Lamp Light Designs Bites the Dust.

I'm afraid that the idea or returning to wood turning has, quite metaphorically, 'bitten the dust'.  A few days ago I spent no more than half an hour bandsawing up a few birch twiggy hooks. The garage door was wide open with a good breeze into the garage but within a few minutes my nose was itching and my eyes streaming. Soon I had a raging headache and so I stopped work and came indoors.  Now on occasions my blood oxygen levels have dropped to nearly 90%.

I had to give up woodworking in 2012 because I was suffering from Hypersensitive Pneumoniosis (an autoimmune response to mold spores in wood dust). Then my lungs were at 40% efficiency for exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide.  I have some permanent scaring in my lungs.  

I have been pretty much symptom free for 2 years and thought that with increased dust extraction and a change of wood type and only a little bit of wood turning  I might be fine but this has clearly demonstrated that ‘Lamp Light Designs’ has rather hit the buffers before leaving the station.

Kick-start Funding.

To fund the initial materials for my previous breadboard and chopping board scheme that I started in 2009, Ken and I realised that the autumn was producing a bumper harvest of Sweet Chestnuts (Castanea sativa).  Sweet Chestnut trees were thought to be introduced by the Romans into the Britsih Isles to provide a high protein flour for the Roman troops.

We picked up, sorted and polished 110 kg. of the nuts.  These we sold to Farm Shops and made £220.  It was backbreaking, finger splintering, jolly hard work.

Sweet Chestnut

To kick-start Lamp Light Designs I have ‘pruned’ invasive Silver Birch saplings and some fallen branches of Scots Pine to make 'Twiggy Hooks'. 

Twiggy Hooks waiting to be drilled for screw holes

I hope to sell enough to buy some wood, fabric paints, lampshades and fittings.  I do hope Jenny at Handmade Happiness, Petersfield may be interested in stocking some twiggy hooks.

Thinking and Doodling

This is my thinking log  

Charlie Dog at Wiggonholt Common

Most mornings I walk Charlie around Wiggonholt Common for an hour.  He decides where we go, he is looking for rabbits. As we head back to the car, I usually stop here to think. It makes a very comfortable seat and I usually keep a pencil and notebook in my pocket. 

 

My art teacher used to say ‘Don’t put a mark on the paper until you can see the whole picture in your mind’s eye’. So here I have been doodling some designs for lamp bases until I can see exactly what I will be turning.

 

Sketch Book

 

Sometimes I sit and imagine setting up the lathe, ‘chucking’ the wood, where I will put the tool rest, make the first cuts etc. Cutting into a lump of wood that is spinning at 2000rpm is dangerous and I find doing a ‘dry run’ makes me think of any potential difficulties. 

Design Influences

Here is another design from the lampbases and shades by Madeleine Bradbury of Bloomsbury Interiors which have inspired me to get back into wood turning.

      Charleston House Gift Shop . 

In turn, Bradbury has been inspired by the original lampbases of  Winifred Gill, a member of the Omega Workshop which was set up by Roger Fry. Her 'Owl' lampbase designs for Omega demonstrate fairly basic spindle turning. It is the applied decoration which is so accomplished.

Omega Workshops, painted lamp bases, 1913 by Winifred Gill

I am afraid my copy of Vision and Design, Roger Fry's treatise on Formalism isn't well thumbed but his huge influence on 'taste' and appreciation of design has touched so many great and gifted artists. 

Fry was the  first person to coin the term 'Post Impressionism' and was a key figure in the Bloomsbury Group, many of whom settled or visited the house of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant at Charleston Farmhouse, nr Glynde, East Sussex.

Selecting the best wood for lampbases

Yesterday I went over to W L West’s wood yard at Selham, just west of Petworth.  They, together with English Woodlands at Cocking nr. Midhurst, are the only two wood yards in the area that mill and kiln hardwoods. 

A giant bandsaw for milling wood at W L Wests at Selham



This is a Ziggerat Kiln which, when loaded, is heated and the sap in the cellular structure

 of the wood is driven out so that the wood becomes stable and will not shrink or warp.

 

I wanted some wood that would be good to turn and paint. I decided on Poplar.

 



Stacks of Poplar but nothing big enough for my lampbases

Unfortunately they didn’t have any bigger sized Poplar but I brought a 50mm square section length to get going and have some spindle turning practise.  Sharp and correctly honed chisels and a fast speed – about 2000rpm - should produce a good cut and finish. A similar wood to Poplar, called Tulipwood, is stocked over at Cocking so I may find thicker lengths there.  Such are the vagaries of sourcing hardwoods. Now I find myself looking in a different part of the woodyard. This is opposite to the type of timber that I used to buy for chopping boards when I was looking for big, dense, highly figured woods.

 

 

 

 

 

Lampshade Designing Tool

I have turned up this rather clever thing on the lathe which will be used to equally space and divide up a plain lampshade. It will help me to keep  vertical lines equidistant.  I routered out the slots and drew the lines with coloured felt tips while the wood revolved on the lathe. 

I have covered the surface with transparent film so I can wipe it clean after painting. I then place the lampshade on the right diameter circle and lace a long thread through the slots.

This is an old shade that I have been experimenting on, using a variety of  paints to get the best effects.

The Begining

Today I am starting a new venture.

Inspired by a recent visit to the country home of the Bloomsbury Group, Charleston Farmhouse, near Glynde in East Sussex, I saw a selection of hand painted lamp bases and shades for sale in the shop and I realised that woodturned lamp bases for decorated shades would be a good use for my lathe.

An example of Madeleine Bradbury's work

I haven't touched my lathe for quite a while but when I was actively making and selling bread boards and chopping boards I used my lathe with a faceplate on an 'outboard'.

Making big round flat things like chopping boards up to 30" in diameter meant that I had no use for the lathe's very good spindle turning facility. 

Between the two centers, I can turn wood up to 36"long .  Table lamp bases will be made by spindle turning. These are just a few of the gouges and chisels I will be using:

Now, together with a bit of inspiration, a new roof on the garage and a great lathe, we can all be back in action.