Stuff made that has been, is being or will be retailed at some time or another.
Sorry. No coconuts. And no singing.
The latest in candlesticks/tealight holders are emerging from the workshop though. A marriage of lime and meranti woods creating a nice contrast and a curvaceously tactile shape, these are a joy to make.
A couple of these have now hit the shelves at Homemade Wales and more will follow shortly.
They say you can’t.
I don’t know who They are, so I’m ignoring them.
I say you can!
A little idea I had a while ago and have now, quite literally, hammered it into reality. No idea if people will want them, but hey, I had fun with a hammer 🙂
These two sets are now available at Homemade Wales, let’s see how they go and perhaps I’ll go on the hunt for more spoon/fork combos.
Cake fork, pastry fork, call it what you will. Norman, if you like. Either way, it’s a small fork with a wider tine for slicing through your cake. Or pastry (but not Norman).
Regardless of nomenclature, these lovely forks are the latest addition to the range of hand stamped vintage cutlery presently available via Homemade Wales.
Each one is different on account of being stamped by hand, and the style of fork/handle (insert Two Ronniess quirk here) varies according to the stock available.
Simple, but I like to think quite jolly.
So after a play with some ornament tubes that needed a pen mandrel on the lather, I thought it was maybe a fun idea to have a go at making pens. Might as well; got the kit now…
The Lovely Lady H chose her desired types and I set to work. Not such a difficult task really, but my ignorance of what’s actually required came to light within, oo bout five minutes! And now I have most of the gear, so now I can make pens. And I’m going to make more.
It didn’t take long for a special request to come in, so shortly after the first four were created, this wooden ‘bolt action’ one was made for a friend. People keep wanting ’em, so hey… I’ll keep making ’em 🙂
What’s that? A new style of cookery chefery? Why no, it’s just craftery.
By using the kit and caboodle normally used for making pens, I decided to make some small ‘Easter Tree’ ornaments. Some were made from pencils in the same basic style as my Christmas baubles, while some were made with different types of wood stuck together (segmented turning that’s called; sounds awfully technical) and some from a bit of beech tree that I’d had stored for a while that had grown some lovely patterns through its grain (“spalting” sounds so much better than “fungal growth”).
So here’s a quick video of one of the latter being turned.
(Please do go and view this on my YouTube Channel too, so the numbers can go up nicely 🙂 )
https://youtu.be/ZESAVlCetqg
The final touches were made with brass loops and finial thingies, and look like this:
These are available via Homemade Wales, if you’d like to buy some!
https://youtu.be/ZESAVlCetqg
Please do go and view this on my YouTube Channel too, so the numbers can go up nicely. And SUBSCRIBE too please; that’d be lovely 🙂
https://youtu.be/nPhjgA_vUvI
Please do go and view this on my YouTube Channel too, so the numbers can go up nicely. And SUBSCRIBE too please; that’d be lovely 🙂
I should probably have started with turning a few shapes on a solid lump of easy-to-work wood, but no. The idea was in my head, so it had to come out, and this is what came of it. Having set up the lathe in a decent position at long last, I decided to make some Christmas baubles… out of colouring pencils!
Madness you might think. But no, insanity I tell you.
That was back in 2014. In 2015, after someadjustments to the method, I made a few more that went down to the shop (Homemade Wales) for the Christmas season. Sold out within a week!
So in a nutshell, the first job was to glue up some logs of pencils. 37 of them to be precise.
And then it was just a case of bunging the ‘logs’ on the lathe and turning them down into something that I quite like to consider as rather marvellous.
I say “just”. It’s somewhat more involved, delicate, and sometimes hazardous than “just”.
https://youtu.be/nPhjgA_vUvI
Please do go and view this on my YouTube Channel too, so the numbers can go up nicely 🙂
So here are a few finished items…
New thoughts now for the 2016 Collection…
How’s this for a jolly fine bit of magic makery?
For those that don’t know, my ‘day job’ is an entertainer; a magician to be precise. Fun eh? I get to travel about all over the place performing for all kinds of lovely people at weddings, business events, house parties, etc. etc. I’m also half of a double act and am Creative Director at SideShow Events, and there we have a number of comedy character acts that also travel all over the place to entertain the masses. In December of 2015 we were asked to create bespoke ‘Harry Potter’ style characters for a major event in the centre of Cardiff, so what better excuse could there be to make some posh wands?
The main picture up the top there shows my lovely wand next to the chunk of wood it came from. Well, the next bit along the chunk anyway; the next wand was soon to come from that bit too.
I’m thinking these types of thing might be a good retail idea… what say you?
I seek out vintage spoons of all shapes and sizes, usually silver plated, and spend time at the bench with a rather clever hammer and some seriously hard letter stamps. The results are most satisfying, and appear to have proven rather popular!
‘Stock’ spoons with Welsh phrases are sold exclusively by Homemade Wales. Bespoke and English versions are available direct from me, although I really don’t mind Homemade Wales looking after things. #supportlocalbusiness visit their website: www.homemadewales.co.uk
More spoonery will be posted on here as time goes on.
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