bernard's Bowl

This is Bernhard one of my students with a nice Ash bowl he made today

Playing with The airbrush

Today myself and Brian Hensby have had an enjoyable  day playing with the airbrush and different airbrush techniques.
Here is a picture of of Brian with a wide rim bowl complete with airbrushed Autumn leaves lacquered and burnished.

    

Teaching Annette

This is a picture of Annette my student for the last two days.
Annette has never done any woodturning but thought it would be something she would like to have a go at and now I think she is hooked.
Annette has taken to it like a duck to water which has given me two very easy and rewarding days.
She has made two nice bowls from spalted Beech and one Ash bowl with a large inclusion and finished off the second day with a bit of spindle turning practice.
Annette wanted to spend the two days making bowls as one is for her and the others are to be presents.
Whoever receives these as presents will be very lucky as they are absolutely perfect and they are all her own work.
Annette is going to come back for further tuition in the new year and is going to get her own lathe and equipment.
Very very well done Annett it has been a very enjoyable two days and I look forward to seeing you in the new year.

Another Painting lesson.

My Granddaughter Ali and I have had another painting lesson today with Anita Pegler using pen,ink and watercolor.
This is my effort a French cottage.

Poor service from Axminster Tools

I am very disappointed with Axminster tools.
Two weeks ago I ordered a new Lathe from Axminster tools and it was delivered the next day which is great service but at the same time I ordered a new chuck to go with the Lathe.
I was told that chucks are made to order and it would be a week before delivery.Today two weeks after delivery of the Lathe I rang them to find out why the chuck had not been delivered to be told it would not be avalable to the middle of next month.
This would be a wait of four to five weeks.I told them this was not good enough as I use laths for my work and if this was the best they could do they could have the Lathe back.
They went away and rang me back and said they had located one in another store and they will get it to me by the end of the week.
I always recommend Axminster to my students and tell them what a great company they are and always give good service.
To be fair this is the first time anything like this has happened but it has left me very disappointed
Only last week I recommended four students that don't own lathes to go buy from Axminster and I will do so in the future but I hope this not a sign of things to come

Gable end Finial

It is not very often I get asked to make anything other than bowls,hollow forms and houshold items so it made a pleasant change when a local builder asked me to make a finial.
The finial is about five feet long and goes on the gable end of a large Victorian house.
Because of the length I made the two ends separately with a tenon on the end and glued them into the center square section.

New Lathe

The beginning of last week I ordered a new lathe from Axminster tools.I ordered the lathe and a new chuck at about three O clock in the afternoon and the lathe was delivered the next day at mid day.
How is that for good service, great service but and here is the problem the chuck comes about ten days later because apparently they are made to order.
This does not make any sense to me,what good is a lathe without a chuck and surely they could keep some on the shelf.
I am a big fan of Axminster tools but this is very disappointing and not good.