Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Finally got round to adding some more stuff to the website (www.kimsart.co.uk) and the Etsy and Ebay, hoping for a sale or two from this latest list, here are some pics.

Sycamore


Sycamore


Made from Sycamore


Made from Spalted Beech.


Made from Sycamore

From the bottom up, a small Finial Box from Sycamore, a miniature Crotch bowl made from a fork in a branch of Beechwood, A natural edged bowl in Sycamore and two fruit bowls from the same wood.

Having got the bulk of the shed moving done I am now going to concentrate on building up a good stock of items both for Shopswood and for future exhibitions.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Up and down the garden

The last few days I have been doing some turning but also re arranging the shed, all the fishing gear down to the bottom shed and all the timber up to the top shed where the lathe is kept, pretty tiring work but this is a more logical use of the storage space and will allow me to have room to store various blanks and roughed out bowls as well as freeing up more space in the workshop.

I have been offered an outlet in town which wants a 35% commission on sales which is a bit ouch, it means the prices will have to be fairly high to justify the work, I have made a stack of wooden fruit from Iroko and half a dozen very fine egg cups from holly, plus, so far, three bowls, once I have a few more items I will see if I can get them set out in the shop.

Also intend to see a friend who owns another shop selling craft items to see if he will sell a few things for me, hopefully at a better rate, 25% would be more like it for me.

No pics today as the mini studio is currently chaotic, I will get some done for the next update.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Yesterday was a full day in the workshop, I made two more Sycamore bowls and three earring stands, I managed to finish two stands but one was oil finished so is awaiting final polishing.


Also delighted to see the little Thuya Burr pot sell from Ebay, a boost to the funds, although no feedback from the new owner yet, I hope she is pleased with it!

I am hoping the earring stands will prove to be sellers as they are reasonably priced.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Hollow Form II "The Colouring!"

So, having made one successful Hollow form I was keen to try another, only this time I would combine the experience with an additional task, I had watched Andy Coates' video on Youtube about colouring an Ash bowl, he did a great job, I was very impressed and indeed inspired!

I decided after turning this vase that it was the ideal subject as it had little markings or grain of interest and colour could be just the thing to liven it up some.
I wanted to end up with a dark olive green and gold look, so I initially laid on an all over coat of Yellow stain, followed patches of green and the whole then overlaid with orange, the green is a bit vivid out of the bottle and the orange helps to kill it a little and mute the intensity, leaving a nice subdued forest green colour, after that I dried the stains and then overlaid the lot with three more coats of the yellow to blend the colours and tie them all together, this is in fact a technique I have often used in Watercolour painting with very thin washes of colour.

Once the colouring was complete and dry I coated the vase with three layer of finishing oil and left it overnight to dry, buffing it through the three wheel system to a soft gloss finish this morning, here then is the resulting Coloured Hollow Form Vase.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

I made my first Hollow form today, it was pretty successful up to the buffing stage where it got ripped from my garsp and flew around the workshop, this cracked it down one side but I was able to effect a repair with some CA, no pics though as I gave it to my Sister! Check out the latest pages on the Woodturning part of my site.

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