I am just about to glue up the post and rung stool frame I made last week and it seems such a long time ago already. On the way home last Friday as I wormed my way around the back roads the sunset was amazing and I had to stop to take some photos.
Spinning top frenzy developed during the chairmaking and by the end of the week there were five wooden spinning tops fighting it out on a giant chessboard as a battleground.
I learn't a lot about steam bending wood. The first thing was where I went wrong with my own first attempt at a steam box, so I can fix that now. I also helped to bend some of the pieces which was great experience. Here a curved yew stretcher for a windsor chair has just been placed onto the former and clamped up.
and here a pair of back legs for a post and rung chair are clamped up.
The fantastic workshop of our host Derrick reflected the organised mayhem taking place during the week as we all worked on projects at different stages of development, surrounded by the rich detritus left by decades of chairmaking.
Amongst the tools, equipment and benches I noticed a wooden face. It's on an old dumb head shaving horse. There were so many horses in the shed that I'll leave the details for a separate post.
Derrick's workshop is at Stratfield Saye, just down the road from the field where we will be holding the next bodgers ball in May 2010 and another aim of the week was to start the planning. The location is a quiet village set in very beautiful farming countryside just north of Hook and south of the Wellington country park. Sounds a lot better than between Reading and Basingstoke? Somehow I seem to have been talked into to making my first chair over the winter and entering it into the competition at the event, so no pressure there then. I can also see that there might be a few spinning tops as well as chairs there.
1 comment:
Hello Mark, why don't you have a go at making some "Benham's tops/discs, I'm sure kids would find them interesting.
Cheers John
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