Here’s a piece that I created specifically for the Nova Woodturners’ Guild Turning of Age Exhibition last month. I call it ‘Godina’, which, loosely translated, is Croatian for ‘aged’. Here, have a look at why I believe the name is appropriate:

The bowl is made of Maple and has been heavily textured. This was helped by the fact that the wood was fairly punky when I started. It was then painted with a metallic type paint and then over-layed with a layer of Verdi Gris. The base was made of Pine and painted with a crackle paint to match the old, decayed look of the bowl.

The diameter of the bowl is almost 7 inches and it is 4 inches tall. The overall height of the piece is 10 inches and the base is between 4 and 5 inches square.

The different textures, the mix of woodturning with woodworking and the finishes were all really fun to explore.

Here’s a few more photos:

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Here’s a piece that I call the Collection Plate, since it is a shallow, flat-bottomed plate for displaying a collection of items. It could be used for a small collection of brightly coloured stones, perhaps some aptly, appropriate old coins or like in this case, just a few glass balls.

While creating it I was struck by the remembrance of ornate silver collection plates that passed through the church pews during my youth, not like the baskets of today. It’s flat-bottomed bowl left a lot of wood in the base, therefore a fair amount of weight. I left this to give the piece a sense of substance, that no matter what is in the bowl it’s worth is substantial, where mass is relative to worth.

It is made of Birch and it is 10 1/2″ in diameter and 2″ tall. It has a 2″ rim that has been textured. It was finished with tung oil and then buffed using the Beale system.

Here are some more photos:

Continue reading 'A Charming Collection Plate'

Here’s a collection of small boxes that I did over the summer. They vary in size from 2″ tall to 4 1/2″ tall and they feature pyrography and staining.

A pair of the boxes also feature a small glass bead accent in the center of the lid. They are all made from Ash and finished with wipe-on poly.

Here are some photos of the individual boxes. The first ones are of the largest box, that is approximately 4 1/2″ tall X 3 1/4″ at its widest. It features a black glass bead on the lid, matching the black stained band that was burned with ‘swirls’ and ‘dots’:

Continue reading 'A Collection Of Small Boxes'

Need an easy way to finish the bottom of your woodturnings? Tired of continually screwing in and unscrewing the screws of your Cole jaws? Hate having to heat the glue gun up again? If so, then you need to make a Longworth chuck!

The Longworth chuck was developed in the late 1980′s by Leslie Douglas Longworth of the Hunter Valley Woodturners in Australia. It features a self centering mechanism that easily and quickly adjusts to the size of your turning.

The concept is quite simple – a pair of disks rotate against each other drawing in, or out, eight rubber ‘jaws’ on a series of opposing arcs. Yep, it’s that simple.

Here, let me explain how I made mine and you’ll see how easy it is to make one.

Continue reading 'How To Make A Longworth Chuck'