Whilst waiting for some painting work, I decided to make a hazel stick chair.

As usual I started off very enthusiastically, hammered my thumb, cut my finger,

swore a bit, sat on it... it nearly fell apart... swore some more, fixed it, and here it is,

Ben kindly tested it, and it works!

I've just about finished the Elm shelves that have been drying in the barn, they still need waxing but we've put them in place for now, Sarah's been waiting a while for these to be ready!

Very pretty bits of Elm with lots of Burr in the wood, I've been saving the side pieces for quite a while - they are matching planks (cut back to back) but, very different shapes.

Sorry about the fuzziness of the pictures, we're still using a camera phone.

For a while I've wanted to do a mirror with little shelf underneath. I decided to use the red(dish) wood that I used a while ago, it's quite straight - which helps with this sort of thing and quite pretty. It turned out quite nice so I might do another, but with Oak - for the bathroom.

Also this small Oak frame with a gorgeous William Morris picture in.

I've gone back to working on the sideboard I started 5 or 6 months ago. I was keen to get it done but the amount of sanding involved was a little off-putting, especially after so much fun turning all the bowls for Xmas.

Anyway, the sides have been sanded and temporarily screwed. I'm going to have to spend a few hours making pegs to replace the screws but, not till a much later date.

A couple of other pieces of the frame are being re-made. I decided they either didn't look right or, might not be up to the task of holding all the weight that is starting to build up on the frame. As this wood is all very old stock I'm very limited to choice - all of the panels, shelves, base and draws are 1 inch thick Elm planks, seems very wasteful to be using it on the parts that can't even be seen but, I'm more concerned about it matching properly than anything else.

I still haven't done anymore turning yet this year however, it definitely won't be much longer as I've got a nice selection of wood mounting up. We picked up some Yew yesterday, it is from the village churchyard and was kindly offered to us to see what use we can make of it. There are some nice size pieces but, it's all going to need cutting down to be manageable for turning. Jim has kindly offered to put it through his re-saw (large bandsaw) for me so I'll have to wait till then to see what sort of turnings are possible with it.

I think I've got enough other bits to keep me going till then!

And finally, a picture of Sarah working on her chair, I'm sure she'll explain more when ready;