Added 13 February 2024
And so, it turns out that I like making figures and little animals. A far cry from what I do mostly, but that takes weeks. These are just a few hours in the making and my Granddaughter finds them amusing. They also require quite a range of woodturning skills. I often say to people that segmented woodturning is mostly woodwork and not woodturning. This is proper woodturning.
This one, Walter the Turtle, is a slight variation on what I have seen online. My turtle has a spherical head that is joined to the body rather than being a part of it. This makes for a difficult glue joint, but I thought it was worth the effort. All the other spheres are secured to the backbone by dowel pins.
Walter is 5½ inches tall and made from Oak. The eyes and hat are Bog Oak.
Added 11 August 2023
I gave my daughter the two elephants below. My granddaughter Isabel, aged 3, piped up with ‘Where’s Daddy Elephant?’, to which I had no answer. Hence the new grouping above including Daddy Elephant. I have also included a little group of mushrooms made by my father, Les Elliott, more than 30 years ago. He was a woodturner, and a fine craftsman.
Added 8 August 2023
A pair of elephants, the tallest 5 inches high, from Beech and Cherry, and the eyes are Ebony. Izzy and Mummy Elephant. Neither are original designs that can be found aplenty elsewhere on the web, but great fun to make.
Added 20 November 2022
My daughter asked me to make some wooden Christmas decorations for her, and so I made these that are not my design. Easy and quick to make, and very enjoyable too.
The two 5-inch-high reindeer, one Maple and the other Poplar, are obviously not turned, they were made on my bandsaw with a ¼ inch blade. Saw them on the internet, thought I’d have a go and they turned out ok.
Father Christmas, also a borrowed design was made from Sycamore. Padauk, and Bog Oak. A proper bit of spindle turning, something I rarely do, and most enjoyable it was too.
Lastly, the 3 penguins, Mummy penguin, Daddy penguin and Izzy (my granddaughter) penguin, made from Bog Oak, Sycamore, Padauk (the nose), and black rattle-canned copper rivets (the eyes). The longest part of this job is waiting for the glue to dry on the glue-up for the body, the turning takes just a few minutes. So, ironically these were by far the easiest to make and the ones that people seem to like the most.
Added 19th March 2022
I have made a two or three fly tying caddies over the years, and this is the latest. 7” in diameter and 1” thick, the outer holes are sized for the smaller green clips (8), and inner for the blue ones (7). Materials are Pomelle Sapele, the fish is ‘Fiddleback’ Maple, the ferules are brass, and the bottom is covered with green baize. There are two 1.5” diameter depressions a little over one tenth of an inch deep for hooks and stuff.