Dopes R US

I have been MIA for the past 2 weeks on hand made Monday "coughs" Sunday evening thru Tuesday lunch...... Sorry Wendy couldn't resist. So anyway A few weeks ago I suggested to Wendy that "to grow your own Dope you needed to plant a man" but alas there are apparently enough Dope addicts (women) who have some Dope already at home. Anyway if you want a sign that has nothing to do with dopes 1stuniquegifts is as good place to go, actually come to think about it MUMS the word right now. Anyway pop past say hi and have a read at all the different blogs posted. (Click on MUMS above to visit)

Thou shalt forever more be known as the....

Ok so are we wondering why I have a sign depicting a loo that quite blatantly says reading room posted above? Well thanks to Wendy I won it and I feel it's a rather fitting sign as any self respecting Dope will testify its the one room in the house where you get total peace and quiet lol.

When you break something don't bin it!

Remember a few weeks ago I said I wasn't going to show you my botched attempt at turning that weekend?  Well I decided against that and am going to show you how when we turners break something sometimes it doesn't go into the bin it sits on a shelf till you decide to fix it.






This classic example of a bit of beech that was so full of shakes (little cracks) just didn't want to play ball and this is how it ended up. If you look at the bottom it's all nice with lots of different circles on it well that was supposed to be the diameter of the whole thing but when I started turning the sides it just would not do what I wanted it to do. So this is the end result a platter with a bowl growing out of it.

OK so we have had the do as the wood tells you example above now lets move on to the omg I went to thin and my bowl is broken scenario.

Now what I hope you see above is a beautiful bowl with a lovely contrasting base? But in reality what you see is a bowl that is totally the wrong way round and was destined to be a pot pourri dish. How? I hear you ask. Simple really the top just now was the base but the clever Dope here when hollowing it through the bit that is now covered with the clever contrasting bit of timber went to thin with the chisel and effectively it was broken. Now at this point you can do two things 1 - scream like a raving lunatic and bin it putting it down to experience or 2 - put it on a shelf along with some other "deliberate mistakes" and come back to it at a later date.

Imagine this without the red wood, that's how it should have looked like.Anyway two deliberate mistakes later we have a bowl "ooh wait its upside down now". The cocobolo (red timber) was actually a lid I made for a box in the past but the box exploded on the lathe so I was left with a lid on the mistakes shelf. OK to cut the story short the lid fitted the hole and we now have something that could have ended up in a bin.

And the moral of this story is......... yes you guessed it I made a pot pourri bowl with the lid I saved from my deliberate mistake.

Didn't see that coming did you?

Well enough of my tom foolery.

I hope you enjoyed reading and remember to keep an eye out soon for the release of our own website you can bookmark the holding page just now and we will let you know when it goes live. http://www.handywoodcrafts.co.uk/

Until our paths cross again I bid you adieu.