Pond House

Off to East Sussex in two weeks time

Open Studio 2022

We have invited some talented friends, cleaned the house and subscribed to the Hampshire open studios catalogue. What can go wrong!

Planking Walnut

I was given a Walnut tree. A valuable gift and greatly appreciated because of the quality of the wood. Syann and I started to clear away the tree and I arranged for it to be planked. Then Covid 19 hit us with the lock down. At last the lock down was lifted and Rob and Ollie cut the main trunks into 50 mm. planks. A few shakes and rotten sections, but magnificent crotches. Rob brought the wood back to my woodshed and over the next few days and some help, I got it stickered and stacked. The biggest planks are over 200kg. Thank you Zan and Syann.

Jarrah Burr

A long time ago I came across a woman who was wishing to sell a collection of wood from her deceased husband. I went and looked at it. A stack of wood using up most of a garage. A lot of it was walnut. Goody. much of it was tropical hardwood. I offered what I had in the bank. No answer. Pity.

About a year later the request came round again. The same again. I made the same offer. This time it was accepted. I have been using the wood slowly over the last twenty years. Walnut quickly tropical hardwood slowly.

The Jarrah Burl was very heavy. A bit of time and I turned a bowl . Statuesque because the wood demands it.

I made a bangle from the offcut.

Wall Panel

Clients and I decided to make a panel from three pieces of wood Light, Medium and Dark. The very wide plank I got had rippled wood in the sap wood on either side and an olive heart. We made it from the one plank. The grain flows across the planks, it changes appearance as the light in the room changes.

I am well pleased!

Panel mounted on living room wall

August and Show time again

I have been working to replace sold stock so we can have a good showing at out summer shows. See my four foot long sycamore panel. Thanks Hugo! Brown Oak Captains chair uploaded elsewhere on this site, Lots of Splash stools etc.

Pond House exhibition 17th and 18th. August. PV on Friday 16th.

Pond House , Isfield, East Sussex, TN22 5TY

Hampshire Trail open studios. At Home with Friends August 22nd till 26th.

I am still blown away by the beauty of the brown oak!

Splash Stools

Winter is a quiet time, a time for making. I have at last made eight Splash stools using the last of my rippled sycamore. I love the patterns they make in bulk, hence the photograph. They can acclimatize in the house until we have another show.

Another base for Claire Malet

I have made another base for Claire Malet’s Silver sculpture. It is called Silence Fell and is based on a painting by Paul Nash. Look her up and find where she will be exhibiting.

Silence fell, based on a Painting by Paul Nash

Exhibition in Stockbridge

15th. and 16th. September in the Stockbridge Town Hall. Nick will be demonstrating. Carving a large Walnut panel. Come and watch, talk and see the other 15 gifted makers as well

Open Studios

It is May, the weather is warm and together with other artists in the village we are inviting you all to visit us. Park around and walk to each venue. It will be good to see you.

Thank you Frances for the graphic image. It looks good.

Monkey Puzzle Wood

Monkey puzzle wood.
A couple of months ago, Wendy tipped me off about a Monkey Puzzle tree that was being taken down nearby. I went round an bought a main bit of the trunk from the tree surgeons. We put it on my trailer and brought it home. A couple of weeks later I found the time to turn three bowls from the wood. I have been wanting to turn Monkey Puzzle wood for some time ever since seeing another turners efforts and feeling that he had missed the plot a bit and I could do better. I felt that if one could keep the ring of knots running along the bowl from the centre right to the perimeter, without losing the shape then it would look fabulous and remain stable. These are the largest, the second largest and the smallest from the trunk. There are probably another eight to go, if they sell at our open studio next month, I will make more, but I am making chairs again and preparing the boat for Toberonochy.

Leather Deck Chair

More than twenty years ago I made a leather deck chair. It was an experimental piece and not properly finished off. I altered it a bit to improve the comfort by cutting the leather and it sat in our sitting room as an extra chair. Rupert saw it and asked me to make him one. The local tannery had closed down so I went to Bristol to get more leather. We took our bicycles and rode up to the Clifton Bridge, round the dockland and back. I drew the chair life size on a sheet of plywood, cut a former and sawed the laminates from some ( not very) rippled ash and glued them together.
I put the chair together over the next couple of weeks while fastening the wire mesh onto the roof in the afternoons. It was too cold and wet in the mornings, better in the workshop. I developed a cats cradle system for adjusting the rake. It surprised me with the comfort. Rupert liked it too and ordered another. Goody.

Claires Sculpture

Claire Malet asked me to carve a base for her sculpture commission. It is finished and on show in Cardiff

Claire Malet, The Company of Old Roads. 2017

Roads by Edward Thomas
I love roads:
The goddesses that dwell
Far along invisible
Are my favourite gods.
Roads go on
While we forget, and are
Forgotten like a star
That shoots and is gone.
On this earth 'tis sure
We men have not made
Anything that doth fade
So soon, so long endure:
The hill road wet with rain
In the sun would not gleam
Like a winding stream
If we trod it not again.
They are lonely
While we sleep, lonelier
For lack of the traveller
Who is now a dream only.
From dawn's twilight
And all the clouds like sheep
On the mountains of sleep
They wind into the night.
The next turn may reveal
Heaven: upon the crest
The close pine clump, at rest
And black, may Hell conceal.
Often footsore, never
Yet of the road I weary,
Though long and steep and dreary
As it winds on for ever.
Helen of the roads,
The mountain ways of Wales
And the Mabinogion tales,
Is one of the true gods,
Abiding in the trees,
The threes and fours so wise,
The larger companies,
That by the roadside be,
And beneath the rafter
Else uninhabited
Excepting by the dead;
And it is her laughter
At morn and night I hear
When the thrush cock sings
Bright irrelevant things,
And when the chanticleer
Calls back to their own night
Troops that make loneliness
With their light footsteps' press,
As Helen's own are light.
Now all roads lead to France
And heavy is the tread
Of the living; but the dead
Returning lightly dance:
Whatever the road bring
To me or take from me,
They keep me company
With their pattering,
Crowding the solitude
Of the loops over the downs,
Hushing the roar of towns
And their brief multitude.

Summer

A couple of years ago Simon asked me to make a garden table and seats from an oak that he had planked. The wood was curved from being stacked on a curved floor. Oops. I kept it a year with weights on the curve in the hope of straightening it a bit. It didn't work.

It was time to make it. I chose the straightest planks for the top of the table, The planed out at 40mm. I doweled them with 10mm stainless rod and spaced them with washers. Made crosses for the two legs. I cut the planks for the seats, ripped them to 50mm planks along the curve so that the seats had a curve. Riveted them with 10mm rod and made crosses for the seats. Now they are in the workshop, waiting for Simon to return from holiday. I hope they like them. Here is a cramped photo in the workshop. It is raining now and I need help to get them out onto enough space to take a photo. I am trying to Thatch, but the rain has forced me inside, Hence the blog.

Three music Stands

I have spent the last month making music stands. Three at once. I designed them to be made in batches, but usually time, availability of wood or human factors meant that I might cut and glue up components for several stands, only one at a time gets completed. I really should write down notes so I do not have to repeat the learning curve the following time. I turned four hubs, but only had three sets of legs ready. I glued up more tines, simpler for next time. It is still making of all the little bits that uses up the most time. I am not happy with the photo. The day was overcast and it shows. Three Days later, I have the go ahead to box two stands and send them to Paris. Goody!

vessel

I turned the front of my vessel. A lovely plank of rippled ash running to the blonde sapwood on one side. It is about a metre in length by 400. I drew on a pattern of arc and radians. Carved a pattern of vee chevrons over the next few days. Tried to turn the back off, but the wood had twisted and turning had changed from tricky to silly. 0ne metre of wood on the faceplate comes past slowly. Thock, thock,thock. I took it off and planed it to form. Went through the grades of abrasive, filled the screwholes, fussed the face a bit more and a coat or four of oil. A clear evening, so it was down to the industrial estate with a broom and a camera to take some photos.