These two bowls are just off to a customer, a nice chap who has been collecting my work for a couple of years and has a taste for nice pieces. I did some photos of them for Goldsmiths magazine for an article they want to run and the laburnum photographs really well. Top one is a mazer and the bottom…
These days it is not enough to simply make nice things. In order to make a living craftsmen have to be businessmen too, in fact probably less than half my working time is spent actually making things, I spend a fair bit of time answering emails, packaging and posting work out, fetching wood, forging tools, doing the books etc. Today…
I have been forging my own woodturning tools for more than 15 years but for all that time I have borrowed other peoples forges which has its drawbacks. Today I took delivery of my very own new (to me) forge. It’s a gas powered forge similar to the ones farriers use and because it is small and well insulated will…
The swallows are happily feeding young now. It has been a busy couple of weeks with turning the big bowls for Ridley Scotts film Nottingham and then I needed to build a new lathe bed for my mobile lathe. The old one lasted about 12 years and the uprights or poppits as they are called are still OK. I made…
The swallows are now happily sitting on the nest whilst I turn 4 feet away. Today I went to collect timber and brought home a large bur maple tree perfect for making mazers from. Bur wood is heavier and denser than straight grained wood of the same species and it is very eneficient to use since it has lots of…
I think this has to better than any environmental business award. I have swallows nesting 5 feet away from my lathe. They nest in my workshop most years and are using the same nest they used last year. So far she has laid 3 eggs but has not started sitting yet. last year it was a joy to be turning…
I have been busy in the workshop making bowls for Ridley Scott’s “Nottingham” film. Here are some of them stacked and drying, they are made from alder which was very commonly used in medieval times, it is white when you turn it then oxidises quite quickly to this orange colour. On Tuesday I went to London for the day to…
Its been a busy time so I have a few things to post. First is “project M.” I have been corresponding with my friend Tomio Imaru in Japan and he sent me some lovely Japanese bowls. I am always interested in how designs of bowls develop along with the food they are used for, Tomio told me the bowls are…
I had another day working on my new oak bridge this week. It is across Hood Brook on the North Lees estate above Hathersage (Little John was supposed to come from there). It’s a gorgeous spot and we are having great fun walking in with out tools and working on the trees in situ to create the new bridge. Here…
I just received an order to make some bowls for Ridley Scott’s next film which is set in the 12th century and called Nottingham. It has been billed as “The Galdiator version of Robin Hood”. I have been approached by folk looking for film props several times before but normally they want it tomorrow, have little money in the budget…
