The Calico Bowl survives, hickory plate, and all those wood chips...

Well, the calico bowl survived and is going to be claimed by the gentleman who ordered it originally. It looks lovely and it has a polyurethane and oil finish on it. I hope the new owner enjoys it.

Unfortunately my kitchenware line isn't selling well so I'm converting some of my cutting boards into plates. I turned a hickory plate this morning. Hickory is a wonderful wood to work with as it's very dense and hard and it cuts cleanly and finishes with little sanding needed. Here is a photo of the latest plate:

This plate is getting a Danish oil finish and will be done in a day or two. When the oil is dried, I'll polish it with a little beeswax. Lovely way to finish wood.

I've done a lot of turning over the past several days and I created a mountain of shavings--two full trash can bags full along with assorted scrap lumber. If anyone in the Twin Cities area would like to have the shavings and saw dust for FREE, let me know and I'll arrange to get it to you.

I'm going to take tomorrow off and work on business stuff. I'll be back soon.

VW

Calico bowl...sigh....

Hi All,
While I was working on the calico bowl yesterday a critical piece of equipment failed and the bowl flew off the lathe and hit a wall and broke. Talk about having your heart sink. I fixed the bowl but I couldn't finish the interior sanding so I'm not sure I'll be able to do anything with it.
I had already finished the exterior sanding and so I went ahead and applied the first layer of finish on it. Here are two pictures:

It was such a pretty bowl! Oh well, accidents happen...

Calico bowl

Well, I've been up and working since about 6 this morning on the commissioned bowl for my friend's mom. I wound up making her a "calico"-type bowl of hickory, mahogany, black ash,  and red birch.  It has a hickory bottom for stability and a hickory layer for the rim to make it strong. I've also made it in a tumbler style so her paint brushes will stand up right and not fall out.

This bowl was tough to make as tall bowls are. And the biggest problem proved to be keeping it attached to the lathe as it was spinning. I used a jam chuck to over come this (more about jam chucks in a later posting) but at one point I got my fingers jammed between the chuck and the tool rest and the tool-I could have broken my fingers! As it is they are pretty sore at the moment.

Here is a photo of the bowl in it's roughed out state:

I still need to smooth the interior of the bowl but the basic shaping is done. I'll be putting on a finish beginning Monday.

I think a calico bowl would make a great yarn bowl. What do you think?

Vickie

You saw it here first...

Hi All,
Well, it was a very long, hot day and to beat all I cleaned out a week's work of sawdust and wood chips out of my shop so by the time I finished up, I was even dirtier than usual.  But I had another good day in spite of the heat. I made several more knitting notions and a tea box.

I went to a lumber yard yesterday and picked up several things, amongst them a small laminated block out of beech and I made (drum roll here) a darning tulip!! I've heard of eggs and mushrooms, but tulip has to be a first. Here's a picture:

And I also made a tea box for a young friend who is unemployed and has been for several years now. It is easy to fall between the cracks when you're unemployed and I just want him to know that he's not alone. Here is a photo of the tea box:

Annnndddd, I have some good news: I have a commission from a friend to make a birthday present for his mother. His mom is an artist and she needs a bowl to place her brushes in so I'm  making her a calico bowl in the shape of a large tumbler out of assorted hard woods. When it's done in a couple of days I'll post some pictures.

Stay cool,
VW

17th Century Joined Furniture

Hi Everyone,
I have several great passions in life (well, I have more than than but we'll talk about that later). History is one of them and furniture is another. Here is a brief blurb about a craftsman here in the US who fashions furniture from green, unseasoned hardwoods the way it was done centuries ago. His name is Peter Follansbee and I believe he works primarily in oak. The furniture he makes is amazing. Take a look at his blog at:

http://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/.

The detail in his furniture is incredible. I wish I could carve like that!
VW

Working like crazy...

Hi All,
Well, I've been working quite a bit of late and I've made quite a lot of knitting accessories:

It has been soooo hot in the mid west this week. My shop isn't air conditioned and after a couple of hours  I'm usually covered in a wood and sweat paste. It wish it would cool down today.

VW

Hello World!

Good Afternoon,

My name is Vickie Woodcock and I am the woman in Selkie Wood Works. I work with a lathe and I work in wood. As I am in the early days of a new, small business (and being very much a social creature) I decided to create a blog in order to have a place to write and ruminate about wood working, craftmanship, tools, lumber, and other issues.

This is my first posting so I guess I should tell you what I'm up to right now. I make kitchenware--cutting boards, rolling pins, kitchen mallets, and wooden dishes--and I also make knitting accessories  such as nostepinnes, darning eggs and darning mushrooms, and hopefully soon yarn bowls. The knitting part of my lineup is attracting attention at the moment and so I've been working on darning mushrooms and eggs. I have several pieces of maple, red oak, and poplar and those are being turned into mushroom:

This is a lot of work, even with a lathe and sharp chisels. Add to that it's a really hot day today so I've decided to stop for today and come inside and rest a bit and do a bit of blogging. But I have had a productive day today and I'm happy about that.

I also write a blog called Pipearooo which is all about making furniture out of plumbing pipe. If you need a table or some shelves, you should take a look at this blog.

So I plan to write a lot and I hope you stick around and share my wood shop adventures with wood, plumbing pipe, my chisels, and me.

Thanks for dropping by,
Vickie Woodcock