More progress

Yesterday I went over to Partridge Green to view Sue Bartle's work in the exhibition 'Liquid Line'. It is the end of an art course show and I was very impressed by Sue's work in particular. Her charcoal drawing of the head and shoulders of a life model was a real triumph. Very bold and perceptive. I would have preferred to see the students work grouped by their work, rather than by the elements of the course - it would have been interesting to see each individual’s development.

An afternoon walk along Southwick Beach was very blustery. My Mother and I stood for a while to watch the massive rolling white waves breaking on a cerulean sea with a heavy leaden sky over the Downs behind. Crazy windsurfers battled out to catch the changing winds.

Today it was back to The Workshop. Thankfully the contractors are digging up the gas main everywhere. Pneumatic drills and the generator are drowning out any sound I make with machine tools.

Today I worked on the chopping and breadboards so that I can deliver the pending orders. The Hornbeam (i.e. as hard as horn) is also known as Iron Wood for good reason. The chopping board is very slowly taking shape. It is my favorite so far. Somewhat easier to work are the two sycamore bread boards. This is the traditional wood for breadboards - possibly you had one at home as a child, often they were carved with the word BREAD and wheatsheafs decorated the outer edge. Sanding sycamore is like sanding silk. The grain is very easy to bring up and by 6.00pm tonight one was ready to deliver to Sharon. I really hope she likes it.

Photos to follow when I get the u/load issue fixed.

More orders

I have been working in The Workshop all morning and again I have a few visits from neighbours to enquire what I was doing. Elaine admired the serving boards and ordered a chopping block, larger than the beech one that I had finished and will also take the smallest board. (Possibly a larger one if husband agrees)

Then another neighbour stopped by and admired my work. She mentioned that a previous resident of the Close is a photographer for a National 'Good Food' Magazine and suggested that I email her with some photos. I will do this, post haste!

So it was back to W L West near Petworth for more wood this afternoon. I found a lovely round of hornbeam which, on the first planings, looks to have a beautiful grain. It is very hard and is used for croquet mallets.

I also bought two rounds of sycamore. I know this wood of old as long ago, when doing woodwork at Bishop Otter College. I turned a sycamore bowl. It was a joy to work with this pale blond hardwood.

(I'm having a bit of a problem uploading photographs as the broadband speed in Pulborough is very slow)

Signs of Autumn

Charlie's afternoon walk was about 2.5 miles on the Stopham Estate, starting at the little church and walking by Walter's Plantation, up though Church Wood and back through fields of barley and oats.
I was a bit saddened to see signs of autumn all around. The 'season of mists and mellow fruitfullness'. I do not look forward to those cold, dark, miserable days from after Christmas to mid March. Mud, cold winds and gloves become the order of the day. The autumn months are a joy but you just know what is going to be around the corner.
Sweet Chestnuts are developing on the branches

The green hazel nuts and all the Bay Boletus (Boletus Badius) are already under attack from squirrels.

Last years barley crop was literally washed out of the friable sandy soil but this year (no doubt with the addition of lots of super phosphates) the barley is looking extrodinary good with heavy 4 row ears. The straw is the longest I have seen for a long time.

Board Work

Yesterday and today have been devoted to working on my serving boards and walking Charlie the Hound. Yesterday I was greatly inspired by The Master Craftsman who set a much higher standard of finish for my boards, especially the end grain. So this morning I set to and planed the ends. Brilliant - much crisper than sanding and takes them away from the 'drift wood' look.

Here are the first to be finished. I will have 7 boards in all.

First thing this morning, the dawn was bright so I made an early start and took Charlie for a 3.5 mile walk over the North Brooks. I picked a lovely lot of fresh field mushrooms in the 'Cow Field' which I will have for my lunch

.............and my favorite Blackberry bush was offering forth a few of it's huge and succulent berries. I rather think that the bush is an escaped cultivated variety from the Rectory Garden, the other side of the wall.

A Busy Day

While out on Wiggonholt Common early this morning, I found two Wild Service Trees. They are growing near the pond. Here is a leaf from the tree lying on my sanded plank.


This is the first serving board showing how it can be used indoors,







or outside.










While I was busy in The Workshop, three neighbours called by.
Sue dropped off an invitation to see her work exhibited at the Seawhite Gallery, Partridge Green. The exhibition is called 'Liquid Line' and is on from Monday 27th to Friday 31st July.


It is always just too tempting to go to Seawhites - but I can pick up some blank sketch books for Jenny while I am there but will have to be very controlled and not buy anything else!



The second visitor was Sharon who ordered one of the thick beechwood chopping blocks and then Diane popped over to hand me four really lovely 'proof copy' baby books for Granddaughter Lucy from her bookshop in Horsham. Thank you!

The Workshop is up and running!

I have been dithering about for the last six weeks trying to decide in which direction I should go. For a while I considered doing some 2-D stuff but it was after I took the bold step of tidying up The Workshop, organising tools and materials, sweeping it out and making space around the machine tools, that I realised this is where I want to be. I just love working in there. So wood it will be.

Yesterday I went over to W. L West & Sons http://www.wlwest.co.uk/home/index.asp as I wanted to make some big wooden serving boards. I haven't been able to source one so I will design some.

When friends and family come for a meal, I like to be able to just put out some great cheese, good bread, olives, perhaps Parma ham and a few figs and everyone can help themselves. I hate labouring in the kitchen while the conversation is ranging about in another room.

I couldn't see what I wanted at Wests. I bought a small round of beech to have a trial run and I was pleased with the finish but not the shape.

Jenny (friend and mentor) wrote me a strongly worded email telling me to 'be wild and free' so back I went today and there, hiding in a corner, was a very dusty, neglected but beautiful plank off a Wild Service Tree. I hesitated for a few minutes but this wood is very rare and has fantastic grain. I borrowed a marker and decisively drew up where it needed to be band sawed. Within minutes it was back in 8 pieces and now I can set to work.