Wassail Bowl

Its Christmas Eve and what a finer time to find this Wassail Bowl  . What a magnificent piece of Ornamental Turning in miniature. The article and post is well worth the read. The craftsmanship is just magnificent, then there is his Rose Engine with which he produced the fine work.

One for Me

Today is the 20th December I spotted the other day when I had made a post that the date above is a day behind. Obviously USA time not Australian date and time ah well.  Ok I have reset the time and date lets hope thats fixed it.

Just a few more pens, this time Sierra Flat Tops from 043Turning which I bought at the Sydney Woodshow in June.

 This ones for myself a Sierra Flat Top Gun Metal and Gold  with unkown Burl.

The burl was very open and soft wood almost like paper bark. I had to stabilise it using CA. Left a little natural feel with some of the voids.

This lovely wood is Osage Orange given to me by a friend from Wallan in Victoria. Alan from Wallan in fact.  Sierra Flat Top  & Workshop Pencil.

 

Another Queensland Walnut pen.

Edited Wednesday 21st Dec well the date fix didn't work so it must be a Blog thing, will look into that further.


I also missed photographing a couple of pen and pencil combinations . This is either Tassie Blackwood or Black Heart Sassafras.

This is Native Olive from another friend Nick again Pen and Pencil.

Edited Wednesday 21st 10.41hrs I have gone into setting and re-set the time date situation hope this works now.

Adding Colour to Life

A dyeing day.

With  a friend coming over to play with some Kool Aid, it made for an interesting morning. Michele brought three cheeses to dye. They are not the dairy kind but a type of wool which has been partly drafted and a twist put in it so is extremely easy to spin. They are called cheeses as they resemble large cheddar rounds. After wetting the cheeses down with warm water and  a little detergent for a few minutes, the excess water was gently squeezed out and the cheeses put into plastic containers ready for the dye liquid. Michele chose Cherry, Grape and Tropical Punch. I had no idea that the tropical punch packet coloured blue, gave a reddish maroon colour. What a disappointment but with a very limited colour range we did our best. I mixed up two packets of the Cherry and Tropical Punch with hot water adding these to either side of the fibre. Using one packet of the Grape, mixed with hot water, the resulting liquid was poured between the other two colours. A few brief minutes to allow some of the dye liquid to penetrate and the cheeses were flipped over. Another packet of each flavour was mixed up with more hot water and applied to the other side then off to the garage to use the microwave.  I put all three containers into the microwave at once and started on low power for a minute. Its an old microwave and the plate doesn't rotate so after each burst of power its a case of pulling out the containers and giving them a quarter turn to make the heat penetration even. After a couple of minutes on low then medium power, it was onto high power. Taking note of the previous microwave dyeing session a few months ago as a reference, I thought about ten minutes on high power would be enough to set the dye but I had forgotten to add vinegar this time before starting the process so about half way through out came the white vinegar to help with the dye take-up. It took somewhat longer this time but that could be due to the amount of fibre being dyed. It took about fourteen minutes for the dye to be absorbed by the two large cheeses with a further four minutes for the smaller one. The lesson here is to use a container which will just hold the fibre without there being much room for movement. Finally the dye was all taken up and we left the containers to cool a little before squeezing the excess water out. Though the colours were a little muted and there were still some patches of undyed fibre lurking deep within the cheeses, we will have to wait and see what Michele does with the results after she rinses and dries the fibre.

With Love From Mum/Nana

To my 3 beautiful adult children, my daughters in-law & son in-law and my 4 grandchildren with all my love Mum/Nana. 

Home made Gingerbread House.

Hopefully there will be no roof collapse.

A Sons Request

Mark asked for a Fountain pen to go with his New Guinea Rosewood Sierra and Workshop pencil. I found the Baroness set of Fountain Pen and Roller Ball from 043Turning looked good. I purchased 6 of each. These are some of those already finished. Along with a few more workshop pencils.

 New Guinea Rosewood on Gold Plated Baroness, the background is the menu off the SS Orion on which Dad, mum and I emigrated to Australia on.

Buckeye Burl on Gold plated Baroness and Workshop pencil. This lovely wood was given to me by a good friend Pat just some of the many small off cuts he has passed my way.


 Queensland Walnut Baroness Fountain pen and Workshop Pencil

  Spalted Macadamia Baroness Roller Ball and Fountain pen this is a stunning colour. I made Sue a Workshop pencil some time ago.

More to come.

Fairfield Spinners Weavers & Dyers Guild 35th Anniversary Year

How remiss of me never to mention the lovely ladies of the Fairfield Hand Spinners Weavers & Dyers Guild 35th Anniversary Year or have even put a link to their web site (fixed as of today). Also a link to past works.

Sue has been a member now for some years, held a number of positions as have many of the ladies. Sadly the group is now quite small in comparison to the 70's and 80's just 15 ladies. This does not deter them at all, an active out going bunch. They display at various Sydney locations on open days at Linnwood House  at Marter Dai at Camden and at Collingwood House Liverpool .

They have even been filmed at Gledswood Winery by a Japanese documentary team, where they performed a Back To Back Challenge. A sheep was shorn on the day, they carded and spun the fibre and then knitted a jumper which they then returned to the original owner.

I have known this group since its inception, I was their first Coach driver when they first started out 35 years ago I was with Punchbowl Coaches. Then a few years latter, with Silverline Coaches I became their regular day outing Coach driver. The ladies often asked if my wife would like to join them but with 3 children under 5 it was a bit hard. Joan Fisher is the founder and in her 90's now living at Narrabeen still visits to Canley Vale. She is one amazing woman and her books tell the tale.

This coming year 2012 in August they will be celebrating their 35th year. Why not come along ?? A date is yet to be fixed and I/we will put that up as soon as possible.

Artisans Retreat

During our recent trip to Coff's Harbour we called into Artisans Retreat they had just been on Sydney Weekender which showcases some of what they are about. Peter and Christine are great hosts and a weekend away to soak and learn could fit in nicely. Its disabled access and children friendly.

Ps late addition I totally forgot to add Peter has a lathe which is also disable friendly suitable for those who turn from a wheelchair. 

Christmas Comes But Once a Year

 Well its the busy season when everyone panics I love Christmas, present to make or buy weeks to go counting down the days. I borrowed Mark's (our eldest son) compressor 4 weeks ago but weather and time just wasn't going to allow me to get it done. Then a break in strange weather last Thursday we and I mean Sue and I were able to work as a team and get it done. Over the year I have slowly got work to a stage of need to apply a finish my choice was using Timberlac a spray on finish used for floors and furniture. My choice is Satin the gloss looks to plastic.

Imperfecta Gracious

---

To many excuses to list all valid I assure you, but at last they are done.

Thanks goes to Bowl Basher (Graeme Sugar from the woodwork forum) for a beautiful piece of Camphor he gave me earlier this year of which I produced the bowl and platter from one piece. There was no way I was going to waste the colour or size of this bit of wood. The crack on the platter never once looked like it was going to give way even though I epoxied it and used gaffer tape around the outer edge using Cole jaws to turn it.

The Jarrah square bowl a piece which was out of the collective buy from Marginenta (Perth Wood School). I just had an idea and went with it, little did I know Peter (Ozartizan woodwork forum) from Artisan Retreat had a similar idea with slight differences. Sadly on my last cut on the underside 3 legs went AWOL . Glued back together

The underside and profile plus gluing.

The Trivet plain simple NSW Rosewood from Mal's Boutique Timbers

The lidded finial Box QLD Beech thanks to Noel (Outbacker woodwork forum) had a touch of spalting with Western Red Cedar boards which were destined for firewood and unknown wood for the finial which has a captive ring. Ornamental Turning via Peter Harding's Rose Engine which was bequeathed to the OTGA Llandilo Group, in memory of Peter Harding.

The Lidded box was done in stages first the Qld Beach turned and parted into three. The Red Cedar boards cut to size and the rings turned to fit to the lid, the boards had been but joined when I got them.

 1st Photo the lid section, 2nd photo the base, 3rd the base, side and lid prior OT and gluing. Apology for the deterioration of photos my little Canon A430 had a stroke and died. Long live film, my trusty Canon EOS 100 after 20+ years is still going strong a new battery and film and ok processing.

Sorry no photos of during the Ornamental Turning process. Internal base pattern cut slightly below centre and through to expose the QLD Beech in the base.

The underside of the lid done using Peter's Rose Engine in bump mode starting with the outer diameter as I progressed in you can see the shape change on the QLD Beech. The Cedar pattern was an after thought and just a slight cut in then on the chuck to round it off on the lathe.

The low vase or lolly bowl also Camphor was from some I had collected when I first got into turning so full of imperfections and colour. I filled the major crack with shaving and brass fillings using epoxy just enough to allow a golden colour and light to still pass through. This is one vessel yet all the colours.

All together.

Sorry for the long post but lots to show and instead of individual I decided this way.