Radiata pine is omnipresent but is also a timber with a reputation. It generally has strings of adjectives attached to it where the first is, cheap. Here, a recycled piece, 300mm x 400mm, has been cut into a jigsaw. That was tedious, but more-so was the finishing. Each piece was scorched with a blow torch…
My grandmother laced pieces of old greeting card together with her crochet hooks. Her arthritic hands never stopped achieving! This wooden approximation of her work is clumsy by comparison. But the act of weaving edges together relieves the complex geometry of joining compound angles.
Junk is stuff you have no use for. Here is a blade that was destined for land fill, so was the timber. Junk can be reclassified! The teeth have been ground smooth and the weight of the blade gives the table a nice stability. In making this there was a nice exploration of cutting compound…
Radiata pine attracts many complaints. Its knots, in particular, face cruel criticism, irrational radial prejudice! This is an exercise in emphasising the beauty of the knot!
This is a celebration of end grain. When sanding end-grain to a polish, there is a lovely moment when you stand back to look at the figure. It is always beautiful. The hand cut chain is a fervent hope that the enjoyment never gets away! Human hands don’t seem to be able to create lines…
These little tables are remarkably strong. Birch ply give access to lovely graphic lines. It is a happy design exercise to make a toggle that matches the legs. I like the birch ply, but should have avoided the circle of the body!
There is a quiet room where the more stressed of my friends find gentleness. Fixed to the wall is a plywood panel that enables us to stick stuff where ever we feel. The stuff is really a collection of toys that have something sensory about them. It may be a movement or a gentle noise….
Indulging Self and Grand Daughter Every act of making has some self indulgence in it. Here is a response to the gift of scraps of 30mm plywood. The sheet edge is a bold linear graphic. Making my grand daughter’s initials to decorate her book ends indulged my desire to play with mitres in the lines…
Clip Board The note pad that went into the Mothers’ Day baskets was a hit. It was both simple to make and functional.Wooden mechanisms are clumsy. At the proportions of a note pad it is difficult to include complexity. But, enlarged to A4 scale you can fit a nice wooden spring loaded clip at the…
Weddings generate lots of emotional investment. Minute details become important. To make something for a wedding is to buy shares in loaded scrutiny. Here is my response to a request for a box to take cards at a wedding. The brief was relatively open; it sought a white container with a slot for posting cards in its…