Some more Silky Oak

Some more Silky Oak turned into into hollow forms.  I really love the contrast that the heartwood / sapwood provides. This piece has been designed so that when the wood moves in the direction  of the pith  axis it still leaves a pleasing form. About 180 mm dia.

Tell me what you think!

Turnings for the week......

Last week we had our annual exhibition for the Woodworking Association of Pretoria and I managed to sell 4 pieces. 3 were sold sold as part of  a set (first time I've tried that - see previous post) and 1 natural edge hollow form.

This week the following pieces were turned from Silky Oak. Please note that these are pieces are fresh off the lathe, with minimal sanding, no finish, with maybe a bit of Woodoc just to help the drying process. Let me know what you think!

Count down to Pretoria Exhibition

A grouping of some turnings all from the same wood (honey locust?) Sometimes items in na group really look good rather than a solitary piece. These do not have any finish on them yet.

Still busy with this as you can see! Lots of work to do still. The tenon is still on the piece to aid holding while carving.

This is currently on the lathe. Made from Karee, still need to complete the hollowing.

The Woodturing Exhibition for the year starts this Saturday. I will be trying some new strategies to hopefully get a sale or two.

I'm back!

I attended the AWSA Symposium as I previously blogged and had a load of fun. Trent Bosch gave very good demo's and we had a visit from Andi Wolfe as well who was in SA doing fieldwork.

These caught my eye in the instant gallery:

 A rustic piece by Nico Swart from Port Elizabeth

 An incredibly delicate piece by Wally Rossini from Darling (?)

A paticularly interesting piece where the wood had several voids that were filled using black fibreglass resin and for interest brass shavings were added giving the impression (for me at least) of fossils embedded in the wood. The collar was turned from giraffe bone I think.

Plans for AWSA Conference

No pictures this week, just blogging my family's plans for the next week or two.

Our yearly AWSA (Association of Woodturners of South Africa) conference starts this week down in Port Elizabeth. We leave Pretoria on Wednesday moring early. Trent Bosch has been invited to the conference so he'll be showing us some of his techniques and probably imparting a lot of infoemation. I'll be taking some pieces shown in this blog for the gallery there and will be showing some pieces from the gallery in the next blog. For those who will be at the conference see you in Port Elizabeth!

After the conference we'll spend some time in East London and I should be back in Pretoria about the 2nd October.

Some Items completed at last

More colour......

Still doing some playing with colour, I've been busy trying to complete a previous piece as our next meeting is soon with the homework being some kind of enhancement. I figured that I have never tried being really bold with colour so therefore the experimentation.

A piece seen in the blog earlier -burnt and coloured with some fabric dye. The burning seemed to enhance the grain.