"Unwrapped" at Town Mill, Lyme regis

I'm very pleased to be taking part in "Unwrapped" at The Malthouse Gallery, Town Mill, Lyme Regis every day from now until the 27th December. It is the Mill's seasonal event featuring contemporary art and craft, all created locally. Ideal inspiration for Christmas presents! 

Open from 10.30am to 4.30pm each day.

Thanks to Hilary Buckley for the photos.

A selection of my work on display

Work by Dorset Artist Hilary Buckley

Westpoint 26th and 27th Oct 2018

I spent last Friday and Saturday at the Woodworking and Power Tool Show at Westpoint Arena near Exeter with my club, Axminster Woodturners Club. To cut a long story short, I did a demonstration slot each day on the stage, as a representative from my club. This was a new experience for me and a little nerve wracking as usually it is the professionals who do these demos. Interaction with the audience was limited due to the position in the venue and the audience are free to come and go as they please!

I think it went reasonably well, here are some photos from Friday's slot. I demonstrated how to colour the rim of an Ash bowl and texture the rim of an Oak bowl.

Turning the rim of the Ash bowl

Adding colour, spirit stains

Filling the grain with liming wax

Removing excess wax

Coloured rim, liming wax in the grain

Turning the inside of the bowl

Cutting grooves with the Proxxon mini grinder

Brushing the soot out of the grain after scorching

The view from the lathe before the audience arrived

End of the WIT Exhibition!

My Green Dragon bowl was returned today, back from the Turnabout exhibition in America. It was a year ago this month that I was hurriedly photographing my entries ready to submit to the juried selection. I still remember the shock when I received the email in early December to say that my piece had been selected! A great opportunity and I feel very pleased to have had this opportunity.
Below are a few photos of the exhibition at it's last venue, at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.

Nice to see "Green Dragon" in the centre of this cabinet!

Returned in original condition and well packed!

AWGB Seminar Oct 2018

I had a fantastic weekend at the AWGB Seminar at Yarnfield Conference Centre last weekend. I took loads of photos, a selection of which I will post here in due course.

On a personal note, I was really pleased on Sunday to see that my "Fire Dragon" piece had been selected to be part of the new AWGB travelling exhibition. 

This piece is a development of my "Green Dragon" bowl; the texture was created with some of the Nick Agar attachments for the mini grinder and a custom pyrography tip which cuts into the wood. The colour uses a similar technique to Green Dragon i.e. acrylic paint and dry brushing plus liquid leaf to highlight some of the pyrographed sections.

I was honoured to find out that my Ebonised Oak Vase had been bought and is now part of The Daniel Collection, a prestigious private collection of turned wood.

This is a hollowed oak vase, textured and ebonised using a vinegar and steel wool mixture which reacts with the oak to turn it black. I added a metallic highlight to emphasise the tops of the ridges.

The third piece exhibited was a Green Dragon bowl. This was newly made for the exhibition, the wood chosen especially for its lovely figuring!

Fire Dragon

Ebonised Oak Vase

Green Dragon

Demonstration at Avon and Bristol Woodturners

I was very pleased to be invited to demonstrate at Avon and Bristol Woodturners in July this year. I demonstrated deep hollowing and made a scorched, verdigris vase. As usual, the demonstration was carried out "Blue Peter" style as I find this the most successful way for me. Once hollowed, the outside the of the vase is fairly heavily scorched. Rather than carry out this procedure in the demonstration room, I did it outside in the garden area during the break. At home, I always scorch outside for health and safety reasons.

I would like to thank the club for making me very welcome and I was so pleased when several club members came up to me at Yandles show last week to say how much they enjoyed the evening!

Here is a link to the August club newsletter with a write-up of the evening. http://www.avon-and-bristol-woodturners.org.uk/turnings201808.pdf.
The photo below was taken from the newsletter.

Cake base

A great looking base for a wedding cake! I turned the base for a friend (father of the bride) who did the pyrography. The mother of the bride made the cake and the chef at the wedding venue decorated it. Teamwork!

Demonstration at Burnham on Sea Woodturners Club

I was really pleased to demonstrate one of my Green Dragon bowls at Burnham on Sea Woodturners Club on Tuesday 25th April.

I would like to thank the club for inviting me and making me so welcome, they are a small, friendly club who meet once a month in the centre of Burnham on Sea. There is a detailed article of the demonstration on their website:

Green Dragon demonstration 

The article includes photos which show the texturing and colouring process.

I use a Proxxon Mini Grinder to create the texturing using attachments from the Nick Agar range. I use the fine green tungsten carbide flat carving disc for cutting the lines, the HTC backing pad with 36 and 120 grit Roloc sanding discs for shaping and the green 50 grit quick change bristle head for removing sharp edges. 

The colouring is added using black, metallic green and metallic silver acrylic paint.

The photo below shows me shaping the back of the bowl. I think I was concentrating quite hard at this point!

The second photo shows the bowl after I finished it the next day by giving it a final sand and wax polish.

Shaping the back of the bowl

Photo of the bowl after I finished it the next day

Ilminster Arts Centre Winners Exhibition

Jan 2nd to Jan 20th.

An opportunity for all the prize winners from the annual competition in August to exhibit their work.

A great exhibition, well laid out. I'd like to thank all the visitors who took the trouble to write the lovely comments in the exhibition book. Very supportive of my work!

Here are a few images from the exhibition:

Green Dragon

View of the exhibition

"Rusty", Sold