Gallery 3 | johns-w-o-w-1

It's funny the way things work out. It's now the beginning of 2020 and I now have my workshopp and running and I'm starting to get a little more time to be in there even although it is quite cold. I have a fan heater that soon warms the place up and as it's insulated and double glazed it is quite cozy.

I have been doing some different things. A ball in a cube and what is called inside out turning. Both are really interesting.

This is the finished article and much to my pleasure the ball is spherical! I turned a second one to make certain it wasn't just luck? It wasn't and I have several of these lovely pieces plus a couple of broken ones too!

I started with a 3" cube of cherry and turned the 6 faces using a small jig I made so as to get the faces equal.

After carefully seperating the, not very round, ball from the cube cage it was necessary to hold the cage to turn the ball inside it. Then use 2 'cups' to hold the ball. As Brucie used to say "Good game, good game", but it worked. I have dome several of them now, some a success and others less so!

My next idea was to see if I could do some inside out turning? This is where you start by cutting the piece to be turned in to 2, or 3 or 8 equal sections (I like a challenge, silly me! ) then glueing them together again, but inside out. Then you can turn the center of the piece to what you hope is the correct shape. Once it is done the wood is split back into the cut sections and reglued to the original block. Once the glue has cured it s remounted and the outside is turned. The effect is quite impressive and I like it very much.

2 heart shaped in black walnut.
Below

I was never keen on the blue spherical candle and wanted one in red. I couldn't find one, so I made a mould and made my own for the 3 piece.

The results are here.
A 3 piece in plane, left

An 8 piece in beech, right
That was 'fun'?

A 2 piece in oak and black walnut

Not very inspiring to start off with just the inside turned.

With Valentine's day coming soon I decided to keep with the heart shape and the single stem vase was the result, below

In oak and black walnut

But it was much better eventually and I love the contrast between the 2 woods

Crocheting Knitting and Sewing.

It is strange how things turn and weave. At a craft fair I was asked if I could make some crochet hooks for another stall holder? Why not was my answer and so I was commissioned to make 15 in 3 different sizes. I had no idea how much variation there is in the crochet world and it has been fascinating learning. culminating, so far, in me thinking about the yarns and the possibility of spinning them. A very slippery slope and more later.

With beech and lovely black walnut I decided to go for a contrast and see what it was like. I think it works quite well.

The blanks look a bit dull

The 15 led to more after I contacted a small local family company. I made some more to show just what I did and I also joined a crochet forum. That has been fun with me being one of the few blokes on there and not actually doing the crocheting. They were very generous in answering loads of my questions about shapes, sizes and lots more and I learned quite quickly. Then came lockdown and almost everything ground to a halt!

I carried on turning and thought it would be nice to have an elegant stand for some of them too. So I played about and came up with what someone described as a type of pipe stand?

But look better when they are first turned

And I think they look quite smart when they are sealed and polished.

A few more chrochet hooks and an idea I had for a magnetic pin cushion. It works fine and 'The Boss' has one and likes it.

I was asked if I had made any 'yarn bowls'. Bowls used by people to put their yarn or wool in whilst working so that it doesn't roll away.

At the time I hadn't but I had a lovely tulip tree wood bowl just made for the job. All it needed was the natural fissure in the side opened and smoothed so as not to catch on the yarn/wool being used.

I expanded the pin cushion further and made a box, a band saw box with a magnetic lid so that when in use the lid could be used either separately with the box handy for more pins or closed and when finished everything is in the same place.

I think that it is one of the loveliest bowls I have turned and I was very sad to see it sold. But it's better being used and appreciated than to sit here at home doing nothing.

It's been strange how things have developed and I was asked if I could make some knitting needles? Not exactly the needles I had imagined? 25, 30 and 40 mm diameter and about 50 cm long!. At first I thought that they were for a display? But no, they are for 'extreme knitting'!

Top are accoya. The other 2 pair are black walnut. An interesting commission and it was quite difficult to get the diameter of the shafts consistent. But I do like a challenge!

I was next asked if I could make a box to house sewing machine bobbins, the small ones that fit under the machine bed. Why not? And I thought that a band saw box would be ideal.

And it became a Robin Bobbin Box. This one is in cedar wood with a small ash catch on it.
I've made several of them now.

This is another bobbin holder, but a folding stand to hold the cotton reels rather than bobbins. It's made so that it folds flat and holds the reels securely and it tucks away neatly too.

Bowls from a plank

I was watching an elderly Indian, I think, man doing some turning in a large and very basic workshop. He was taking some flat planking and turning bowls from them. The tools he was using looked as if they had been made from car leaf suspension springs and the lathe was basic to say the least! But he was making some really nice bowls.

I thought that if he can do that with is tools then it has got to be possible for me to do something like them? So I was hooked!

Starting off with a plank of oak 1 inch thick

Then back on the lathe and turned in to a rather nice bowl

Ash and walnut. Walnut and ash

Add some walnut and this becomes

And a slight variation with the walnut becomes

The piece was an offcut from a shelf. It was cut to a square and the square to a circle on my band saw.
Then mounted on the lathe and cut in to four circles with the cuts at 45 degrees.
Then the rings were stacked and glued with the inner at the bottom and outer at the top

With a little bit of mix & match the possibilities are almost limitless and the imagination is the only limit.

4 pieces of oak became

John's World of wood

I have been doing some different things. A ball in a cube and what is called inside out turning. Both are really interesting.

After carefully seperating the, not very round, ball from the cube cage it was necessary to hold the cage to turn the ball inside it. Then use 2 'cups' to hold the ball. As Brucie used to say "Good game, good game", but it worked. I have dome several of them now, some a success and others less so!

2 heart shaped in black walnut.
Below

I was never keen on the blue spherical candle and wanted one in red. I couldn't find one, so I made a mould and made my own for the 3 piece.

The results are here.
A 3 piece in plane, left

An 8 piece in beech, right
That was 'fun'?

A 2 piece in oak and black walnut

Not very inspiring to start off with just the inside turned.

With Valentine's day coming soon I decided to keep with the heart shape and the single stem vase was the result, below

In oak and black walnut

But it was much better eventually and I love the contrast between the 2 woods

Crocheting Knitting and Sewing.

A few more chrochet hooks and an idea I had for a magnetic pin cushion. It works fine and 'The Boss' has one and likes it.

I expanded the pin cushion further and made a box, a band saw box with a magnetic lid so that when in use the lid could be used either separately with the box handy for more pins or closed and when finished everything is in the same place.

I think that it is one of the loveliest bowls I have turned and I was very sad to see it sold. But it's better being used and appreciated than to sit here at home doing nothing.

It's been strange how things have developed and I was asked if I could make some knitting needles? Not exactly the needles I had imagined? 25, 30 and 40 mm diameter and about 50 cm long!. At first I thought that they were for a display? But no, they are for 'extreme knitting'!

Top are accoya. The other 2 pair are black walnut. An interesting commission and it was quite difficult to get the diameter of the shafts consistent. But I do like a challenge!

I was next asked if I could make a box to house sewing machine bobbins, the small ones that fit under the machine bed. Why not? And I thought that a band saw box would be ideal.

And it became a Robin Bobbin Box. This one is in cedar wood with a small ash catch on it.
I've made several of them now.

This is another bobbin holder, but a folding stand to hold the cotton reels rather than bobbins. It's made so that it folds flat and holds the reels securely and it tucks away neatly too.

Bowls from a plank

Then back on the lathe and turned in to a rather nice bowl

Ash and walnut. Walnut and ash

Add some walnut and this becomes

And a slight variation with the walnut becomes

The piece was an offcut from a shelf. It was cut to a square and the square to a circle on my band saw.
Then mounted on the lathe and cut in to four circles with the cuts at 45 degrees.
Then the rings were stacked and glued with the inner at the bottom and outer at the top

With a little bit of mix & match the possibilities are almost limitless and the imagination is the only limit.

4 pieces of oak became

This

I am really enjoying the experimenting with this and there will be more!

​

I have been doing some different things. A ball in a cube and what is called inside out turning. Both are really interesting.

After carefully seperating the, not very round, ball from the cube cage it was necessary to hold the cage to turn the ball inside it. Then use 2 'cups' to hold the ball. As Brucie used to say "Good game, good game", but it worked. I have dome several of them now, some a success and others less so!

2 heart shaped in black walnut. Below I was never keen on the blue spherical candle and wanted one in red. I couldn't find one, so I made a mould and made my own for the 3 piece.

The results are here. A 3 piece in plane, left An 8 piece in beech, right That was 'fun'? A 2 piece in oak and black walnut

Not very inspiring to start off with just the inside turned.

With Valentine's day coming soon I decided to keep with the heart shape and the single stem vase was the result, below In oak and black walnut

But it was much better eventually and I love the contrast between the 2 woods

Crocheting Knitting and Sewing.

A few more chrochet hooks and an idea I had for a magnetic pin cushion. It works fine and 'The Boss' has one and likes it.

I expanded the pin cushion further and made a box, a band saw box with a magnetic lid so that when in use the lid could be used either separately with the box handy for more pins or closed and when finished everything is in the same place.

I think that it is one of the loveliest bowls I have turned and I was very sad to see it sold. But it's better being used and appreciated than to sit here at home doing nothing.

It's been strange how things have developed and I was asked if I could make some knitting needles? Not exactly the needles I had imagined? 25, 30 and 40 mm diameter and about 50 cm long!. At first I thought that they were for a display? But no, they are for 'extreme knitting'!

Top are accoya. The other 2 pair are black walnut. An interesting commission and it was quite difficult to get the diameter of the shafts consistent. But I do like a challenge!

I was next asked if I could make a box to house sewing machine bobbins, the small ones that fit under the machine bed. Why not? And I thought that a band saw box would be ideal.

And it became a Robin Bobbin Box. This one is in cedar wood with a small ash catch on it. I've made several of them now.

This is another bobbin holder, but a folding stand to hold the cotton reels rather than bobbins. It's made so that it folds flat and holds the reels securely and it tucks away neatly too.

Bowls from a plank

Then back on the lathe and turned in to a rather nice bowl

Ash and walnut. Walnut and ash

Add some walnut and this becomes

And a slight variation with the walnut becomes

The piece was an offcut from a shelf. It was cut to a square and the square to a circle on my band saw. Then mounted on the lathe and cut in to four circles with the cuts at 45 degrees. Then the rings were stacked and glued with the inner at the bottom and outer at the top

With a little bit of mix & match the possibilities are almost limitless and the imagination is the only limit.

4 pieces of oak became

This

I am really enjoying the experimenting with this and there will be more!

2 heart shaped in black walnut.
Below

I was never keen on the blue spherical candle and wanted one in red. I couldn't find one, so I made a mould and made my own for the 3 piece.

The results are here.
A 3 piece in plane, left

An 8 piece in beech, right
That was 'fun'?

A 2 piece in oak and black walnut

With Valentine's day coming soon I decided to keep with the heart shape and the single stem vase was the result, below

In oak and black walnut

And it became a Robin Bobbin Box. This one is in cedar wood with a small ash catch on it.
I've made several of them now.

The piece was an offcut from a shelf. It was cut to a square and the square to a circle on my band saw.
Then mounted on the lathe and cut in to four circles with the cuts at 45 degrees.
Then the rings were stacked and glued with the inner at the bottom and outer at the top