Crux Craft Fair

I have broken my Craft Fair virginity. Wahey!

Here's the set up for the first evening of the weekend.

Wall plaques, boxes, coat racks, chopping boards, door stops, holly spatulas, holly bookmarks etc. all inside a large settle (minus seat boards).

When making a whopping piece of furniture, its probably a good idea to measure your transportation device to make sure it fits. As usual my cavalier side, threw caution to the wind (an attribute I find often gets me through making joined furniture successfully, you kind of just have to go for it!). This time providence shone through, one more half inch on either dimension and.....

Roll up, roll up, roll up......

Get your lovely 17th century (mini) box here.

6"x6"x6" with a 7" square lid. This and other such little gems for sale at Crux Craft Fair. Come on down!

Draw bore and getting ready to go to Totnes Market

I don't know why I didn't put this photo in the last post. But here it is. A shot of me drawboring the new lid for the mini-chest.

Off to do a stall on Totnes Market tomorrow, so I thought I better give things a shine. I gave the chests a coat of beeswax polish.

Then put them in front of the woodburner to warm up before polishing.

They got a bit too hot and it had the effect of melting the polish and making it sink right into the oak, darkening in the process. I like how it looks.

I will be taking this new stand alone panel.

But I shall not be standing alone, as I will be sharing the stall with the lovely chainsaw-carving Hannah. Not that she carves chainsaws you understand. Here's one of her chairs.

Old chest, new lid.

Its almost two years since I found the oak tree, which was destined to be this chest. The tree had fallen out of a hedge near Rattery, just up the road. When I made this chest I gave it a flatsawn single piece oak lid cut from the same tree, unlike the rest of it which was riven. With one thing or another, it has taken until today to make the lid, that the chest really deserved.

Its now ready to go Crux Craft Fair on the weekend of 28-29-30 November in Rattery, from whence it came! And hopefully someone might want to give it its forever home.

Mills, spills and angels

I think we may be helping to manage this piece of oak woodland in the near future. So we took the new chainsaw mill to slice up this windblown oak and get a feel of the place.

The tree is only 18-20" but luckily the Granberg mill is easily shrinkable and thanks to Rob at chainsawbars.co.uk who supplied us with extra bracing, we soon fitted the 3' bar and chain and set to. Unfortunately after a few planks the chain derailed and on investigation, it became obvious the chain tensioner had snapped. Under warranty, no problem! Off to Radmore and Tucker to get it sorted.

While they were sorting it, I went for a wander around the local Exeter streets. Just next door is the "House That Moved".

I did a course on roof framing about four years ago at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex. They have there lots of buildings dating from the 13th C to victorian times which have been dismantled and rebuilt on the site. This though, is a different animal. It was jacked up, onto a cradle and winched round the corner.

Commuting to work is such a drag.

The new 10 prize medals has been de-rusted, sharpened and pressed into work outlining (maybe its a 2 sweep).

Have been experimenting with gold leaf...

and oil spills...

seventeenth-century influence, product of a twenty-first-century world.

Creating new patterns of angels (geese again) and teaching myself how to carve them.