Something Fishy

I started a more oval shaped Quaich for another cousin , as a gift for her local fishing. Club she asked if I could carve a trout onto this.
 So I pondered this for a while looked at some brown trout, and came up with this head and tail handle idea . I think it works what about you guys ? ;)

Thats Enough Of That

The sky seems to be just rainclouds at the moment , with an endless supply ready to pour down at any time . How I long for some cool crisp days to get out raking through the woods and trails . Anyhoo that's enough of that ...  I've been dabbling a little with some bowls and really enjoy the whisper of sharp steel  peeling off timber and forming the hollow of the bowl . I have some spalted beech I have been using for these, and it seems to be a log that just keeps giving . I let the bowls dry a little in between carving sessions so it doesn't  split with shock of losing so much volume at once ! So after a bit of scooping on the bowls I left them for another day, and set to work on a little beech spoon . I have been trying to be a bit more adventurous with my spoon carving lately , what do you think ? ;)

Part Of Me

I had a phone call before Christmas, it came kind of out the blue, from my cousin Margaret ! She follows my blog, she needed a mantle to finish off a fireplace for a woodstove  . We decided on oak and the rest was up to me...
After lots of phone calls, emails, and visits to Sawmills, I found the timber that would work for me in a small Sawmill.

After I got it home the bark was taken off , and it was planed by hand then sanded to clean it up . Hidden under its weathered exterior was some pretty remarkable pippy oak patterns.

  But the after the sanding that wasn't me finished I had plans for something a bit more special . My cousin lives over in Islay . Where my Mother and most of my family hails from , Whisky brought us out to the mainland from Islay many years ago . When my older brother needed to go to the deaf school in Edinburgh, my Father was transferred from Port Ellen Distillery to Saint Magdalenes Distillery in Linlithgow . I never lived on the island but it has always been a huge part of my life . So I asked if she would like something carved into the mantle and it was decided to have the outline of the island.
so after finding an outline that would work in the space I started to carve away all the material that was around Islay after this I felt it still needed a little something so a little seagull shape seemed to work with the design then after lots and lots of sanding and some wax . Here it is ready for its journey over the sea to the Queen of the Hebrides, that is the Isle of Islay... This really was a labour of love ;)

For George

I was recently asked in a comment about the wedding bench I was building last year . I forgot to put on the finished picture , here it is waiting for the big day ;)

Scooping Out

I tried to finish this for the new year but it didn't happen .
But I managed to finish it off this morning , lots of scooping out to get the bowl nice and deep, and a lot of carving went into this little Quaich to get a uniform thickness , here it is with a little wax to make it glow ;)

In It's Place

Well I got the table finished for my sister , after adding a little curved rustic brace that doesn't really do much for strength but it gives another dimension to the table . Here's the last of the building  , and after a few coats of wax and a lot of elbow grease, the table in it's place ... ;)