(Hi, if you are reading this on social media and want to see the pictures, please visit the original source story on my website at www.turningdreams.co.uk in the ‘Notes from the workshop’ section).
This week has been a busy week outside of the workshop, however, this weekend has easily made up for it! I made a small modification to the work shop to make my tool rests more accessible, I experimented with 30cm tall vases made from Yew wood, obtained 3 gorgeous pieces of Thuya Burl and then had a bit of a disaster session where I couldn’t do right for doing wrong!
First up, the Yew vases. I had two lovely Yew spindles and decided to go for a flower vase. Then end result could easily be a candle stick holder too…. my goal was to make them identical. Anyone doing this free hand on a lathe will tell you how hard this can be…but, the new thing for me on this was drilling a 25cm deep hole at 27mm diameter. Let me tell you, that’s quite a deep hole. Vase 1 the drill bit came out of the extender and got stuck. It took me 45 minutes to get it out. Vase 2 went fine having learned to be slower and more steady from my first mistake! Pictures of the vases and the precarious drill bit are at the end.
Next up was the Thuya Burls. Thuya is fairly rare as it only grows in the Atlas mountain region, primarily Morocco. So, not only is it limited in location, it has to be a special growth on the side of the tree to create the wonderful pattern in the grain. Suffice to say, with this rarity comes expense….but also, larger pieces are even harder to find, so, when a local supplier said he had a few bits of 8 inch square I jumped in. It’s wonderful to work with and fills the air with an earthy peppery smell. I made 3 items, an unusual square clock for my dad, and two beautiful bowls, both in my shop.
Finally, my failure day. Simply put, I tried a yew bowl, hit a knot that split the bowl completely in half on the lathe! Second, an oak bowl that I cut too thin on the base and went straight through it. This was a real shame as it was looking beautiful… but, at least it can be rescued as a lid for a future project!
That’s it for this week, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments on my site if you enjoy the blog stories.
