Coloured Hollow form

This piece is 9" x 5 1/4" turned from Ash and coloured with acrylic paint.

Leaving comments

Unfortunately I have had to restrict leaving comments on my Blog to registered users only.
I have got what I believe is a troll trying to leave anonymous comments.
This is a pity because I have had some very good anonymous comments in the past and I was very loath to restrict comments as I am always interested in people views and opinions.

Please leave your comments on my Blog but the only way now is if you register and below is the way to do it.
I can always be contacted by Email if you .
g.foweraker@sky.com


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This is to stop spam and abusive comments being printed.
It is always nice to get comments so please make the effort .
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Theo's first bowl

Today I have been teaching Theo how to turn his first bowl.
This bowl is about 11" x 6" turned from Olive Ash.
here are a few pics for you .

Mervin's day.

Mervin is a novice turner who has just bought his first lathe.
He has been with me today for a days tuition on bowl turning and I think he has done really well.
Mervin has turned a deep bowl from Sycamore about 12" x 5".
It is never easy to turn a deep bowl as a first project and it is certainly chucking him in at the deep end but he coped really well.
He must have enjoyed his day as he is comming back next week.
Here are a few pics for you.

Turning of the week once again

Once again I have been privileged to have one of my pieces chosen as turning of the week on the American Turners unlimited site.Link here link here.
I am absolutely stunned that out of all the beautiful work on the site mine was chosen.
The previous post on here was a brief tutorial to show how I made and coloured a similar piece.

Scorched an coloured Hollow form

I thought it was time I did a bit of work on my blog and recently I put a Hollow form on an American Wesite and several members asked me how I did it.
So this is the way I turn and colour a Textured scorched and coloured Hollow form.

This is a bit of Cedar that has been kicking about for a few years .As you can see the grain is running the length of the wood and although you cant see it from this pic the pith is excluded.

 The blank is held between centres with a Steb centre and a revolving tail stock centre.

 First the blank is turned to a cylinder ready to be shaped.

 After initial shaping it is sanded to 120 grit nd the grooves are created with a point tool or a beading gouge.I have not used a beading gouge because I wanted the grooves to be a bit random.It is easier to do the grooving now before the form is reversed into the chuck jaws because this way the headstock does not hinder the gouge handle.

 Here you can see the grooving I have done wide deep grooves and then put a shallow groove on the top of each ridge.

 Here we can see the whole form grooved with the spigot on ready to be reverse chucked.

 Now the whole form is given a light scorching.It is important to do this before hollowing to minimise the chance of cracking due to the heat.

 The form is checked prior to hollowing.

With the form reverse chucked it can be drilled to help with the hollowing and a bit of tape is used to show the depth .

 To hollow this form I have used this very usefull hollowing tool from Crown tools because the is a small form this tool is perfect and because it has a small tip there is no chance of getting a catch.

 Once you start hollowing is is very important to keep checking wall thickness and dont forget to allow for the depth of your grooves.I also use a small torch to see inside

With all the hollowing completed Oronge spirit stain is applied with a rag or sponge with the for statonary on the lathe.I then go over the oronge with yellow spirit stain to tone it down a bit.

It is very important that you seal the spirit stain prior to applieng laquar and I use Acrylic sanding sealer follower by several coats of satin laquar

To remove the spigot the form is fixed between this shaped bit of scrap wood and the revolving centre.The rubber router matt stopes the form from slipping and protects the entrance hole.

The spigot is carefully removedwith a spindle gouge and the bit that is left is removed with a chissel.

This sanding arbour tidies up the bottom of the form

That is it finnished.but unfortunatly there was a small crack from the heat near the opening.I repaired the crack with super glue but was not entirely happy,As nothing goes out of my workshop unless it is perfect you can see from the next two pics how it ended up.

The hollow form graveyard

This is the crack .It is not a very good pic but you get the idea.
Thank you for looking.

Dave and sue

Yesterday two of my regular students Dave and Sue spent the day in my workshop.
Dave made a very nice Goblet and a super Walnut bowl and sue wanted to make wooden buttons.
Wooden buttons were new to me but Sue was determined to spend the day making them as she had been asked by her Sister to make her some to go with knitwear she was making.
I think Sue is going to go into large scale production of wooden buttons.LOL
Once we had sorted out a suitable way to make them it was heads down and off she went.
Using the small Crown texturing tool and the Henry Taylor Decorating Elf Sue soon sorted some really nice patterns.
Sorry but I forgot to take any pics of the buttons and they are probably on the way to her sister in Scotland by now.
Here are a few pics from yesterday.