Mal's Boutique Timbers

Its good to see that Mal Ward from Boutique Timbers has his own Blog site now easier to find and point others in his direction. I have bought a small amount of timbers of Mal and his brother Greg, scented NSW Rosewood, a few small burls, Huon Pine. They seem to stock a fair range of large slabs also.




The first time I saw their timber selection was at The Sydney Timber and Woodworking Show 2005. The rain had given the timber a soaking but with it brilliant colours.

Mal frequents a number of shows large and small, Newcastle is another one and Kiama Wood Crafts Group's yearly weekend event .

I bought this Rosewood some time back yet still to do anything with it, it looks a bit of old fire wood till it was cut. A reasonable size small slab was broken down to these turning blanks and lengths. A small nut bowl for a friend made from some of it.

The recent handles for the wedding gift  also made from some of this Rosewood.

This last show at Kiama they had some stunning timbers, slabs,  planks, burls and blanks. I bought a nice piece of Huon Pine (not shown here).

A number of the members from OTGA Ornamental Turners and Blue Mountains Woodturners often buy from Mal as well.

Feathered Friends and slithering things

We called into see my Uncle Kevin at Lapstone in the Blue Mountains. While there I decided to take a few photo's of his beautiful birds. They were making quite a racket as I approached the cages I saw what I first thought to be a garden drip hose. To find it had a red belly and it was about 3 to 4 foot long a baby Red Belly Black snake  He was more afraid of Kevin than we were of him, they are not to be toyed with a bite can cause serious illness and a visit to hospital.

Some brilliant colours amongst the finches a variety of birds in an ideal bush setting.

3 Bags Full

Its nice to be given anything for free especially if you can use it. Thanks goes to a family relation Maree and John and friends of theirs who raise Aplaca's for the 3 bags of fibre.

One bale of white which I thought when going through the top layer would mostly end up in the bin but will become doggy beds, this was skirting and legs. Then as I went further down it became a situation of my bags for sorting 1 for doggy bed - 1 for spinning - 1 I called cloud 9 it is heavenly soft.

 The half bale is all coloured Alpaca and needs further sorting as there are more than 3 or 4 colours ranging from fawn to black.

This the smallest bag is yet untouched.
The bales have been a priority so they can  returned for the next shearing.