Big J..

 'Mesmerizing' Like a moth to a flame..

Colour changing from Ice White to Warm White

A few weeks before Christmas 2013, the tenants of the workshops within the Ruskin Glass Centre had a meeting to discuss what decorations will be around the centre.. This was going to be my first Christmas with these guy's and I wanted to make a bit of a show.

But not just that..

My workshop is behind the Cafe, down a narrow corridor from the main thoroughfare, and because of this I know of, and have seen people walk around the centre and not come down the corridor towards my space.

What to do.?? I need to attract people into my workshop..

I've been collecting the Fentimans lemonade and Cola bottles from the Cafe recycling bin for a while and was just waiting for the right thing to make with these wonderful old style bottles.

The other thing is.. Do I just want to make some Christmas decorations, or should I make something that can stay there after everyone else has taken down theirs.

I tested out a couple of methods of holding the bottles to some timber, and got it..

Then I just thought, I've got to do it..  J

Not just any old J, but mine.
Lynn and I came up with my JH back in 1991/92 When I was in college and was thinking of starting my own business.

Here's a link to my JH stamp click on this 

So I set out a J on a sheet of scrap ply, this took a lot longer then you think. To scale it up to just over 5ft tall.. within a few days and with 400 LED's and an old collectible woodworking magazine, chain, fittings and then black pigments mixed with a binder. (making the correct quantity, rather than buying black satin paint)

Here it is done, and it really gets noticed.

I've had a few offers for it (it's not for sale) but also some interest from a couple of bars and restaurants for their own signs to be made. I won't be going into business making hundreds of these, but will be making ones that interest me. So numbers will be limited...

So if you would like something like this, call me.

I can make it, then I'll post it on here and show everyone else..


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

Clock restoration parts..

Sometimes I have visitors that just get it..

A visitor had looked around my shop and we had spoken a couple of times. The next time I saw her she was with her father, we started to chat then he showed me a clock finial, Ebonised Ash, 3" long (75 mm)

"Can you copy this for the top of my regulator..But i want to finish it, I can do the Ebonising.."

No problem.. In Ash, the same timber

click on photos to enlarge

Here's the Black original next to my 'half way through'

Done..

So as I was half way through doing this piece, In the gentleman walks again

with his next piece for me to sort out..

A little bit more complicated. He had started this piece over twenty five years ago, and knew it wasn't going right..

"Can you sort this ..I know it's not quite right'

No problem..

And when the time came for to start on it, I didn't really know how much work, was correct in his setting out and carving.. Some was right, but the important part wasn't..

So this is what it looked like. The curve in the carving to the left curved back round towards the top marks.

He wanted them to have a single curve..

After I had made a new pattern, I set to work on getting some detail in..

And I was onto a winner.

There is a trick in the setting out the curves. I didn't look into it, just did what he wanted and worked my head around the solution. This is so much more simple to set out than you think, and it gives great results.

Right hand side nearly done, Left hand side in process.

But you can see how I was getting there.

So here it is finished..

I called John up and told him his pieces were ready..

He was due in a couple of days later, but couldn't wait, and was with me within half an hour of my call..

He didn't realise that I had completed both pieces, so was over the moon when I showed him the carved piece after the turned one..

A very happy customer

An now he wants some more pieces doing..brilliant

If you have any pieces started and can't work out whats gone wrong, or don't feel up to completing it..

Give me a call.

All the best

Jamie

75th Anniversary Carved wooden book..

A school local to us is celebrating their 75th Anniversary..

I had heard that they were celebrating by doing all sorts of events, like dressing up in 1940s clothing, an open day for former pupils to come and look around, and other things to get the kids involved with.

I was sort of asked / volunteered to go in..

A few days later, on the morning, I had got all of my tools ready to go. And an old dressing table top in Mahogany to use for this piece. I found it in a skip, in reasonable condition but with a split either end for the first 9" right in the middle of the top..

So here's that top before I cut into it..

So 9am arrives and the children start coming into the DT room, one class at a time..

So this is my sketch, which I did in front of the children.

So they get the fact that there was no preparing of parts for this event..

So I cut it down the middle, then cut an end off. 

Then started shaping the inner parts of the pages.

After the shaping..the piece was cut in half down the length, then set out on the bench as above.

Around lunchtime, after showing how I was working the timber, and allowing students to have a go at carving some wood. I was done on the first side.

With the 'lines' carved out to represent each persons 'story' through the years between 1939 and 2014.

In the afternoon, I flew along, no students, no interruptions.. just lots of carving

And just so the school could see how it was all going, there was chance at the afternoon assembly to show off the work done that day.. quite embarrassing.. but felt pretty good.

I took it back to the workshop, over the next few days I added cuts to resemble pages, with grooves and splits..

click on the photo to enlarge

An off cut was used to add a spine..

The back all left scruffy..as would, a well used book of 75 years

The bottom, unfinished here..

(the centre glue line was later rounded to look more like the pages going into the spine)

With my stamp..and more grooves.

Sealed and waxed, ready to go back to the school.

If you would like a piece like this for your school, club or organisation, 

or for a loved one, please contact me for details.

I hope you like what I've done here,

There is more in the carvings section and you can follow me live on Twitter

Thanks for looking

All the best

Jamie

# Shop Stool Build Off.. Part 5. The Results

So After the build up..

The design, the timber, then the very busy build weekend, which was great..

The long wait..Votes counted up..and the winner is..

Well...  follow this link between the < > to < Chris Wongs site > ..and all will be revealed..


Great results, thanks to the guy's who made the stools. Their wives and girlfriends for putting up with us all going on about it for weeks.. to the list of sponsors, who made it even more exciting.

Huge thanks must go to Chris Wong who started this whole build.. cheers Chris.

and to those of you who voted.. 750 brilliant..

All the best

Jamie

Stunning... Italian Olive wood country built bed..

A great start to the year..

When I went to see this bed, a few months ago, it was quite a lovely sight to see. The timber is Olive wood and has a beautiful patina, with lots of knots dug out and replaced with small pieces of Olive, in the most simple of ways, that just looked great..and it's heavy..much heavier than you think as you go to pick it up.

The bed has been in the same family for three generations, and there was no way that it was going to be ruined in any way..

The family came to my workshop to see what I do, and what I could do for them. I must admit, at first I got the wrong end of the stick, I was being asked if I could just extend it by 300 or so millimeters.. You just can't add 300 mm to the length of a bed, especially if a teenage boy is the user.. unless I added some more structural timber inside.. So I mentioned cutting the sides down to use as fascia covers over new longer structural rails..this didn't go well either..

A little while later they got back in touch with me to make two new side rails for the bed..in hardwood..So I then suggested that the original rails could be just hung beneath the bed, hanging from the slats..That way the bed could easily be put back to how it was..

So I'm just adding to the history of this piece..it could always go back to how it was...Brilliant.

I didn't take any before pics..

The insides were painted, side rails showing Tenons and hand made bolts..

Just look where the nuts are hidden inside, just behind those infill blocks..cool

This is where new meets old..notice the two notches..

The dowel is to stop the slats from moving around, and it fits the edge of the first slat..

The new rails are in a single piece of Sapele, cut from a 6m length, with some figuring and mottling and it's strong. Not a bad colour match too. All of the tenons were cut buy hand, they had to be, because all of the mortices were different..good fun fitting each one..They weren't straight, or equal, or square.. and they will not be interchangeable. and I never took any timber out of the mortice.

Here are the ends of the new rails. I had to fit the bolts to the centres on the end frames..

so the bolt hole weren't in the middle of the tenons..

Notice the nut holes are behind some end grain pegs or stoppers..just proud..

You can see the difference in lengths, 

but also just how much bow is in the original Olivewood rails

The colours look better in this pic

This is the head end..just 1/4" higher, but with a round on top

I delivered the bed this week, I went into their beautiful house and assembled it.. With a new longer mattress now, and safe in the knowledge that it will last for a few more decades.

All the best

Jamie

Hand carved sign post..

I loved doing this one..

I was working away in the shop as per usual..not sure what on, but I noticed a couple in my Gallery area..and they were getting what I do, can do etc.

Within a few minutes Ben, Sarah and I were chatting about something they would like made for his parents. And from what Ben was saying I was beginning to come up with some great ideas..

This was going to be a really cool piece. Ben wanted the house name, with a date of his parents Ruby wedding anniversary carved into it.

After a few texts..Ben came one evening with a beautiful piece of English Oak 7" x 7" and about 7ft long..
We talked about where the letters would be carved and how it would look..

So I asked Ben to go and think about it, then type out exactly what he wanted, the height, width and I'm not quiet sure who came up with the idea... maybe because we were on the same wavelength it just happened..

A piece of glass in ruby red, let into the post.

So now we were getting somewhere..

And after a couple of days, I found one of the sides was beautiful, no splits, shakes and it was just the right face for me ..love it.. so I started carving

single click on the photo to enlarge

Three letters down, and I put this pic on Twitter..I called Ben, told him the photo was online..

He loved it..   woohoo.

So I carried on..

First word done..    more feedback ..

everyone loves it.. and so do I

Here's the finished letter carving..

I got so into the carving it was great to do..but forgot about the glass..The Ruby red piece.

I'm in the centre of the Glass making industry for over 300 years, so if I can't sort this bit out I need shooting..

and it was simple.. I asked Ian Bamforth, one of the glass blowers at the Stourbridge Glassblowing Studio, to blow me a 52 mm diameter globe, that I was going to let into the post..

This is it..finished..

It will be erected in the corner of his parents field / garden..

Ben's going to get it done and get some pictures of it in place.. when I get them I'll put them on here

All the best

Jamie