A year ago, looking back to 2013..

Well..

It's been an interesting year. I managed to get myself a workshop within The Ruskin Glass Center part of the Ruskin Mill Trust set-up..

I spent a little while getting things set up.. Benches and tables to be made, some organising of the workshop space and getting to chat to some of the visitors to the center. With just a few jobs to do for people, the work started to come in, with a few of my college pieces on show and other jobs on the go, I'ts easy for visitors to see what I can do. With more work going on my blog, then came work from all over the UK..and my work started to go oversees too..wow

I'm still in my first year, but I have made an impact on the center and with others on the internet, and through Interior designers and stylists..

I restore, re-make, re-build, re-use, recycle.. re ..all of it.. I just make things using wood and any other medium..and I love doing it. If I keep doing what I have been doing, and keep going in the direction that I want to go in, then I believe I will make a very successful little workshop, where I will be happy to work and people will be happy to visit and trust me with their pieces.

I really look forward to 2014, It will be one of more interesting commissions, more projects that I have on my todo list, and more one-off pieces that go into peoples homes, catalogs and magazines..

Here's a few of my favourites..

Thanks for looking

All the best

Jamie

Yates's solid Oak antipasti serving board...

I had seen Annettte in my workshop before. I remembered her expressing an interest in the hand carved serving boards. This time we chatted about how they were made, what could be made, and how I could make one for a dining room. A chunky board, in Oak, with a waney edge, quite rustic.

A day or two later Annette came in with one of  Jamie Oliver's Italian plank at 900mm long and 220mm wide, its quite big, but we felt a little thin.
Jamie Oliver's was made in Portugal from a soft wood, with heat burnt on marks here and there..

..and this was our starting point..

click on photo to enlarge

On Jamie Oliver's website

Something thicker to go with the chunky Oak dining room furniture would work better. Annette wanted the board to be twice the thickness, with the surname 'Yates' carved into it...clean, sharp with a rustic feel.
After a trip to my timber guy, I come back with a few feet of European Oak, 2" thick, with quite a bit of waney edge. So I cut it down to size for Annette's board..

This is what it looked like..beautiful 

I called Annette up, for her to come over and see what we were going to be starting with.. After a quick chat.. we started to look for a typeface for the letters to be carved in the style and weight of..

Georgia font.. size? at this time we weren't sure. So I did what I normally do.. Printed out a few to a page, cut them out and tried each one in place. After cleaning the timber up, it was time to sort out which size type, or font..but I don't want to get into all that...

Largest at the top of the pic, smallest at the bottom.. 

and remember these letters are carved out by hand, no machines or gadgets

I know which one I preferred. And Annette liked that one too..The largest at 60 mm high.

This board can stand up (as pic) lie down on long left hand side.

It can lay flat with carved side up on show, or down to make more use of the surface..

So while the first board was between coats of mineral oil..

Annette brought her sons around to see what was going to be made. Then the sons started coming up with some good ideas, and getting more involved, as this piece was going to be for their father..


So I got on with another board..this time with round recess's to hold glass tea light holders..in Oak and with waney edge to match Yates's board

click on photo to enlarge

With the deadline fast approaching I had to work fast on this one..

Shown here with an alternative container for dips.

The wave pattern allows two areas of the board to be used if required

Clean cut holes, not drilled out.

But routered to a pattern to make it very clean and tidy..
with just a 3mm radius on the top edge of the holes

I chose to 'chase' the splits in the timber, open them up with a veining tool to soften the edges so they would not splinter..it worked really well, and looks more alive too..

click on photo to enlarge

My 'mark' in one of the ends. Both boards got stamped

Both boards finished...

I used a Mineral Oil on them, one that can be bought relatively easily.

It gives a great depth of colour and is food safe without the worry of it going rancid.




So these were for a 60th Birthday, and they went down a treat.

It just shows, a bit of thought, some great timber and a well finished job can really be unique to you or your loved ones.

Ideal for Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Wedding gifts. or Just to complete that perfect table setting

The carving can be a date, numbers letters. Your favorite quote.. bar name, company logo, anything can be tailored to fit. These boards will last more than a lifetime.


All the best

Jamie

Wollaston Fringe Festival..review

Yes I was there...

At the inaugural festival..the first one that started it all...

What  a wonderful way to spend a Sunday. I was asked quite a while ago now, if I would bring along some of my work to this event, for artists, makers and artisans to show what is made within a ten minute walk from where we were, Grahams Place, High Street, Wollaston. Some in smart workshops, others in sheds and front rooms, all sorts of people, making all kinds of things.

So when I was asked I though yeah okay, why not. I'll try anything once. It was free for me to get a pitch, no cost what so ever. And the few days before were cold, very cold and lots of snow...

On the morning I got to my workshop around 9am, and started carrying things into the doorway to get them ready to go. I couldn't find my black cloth that I use over tables to make everything stand out better, and searched high and low, but no luck. Anyhow I was ready and so was Vic Bamforth, the glass artist down the corridor from me, and we left at the same time.

To the show, oh yeah, about 3 minutes in the car. Then out again, there was still snow on the ground and all over the car park, but it wasn't too bad. Then Vic and I walked into the marquee to see what was going on and where we were. For Vic there was table set up, I grabbed a table and started to set up not far from the doorway, where I was asked to pitch.. (next time if it's cold... a bit closer to the heating). By the way, the heating wasn't on at first, but once the problem was solved, it was on by opening time 12:00 midday. And there was a trickle of people coming in, and it was pretty good, more people came in and then the live entertainment started and the place started to fill up, it was going really well..

Twelve till five were the official opening times, and the people just kept coming in having a wonder round, buy the odd thing like cakes, then watch Merlyn Farwell blowing some glass on The Stourbridge Lion.

This was a Glory hole and Lehr on a carriage that looked wonderful and worked great, he just sat on his seat and blew glass for hours, entertaining folk as they stopped by.

Here's Vic Bamforth, going through the process of how he makes his glass pieces with a visitor,
see those cakes in the foreground, they all sold out..

Not sure who this guy is, but he sounded great.
(if you know who he is, let me know and i'll put his name here)

and Hula Hooping, lots of it, kept people warm, and prizes were given out...

I took a few pieces and sold a couple of these cutting boards.

These girls were brilliant...

(if you know who they are, let me know and i'll put there name up here)

These guys were really good, I recognised a couple of tunes...

must be my age..

(if you know who they are, let me know and i'll put there name up here)

A good day, met lots of people from the area. There were others to that were selling pictures, photographs framed and others collecting for charity events.

Thanks to Bob Teal and Sam

I look forward to the next one..wherever it is..

all the best

Jamie

Chopping Boards..

Some things can start with a simple move around of some shelves..

I had put some new lighting in the Gallery part of my workshop, and it's looking pretty good, but in doing this the shelves needed dusting off, so I set about dusting, and in moving things around, found that I had a chopping board under a Wedding Archive box...I just hadn't picked up on it being under there..

Later that week, in walks Wendy, and straight away says she likes the Oak board on the shelf. When I tell her that it is all finished by hand, as in planed all round, then I use a scraper to finish the surface and corners.

Then after oiling with Mineral oil, I stamp my 'mark' in the middle of both ends and finally I burnish the corners and edges with a small block of the same timber, this gives a wonderful natural shine to the surface..

No sandpaper...at all..

It takes a bit longer by hand, but worth the effort and you can see it..

So it went. Number 1 gone

And it was time to make some more out of piece's of Beech and Oak worktop ends, sink cut-outs and hob cut-outs hanging around the workshop since I moved in.

Each board is a different size and while I have this stock I'll keep track of the sizes and they'll go through my books with a number.

So on Thursday, I'm working with Chris one of the students, and I'm showing him how to use the cabinet scraper, in walk a couple of ladies, Pat and Patricia, and before we know what's happened, Pat want's one of the boards, the one we're working on.. After a few minutes we have to prepare this board for sale, and go through the above process to complete it.

Wonderful.. It's great when people 'get' what it is you do...

Oak & Beech chopping boards.

Different sizes every time so I don't waste any wood, no two the same..

Have a look in the

 Gallery Items for sale

Come and have a look and enjoy seeing what I get up to in my workshop.

Every day is a different day.

All the best

Jamie