A round tuit

I've always wanted to make a round tuit, but maybe I never will. I think this bowl probably thought it had been forgotten, gathering dust and cobwebs in the corner. Looks like I did finally get round to it......over 6 years later. 

There's a general rule; don't include the heart of the tree in your bowls. If you do, be prepared for them splitting every which way as they dry, as the forces inside play out. All that time ago, I was playing with that rule, by deliberately including heart in several bowls. After roughing out, I was boiling the bowls to combat that splitting, with varying degrees of success. One thing I do know; I wish I had given this bowl some final surface treatment before I had abandoned it to the spiders; it's iron hard now. It's a good job my gouges are sharp.

A previous solution for cracks with bronze.

Some convex texture. Rough AND smooth. Yum yum.

 

Working the burghages

Totnes high street has a LOT of half timber-frame houses; timber frames between dividing masonry walls. Mostly built on burghage plots; long strips stretching back from the street, often making the houses one room, or one room and a passage wide. Last week I was working on Bogan House, a grade 1 listed building, which houses the Totnes Fashion and Textiles Museum. There is a programme of works to conserve and repair, which has been undergoing for some time now. The front elevation has had it's hanging tiles removed, to be re-hung. Other craftsman have repaired the frame.

Here is a glimpse of the internal plasterwork. 

 

The burghage plots started off with living quarters at the front, and a separate kitchen block, some distance to reduce fire risk. Over time the gaps were filled in, creating narrow courtyards, as we see here.

The framing on the front of the building was replaced in Victorian times. Exposed here to re-hang the slates.

Out with the war chest, for some on-site repairs to this doorways' pilasters.

The old mouldings have seen some action, so the new spliced in repairs definitely benefit from hand moulding planes.

Oak repairs.

With mouldings.