I've been at an all day demonstration today at E. Herts Woodturning club by Bert Marsh who has been turning for over 60 years. Pictured here making one of his signature vases from a piece of very green, rotting sycamore. He turns them about 2-3mm thick. What amazed me was that he managed to sand and finish the wet wood to a lustrous shine.
He also demonstrated making a very thin shallow bowl from ash, a small box with lid from teak and this bowl from pearwood . . .
He made it to show a method of holding it on the lathe so it wouldn't have a foot and luckily didn't sand it or apply any sealer so you can see the toolmarks (I hate fine dust and the smell of sanding sealer).At lunchtime I asked him how much he wanted for it and he gave it to me! It was the least I could do to buy his book which looks very interesting.
One day I'll get a power lathe and use it to turn simple, honest, functional bowls like this.
P.S. Vanessa has bought some pure chocolate from "Willy's Wonky Chocolate Factory" and tonight we're going to try pheasant cooked in chocolate gravy . . ?!
2 comments:
Chocolate gravy should be tasty:)
All this talk about workshops is making me jealous; I'd love to sit around and just watch it all go on--probably would be dangerous with a lathe. What did your two friends make, in the previous post? Is that a rolling pin in there??
Chocolate gravy was excellent - unless you knew it was chocolate you might not have guessed. Quite subtle with the gamey flavour of a young hen bird.
No, turning demos aren't dangerous except, as I said, for the fumes and the dust. Most turners are well aware of the risks involved.
The two ladies have each made a dibber(for planting things in the garden) which is a good intro to spindle turning - the one on the left has also made a spurtle (for stirring the porridge) and a guiro(percussion Instrument). The other lady has made two lemon reamers. No rolling pins!
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