The workshop has been busy over the last couple of months. First up is Queen’s Award plaque I was commissioned to make based on the one I made for Vectric almost three years ago. The company, Saint Pierre Groupe, who are a large baked goods producer in the UK, asked me to make their plaque from walnut (which looks gorgeous). I had forgotten how effective this design is with the “e” standing proud of the main surface, it really worked nicely in the walnut too. You can see the plaque in the background of the second photo in this article covering the award presentation.
In terms of making it, below you can see the work in progress, the first photo is the back with the keyholes cut for hanging it. Then there are couple of photos of the “e” being machined. For the main plaque, before cutting the text I sealed the wood, sanded it smooth and applied a vinyl film. In the fourth photo this is being machined through to cut the text, then in the next image is the film being peeled off after painting leaving nice clean edges. Finally the plaque was finished with Briwax Danish Oil which I’ve just started using and really like its finish and application (but not its smell)… The customer was extremely happy with it when I delivered it to them.
The other main project that’s filled much of my time this month has been making fluted columns (pilasters) for the panelled room we’ve been working on. I had over 100 of these to make in different lengths. So I decided to use cam-clamps to hold the part in place as these hold firmly but allow easy release and re positioning. I cut my own cam clamps and used steel rod as their pivot. These worked really well. Below you can see one of the smaller columns in the first image, then a much longer one being held by the clamps in the second photo. A lot of these pilasters have one of the small square cherubs I’ve been carving inserted above the flutes. The third image shows a pocket for these inlays being cut and the final picture is some of the finished pilasters, including cherub, drying after being primed.
One of our clients is a burgeoning artist - Stiffy - he asked us to work on two projects which were both quite different. Firstly we were commissioned to make an unusual “frame” for a new piece he has in the works. This is kind of an aerofoil or wing shape (at least that’s how I thought of it). I cut the curved edge pieces for this and the inner braces, which were initially solid poplar. After seeing how heavy this would be he asked us to take some material out of the 45mm thick bracing. So I make a pattern of circles to cut out and used the cam-clamps again to hold each piece in place while it was being machined, again they worked a treat and I intend to use them a lot more to hold parts in place.
The second commission from Stiffy was to cut Christmas trees out of veneered MDF, each one with the artist signature engraved and painted. To do this we sealed the face of the veneer then I carved the signature and some registration holes as can be seen in the first image below. This was then sprayed black and the face sanded off to leave the signatures painted. Next I was able to use the registration holes to accurately re-mount the sheet on the machine and cut the holes and outer shapes of each tree as shown in the second and third image. After a bit of light sanding to clean up the edges you can see the finished trees in the last image. Subsequently I learned these were used to raise money for charity so congratulations to Stiff for that…
A more conventional project was to cut parts to make an arched window to go above a door that the guys in the workshop we’re making for another client. This was a really good examples of the benefits of CNC cut parts. The first thing I did was machine the pieces for the outer arch. As it was 95mm thick we decided to do it in two layers and create lapped joints as can be seen in the first two image, I also cut an MDF template for this to make sure it could be glued up accurately. The frame components were cut two-sided with a rebate for glass on one side and a bevelled top. I designed these to when cut the bevel would slot together and make clean joints. The third and fourth images show these parts having been cut and roughly laid out before they were put together. The fifth picture is an image of them being assembled using a template I cut for centre part of the window to help position them correctly. The guys in workshop were really happy with how it went together (I am always impressed by how good a job they do too). The beauty of cutting parts from the same drawing is I can then develop this to also cut the glass templates (image 6 below) and cut the beading for the glass (image 7). The final assembled window is shown in the last photo waiting to be primed and painted, simple but very elegant and satisfying to work on.
Cherubs continue to be a big part of my life and this month I cut the largest ones I’d made so far. These will go within frames in some large door liner panels. They are 1100mm x 150mm x 40mm so quite big! As they were too long for the machine I had to make them in two pieces, you can see the main parts being cut in the first two images and then two of the ends being carved in the third image. The final image shows both pieces, finish sanded and in position. I believe there will be more of these to carve in 2020 along with many other different cherubs for the same client.
Continuing the cherub theme the same client has indicated we may need to gold leaf some of the carvings when the final painting has been done. So I went through the process of gold-leafing one of our carved panels I made for his doors as an exercise to see how practical this will be. I first applied Gesso to prepare the wood (image 1), sanded this back and painted it gold to cover any small gaps my lack of gold-leafing skill might leave (image 2). To make sure it was sealed and ready for the gold-size I applied a coat of shellac (image 3) and then finally applied the size and several hours later the gold leaf. The last image shows this 90% complete with some clean up work still to do. I was reasonably happy with how it came out and we’ll show the finished version to the client to see what he thinks…
As normal this month I’ve cut some other more random jobs, some of which you can see below. The first image shows some MDF circles for the guys to use on the spindle moulder in the workshop as expendable guards. The second image shows a perspex panel I engraved for my friend who is converting his village’s red phone box into a place to keep a public defibrillator. The third image is a concept for wall-art design I was playing with, this is cut in black valchromat, a kind of dense MDF. It’ll be sealed, sanded back and then lacquered to finish it. It is a very effective and I’ll probably develop this more next year, my son has already claimed this one to go on his bedroom wall. The final image are a pair of letter openers, the design for obvious reason is called a Bollock Dagger, as absurd as it sounds if you follow the link you can see its a real thing. These are an unusual design and still work very well so I may develop this further as a product I can sell.
Finally this month, and for that matter this year, is a project I started in 2018. Tom, who I share the workshop with, had a piece of very dense wood (Cumaru we believe) that was from an old project and not being used. Last year I took some of this and cut a design into it which is like a whirl-pool or vortex. This came out well but with a solid square bottom it looked to blocky, then it sat gathering dust until I decided I really needed to get it finished. So earlier this month I decided to make it more of a bowl shape. This involved securing it to an MDF spoilboard with four blocks of wood and then carving a curved shape into the back - as shown in image 1 below. At this stage I was a lot happier with the shape (image 2) although there was still a lot of sanding to get all the toolmarks out and curve the sharp edges. The finished bowl is shown in the third image before oiling, then the final image shows it with a few coats of oil. This last image makes it look a bit more orange and shiny than it actually is. I was really happy with the final form and also how heavy this, even better though is how satisfyingly tactile it is to touch… I really should make more bowls again next year. Maybe even make more of an effort to try and sell them to other people too instead of just hoarding them myself…
That’s everything for this year, looking back I’ve worked on a massive variety of interesting things, so thanks to all those who commissioned work from me. I look forward to more of the same in 2020 and hopefully continuing to grow things from my compost heap of ideas.