When is a stool not a stool?

When is a stool not a stool?.....when it's a picture frame.

For a while now I've had an old stool in my shed, it's in bits as I figured it would come in useful and recently I decided to see what I might make out of the seat part, which was the largest part, the rest being made up of various turned parts, which I'll find a use for eventually.

I give you exhibit 'A' -

But what to do with it?

Not much to look at really, it's in a sorry state, so what to make from it? well I decided on a picture frame, I had thought about making one but in the end I made eight small picture frames and not square ones either, I made round ones, well I have a lathe so might as well go round.

So the first thing to do is cut it up, I flipped it over and marked out the largest piece I could get out of it, it was then I realised that I could probably make more than one if I made them smaller.

Wood marked up - 

Worked out at around 6 and a half inches (17cm)

Next I cut out the square on my band saw - 

Plenty of wood left over.

Onto to turning, using a forstner bit I made a hole so that I could mount the square onto my lathe using an expanding chuck, then I gave it a quick turn to mark out a circle so that I could cut off the excess, it saves time basically.

Circle marked - 

Chop off the unwanted bits.

The fist thing I did was turn the back of the frame in order to make a rebate for the hardboard backing to sit in, then I realised I didn't have a chuck large enough to hold the frame so I could shape the front, to solve that small problem I made a chuck out of some old chipboard (parts of an old wardrobe) fixed to a face plate.

Chipboard chuck - 

Simple, but effective.

Frame mounted onto chuck, held in place by friction - 

It's a tight fit, so no danger of things flying off.

Once I got down to the smaller sized pictured frames it was easier and I didn't need to make chucks as I have various different sized jaws for my expanding chuck.

And when I'd finished making the frames I used a bit of dark oak wax (Liberon black bison, good stuff) it was on to figuring out how to make them hold a picture.

For the back of the picture frames I used some old hardboard that came as packing material in something we ordered, I cut circles out that fitted inside of the rebates on each frame, and fixed the hardboard into place with some small screws.

Backing cut out and small screws - 

Simple solution.

Backing fitted into one of the frames - 

One screw would do just as well.

And that's more or less it, apart from the glass for the front of the frame to protect the pictures.

Obviously you could make some of these and get small glass circles cut, not sure how much that would cost, some other options are thin perspex, one of our local diy type stores sells a large sheet of perspex for £16 and it would make a load of picture frame fronts.

For the time being however I've used a very basic solution, and that is a plastic laminator sheet, the sort of thing you would normally use to protect documents and such like, it turns out that if you run a sheet through a laminator a couple of times it makes a thin clear sheet of plastic, which is easy to cut into circles and works quite well in picture frames, you could also use the clear plastic that usually comes in the packaging for kids toys (I've used this to make stencils before - opens in new window)

Laminator sheet ready for cutting - 

Works surprisingly well.

I will probably, depending on how well this laminator sheet plastic lasts upgrade to clear perspex at some point, but for now my main problem is what to put in the picture frames, I'm thinking I might make some cyanotypes for them using the light reactive paper I have.

I ended up with eight in all, some are small enough that with a magnet glued onto the back they would stick well to metal notice boards, or even fridges, do people still have fridge magnets? and I need to come up with a way to hang the frames from walls and such like.

The finished frames - 

Not bad for an old stool.

So when is a stool not a stool? when it's eight turned picture frames, and making this has given me another idea, kind of a variation on this so look out for that at some point.

Thanks for reading.

Adding a twist to my turning ... ...

For some time now I've been getting, well I guess the word I'm looking for is bored, with the stuff I've been turning on my lathe, it's kind of become the norm, and I figured it was time I experimented a little more.

So I have been playing about with adding a slightly different type of design to my turned pieces, it's nothing special but it does seem to add an extra element of interest, well I think it does.


You may have seen the staff I've made for Halloween ? -

I did this quickly.

The twist design is easy to do, and although when it comes to turned wood you can buy special turning chisels, but they can be well over £150 in price, which to be honest is a little more than I want to spend, and besides doing that kind of design by hand adds a more personal touch to an item.

Here's a short video (not very clear) of me adding twist designs to a piece I made for the shop, it's a hardwood case, for storing large pins,needles or indeed things like hair pins.


Adding the twist with a small rasp file to start with (no sound) -

 

Adding the twist does take a bit of time, and you do have to be careful in order to get even spacing, but it does look good, I'm using a small rasp file to rough out the twist (spiral) and as you can see I've already done one spiral, which is basically a case of going over the roughed out lines with a larger rasp (if you want a wide twist that is) then use a normal file to smooth things out a bit, then it's good old sand paper in different grades to get a nice finish on it.


The rasp files I use -

Nothing special, bog standard rasp files.

 

The piece I'm working on in the video is mounted in a chuck on the lathe, which does make the whole process a lot easier to do, but you can do things by hand, it just takes a little more effort and time.


And if you're lucky it might turn out like this (or better, not that this is great) -

The finished article, which is for sale as it happens.

Another picture with a different view -

I've been experimenting with making it look more fluid.

Since I made the case in the pictures above I've been experimenting a bit, I've made two more case like the one above, but with different spiral designs, over all I'm quite pleased with them, so much so I plan to play about with it more to see what I can come up with, I've also made some wooden pendants by hand and also added a spiral design to them, again using the rasp files, but completely by hand.


Here's a couple of pictures of some of the pendants -

Eucalyptus.

Pear with a copper twist.

Again I'm pleased with how they came out, it's perhaps not as uniform as the cases, but I think that adds to the over all look of them.

I'm glad I tried this out, and it's simple to do, and doesn't require any special tools, well apart from a lathe, I am now starting to rough out the design of a large single candle stick that incorporates a large twisted section.

Thanks for reading.

'I reverted easily to my wild state, that is experimentation.' - Jack Steinberger