Annetts'Cake stand

Annette has been to me before for Tuition got back in touch and said she wanted to make a Cake stand for her Christmas cake and this is the result.
Very nice I think she is going to send me a pic with the cake on it.
Annette is coming back for a couple of days in March I will look forward to that she is great company.

Thats it for 2017

That is the end of my teaching for 2017 .
It has been a very good year plenty of very interesting Students who all seem to have gone away happy
Ian was my Student today and now I have a break until the 4Th Jan next year.
Ian was great company today and a very quick learner .
He turned a very nice Beech Bowl and still had time to practise a bit of spindle turning.

Mike and his Walnut Bowl

Today my student was Mike who was here as a present from his Wife Buffy for his Birthday.
When Buffy got in touch she asked if Mike could make his Bowl from walnut as they wanted it for a special family occasion.
As you can see from the pic below Mike turned a very nice Bowl from a Walnut blank.
Very well done Mike we enjoyed your company and look forward to seeing you some time in the near future.

I am on a Roll

I am on a roll the Gods of woodturning are shining down on me I have just had another easy day another Student that took to it like a Duck to water.
Well done Ruaridh you were a pleasure to teach and great company.

Shane is a natural

I know I have said this many times and I will probably say it many more times .Anybody can learn Woodturning ,some take to it strait away and some have to really work at it.You don't have to be strong ,it has nothing to do with strength you don't have to be particularly clever or be able to read and write but with application it is learnable.
If you want to make a very good Woodturner you have to apply yourself to the task and stick at it.In my opinion Tuition is the short cut to being a good Turner I know that has a cost but it is well worth it.Some good turners are self taught but most of them will admit that they would have improved a lot quicker if they had Tuition when they started out.
Would be woodturners come to me for Tuition and they vary greatly in their ability but the thing they all have in common is they enjoy Woodturning. Occasionally I get a Student that is that little bit special andhas a natural ability and my Student Shane today is one of these very lucky gifted people,in my opinion.Shane was very easy to teach and that is always a good sign.I only had to show him something once and not only was he very quickly able to do it he understood why he was doing it and it made sense to him.
Thanks for an easy day Shane Susan and I enjoyed your company and look forward to seeing you again.
Stick at it Mate you have the makings of a good Woodturner.

Shane and thevery nice Beech bowl he turned today.

Snowmen

Turned some Snowmen this morning they are turned and sanded for kids to paint.
They are approx 4" to 6" high

Christmas tree ornaments

Been making some Christmas tree ornaments from Urchin shells.

Richard and Toby

Richard and his Son Toby were with me today for a days woodturning experiance.
The day was bought for them as a Birthday present for Toby.
I am sure they bothe enjoyed their day here and they both turned very nice Beech bowls.
Richard is so inspired he is thinking he will probably take up woodturning as a hobby.

Four lovely Ladies.

I was asked recently by Elaine if I would like to Tutor herself and three friends for a days woodturning experience.As I do not as a rule teach more than two Students at a time I spoke to my Brother Chris and asked him if he would like to work with me for the day teaching four ladies.Chris and I have worked together many times over the years on building projects and always got on well and worked together well but never teaching woodturning.We both carry out out woodturning very much the same way and having spent a lot of time discussing teaching over the years we both teach about the same.The day went very well the Ladies were great company and we had lots of laughs and the Ladies Elaine,Jane Ilse and Rebecca all went away with beautiful Beech Bowls.
Thank you Ladies we enjoyed your company and hopefully we will see you again some time in the future.

Here are some pics I took during the day.

Left to right Rebecca,Elaine,Jane and Ilse when the arrived.

 We added some texture and colour to the rims to give the Ladies something special to take home.

 Don't they look pleased with themselves and so they should they did well.

Barry's Bowl

Barry was comming here for two days but unfortunatly due to things beyond his control he only did  one day
Given a choice of wood Barry chose Cedar of Lebenon and turned a beutiful bowl.
Well done barry I look forward to seeing you again soon.

John's high speed turning

Not easy sometimes to rid people of bad habits and John is a good example although I think I won in the end.John has been turning for a number of years and did everything at high speed and after two days of nagging I think I have convinced him to have more consideration for the wood to slow down and treat the wood more kindly as this is the way to get good results.The first day John when given the choice between Sycamore and Cedar of lebanon John chose the Cedar and turned a very nice bowl.On the second day John brought a piece of Oak that he had for a long time and he turned a very nice wide rimmed Bowl with a textured and scorcher rim.
Well done John.

An eventful day

Quite an eventful day yesterday.
Yesterday and the day before I had two students here Paul and Ian.
Paul has been here quite a number of times and is always good company and he loves his woodturning.
Friday went well both Students making beautiful Bowls from some Cedar of Lebanon.
The plan was to have a days bowl turning and the following day to be spindle turning.
Second day all going fine both Students practising beads and coves when all of a sudden Paul said I don't feel right I feel giddy and unsteady on my feet.
I keep a good solid bar stool in the workshop because sometimes elderly Students need a sit down for a few minutes.I sat Paul on the stool thinking it would pass in a minute or two but things did not improve.Rather than take any chances I rang 999 and spoke to the ambulance service who could not have been more helpful.After explaining all the symptoms they said they would send out some medics.Within about five minutes two first responder turned up followed by an ambulance and two medics.After extensive tests they said they thought Paul might have an middle ear infection but to be on the safe side they would take him to Weston Super Mare hospital for a scan.After a long wait Paul was told they could not do a scan because it was a weekend.Just rang Paul and he has numbness down his right hand side inc his foot and hands.
In the morning he is going to ring his own doctor and take his advise lets hope all is OK.
I have a couple of pictures below.
I will update this post as I get more news.

Jan and Sue

Today I had two lovely Ladies for a days Tuition they have both been here before and they wanted to just have a day of Bowl turning and good company.
We had a very relaxed day and the Ladies both turned very respectable Beech Bowls as you can see from the following picture.
Jan and Sue had never met before today but as they were both about the same ability and both wanted to come I arranged so they could come together and take advantage of the lower rate for two people.
This is something I plan to do in the future as I want to cut down on the amount of days teaching I do.
Having Students two at a time helps me and they gain by paying less.

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Davids Birthday present

David's Wife Penny treated him to a days woodturning tuition for his Birthday.
Although David has his own Lathe and tools he felt he would benefit from some formal Tuition.
David turned a very nice bowl from Beech and hopefully went away with more confidence.

Well done David you did very well.