How did that happen??? Two years since my last blog post...surely not!! Well, I can't believe it. Funnily enough my last entry was all about spoons and in this elapsed time they were probably the one item that seemed to fall off my making radar. It wasn't that I stopped enjoying making them in anyway, more that it just didn't occur to me and other pieces took centre stage. I really went deep on making and developing my designs for vases and excitingly they then morphed into creating a range of lamps. I've absolutely loved making these lamps and they've been received so well by everyone that I'm now looking forward to really marching them forwards and developing more in the months to come...so keep an eye out for them!! It's also worth pointing out that a small but significant part of the time was given over to carving a mini-series called 'Wood Alive' which centred around giving my work legs, veins and bulbous flesh like detail (sounds quite gross I know!) in order to help bring my vases to life. Long legs, short legs, fat legs, thin legs...they just had to have legs and with them hopefully came a sense of living so that when you looked at them you could almost imagine them becoming animated at night time and wondering about your home! Is that a bit creepy?? Perhaps...
For now though I'm firmly locked back into spoon making mode. The design of them seems to be endless and I'm loving that space and freedom! They rely on such basic design principles - it is a spoon after all!!! - but the possibilities just go on forever, then when you factor in ways of affecting the colour and tone of them, a whole other world opens up. In the last few weeks I've started to offer some select scoops and spoons an ebonised finish. Very simply this process is carried out by washing on apple cider vinegar, that has had some kind of metal resting in it for a week or ten days, to the raw wood. Oxidation and other wonderful science occurs then the wood turns from pale oak to a dark bluey black in a matter of seconds. It's truly amazing to see and also great fun. The effect on the spoons is exactly what I am after. The ebonising allows for the swirls, patterns and individual character in the grain to win through but also brings a depth of natural colour that paint could never achieve. Not to mention of course that this an entirely organic process with zero chemicals involved...just vinegar!! Wholesome and effective in equally glorious measure!
So this is where I'm currently at with my work. It won't be another two years until the next update as I feel like there are some interesting topics that I'd like to talk about!
Cheers guys!
Jamie