Few recent pieces

Here are a few pure turned hollow forms in Sycamore, Beech and Ash that I have finished buffing today together with the picture above also being finished, titled 'Fisherman'

Update

While I have five minutes to spare, an update to the blog is in order.

Other than the workshop upgrade I have been teaching, writing, demonstrating and in my spare time of running the home and ferrying my daughters around,!! making  for galleries and commissions pictures of which I will try my hardest to post some time in the future, don't know when exactly as work load has made me look at prioritizing which until recently has mainly included doing what I want to do and not what has to be done. After all life is too short to go rushing around with work. !! mind you I think of what I do as playing and not work at all, I am very lucky I guess.

A recurring  theme in any creative pursuit is stagnation for which I have come to realise is the flow of the process, fortunately I am able to produce many items people want and after a blast of production turning, the cobwebs are blown free and my brain starts working back toward creative ideas.

Work load has continued to take large steps upward to the extent now that I am seriously considering cutting back on demonstrations for 2015 and onward other than wood working shows and a few near by. Mainly I have had enough of driving around the country late into the night, missing time with my family and neglecting making in the day due to the preparation time required. Commissions and interest in my work means that time has to be prioritized towards making and less driving around the country.

Teaching is something I greatly enjoy, hence the reason for taking time out to re-organise my workshop. More work is in the pipeline for this including extended storage space to free upwork area for me to upgrade my second lathe so that teaching of two people is more accessible.

Teaching

Recently Bert attended a days course on hollow form turning as a Christmas present. Bert I have known for some years now as we are both members of the Burnham-on-Sea woodturning club, with Bert attending several courses I have previously run with George Foweraker. The theme for the day was to look at the tools and processes for turning a hollow form in seasoned Oak with a steep undercut.

The day was very enjoyable and a success with Bert achieving his aim producing a lovely form is seasoned oak. I look forward to meeting up again in the near future Bert.

Second but by no mean least was Adam who runs his own business but on the side loves to turn. Adam attended after a days tuition was purchased for him as a gift. Again the theme for the day was hollowing but on this occasion Adam wanted to look at utilizing unseasoned wood to produce a deep open form. The full process from wood selection, form to turning tools and techniques were covered with Adam producing a great form and having an enjoyable day.

Running courses with George Foweraker  at his excellently equipped workshop are popular and being extended to include more themes for this year and 2015.

My book is a great success, the numbers sold has surprised me and the excellent positive feedback received has been great.

Photography for textures, shape and form is still a big interest, a few of the latest pictures I have taken are shown below.

Workshop revamp

For some time now I have been meaning to revamp my workshop to sort through many of the items that have been stored away for years 'just in case' I need them. Working methods develop and change direction over time and with it the storage and set up of years gone by needs to be tweaked to boost efficiency.

In short I have been throwing out bags and bags of old equipment, tools rubbish and materials that are no longer needed. Any usable tools are given away, if I don't need them they have to go as they take up valuable space and  it is amazing how much has been hoarded into places I had forgotten about.

Once clear, new shelving was built and others moved and good white wash applied to brighten things up a bit. The picture here shows the coal face side of the workshop with the storage side behind the camera still being painted, this will be completed in a few weeks as I have to get back to making and teaching. In this vain I have been working on some new pieces as well as the normal roughing out forms for seasoning as with the spalted beech hollow form below,  I hope to show some new pieces in the coming weeks.

 

Woodturning Courses

On the 6th and 7th of this month saw four students (one regular who can't keep away), attended one of the many woodturning courses run by George Foweraker  and Mark Sanger at Georges well equipped workshop in Burnham-On-Sea. The course in this instance covered 'Turning Hollow Forms' in both unseasoned and seasoned woods.

Many other courses are being organised for the future at a fee of £180 per person for the two days, all refreshments, food, loan of tools and safety equipment included.

Courses include

Natural edge bowls and vessels
Box making
Vessels with lids
Bowl and platters

The courses start with a cuppa so every one can get to know each other followed by a safety talk, and the checking of PPE all of which is available for loan during the course.

The first project for the students was to make a deep enclosed form in parallel (end) grain unseasoned walnut, with subjects covered being;

• Discussion and talk on selection wood, taking into the consideration grain orientation and the selection of good wood to give maximise project success.
• Form- design using the 'Rule of Thirds' for proportion within forms.
• Tooling techniques, covering the various hollowing tools and how to use them. 
• Successful seasoning methods.
• Finishing.

Each student works at their own pace with continued interaction with the tutors. 

Some pictures of the first days turning.

David, Brian and Charlie roughing the outside profile of their forms.

Charlie,Liz and Brian hollowing out

Mark working with David going through the cutting sequence

As well as refreshments on tap for all to help themselves to at anytime, lunch was served as a cold buffet on both days by Sue, Georges wife, and wonderful it was too.

Back to work with seasoning being discussed prior to finishing the forms.

The end of the day with the workshop clean and tidy, a debrief of how the day went and any questions answered. 

All the walnut forms lined up prior to being bagged.

Day two

On the second day we look at the turning of a hollow form from seasoned cross grain wood with an undercut and small opening. The relevant techniques and tools used for hollowing seasoned cross grain wood are covered together with refining any tooling techniques that the student requires. Design, form and finishing are also covered.

Here are some pictures of the second day. 

Brian, Liz and Charlie practising the pull cut with long grind gouge to shape the base profile of their forms.

Hollowing and finishing

The end of each was finished off with a tidy of the workshop, a debrief and question time with a cuppa in hand. Finally a group photo with all the student doing exceptionally well. 

Thank you all for a great two days.

More courses coming this year and in 2015. 

Contact use for further details via the websites below.

George Foweraker

Mark Sanger

The 'Wall' is now displayed at Dublin Airport

The Irish wood art collaboration that I took part in way back in June of 2013 saw the finished project being displayed at the 'Visual' Contemporary art gallery, Carlow, Ireland.

With thanks to the hard work of the team in Ireland a new venue has been found to display the wall , with its new home being terminal 1 at Dublin Airport. It was and still is an amazing feeling to have been given the privilege to work on such a project with  talented people, something that I will cherish and never forget.

It is such connections and experiences that makes life special and to think that our work is now again be displayed for thousands of people to view is a real honour. Here are some pictures taken by Cillian Ó Súilleabháin as he together with Brendan Hogg and helpers install the wall into Dublin Airport.  

Hummingbird

This is the latest picture that I have finished while producing other sculptures and turned pieces some of which I will show later.

'Bedouin'

Latest picture. 

Aurora

Two latest pictures inspired by the night sky.

The pictures here are of a low resolution/low quality with high resolution picture files available for printing 1 meter high.

A few more

Latest pictures in my sea urchin series, with more being created for the new year.

Update

Well it is almost the end of 2013, where the time has gone I just do not know, I am sure the older we get the faster time travels. 

The Bazaar at Bull Mill Arts was a great success for all and I will hopefully be attending next year.

2013 has been a great year, the collaboration in Ireland, the AWGB seminar and the finishing of my first book which will be out in March, lots of other work being produced and designed some of which even made it to reality. 

It always seem to be that I do not get time to produce as many new works as I would like, but this is one of the negatives of turning for a living as the bread and butter has to come before the exploration. It is however satisfying that my previous explorations have now started to become my bread and butter so to speak so it is an important part of what I do in the background.  

My work is my passion so I never get those 'Monday morning blues', in fact I have to be careful on weekends to lock the workshop as I would quite happily turn every day of the week. 

The digital art is still being developed, as with the picture above, I am determined to move it further forward next year, while it has served me well this year I have not achieved all I wanted, but then if I did that there would be nothing left to do. I have been experimenting with other software for the development of form and ideas which as produced excellent results, more about this later on. 

More articles and possibly another book in 2014, lots of demonstrations booked, tuition and work to be made for galleries so there is a lot to do. 

One of the best parts of woodturning is that I get to meet great people, many that have become good friends.

So to all that read my blog, thank you for your interest, I hope you and your family have a relaxing festive season and a healthy and prosperous new year.