But basket making is woodworking!

I just finished a basketry course with installation artist, Ursula A. Johnson, which was quite fascinating. Not only did I come away with lots of great instruction on how to make a basket but also lots of appreciation for all of the work involved in creating one. I also happily came home with a small basket of my own:

The basket I made is made of White Ash with a Sweetgrass accented handle and a bit of red dyed Ash for contrast. It is about 4″ tall and 2″ in diameter. It was made in the ‘kloqowej’, or star, style. Which means that the basket has a circular bottom with a star pattern.

It is very light and although it appears to be fragile I was quite surprised at just how strong it is. It would take a fair amount of pressure to crush it. It is easy to see why baskets would have been used extensively for storage and transporting.

Continue reading 'Basket Making With Ursula Johnson'

Here’s a neat set of table decorations that I made over the weekend. They are made out of Cherry and finished with milk paint. After burnishing, the milk paint gave these pieces an almost ceramic look.

Yes, they are made out of wood! In fact, these are the first pieces that I have made from wood cultivated from our woodlot located on the beautiful North Mountain of Nova Scotia, but that’s another story .

The tallest piece is 9″, the mid one is 6″ and the smallest one is about 4.5″. They are all about 3.75″ in diameter at their widest. They were finished by buffing with wax to bring out the shine.

Another of the cool effects of milk paint is that it also somehow reacts (likely the hydrated lime) with Cherry to give a bronze look where the paint is burnished through to the wood. Here’s some closeups:

Continue reading 'An Ahmaga Trio'

Here’s a wall bed that my wife and I finished last week. We ramped it up a notch and did it in the style of an armoire to further disguise the fact that it was actually a bed.

The necessity for the Murphy wall bed came from the fact that my wife’s mother moved in with us a few months ago. In addition to wanting to give her a place for privacy when she has visitors we also wanted to give her a place where she could enjoy the surroundings of some of her own furniture. We decided to turn the bedroom just down the hall from her own bedroom into a sitting room for her. Since we also wanted to retain the option for guests sleeping over a wall bed was the perfect choice. And it is!

The panels are made with Oak plywood and the cabinet style frame work is all done in solid Oak. It’s about 80″ tall and 60″ wide. The stain and finish are environmentally friendly products from Sasco. The Sansin stain and Sasdura, the urethane finish, are both water-based, low VOC and no odour. Not only did they dry in record time and give a great looking finish but with no odour they were a dream to work with.

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This is a bowl that I turned for the Nova Woodturners’ Guild Annual Fun Turn. Each year we are given a block of wood for this event, usually 6″ X 6″ X 3″. However, this year the block was 8″X8″X3″. We can turn anything we want. The only criteria is that we have fun. This project certainly fit the criteria because it sure was fun.

The bowl is made of Maple and it is approximately two and a half inches tall and just over seven inches in diameter. After turning it was carved and then burnt. Yes, burnt. I took a propane torch to it (this is where the fun really began ) and charred the whole thing except for the center bowl.

I was really surprised at how hard this was to do. I expected that the wood would go up in flames but it didn’t. I really had to keep the torch on it for a long time to get the charring that I wanted. You can see in the following photos where the flame didn’t char between a lot of the carved grooves. This worked in my favour, giving a neat effect.

Continue reading 'Carved And Burnt Maple Bowl'