Post a photo of the last thing you made

[MikeG.]

Well *I* liked it.......

So do I. I don't think the block of wood contributes anything, but that aside, I think it's great.

 

[D_W]

A pencil...

..i've made a bunch of pencils, but have been chasing solving problems to try to make them good. once you learn how to make them, some of them bow with humidity changes, so I've been experimenting with soaking the wood in mineral spirits and paraffin wax to stabilize them.

(and see if there's a point that the two halves of the barrel won't hold).

I made these by making a little specialty tool that scrapes the lead grove, gluing the two halves together (from small boards of incense cedar) and then cutting the 6 facets on the pencil with a hand plane.

https://i.imgur.com/Xf25Bu2.jpg

 

[Droogs]

re the pic, shelf makes me think of a jetty

 

[Chris152]

Thanks for the comments Mark and Mike - tho you have now both created doubts...
You're absolutely right about the horizontal clipping the rocks, Mark, I'd not seen that as a problem and now it bothers me. I've got lots more in my folders of just sea, sky and horizon so I'll try to work on those next.
The block to the left is one of those things that could or couldn't be there, but once the question's been asked it starts to look out of place. I guess you get the same with a piece of architecture Mike - once you have an essential structure, how far can you take design to allow for aesthetic concerns without over-burdening it. Just guessing, no idea.
One thing I miss about giving up the day job is I don't get much in the way of questions about what I'm doing. The dog seems to pretty much like whatever I do, but thinks he has better ideas of what we could be doing with wooden sticks.
Thanks.

DW - I've no idea how you make pencils but at the last wood fair we organised one of the people had a stall for kids to make their own pencils. It was incredibly popular and I couldn't really get close enough to see what they were up to, but I did see lots of whacking bits of wood through a hole with mallets and happy kids walking away with the pencils they'd just made. Which looked rather less refined than yours in that picture.

 

[owen]

That's fair enough, Owen. There's not a lot to get tbh - it's a combination of three ways I've been working in recent years - photography, which I used to do a lot; drawing, which I've always sort of done; and wooden sculpture which I only started thinking about a couple of years ago when I started working with wood.
It's three views of the sea. The photo image is done with about 1 second exposure using neutral density filter, so you get the blurring of the waves over the second. The drawing's done with my eyes closed, from memory - sometimes it creates good shapes, sometimes it doesn't. And the wooden horizon's something I've been playing with mainly because I like wood and i find the simple forms pleasing.
The three are different, I'm quite happy with the contrasts between technologies in the view.
The main reason I did it is because i can't get to the workshop, so I'm sat at home fiddling with what I've got around at home. But also, I've increasingly found myself getting unhappy with the round things I'm making on the lathe. Just one of those things, i suppose.
So there isn't a lot to get, it's just what it is. I quite like it and plan on doing more, maybe even beyond the end of the lockdown!
C

ps On a personal note, I've realised since lockdown how much i depend on the sea for my sense of wellbeing. We need to drive to get there, so can't. and I'm missing it.

Thanks for explaining it, it makes more sense now. I suppose what ever floats your boat .

 

[Bm101]

It's a good job we all have different boats to float eh?

 

[Rob Platt]

Made a while back but for some still unknown reason got some grain lifting out a while back took the top coating off and scraped the top down. Ready for another ten coats of linseed oil and turps. Made from Croatian oak all M and T joints. no pins screws or nails

 

[bourbon]

Laid off for what is the fourth week now. I've been in my workshop every day for at least 5 hours a day. Making mostly medieval 5 plank boxes, But I did liven it up a bit

 

[MarkDennehy]

Little vase (drilled out with the jacobson-chuck-in-the-tailstock approach rather than being hollowed out on account of me having no hollowing tools or knowing how to use them ). Spalted sycamore with tung oil, lemon shellac and beeswax. Loads of room to improve, but this is the first vase I've ever turned.

 

[MikeG.]

Laid off for what is the fourth week now. I've been in my workshop every day for at least 5 hours a day. Making mostly medieval 5 plank boxes, But I did liven it up a bit

Was the base too small originally?

 

[morturn]

I made an Apothecary Cabinet. It was a useful way of clearing out all of the accumulating shortish cuts from the workshop

 

[bourbon]

Laid off for what is the fourth week now. I've been in my workshop every day for at least 5 hours a day. Making mostly medieval 5 plank boxes, But I did liven it up a bit

Was the base too small originally?

LOL. you guessed it! I evoked 'Pete's law'. My best mate is a restoration carpenter. He always said. 'If yo make a @@@@ up, make a feature of it. I had already used my essential journey up for the day, (I go to the woodyard after going food shopping) and had limited wood of the right size. I think it adds to it myself. and is plenty strong enough

 

[Distinterior]

Under the current circumstances, this isn't the cheeriest of objects to make but one of my best freinds passed away not too long ago and his wife asked me if i would make a storage box for her to keep his Urn in. He was Best Man at my wedding in March 2019 and I'd promised to make him something from the Bog Oak I got from MikeG as a thank you......At the time, I never imagined this would be what I would be making.....!

It's made from Bog Oak and Spalted Beech with book matched panels & Dominoed together and finished in Microcrystalline Wax.
It's about 370mm high x 250mm square.

The Spalted Beech was cut from a felled log that he & I dragged through the woods whilst on holiday in Cornwall about 6 years ago. I cut the log into planks a few years ago and it's been in stick ever since.

 

[MikeG.]

Stunning. =D>

 

[AndyT]

Wow!
Fantastic work.

 

[Bm101]

That's a box of rare beauty and value in so many ways. Truly stunning.

 

[Distinterior]

Thanks for all the kind comments gents. It has been a real labour of love.
His wife has yet to see it so I hope she will be happy with it.

Tim.

PS. I forgot to say,... the letter etching was done by another mate of mine with a Laser Etching machine.
The slightly burned effect matched pretty well with the spalting I thought.
It was her nickname for him.

 

[Lons]

That's absolutely stunning Tim and a great tribute to your friend.

I made boxes to contain the ashes for burial for both of my parents, just plain oak and I found it very difficult emotionally.

Bob

 

[AndyT]

I thought at first that it was some sort of Japanese lamp with ink drawings on paper panels.
Very special to have had such a marvellous piece of wood put by, which already had the personal connection.
No doubt a difficult project emotionally but the exact right use for those timbers.

 

[Distinterior]

I thought at first that it was some sort of Japanese lamp with ink drawings on paper panels.
Very special to have had such a marvellous piece of wood put by, which already had the personal connection.
No doubt a difficult project emotionally but the exact right use for those timbers.

Thanks Andy & Lons,

Emotionally, it has been the hardest project I've ever done! I have found myself talking to him on the odd occasion over the period of time I've been making it.

Funnily enough, when I showed the pictures to yet another mate of ours, he also thought it had an oriental look to it. Those Spalted Beech panels were a real challenge, as we know how tricky it can be to retain any strength in Spalted wood. The more spalting, the weaker the wood. I was lucky that the more decorative panels retained the strength after machining and glueing up.

The larger panels are all floating in a rebate and the lid panel is one piece and glued and Dominoed. The moisture content of all the wood used was as perfect as I could have hoped for.

My pictures are not the best, as the colour of the Spalted side panels are actually a bit warmer in colour than they look in my photos. In reality, they are more like the colours shown on the lid.