Araucaria heterophylla turnings ...

Here are a couple of Araucaria heterophylla (Norfolk Island Pine) turnings that I have just completed. Araucaria trees have a pit below each branch. The branches of these trees grow in rings, about 6 to 7 branches per ring. I aligned the log on the lathe so that the bottom of each of the pits is equidistant (as far as possible) from the centre axis of the vessel. This way one can turn the vessel so that it has a series of windows associated with each branch/knot.


This vessel is 250mm high and 220mm diameter.
(9.8 x 8.6 inches)

The branches and pits in this log didn't align perfectly as far as depth and spacing are concerned so most of the knots in this vesssel don't have windows. On the other hand one or two of the branches had pits above the branch as well as below. This resulted in a lovely suspended knot. As the wall thickness of these two vessels is only 3 to 4mm some very careful turning was in order so as not to loose the knots. The knots are also much harder than the surrounding wood so one needs to cut very gently.








This vessel is 320mm high and 220mm diameter.
(12.5 x 8.6 inches)

It has big well defined knots with a window at all six knots.
This vessel also has darker spalting as the log had been allowed to weather for longer.

The technique I used with these vessels to get an even wall thickness right down to the bottom of the vessel was to work in a darkened workshop with a light shining through the vessel wall from the outside. Turn until the light intensity is even all the way down to the bottom and hopefully the wall thickness is even all the way down!





I have a similar vessel to the two above already on display down at Waterfront Woodturners.

I have another log from the same tree that is now extremely well spalted. Time to turn it soon and see what that looks like.

Winter walking on Table Mountain ...

Yesterday winter arrived in the Cape with a vengance. A big wet cold front swept in during the day. But damn it, Gigi and I ALWAYS (well almost) go walking in the forest above Kirstenbosch on a Friday evening. Our customary Friday walk friends decided to give it a miss due to the weather. But not to be put off Gigi and I decided to go and play like kids in the mud! What the hell is the use of having all theat beautiful rain gear for 'just in case'? And what a beautiful walk. Unbelievably the rain let up just long enough for us to make it back to the car without getting soaked.


Window stream was quite a torrent, too wide to jump across as we usually do. I managed to jump across some boulders upstream without getting my feet wet but Gigi wasn't having any of that crazy stuff so ....















Gigi drying off her feet and looking up at Window George - what a sight, water pouring off the mountain everywhere.


















Window george. Window butttress on the left and Fernwood buttress on the right. It had already started getting dark and I struggled to hold the camera still enough to get a clear enough picture.















And here is the view all the way from the upper gorge to where we crossed the stream.

















By the time we got to the Skeleton stream waterfall it was getting really too dark to take pics but I gave it a go anywhere. If you look carefully you can just discern the waterfall behind Gigi. Crossing the base of the fall was really quite fun as the spray was very thick and the waterfall was generating a strong wind rush at the bottom.












It was so dark after that that there was no point in taking further pics. We walked along the contour path, crossing Nursery 'stream' at the base of Nursery ravine by hopping from wet boulder to boulder in the spray and having to clamber the last section on all fours across an old rotten and slippery tree trunk that was conveniently bridging the last three meters of rushing water.

The view of the city lights from the contour path was stunningly clear after all the rain. Of course we didn't see another (mad) soul that evening. We walked down through 'our' special garden in the pitch darkness. Even the security personnel who know our routine well were amused when they met us at the end of Camphor alley in the dark. But damit, at 8pm in summer it is still before sunset and often above 20ºC - hard though that is to to believe now in mid-winter!

Last night was really cold. Snow fell on the inland mountains and there was rain and sleet in Cape Town. The weather cleared somewhat during today. But as I write this the family are all together in front of the gas heater in the lounge watching Michael Palin's 'Himalaya'.

Ukhamba ...

Here are some pics of the piece, 'Ukhamba', that Carol Rix and I turned a couple of weeks ago. The colours, particularly the blue definitely come out more intensly in the photograph than on the piece itself.



The original post about the colab session is here.

Three meter diameter chuck! ...

This may not be woodturning but that valve is mounted on a three meter diameter chuck!

Carol Rix visits WCWA …

On Wednesday evening we gathered the members of the Association of Woodturners of the Western Cape (AWSA) down at the Pinelands Hobbies Club to attend a slide show at the presented by Carol Rix.

After ‘sop ‘n dop’ Carol showed the club members slides of her own works as well as of other Australian Turners. The members were fascinated by the works that Carol showed and discussed them at length. Carol told us all about her recent book that is currently being readied for publication by the ‘Guild of Master Craftsmen’ (GMC). She also told us about the $1000 grant that she has recently received from AAW to ‘travel the world’ to research a range of innovative turners in preparation for her second book. It’s great to meet someone who is able to indulge both her passions, writing and turning, in her quest.



She is a very animated, enthusiastic and innovative turner and being able to share the evening with her delighted the AWSA members who attended.



It was also great to have John Wessels of Sedgefield there. Carol was very impressed with photos of the work that John had recently displayed at the AWSA Conference, including best on show, and had expressed a special desire to meet him. John, a retired airline pilot was fortunately in Cape Town to pack up the last of his belongings from his old home. He and his wife Jane have recently relocated to Sedgfield on the south coast.

John joined us at home for coffee and a chat after the club meeting. We all had great fun logging in to Andi Wolfe’s blog and chatting about all the pieces that she had photographed at the previous weekend’s AAW Congress in Louisville. (Thanks Andi, there are many of us who really appreciate your efforts.) The fact that Carol’s son John had to phone us and check on the welfare of his mother (that’s one up for the parents) and that we only got to bed at 2am attests to the success of that evening.

Dinner with an international flavour …

On Monday evening Gigi and I invited a couple of Cape Town turners over to ‘dinner’ with Carol Rix. Gert Ferreira, Bert Parker, Izak Cronje and Peter and Ineke Nicolle were able to join us. All had a great time. We had a data projector available for Carol to show us many of her turnings as well as those of some leading and some not so well known, but nevertheless very accomplished, Australian turners. Some of the names that I recognised included Anderw Potocnik and Neil and Liz Scobie.

Carol Rix admiring some of Peter's pieces and she and Peter chatting to Izak Cronje (out of frame).



To top off the evening I noticed Stuart Mortimer come on line. Aware that he knew most of the people in the room from his recent visit to South Africa and also that he had just returned from a month long visit to the USA, culminating in the AAW Conference in Louisville, I Skyped him and asked him to join the party. I had a webcam attached so he could see everyone in the room.

Once I had adjusted the webcam to compensate for the low light conditions in the room we introduced Carol properly and he could confirm that his first impression of her having a beard was mistaken! Our group were tickled pink to chat to Stuart and I think he had equally as much fun. It was also fortunate to have had the chance to introduce Carol to Stuart. Carol is intending to arrange a trip to the UK (and elsewhere), on a recently awarded AAW grant, to meet some of their innovative turners. Stuart disagrees with the opinion of a well-known British turner (who shall remain nameless) that told Carol in a moment of pique that ‘innovative British turners’ was a contradiction in terms! To be truthful he did recant on that opinion when Carol contacted him later.

The conversation with Stuart topped off a delightful evening.

A woodturning collaboration with Carol Rix …

Carol Rix of Nambour, outside Brisbane in Queensland was in Cape Town recently to visit her son, John, and his Irish fiancée, Maria, who are both working here in the IT industry. John had recently come across Waterfront Woodturners, met Ken Turner and put him and Carol in e-mail contact with other. Ken passed on the correspondence to me and I arranged for Carol to get in touch as soon as she arrived in Cape Town. She is an active member of her local club and takes an active interest in the wider Australian woodturning scene.

True to her word, after arriving in Cape Town last Friday, she immediately contacted me early on Saturday morning. We met down at Hardware Center’s ‘open day’ and later went down to the Waterfront to show her around. We visited Izak at Waterfront Woodturners, had a quick lunch and wander around the shops and galleries, particularly those exhibiting African arts and crafts.

As it was a perfect, clear winter’s day we left John and Maria to take Carol up the mountain. The following day, again one of those rare Cape ‘champagne’ winter days, John and Maria took her on a trip around the peninsula and down to Cape Point.

As a history and geography teacher Carol was bubbling over with the excitement of visiting Sir Francis Drake's ‘Fairest Cape in all the World’. She has been teaching her students about voyagers, shipwrecks and geography all her life and here she had the chance to visit the Cape of Good Hope for herself.

As ‘Laidler’s’ luck would have it I had quite coincidentally arranged two day’s leave last Monday and Tuesday. John and Maria were working and Carol was free to join me for a two-day collaboration session in my workshop. What an absolute revelation. It was an absolute blast to have someone of Carol’s talents and bubbly character sharing the usually lonely workshop.



Somehow her enthusiasm and ‘slash and burn’ attitude gave me the push I needed to try out a couple of ideas that I have been brewing in my head for some time. With her ‘provocation’ I did things to a piece of perfectly good ‘Brazilian pepper’ that I would previously have been most reluctant to inflict even on the most recalcitrant bole.

Having explored some galleries of African ‘objets d'art’ and paged through a couple of books I have on the subject we decided to use a Zulu beer pot, 'ukhamba', as our inspiration. These large corpulent clay pots are often decorated with raised warts or bumps called ‘amasumpa’ – definitely ‘easier in clay’. Carol set about turning the ‘amasumpa’ from some maple. I attacked a ‘years old’ relatively dry blank of Brazilian pepper.



Because the piece had a very pronounced bark inclusion that was bound to be one of its primary decorative features we decided that, instead of attempting a traditional Zulu geometric pattern with the ‘amasumpa’ we would let the natural curve of the bark inclusion lead the pyrographic and ‘amasumpa’ elements. Once I had hollowed the vessel, burned the pyrographic elements, Carol had turned about ninety ‘amasumpa’ and the holes to fit them had been bored, all resemblance to my previous woodturning experience ended.

Carol was ‘bent’ on colouring this perfectly good vessel. I hauled out some alcohol soluble powder dyes that I had bought after a visit by Phil Irons some years before. I had only made one or two spectacularly miserable attempts at using them since.

Carol was very familiar with mixing different colours. Once we had dyed the piece BRIGHT red I started getting into the swing of things. Surely the artistic merit of the ‘thing’ couldn’t go downhill from there! Then we added a dash of blue – result purple. Bloody wonderful!



After trying Phil Iron’s drying technique, setting the alcohol soaked piece alight, with moderate success, we dried it off thoroughly with a heat gun.



That done we burnished the surface with an abrasive bristle brush.



We completed work on the piece over the following evenings, except Wednesday when arrangements had been made for Carol to chat to the local club, show them slides of her work and tell them about her latest book – in press. (See later post)

We attacked the piece with a pencil blowtorch. Great for the fine detail! The piece needed to be blackened from the bottom up to reflect it having been ‘fired on a bed of embers’, so out came the bigger blowtorch. Now we were ‘cooking on gas’!

We lightly scorched the piece all over to tone down the bright tones, died the ‘amasumpa’ with black alcohol dye and Indian ink and glued them to the piece.
The piece now had a wonderful leathery, burnished patina.

Applying the Danish oil yesterday evening subdued the colours even further leaving the piece just glowing warmly, with only hints of the former garish colours.

Just as Carol and I ‘completed’ the piece John and Maria arrived for dinner. In deference to them we did manage to end that evening at a reasonable hour and I hope that Carol managed to catch up on some sleep! Oh and by the way Carol even managed to squeeze in a day safari on Thursday to a local game farm about two and a half hours from Cape Town. She saw the big five as well as a range of other game. I’m sure that she’s going to catch up on her beauty sleep on that long flight back to Australia on Tuesday!

I took these pre-final pics just before I left home for Waterfront Woodturners this morning so I could write up this short report and publish it on my blog. I’ll take some decent pics of the piece once it has been properly finished.



This one is definitely a ‘keeper’. I’ll hang on to this as I believe that it represents a definite a step upwards in the punctuated evolution of my turning. In conclusion I can only say that I am thrilled with the wonderful influence that Carol’s visit has had on me, in what seems to have been a very long week.



As a postscript I must add that Carol and I had planned to have a lid on the piece, inspired by a Zulu headrest. However the piece is already rather ‘busy’. Together with the large bark inclusion that has slightly changed the shape of the top we decided to leave the proposed headrest lid for another piece. Watch this space for further developments in this regard.

Gigi is taking Carol for a walk to the top of Table Mountain on Monday but unfortunately I’ll be flying off to Pretoria (again) on Monday afternoon and won’t be back until Tuesday evening by which time Carol will have left for home.

I strongly recommend a visit to Carol’s website.

PS - You can see the pics of the finished piece here

Open Day – Hardware Centre …

Last Saturday Hardware Centre, in Bree Street, had one of their popular ‘Open Days’.
They invite many of their suppliers to exhibit and demonstrate equipment.
Brian Jolly introduced me to Felix Műller, the Sales Manager of Jet Tools in Germany. We had a good chat about why turners prefer ‘swivel head’ lathes rather than those, like most Jets, where one has to slide the headstock down to the opposite end and work large diameter pieces off the tailstock end of the bed. Puzzling over this truism all day I later sent him an e-mail explaining that, unlike the situation in most engineering workshops, most hobby turners have their lathe tight up against the workshop wall. That in mind it makes sense that the turner is going to prefer the accessibility that a swivel head lathe provides. To say nothing of the added expense of having to purchase a free standing tool post if one works ‘off the end of the bed’.

Hardware Centre use their back courtyard covered in BLUE shade netting!




An interested visitor inspects a platter just turned by Lynette Morris.

American Association of Woodturners 2006 Louisville Conference ...

Andi Wolfe has just posted reports and pictures of the AAW 2006 Louisville Conference:
June 21,
June 22,
June 23, and
June 24.

Thanks so much Andi for your efforts. It's great to have you instant insights into such events. Congratulations on the sale of two of your latest pieces.

Collectors of Wood Art ...

I've just discovered a site that will be of interest to turners who are aiming to produce and market top class work. The Collectors of Wood Art web site is at is a must.
The site includes information and reports on the annual CWA Forum, educational outreach programme and newsletters.
I have also added a link to the site under 'Links' in the sidebar of this blog.

Woodturning demonstration at Hobby-X Fair…

Last weekend I was one of the demonstrators for the AWSA at the Cape Town Hobbies Fair. Hobby-X is a very large event held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. There are a very wide range of exhibitors at the fair, from scrap-booking requisites and bead suppliers to major tool and equipment retailers.



As a result of our popularity with the public the WCWA is always invited by the organisers to participate and are provided with very generous exhibition space. We display an exhibit of many local and exotic timbers as well as having about four lathes ‘on the go’ during the four days of the event. The club members are also allowed to sell some of their own works. The event is attended primarily by ‘doers’ rather than ‘buyers’ so the AWSA use this annual event primarily to attract new members. There are other events during the year, such as the Cape Town Flower Show to which we are also invited, where we focus more on exhibiting member’s best work to potential collectors rather than attracting new recruits. It is really important to ‘tailor’ activities to certain events depending on the audience rather than adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

All the items that are turned by the demonstrators at Hobby-X are put up for sale and the proceeds donated to a local charity.




It was pleasing to see that I seemed to have a large audience most of the time that I was turning. I turned a potpourri vessel of camphor wood (filled with camphor shavings) and a shallow bowl, the design of which one of the audience members assisted with. Both sold immediately they came off the lathe.

My car returned today ...

She was in the panel shop for one day short of a month!



But she is back today and looking as new as the day she was produced - wonderful



To see what happened see here

Gigi visits Stewart and Linda Mortimer …

I received another welcome e-mail from Gigi this morning. The Chelsea Flower Show is over so now she is free to travel around for a few days before she flies back on Saturday evening, arriving back home on Sunday morning early.

It sounds like she's having fun.
Here are a couple of extracts from her e-mail:

“Another busy day. This morning took the train from Chiswick to Waterloo Station, and from there to Grateley, where Stuart collected me. We had quite a long chat about AWSA matters - he seems sincerely wishing to help us get our act together - but I think we are now on the right track” …… “Stuart and Linda leave for the States tomorrow (Wednesday), and Linda returns on Sunday, while Stuart will stick around for another two weeks or so. Took pics of the pieces he's got ready to pack for his trip - some lovely pieces, and some interesting ones. Linda made us a lovely lunch, then Stuart retired to the workshop to finish a goblet he wishes to take to the States. He then took me back to the Station, and we were stuck outside Waterloo Station for ages, as a result of "industrial action" or something, and congestion in the station. Eventually got in, then I got a ticket to Chiswick and returned to the station.”

Anyway, Sarah has been great. Very generous and hospitable. Tomorrow she'll drop me at Kew” “ Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing the great Kew Garden at last. Time permitting, I also would like to go up and visit Wisley again. Linda, one of the horts has invited me, so I'd like to follow up on that. Then on Thursday I'm off to Stratford-upon-Avon.” (To stay with Phil and Christine Irons).

Gigi included a couple of pictures with her latest e-mail:



Bedford House, right on the Thames where she has stayed with Sarah Bailey for the last couple of days



"Gigi's" bedroom



The Thames out of the bathroom window



Some of Stuart's turnings that he is taking to the States



Stuart’s turnings



Another of Stuart’s amazing turnings, ouch!



Stuart's house - "Hope Cottage"



Stuart working at his lathe, with Linda in the background

You can see more of Stuart's turnings on his web site at http://www.stuartmortimer.com/
Check out his 'Gallery'.

I've just had a lonnnnng Skype chat with Gigi. Bloody wonderful this technology. She did get to both Kew and Wisley gardens today and seems to have had great fun. She sounds much more relaxed now that the show is over. Tomorrow morning she is off to visit Phil and Christine Irons at Stratford.

Previous posts about Gigi's trip here and here

I see that Gigi also updated her own blog late last night. There are a bunch of other pictures. See here

My new environmental sustainability blog ...

I have spent the day setting up a new blog which will be dedicated to environmental, biodiversity and sustainability issues. I have felt the need to post interesting items that cross my desk at work. Let's see how this idea develops. See the links in the sidepanel to browse the new blog.

News from Gigi at the Chelsea Flower Show ...

I've just had a nice 'newsy' e-mail from Gigi at Chelsea.

We also had a short skype conversation at about 01h15 last night but both of us were so fast asleep that the conversation wasn't very animated!

You can see some pics of the Chelsea team preparing the South African stand on Monday 22 May on the SANBI web site here

The pic of the team above is from the SANBI web site.

The next day, Tuesday 23, was the official media day at Chelsea.

An extract from Gigi's e-mail reads, "Yesterday's media day was quite fun, with a fair bit of coverage for the exhibit. Our best opportunity was when Emma Thompson (movie star) agreed to come and pose with us. Lots of cameras in our faces. The best about Media day is that by 14:00 most crowds have left and we had the opportunity to see and photograph Chelsea Flower Show with practically no people around.

The pic above showing Emma Thopson chatting to the team
is from the SANBI web site.

Then the evening was the Gala Preview that followed the Royal visit. Basically a MASSIVE cocktail party, with dozens of different corporates hosting events with lekker snacks and champange. David, Ray Hudson, Collette and myself all went. Afterwards we went out for a thank you dinner for all the volunteers.

Today (Tuesday that is), was the first day the Show is open to the public. Huge crowds. We started off the day of course with press photographs for the medal. Then open for business - doing duty at the exhibit to interact with the public. We've essentially got daily 3-hour shifts till the Show closes on Saturday when the flowers are sold. Then Sunday and Monday it's breakdown when the hard landscaping is disassembled and crated to send back to SA, for the next event in Jo'burg when the exhibit goes on display in SA. We finish on Monday, then it's all over."

You can see other pics of the media day on the SANBI website here

Gigi says that from Wednesday she should have some time off each day and be able to catch up on some sleep and visit some of the sights of London.

Anyway, keep poping in and I'll keep you up to date with Gigi's news. She certainly hasn't had any time to update her own blog as it seems that she has been busy until after midnight every day.

See also my previous post about Gigi at Chelsea here.