More turning

I'm just entering a particularly hectic month of work - not helped by the arrival of this little fellow...

He's called Herbie, and so far has proved to be a bundle of fun, but very attention demanding!

I have plenty of jobs to catch up on, and have managed to get a few things finished and off to their new owners, including a new coat rack for some customers in Sheffield. I have also started to address the Bowl-cano, the huge pile of bowls and platters sitting in my study waiting for me to get around to selling them. Luckily I have a few friendly shops nearby that now stock some of my pieces, the latest being Greenstone & Ivy at the Hope Valley garden centre near Bamford, and also Eclectic Delights of Serendipity in Hope.

I have done some more experiments turning pewter, the results are in the photos below.

The current chilly snap not withstanding, the days are getting longer and it is starting to feel a little more spring-like, so I finally made a bench to sit on next to the river in our field. Made from a load of old 3 inch thick pine boards we milled a few years ago, with a stretcher fashioned from a dead branch off the sweet chestnut tree nearby. Already very popular with the kids, we decided to decorate it a little by carving some flowers into the top. A fun hour was had trying to get the children to master a bit of carving, but I think they did a good job!