Yesterdays Students

Yesterday my Students were Robin and Gareth were new to Woodturning and were here as an experience day as a treat by their wife's.
Both were good company and easy to teach making it an easy day for me.
They both started of wit similar Sycamore Bowl blanks but made bowls that were quite different.
Well done both of you you did very well.

Art Weeks

Very quiet at Art Weeks today but it gave me a chance to process some wood.Brother Chris picked me up some Sycamore and Ash ready for me to cut into Teaching Blanks

Some nice slabs

 Slabs cut into squars ready for turning into Blanks

 42 Nice Teaching Blanks

Gerry from Cork

Student today Gerry from Cork wanted to learn Sharpening ,Bowl turning and some colouring.Gerry had only ever used scrapers so wanted to use Gouges .12" Sycamore Bowl with coloured rim he did well #artistryinwood #woodturning

Alister and Mike

Alister and mike were my Students on Saturday.
Alister is Mike's father in law and they were treated to a days Woodturning by Alister's Wife Catherine and Mike's Wife Helen.
We had a very enjoyable day they both did well and were good company.
It was a taster day and Alister enjoyed it so much he is going to sort out his garage and get Woodturning equipment as he has just retired and needs a hobby.
I am sure I will be seeing more of them in the future

Alan a very fast learner

Alan my Student today was very quick to pick up turning and this made my day very easy.
Anybody can learn Woodturning given enough time but sometimes you get somebody that you just know would pick it up quickly and make a good Woodturner and Alan was one of them.
I only had to show him something once and he could very soon do it.
Alan's finish strait of the tools was unusually good and left very little scraping and sanding he also had a very good eye for form.

Very well done Alan .
A couple of pics from the day '

A nice 11" x 3" Sycamore Blank

The bottom of the bowl has already been finished at this stage  the top turned an being sanded

 I showed Alan some Texturing Techniques and after a bit of practice Alan textured the bowls wide rim with the Crown tools Texturning tool and added some colour.

 Final sanding of inner Bowl

 Polishing

 Finished Bowl and a very pleased Alan.

Wide rimmed Bowl WIP for Will Stewart

I am not saying this is the best way or the only way it is the way I do it.

This is a Spalted Sycamore blank I roughed out probably a year ago.It would have been partly air dried but not dry enough to finish.

 This blank has quite a large spigot because when it was roughed out  I would probably have done a batch of about 50 or more and with the bigger spigot I could turn it safely at a very high speed therefore getting through the work a lot quicker

 At this stage the underside has been given its final shape and the spigot reduced. To save on time the  large spigot is now reduced in size to create the finished foot and I put a slope on the side of the foot so that when I sand the underside the abrasive goes over the slope and saves time better than sanding a square edge. .The underside is then sanded down to 1000 grit 120,180,240,320,400.600.1000 I sand all of my work down to 1000 grit.Then I apply a coat of Cellulose sanding sealer and wipe of excess and spin the piece up fast with a bit of Safety cloth held quite firmly against the piece to create a bit of heat to set the sealer.

 Next with the Lathe stopped and a thin film of Yorkshire Grit is wiped on.The lathe is then spun up slowly to star with and building the speed gradually to break down the grit this creates a very fine finish

 Then a thin coat of Hampshire Sheen High Gloss polish is applied again with the lathe stopped followed by buffing with safety cloth with the lathe at quite a high speed.

 This is the underside finished to a very high standard and all that is left is to remove the Spigot later

 Bowl reverse chucked and rim sanded to 240 Grit don't go any smoother than this as the paint needs something to grip on

 I then apply a coat of Chestnut Ebonising lacquer taking care not to spray inside the inner Bowl or the paint will be sucked up the end grain and you will never remove it.What I used to do to avoid this was to coat the surface of the inside with wax polish to fill the end grain and then if you get over spray it will not be sucked up into the grain If you do it this way when you have finished your colouring turn out the first bit of the inner bowl with the Lathe running slowly or the polish we go all over the rim because of centrifugal force

 To speed everything up I have dried the paint with a hot air gun.

 I am going to do the colouring with Jo Sonja's iridescent paints as pictured below.I keep the paints upside down because then I don't have to turn them up to get the paint to the top it is already there time saved.

I am using three colours on this piece first is Red

 Followed by Turquoise and a bit of Gold.I do not like putting on too much Gold I feel it can over power the other colours. The paint is simply dabbed on with a bit of crumpled up carrier bag

 All colours on and to save time I dry the paint with a hot air gun this does not hurt the paint just don't burn it.

The inside of the Bow is then turned down to a finish and sanded to 1000 Grit

 I am now going to put a border both sides of the coloured rim to make the painted area stand out and tie the whole piece together.Firstly I cut through the paint very carefully with the point of a Skew chisel.Take care doing this and only use the point of the skew or it might track of left or right spoiling the piece.The skew must be dead upright.

 Skew from another angle.

 That is the two lines defined then I carefully remove the paint with a Spindle gouge to create a nice margin keeping them the same size or they will look odd

 Carefully sand down again to 1000 Grit

 Then the whole top wood and paint is given a coat of Chestnut Acrylic sanding sealer and a couple of coats of Hampshire Sheen Gloss lacquer sprayed wet on wet .The sealer coat in my opinion is very important to seal the Paint and protect from fading.

 Then again I go through the the same process with the Yorkshire grit and Hampshire Sheen high Gloss this gives a very good finish but this is only on the wood not the paint.

 Remove the spigot and put my Brand on the bottom and we are done.

 Finished Bowl

It took me longer to write this up than it did to make the Bowl.I have been making hundreds of these for about 15 years and have got it of to a tee.When I do these in bulk I do each stage on about ten bowls at a time and I have got it down to about 30 minutes from roughed out Bowl to finished

A present for Christine

Christine's Husband Scott treated her to a days Woodturning experience because she had shown an interest in the past.
Christine was great company and a lot of fun, we had a very nice day.
These are the sort of days that make teaching easy good company and plenty of laughs .
Christine took to turning like a Duck to water and turned a lovely Sycamore bowl.

Doesn't she look proud and well she might she did well.