Recent Creations

Persian Meels

   A guy contacted me asking for a set of
   Persian Meels. I agreed to call him back,
   giving me time for a little research.

   They turned out to be a form of swinging
   exercise club

   He wanted them to be 7kg each, and
   offered to supply the timber

   This is the result













   See my article on how I made these
   in Woodturning Magazine 276

   Sapele


Burnt Bowl
  
From a piece of old Oak fence post, to a burnt bowl, see how I made it in Woodturning Magazine 261                                Oak

Offset Bowl
   I found a blank of Southern Yellow Pine
   in a job lot of wood I aquired, and when
   I started to look at it seriously, I realised
   I needed to turn something simple with
   a wide rim to show off the beauty of the
   wood

   I decided on an offset bowl to give a
   particularly wide rim on one side, and
   provide a contrast between the rim and
   the different grain orientation of the
   bowl portion


   Southern Yellow Pine


Hollow form with Marble base
   I was creating pieces
   for a demonstration
   illustrating some options
   for combining materials,
   so I thought I would do a
   small bowl with a marble
   base, then it just cried
   out for some legs in
   silver plated wire









   Sycamore, Marbles & Silver



Flowing Vase
   Having been given a cherry butt I wondered how I could do it justice.
   I really like to celebrate nice pieces of wood and make the largest
   item I can from them rather than just creating lots of shavings.

   As this log had a nice uneven natural edge I tried to preserve as
   much of it as possible. It also had several splits at the top (now the
   bottom) so these features influenced the design


   The log was turned green (partially wet) and the greatest challenge
   was to retain my fingers whilst creating a flowing rim drooping
   unevenly several inches below the top














   Cherry Root


Ding

   I couldn't resist buying a nice shaped
   bell in a second hand shop, but what
   to do with it? Looking through my
   stockpile of wood one day I found
   some Brazilian Mahogany, so designed
   a mechanism that would fit internally to
   strike the bell

























   Brass & Mahogany


Striped Bowl

   I had the idea for a striped bowl,
   but wanted to emphasise what
   happened when a curved surface
   is cut from a striped blank

   So I decided on a square bowl
   with a raised rim in a splash
   design











   American Black Walnut
   and Canadian Maple



BB Bowl

   What can you do with a nice
   small piece of Elm and a big
   box of ball bearings?





















   Elm & Stainless Balls



Xmas Tree

   We have all made Xmas trees, but I had a very nice unidentified
   blank with a split in one end, so this was really the only shape
   that it would allow me to make. The addition of a cherry twig
   for the trunk and an English Walnut pot and we were almost there

   As it was a commission for a Xmas present, we added some stars
   with copydex, so they could easily be removed after the festive season























   This is currently in a private collection

   Unknown wood, cheery branch trunk & English Walnut pot


Copper Rimmed Bowl

   Another find in a second hand
   shop were large copper valve
   gaskets, but what to do with them?

   Incorpprate them into the rim of
   an elm bowl of course!

















   Elm & Copper


Attractions

   I have no idea where this idea came from, but I happened to
   have a spare stainless steel garden sphere - as you do, some
   stainless steel wheelchair spokes, and a nice big lump of Elm


























   This is currently in a private collection

   Elm & Stainless Steel

Beech Box with Spalted Inlay

   What to do with a small offcut
   of Spalted Beech - A Beech
   box with a Spalted Beech insert
   in the lid. The insert is set into
   the lid so that it can be seen from
   both sides

   What you can't see here is that
   there is a thin sliver of Spalted
   Beech in the inside of the box
   at the bottom


















   Beech & Spalted Beech


Experiment in centerless turning

   A first attempt at a centerless turning

   Two trumpets with a ribbed centre detail in a small Ash trunk









   Ash


Spiral Finial

I couldn't get the idea of this spiral finial out of my head, what I saw was a horn, something between a Gazelle and a Kudu horn. A stepped spiral. 

The problem was how to make what I had envisaged. Have a look at the 
Tools page to see the jig I created to make this finial in American Black 
Walnut. Ultimately it is destined to be the finial atop a London Plane lidded 
dish. 

However, I will also have to create feet in a similar style for the finished piece




























                                                                                                                        American Black Walnut


Donut Bud Vase

   I like to call this a sphere vase, though others call it the donut vase
   It was made from scraps of Ash, the donut came from the waste
   from one of my mug stands

   I found a large test tube to connect the individual pieces which
   results in the impression of the central sphere being suspended
   in the ring or donut

   A friend donated the Rose bud which seems to finish the piece off

























   See my article in Woodturning Magazine 271 on how I made this piece

   Ash & Glass


Bud Vase

I created a simple Ash bud vase whilst demonstrating one day.

Later I happened across a local artist who produces these
intriguing wire men

I just had to have one to lookinto one of my bud vases





























                                                                                                                      Ash & Wire


Yew Chalice

   One day when I was turning for fun I selected a nice piece of Yew.
   I had no idea what would turn out from this piece of interesting timber,
   but ultimately a chalice appeared




























  


Supported vessel

Sometimes you just have to be led by  the piece of wood, and see where it  decides to take you

With this peice of Elderberry by contrastI had a good idea of what I wanted to create. Luckily the wood decided to co-operate

I had a vision of a supported vessel, butcreated from a single piece of wood

The stand is integral and created from justone piece of wood. The trick is to get
the flow of the vase to pass by the stand as if it was not there

























                                                                                                                  Elderberry

Jewellery Box

   I wanted to make something more than a typical Jewellery stand. 

   So the idea of a Jewellery stand, box and necklace holder was born
   Whilst this looks as is if it might have been created from a log, it was
   in fact assembled from a plank of Yew I tried to provide the illusion
   of it being made from a log by carefully cutting discs from the log to
   include some of the sap wood I first stacked them as rough blanks,
   before turning, to get an idea of how they would ultimately appear
   in the finished  jewellery stand


















   Yew



Sputnik Box



Sputnik Box in Cherry & Beech


Mug Stands



A pair from a series of mug stands in Ash


Splash



Splash in Red Malee with Stainless Steel Wire feet


Split Turning



An experiment in split turning in Lacewood


Labernum Vase

   An early vase in Labernum