wizer
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- 3 Mar 2005
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Well as a nice little present to myself and from the family, I just spent a couple of days with Mark Hancock. After I had to cancel the Rolly Munro course earlier in the year I knew straight away that I wanted to spend that money with Mark. I've always admired his work and, seeing as he sold me the Rolly tool, I knew he was a great bloke.
Mark is based on a farm in Pershore. I was a bit rubbish with taking pictures, so this is not a full WIP. My goal was to make a hollow form and I had my doubts whether I could do that in the two days. I was wrong.
One of my favourite pieces that Mark does is his 'Rocking Vessel' series. His one looks like this:
So this was what I wanted to have a go at. It was mainly the hollowing I was interested in learning, I hadn't considered the other techniques involved. The green ash log was turned, hollowed, textured inside, coloured inside, chainsawed, burned, burnished, air brushed and finished with acrylic lacquer.
This is a shot before it was burned. You can see where I'd marked where the chainsaw'd lines were to go, but ignored them
This is how it looks finished:
and here is it's bum
Finally, a shot inside to show the texturing and orange colouring inside.
To say I'm pleased is an understatement. I absolutely love it! Obviously it's not something to everyone's taste, but I'm over the moon with it. I had such fun making it, which probably adds to my enthusiasm for it. It's clearly not a mark on Mark's original. I've played with the design a bit so it doesn't look like a blatant copy.
We did all that on the first day. It surprised me that I'd be able to make another the next day. I wasn't sure if the wife would like the first one, so we agreed to make something 'au naturel'.
I took a few action shots on this one. It was a piece of spalted beech that Mark chainsawed out of a huge log.
Mark and I spent a while talking about getting the flow of the curve right and he taught me to use a kind of 'waste' area at the base which helps give design options when finishing the bottom.
On the first one I hollowed with no central hole. With this one we drilled a hole down to the finished depth and used the Rolly tool to hollow out the insides.
I struggled a bit with the hollowing on this one. To be honest I think it was a bit of pain/tiredness more than anything. I still got there, but it took a bit longer with more 'finessing'
The whole thing was sanded and finished with cellulose sanding sealer (aerosol) and then buffed with Ren wax. The inside was sprayed black with Chestnut ebonising laquer.
Mark gave me some tips on finishing the bottom and parting off
I forgot to take photos after this. But after it came off the lathe, I quickly carved off the nipple left from parting off. Then we decided to carve out the neck. I used a small japanese backsaw to take out a kind of V section from the front.
Sadly it was now 18:20pm and time had run away from us. I had a 3.5hr drive ahead of me. So I said I'd finish the piece at home. This is how it looks at the moment:
I need to get one of those carrol drum sanders which fits into a dremel flexi cable thingy. I'll post a pic when it's done. Not yet decided whether I'm going to paint the exposed edges black or not.
All in all I had a great couple of days with Mark. Best birthday present I've had in a long time. I'd love to do something like this every year. It's really lifted my spirits and enthused me to do a lot more turning. As is often the case in this situations, I now have a few more tools added to the wish list :roll: :lol:
Huge thanks to Mark. I highly recommend him if you fancy some tuition. He'll be at Cressing temple in a couple of weeks too.
Mark is based on a farm in Pershore. I was a bit rubbish with taking pictures, so this is not a full WIP. My goal was to make a hollow form and I had my doubts whether I could do that in the two days. I was wrong.
One of my favourite pieces that Mark does is his 'Rocking Vessel' series. His one looks like this:
So this was what I wanted to have a go at. It was mainly the hollowing I was interested in learning, I hadn't considered the other techniques involved. The green ash log was turned, hollowed, textured inside, coloured inside, chainsawed, burned, burnished, air brushed and finished with acrylic lacquer.
This is a shot before it was burned. You can see where I'd marked where the chainsaw'd lines were to go, but ignored them
This is how it looks finished:
and here is it's bum
Finally, a shot inside to show the texturing and orange colouring inside.
To say I'm pleased is an understatement. I absolutely love it! Obviously it's not something to everyone's taste, but I'm over the moon with it. I had such fun making it, which probably adds to my enthusiasm for it. It's clearly not a mark on Mark's original. I've played with the design a bit so it doesn't look like a blatant copy.
We did all that on the first day. It surprised me that I'd be able to make another the next day. I wasn't sure if the wife would like the first one, so we agreed to make something 'au naturel'.
I took a few action shots on this one. It was a piece of spalted beech that Mark chainsawed out of a huge log.
Mark and I spent a while talking about getting the flow of the curve right and he taught me to use a kind of 'waste' area at the base which helps give design options when finishing the bottom.
On the first one I hollowed with no central hole. With this one we drilled a hole down to the finished depth and used the Rolly tool to hollow out the insides.
I struggled a bit with the hollowing on this one. To be honest I think it was a bit of pain/tiredness more than anything. I still got there, but it took a bit longer with more 'finessing'
The whole thing was sanded and finished with cellulose sanding sealer (aerosol) and then buffed with Ren wax. The inside was sprayed black with Chestnut ebonising laquer.
Mark gave me some tips on finishing the bottom and parting off
I forgot to take photos after this. But after it came off the lathe, I quickly carved off the nipple left from parting off. Then we decided to carve out the neck. I used a small japanese backsaw to take out a kind of V section from the front.
Sadly it was now 18:20pm and time had run away from us. I had a 3.5hr drive ahead of me. So I said I'd finish the piece at home. This is how it looks at the moment:
I need to get one of those carrol drum sanders which fits into a dremel flexi cable thingy. I'll post a pic when it's done. Not yet decided whether I'm going to paint the exposed edges black or not.
All in all I had a great couple of days with Mark. Best birthday present I've had in a long time. I'd love to do something like this every year. It's really lifted my spirits and enthused me to do a lot more turning. As is often the case in this situations, I now have a few more tools added to the wish list :roll: :lol:
Huge thanks to Mark. I highly recommend him if you fancy some tuition. He'll be at Cressing temple in a couple of weeks too.
