sutton046

At the end of June, I had the pleasure of running another Green Woodworking workshop. This time we used the Vic Park Arts Centre as the venue. On a nice sunny day, it was great to be able to work out in the garden and on the verandah.  Front side of the info flyer for the June workshop. Calling it "A Taste of Green Woodworking", the ten participants had a choice of either bowl carving or spoon carving. The wood we had to play with was Cape Lilac and Camphor Laurel. Here are a few pics from the day:  That's me doing a demo on cleaving some Cape Lilac with froe and beetle. Another lovely spoon taking shape. Doing a demo on hollowing out the bowl shape with an adze. A Camphor Laurel Bowl in the making. The Shaving Horse is a joy to use! The small bowl carving adze is a beauty. A moment of contemplation... Working on the verandah. There were an assortment of hatchets and adzes to try out. Shaping the outside of a Camphor Laurel bowl with a hatchet. Using a Hook Knife to h...

While spending Christmas/New Year in Albany, Western Australia, I gave a hand to help with some gardening in a friend's garden. (For those of you readers in the northern hemisphere, this time of the year is early summer. While you were hunkered down hiding from the cold singing carols around the fire in your winter woollies, we were having Christmas lunch at the beach under a gazebo to save us from the scorching sun.) One of the garden plants we were cutting back was a Eucalyptus caesia. This species of eucalypt is grown as a decorative garden plant, with silvery leaves, drooping foliage, and beautiful bright red flowers. In its natural habitat it grows in arid areas as a sparse spindly small tree or mallee. There are two main forms in cultivation: the really weeping version and a more upright version. The one we were cutting back was the more upright. The wood is very dense, even outside of its normal habitat. An example of the version with with a more weeping habit. Pic thanks to...