It's about time ... ...

Been a bit thin on posts of late, apologies for that, although in my defence I have been busy. I've been practising my turning skills (or maybe trying to actually get some)

Also been trying to think of ideas, seems inspiration doesn't always want to work, but I'm getting there. You may or may not like to know that I have a shop now, although I've actually had it for a couple of weeks, the reason I haven't announced it is because I needed time to figure it all out, still not sure on some of the finer points, but I guess I'll be able to iron those out as I go along.

The shop has a variety of things, and although it's small at the moment I will be adding new things on a regular basis, at least that's the plan :-) it has some of the things I've blogged about in it, and some stuff I haven't, and I'll be adding some of my turned wooden objects, most of which you won't have seen :-)

My latest turning exploits have been interesting, I have a new chuck for the lathe which makes things easier, and does hold some possibilities for some interesting projects.

Here's some of my latest stuff -  

Most are prototypes :-)

I'm most pleased with the small pot on the far left, the pot is a memory box, the idea being that you place a memory in it, a lock of your child's hair, or their umbilical cord, or some other memory an item that reminds you of a day out perhaps ? the design is intentionally plain because it's the memory inside that holds the magic ;-)

The memory pots will be available on an as and when I make them basis, and they will all be slightly different in design, but still plain, I've also been experimenting with different finishes, the memory pot and the largest pot (far right) have been finished with honing oil, which is a wood turners polish, it goes on very evenly and can be polished to quite a high shine, even makes plain pine interesting (the pots above are plain pine by the way)

The last thing I made, before my lathes drive belt took a turn for the worse was a small birch pot with a lid, not to worry though I have 2 new drive belts on the way.

Here's the small birch pot -

It's a nice pot, even if I do say so myself, one of my better ones.

The pot is just under 7cm in height and just under 6cm wide, the pot and lid are all turned from one piece of birch and then finished with honing oil.

Some more pictures - 

The grain is quite subtle.

The lid has some interesting patterns on it.

This pot was on sale in my new shop, and it sold pretty quickly, which was nice, you can find my shop at ---> www.the-shed-and-beyond.co.uk (opens in new window) as I mentioned I'm keeping it small for now, but I will add new stuff as I go along, so look out for new turned objects and other things, and if you have any questions / feedback feel free to to use the blog or the contact section of the shop to ask, I'm hoping to use the blog to show of new stuff that I will then put in the shop.

And lastly I'm looking into moving this blog (and the others) elsewhere at some point, I will let everyone know though.

Thanks for reading.