Thursday 1 October 2009

Buzzard fayre was a really good weekend, met some druids, knights, wenches (of both sexes), maidens, more than one jester, oh...... and a magician! I managed to sell a couple of my larger plates and bowls (some of the 1st ones I made) and quite a few smaller plates and bowls but mostly we were there for the laugh and had a really good time.

Sarah revived the ancient art of relic trading......
Turned a couple of Yew bowls, the first of which I'd quite like to keep as I was quite chuffed with it,


the second was for Sarah to give her bro for a b-day present.


Also turned a couple of Walnut Bowls, the Walnut is from an old Walnut tree in the orchard - about 130 yrs old but very small despite its age which makes for very tight grained wood.....

a pestle & mortar (also Walnut),

and an Applewood bowl (also from the orchard) with moss still attached.

Also turned an Oak Mallet to replace the rubber one I broke at the Buzzard fayre. Its quite plain but (at about double the weight of my Apple one made recently) a good size and weight for heavy duty work - and as its quite simple; it doesn't matter too much if it takes a beating. Which it already has.
& Sarah also turned herself a small Applewood mallet for working small chisels for woodcuts.
Also turned some garden dibbers to sell on the stall.

In need of extra shelving I made some Pink Douglas Fir/ Cedar shelves as a nice quick piece for both shoes and for Sarahs' jam and jellies jars.
I'm not sure which pieces are which wood but they match up quite well - I've never really been that keen on either of these soft woods but they are quite pretty and as they remain quite straight; are nice and easy to work with - they took almost half as long as Elm shelves in the same style would do.
The 'natural edge' sides to these shelves are quite funky as they both have a short piece of branch sticking out at opposite points!Making all the different jams & jellies also meant reviving the great, long-lost, British tradition of scrumping!


I also made a stool / small table type of thing with Applewood 'crotch' legs and an Elm top held in place by Oak split wedges. It was quite a lot of fun and didnt take too much work, I had to strip the apple with a drawknife but once that was done I only had to make 1 joint before a light bit of sanding.


Finally; I've just started on a large sideboard/cupboard with a frame made from old Oak and panels made from Elm planks. The Oak has lovely contrasting patterns between the pale sapwood and the dark heartwood. I haven't decided on the top yet - which is quite unusual for me, this is often the first thing I decide and the rest of the article is built to fit the top....
Anyway, after quite a lot of sanding, I'll be starting on the dovetailed draws and cupboard doors so, more on this 1 soon!