Sunday, 25 April 2010

Anybody got a big compressor?

The soda blasting machine is brilliant, however our compressor is not! It's just not big enough. I've got the knack of using the blaster pot thingy now and it's taking all of the finish off the woodwork without changing the patina, trouble is the compressor just can't keep up with the pressure needs of the pot. So I'm standing around for twice as long as I'm blasting, but even so, it is so much quicker and kinder than sanding or chemical stripping.


I only had about 3 hours working on the truck this weekend, but as the photo shows, we're beginning to get somewhere.

Friday, 23 April 2010

Baskets

I'm having fun making baskets - some really wicked, weird and wonderful baskets! This is the worktable.......


Dying the centre cane reed is a messy job, but mixing the colours is always a surprise - you just never know what you're gonna get! Today I got some lovely heather and muted blue shades. Looking forward to using them in some new designs now.

Monday, 19 April 2010

The "Show Season" begins....

We've started the preparations....first event is May Spring Bank Holiday. Last week we bought a soda blasting machine to take the old oil finish off the wooden body of the horsebox. It's so much quicker, less smelly and easier than hand stripping but it's still going to take a long time. I only had a couple of hours on Sunday to play with the new machines so couldn't achieve a lot - never mind, it's all progress.



I need to make some "exstrawdinary" baskets and woven sculptures for our Summer displays, but time is getting short and we have another glut of Danish cord, rush work and cane panelling that have priority. I think we will be extra busy in the coming weeks if we're to achieve all that we want to achieve. At least our youngest son is now a very competent weaver, his input is very gratefully received just now!

Monday, 12 April 2010

Back to the metamorphic desk

The finish is cleaned back on the external part of the desk enough now to start the colouring and polishing processes. Here is a picture of the desk closed....


And here, the wonderful way that it opens out to become a writing table....


The slope rises as the top of the table is opened - it's fab!!

Thursday, 8 April 2010

The Davenport is finally finished

It was 99 percent finished just before Christmas and then all of our plans went a bit "pear shaped" see here. As a result and because the desk is for me and not urgent or for a client, the final 1 percent of work on the Davenport was sidetracked and forgotten. However, the workshop/garage is due to be demolished and rebuilt in the next few weeks so anything lurking in there that could or should be elsewhere has been earmarked for swift restoration. There has been a feverish amount of activity for the last two weeks, everyone has put their shoulder to the wheel to help clear the workshop of outstanding work. Number one candidate was my little Davenport desk. The daft thing is it has only taken about 4 hours work to finish the last few bits.


Now I can put all of my special things into it and use it properly as it was meant to be! And as a bonus, there's one less thing in the garage awaiting restoration.

Thursday, 1 April 2010

The upside down rainbow!

Happy holidays everyone. We are going to try and have a few quiet days of rest this long holiday weekend, although I imagine we'll still find plenty of house jobs to catch up on. The weather isn't set to be too good so gardening is unlikely, today was unexpectedly fine and reasonably warm, but what do you think of this.......


An upside down rainbow! I can't say I've ever seen this happen before, but I'm sure there is an explanation for it. It only lasted about 5 minutes, our youngest son called us to quickly come and have a look, luckily I was able to grab the camera and snap a photo. It was almost a circle at one point - weird.