Art or Firewood ? Be honest ...

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I just really like the colour and finish of the wood - very reminiscent of Porphyry, the worm holes tend to accentuate that image.

 

[happyculteur]

If it was deeper would make a loverly bog brush holder!

Pargyle ! you have just invented the 3 dimensional Rorschach test !
Lovely piece of work.

 

[mintmoth]

Apologies if you are a wood purist, Pargyle, but that would have looked even more stunning if the holes had been filled with coloured resin before turning.

And I agree the finial is mismatched. A wonderful chunky box like that should have a good chunky lid handle.

 

[pargyle]

Apologies if you are a wood purist, Pargyle, but that would have looked even more stunning if the holes had been filled with coloured resin before turning.

And I agree the finial is mismatched. A wonderful chunky box like that should have a good chunky lid handle.

Actually I was thinking about filling the woodworm holes with brass impregnated resin but I quite liked the rustic look and so I didn't bother....perhaps next time !

 

[pargyle]

Well ... here we go again .. another lost cause ... I like it - but, thereagain, my taste is so far off the wall I don't really expect anyone else to ! It was a slab of a yew tree that would have been a saplying when Henry VIII was king - it was badly damaged in the 1987 storm and despite efforts to save it the position it was in next to a church path it was deemed to dangerous and was cut down in 1989. I acquired this piece a few years ago now so it is well seasoned but it was a rough old bit of timber - a section just below the bark with bark inclusions and cracks in it. The best planks from the inner sections of the main trunk went off to a very posh cabinet maker. The rubbishy bits outside of that would not be much use to him but I'm a sucker for a challenge (There are those that a little less charitable !).

 

[Erichalfbee]

What a lovely colour

 

[pargyle]

What a lovely colour

Yes it is .. I love turning yew for the reason that the colours that come out of it are eztraordinary and the grain patterns are wonderful. It's a bit of a challenge to turn but worth it ...

 

[amandaj57]

Looks stunning to me.

 

[Herbalist]

My other passion outside of my bees is woodturning .. I'm probably a better wood turner than I am a beekeeper - not that being a particularly high bar ! I attended a webinar this week with an American lady who was turning finials ... I've done quite a few over the years but she took them a step further and it inspired me to get on the lathe today and having made the finial I figured I'd better make something for it to sit on. I found a piece of fruitwood (probably Plum by the looks of it) at the bottom of my 'bits I might use one day' box .. it had been riddled with woodworm - long gone and treated with a blast of Rentokil ...but my woodturning is nearly as off the wall as my beekeeping so I thought ... here goes.

I made this. I quite like it ... totally impractical as a box ... pretty useless for anything to be honest - rustic to say the least with the woodworm damage. I introduced my lastest creation to 'er indoors and was met with a less than enthusiastic response ... I won't tell you exactly what she said but I don't think it's going to get pride of place in Chex Argyle in the near future.

So .. not looking for an ego massage or fishing for compliments ... what do you think ? Would you give it houseroom or is it firewood ? Are you with me or 'er indoors ?View attachment 24540View attachment 24541View attachment 24542View attachment 24543

I love the exuberance of it. I am also a woodturner AND hive builder. If I listened to my "er indoors" I would never produce anything worth looking at other than bog-standard bee-hives. Woodwork can be art. It does not all have to be utilitarian or boring.

 

[E&MBees]

Beautiful!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Well ... here we go again .. another lost cause ... I like it - but, thereagain, my taste is so far off the wall I don't really expect anyone else to !

I like it - and not so far off the wall as you think - there is a commercial wood turner down West of me (Abercych, funnily enough, where Ricky Wilson had his breeding apiary) who turns out quite a few pieces that are split/slighted and they are snapped up as soon as he shows the blank on his facebook page.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I like it - and not so far off the wall as you think - there is a commercial wood turner down West of me (Abercych, funnily enough, where Ricky Wilson had his breeding apiary) who turns out quite a few pieces that are split/slighted and they are snapped up as soon as he shows the blank on his facebook page.

I’m not surprised. They look like real wood with the flaws and suffering of life; a bit like us all really.

 

[user 819]

Nice work Philip.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Thumbs up from me Philip, great looking bit of work.

 

[The Poot]

Great stuff Phil.

 

[John Twidle]

I love yew timber and think that the appearance is seldom bettered. As a surprise, one year my wife had a complete trunk delivered on my birthday. It has been planked and seasoning for quite a while now and I really should make something from it. One issue with the timber though is that inhaling the dust can give symptoms similar to a heart attack so please be careful and use a dust mask.

 

[pargyle]

I love yew timber and think that the appearance is seldom bettered. As a surprise, one year my wife had a complete trunk delivered on my birthday. It has been planked and seasoning for quite a while now and I really should make something from it. One issue with the timber though is that inhaling the dust can give symptoms similar to a heart attack so please be careful and use a dust mask.

Yes ... I have a full air fed visor ... it's great as I can wear my glasses and they don't steam up ... and I get so used to wearing it that I don't really notice until I try and scratch a nose itch !

One of these:

https://www.yandles.co.uk/jsp-powercap-active-ip-powered-respirator-impact-protection/p25489
Not cheap but it's cordless and I value my lungs ....

 

[pargyle]

And another piece of firewood to add to the collection... I'm going to force this one on to my daughter when we see her tomorrow... it was a bit tricky as there was a huge void that I had to fill with car body filler in order to be able to turn it at all ... in my desire to bring out the best bits of the patterns in the grain of the yew I nearly turned it into a lampshade and its so thin in a couple of places you can see light through it...

 

[Ian123]

Very nice I had some huge bits of yew a couple of years ago even had a colony of bees in the middle. It had been dropped by the tree surgeons for a development. If only I had known, it got burnt after. I would have happily found it another use.

 

[Erichalfbee]

And another piece of firewood to add to the collection... I'm going to force this one on to my daughter when we see her tomorrow... it was a bit tricky as there was a huge void that I had to fill with car body filler in order to be able to turn it at all ... in my desire to bring out the best bits of the patterns in the grain of the yew I nearly turned it into a lampshade and its so thin in a couple of places you can see light through it...

Very nice Philip.
I shall hijack the thread and show you what Stan did with two old pine doors we found in the apiary field.