first in a new series of sculptural forms with the lathe being used for a small part of the process after which carving, colouring and other media will be added, there is a lot of refining to do with the carving currently being in a raw state.

It has taken me some time in fact many years to get to this stage of evolution within my work so I will not be showing the stages or the item until completely finished. The picture is a preview of the carving produced to date within a section of the piece.

Of course it may turn out to be a complete failure but without trying I won't know.

A few more

Most of my time at the moment is being spent as previously mentioned finishing pieces that have been on the shelf for a while. Here are some more that have been finished in the last few days.

A few pictures include pieces seen before but I have been experimenting with my camera trying out new ideas in relation to taking a few more interesting photo's for my web site.

The below two forms are sycamore, 140 mm dia x 130 mm high with anjan lids, finials and silver beads.

 This one is again sycamore and has been buffed with no top finish as yet being applied. It is ready to have the lid and finial made which will be over the next few days. It measures 200mm high x 190 mm dia.

 

 

Stone and Wood

Here is the textured form that I have been working on finished to include a lid, bead and finial.  The lid incorporates the same stone as the finial which was carved from a solid piece, you may recognise the carved stone form from from the last posting. The whole piece is around 6 inches diameter x 6.5 high

In the end I decided not to colour the body and to leave the natural carbon colour of the pyrography to show through to contrast with the wood. Some times I can over work a piece so often a minimalist approach is better for me,  I can then spend time looking at it and build/develop it in my minds eye for the next project.

The carving of the finial from stone was no more complex than carving  in wood, although there are a few different methods of working the material.

The finial will be replicated into a much larger organic sculpture out of either stone, wood or both and will be the starting point for my organic sculptures that I am going to continue making from long ago. originaly before taking up turning in a big way I produced numerous similar sculptures and have a new enthusiasm for dipping back into this.

Indeed this was how I came up with the carved wooden finials as a large sculpture would take me quite a while in comparison and I did not have the patience due to workin full time so a piece would take several weeks to complete. So I started making small carved finials as a way to keep my interest going with the carving.

Now I make for a living I can take as long as I like (within reason) and market towards a different customer base.

You can see from the  picture below that there are some lovely colours within the stone so I will be sourcing much larger pieces for carving in the future.

Here is the same piece on a neutral background so you can see it without distraction.

The form below is one of the numerous pure forms that I am finishing off so there will probably be quite a few more posted. It is around 5 inches diameter.

Will post some more of bits and pieces I am working on soon.

Fruit full few days

Yesterday I I decided to start finishing some of the eighty odd unfinished forms that I have in my workshop as several galleries are chomping at my heels to produce more work.

So the piece at the top was finished with the main form being made from spalted silver birch measuring around 280 mm dia x 220 high.  It has an Anjan lid and carved finial with brass bead.  Haven't made any of these for a while as I had interests in other work. But needs must so I am finishing some off.

But I doubt I will make many more pure forms such as this as I prefer now to add texture etc.

Also started working carving stone which is an enjoyable change to wood and I expect I will be working in it more and more.

This piece is not very large and an experiments for bigger pieces to see how the tools that I have work or not as I have found in some instances.

New Piece

Probably a little self indulgent to have a picture of myself at the top of the page but hey ho it doesn't harm from time to time. I would like to thank Bethany my 10 year old daughter for taing these pictures and for not dropping my new camera. I believe it is important for children to be introduced as much as possible to creativity so Bethany often uses my camera for taking some great pics.

This sycamore form has been sat waiting to be finshed for a while.  The benefit of sycamore is that it moves very little when seasoning especially if the growth rings are concentric. So a quick clean up with the gouge was all that was needed for the outside and a scraper for the inside before finishing with abrasive.

The texturing has been completed and now I have to decide where to go with it next. I have a vague idea as it will be a continuence of my Japanese inspired work but I would like to include some different materials so will have to see how it turns out.

Update

Very little time spent in the workshop lately as I have been writting and designing  new work, turning them into drawings and collecting reference material for the same. The work load also became restrictive in relation to being able to be creative so I have decided to give myself more time and space to get back into making as I don't do tread mill anymore and creating is where my love is. So back to it I am with new enthusiasm and ideas, its like being five again in the local sweety shop.

Also not sure if I mentioned this previously ( I may have done as I do repeat myself) that I have been sourcing new materials to work with which I now have and am looking forward to playing around with. Of course this means more tools which breaks my heart to have to buy :-).

So I will be back in the workshop now with more time dedicated to making with new work finally being made. In fact my time will mostly now be on making and selling again as I am needing to move into new directions as previously mentioned.

Anyway more about that in future postings but I hope to be posting more picture of my work soon for those interested.

Monday night was spent at a demo in Burnham-On-Sea where I demonstrated a basic bottle type form.

Also I have posted a few more pictures I have recently taken for reference and thought they may be of use to you, or not as the case may be. :-)

Still enjoy the pics and the insect at the bottom has some interesting textures and forms within its body.

Psychology of Creativity

Recently I have been spending a lot of time researching creativity and the processes behind being this subject. Being creative is not about technical prowess with the tools beyond that of safe practices, but about how I work through and view ideas, solutions which I then may or may not use within my work.

Any way I found "The Psychology of Creativity", while surfing the information highway. There are various other subjects and links within the site that may also be of interest so I thought I would post it here..

Other interests

Other than turning, photography and many other subjects I also am interested in building web sites as an ancillary interest to my own web site development.

Part of any business is marketing. This is expensive in the initial stages so being able to do as much of this myself saves me money, however much more than this is it another creative process that involves much research and the learning of new skills.

This I have always found enjoyable as I believe that within reason I can achieve any skill that I want with time and practice.

So when I needed a web site I built my own. The first was not brilliant, the one I have now is a bit better but again needs refining. The more I become involved in a certain skill/project the more I refine and look at the small detail so that I can continually progress the idea.

Continually looking closely at what I make is a major part of the philosophy behind the way I work. I do not understand how I can progress unless I look at the fine detail and continually strive to refine.

This may be the refining of a particular process, design but more importantly the way I think and view my work.

So while I am taking some time out for reflection,I have been working on several other projects, working with new materials and building a few web sites, one being this here.

Looking at other ways of working/creating, whether it is sculpting, turning, painting, gardening or web design. the process is very much the same.

Web site update

The "Contemporary Wood Collective" web site has now been updated with a new domain of .co.uk as compared to .com

New updates will be carried out soon, however if you have tried visiting the site recently and found it down I just wanted you to know that it is now up and running again.