OK I'll start.

[Chris Head]

My medium is Oak, usually three dimensional work but no rules as to what I make, it could be chainsaw carving one week or a piece of furniture the next.  I'm not an artist, joiner or carpenter, I just interpret through Oak. I can only do what I want to do, anything else is prostitution and back to chasing money. I don't work to plans but I do have to have a clear picture in my mind before I start work on a project. I hate money but have a family to support and social charges to pay. The more I think I know the more I realise I've only just started to learn.

Chris

[Rob Roy]

Why oak in particular Chris?

[Chris Head]

I started as a young tree surgeon/forester and just grew to be in awe of Oak. To be up in the crown of an old Oak responsible for it's care meant nothing in the beginning but grew to mean alot more. Living beings several hundred years old infected me and they have become my life. It might seem anorakky but it's just one of those things in life that I don't really understand nor can really quantify.

Is the medium itself important to an artist or just a means to expression?

Chris

[Rob Roy]

I was just wondering, with the amount of different woods available in France, why you work with oak in particular - although I can see it must be very satisfying and the way green oak colours to a silver grey over the years I think is lovely. Our eldest son trained and worked  as a tree surgeon, but gave it up as he found it was starting to put quite a strain on his back and shoulders.

[Ejc]

Looked at your website Chris - what lovely work......

[Meg]

[quote user="Chris Head"]

Is the medium itself important to an artist or just a means to expression?

Chris

[/quote]

For me i would have to say the medium is what is important. I'm a metalworker, nonpracticing unfortunately at the moment as i am waiting to sort out a workshop. I prefer to work with the material to see what develops rather than plan and draw too much first. It's a love of the material that inspires me.

Louise

[Chris Head]

I'm the same as you Louise, before I start a project I'd have spent days and weeks mapping it in my mind, not cut by cut but the concept and movement I want to portray, as the piece develops you just relax into it and it works out or it doesn't, I don't get angsty about failure or disappointment but do try and learn every time I pick a saw up. Why metal Louise? Metal always struck me as requiring a great deal of patience to work. Do you need alot of workshop space and equipment?

Your son did the right thing in giving up Rob Roy, I'm only 40 and still suffer from the years of climbing and felling, it was a tough life but gave me the dexterity with chainsaws that enables me to do what I do today. Oak is the only timber I can really connect with.

Thanks for your kind words ejc, although that website is simply for marketing to schools and local authorities in UK, I'm going to do another website with my other stuff sometime.

I wonder how many folk out there are bursting to create something but find a thousand excuses not to?

Salut, Chris

[Meg]

    Metal just happened by accident really. I was at college and decided to drop one of my 3 'A' Levels, but need something else to fill my timetable. A friend mentioned a Jewellery design course, and i began at one day a week. Then when i finished my 'A' levels i did the Jewellery/  course full time. So that first got me hooked. Then went to uni and decided larger scale/ forge work appealed a lot more. (less messing around polishing out every tiny scratch, now that does take patience!) 

I just enjoy the way metal can be manipulated and find as you say, i just relax into it! Also with metal if you get fed up if something is not working you can lob it across the workshop and it doesn't break!!!! I couldn't bear to spend hours working on something for it to break right at the last moment, eg, glass, ceramics.

Ideally i would like a huge workshop with lots of equipment but i think i am going to have to start small. Also limiting yourself to very basic tools and equipment brings its own interesting challenges.

I feel inspired to get on with it just talking about it. I really miss bashing some metal!

[Gastines]

My pal in UK has a perspex sign and fabrication  business and although I have always disliked perspex signs, much preferring painted sign writing,. I always liked the medium of Perspex, it's colours and flexibility.My pal being a fairly generous person used to indulge me using odd bits and pieces trying to make something interesting.  I then dealt with a West End interior design company that I used to say specialized in BAD TASTE . However, they used to deal with lots of very wealthy Arab clients who wanted something that no-one else had, so I took the chance of putting ideas together and drew up cabinets and furniture in coloured perspex. One of the most spectacular being a full size partners desk in dark red perspex, all corners having military desk type corners in gold-plate + handles/ locks etc to suit. To add to the effect I added some diodes that lit up in a sequence. In  a riverside penthouse with a platform vitually hanging out over the Thames it looked quite spectacular. I also managed to surprise a client by getting mirror perspex to go around arches and curves, mitreing the corners before polishing, so that it appeared to be in one piece. So , to get back to the topic of material and art it can be from anything to hand, Cassis's willow men look quite arty to me and sometimes a pile of stones can look the part, not to sure about Tracy's bed but Saatchi & Saatchi were obviously impressed.

Regards. B&B St.Malo

[Gastines]

Obviously the perspex put a stop on the topics!! So I'll try another tack. As the forum title includes antiques, can I ask if anyone has,or had, an antique/general decorative shop /outlet ?  We used to have a shop in UK and know that the trade in general has had a rapid decline there  but wondered if anyone is making a living,or part, from something similar here? I find that Depot-Vents in this area are now just full of re-pro and new furniture,so don't want to go down that route.

Regards. chambre-dhote.org/r.inn

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="Chris Head"]

My medium is Oak, usually three dimensional work but no rules as to what I make, it could be chainsaw carving one week or a piece of furniture the next.  I'm not an artist, joiner or carpenter, I just interpret through Oak. I can only do what I want to do, anything else is prostitution and back to chasing money. I don't work to plans but I do have to have a clear picture in my mind before I start work on a project. I hate money but have a family to support and social charges to pay. The more I think I know the more I realise I've only just started to learn.

Chris

[/quote]

Hi Chris, my interest is a hobby and as I took early retirement it doesn't have to make a living for us. I make wooden toys, anything from a 3 peice jigsaw puzzle to a Staunton chess set and I love it. I was never going to get into turning, but when I tried it I was hooked. So I now have a workshop here in our home in France and have just made a small wedding present for the daughter of a very old friend. I work with most woods, oak included, but if I am going to pyrograph the piece then oak is not good to use. Beech, ash or elm are some of the blanks we bought over with us. I have still to investigate where to get the wood I will need here. I used to go to the joiners and carpenters around Stroud and had a good supply of bits and I will have to do the same here, but in French??!

[IMG]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/WRENGOBLET21.jpg[/IMG]

With a bit of luck this is one of the goblets that I make and pyrograph???

John.[8-)]

[Gastines]

A question for the woodworkers. What should I try to get to for the staffs of tall hiking sticks? I recently aquired some very ornamental handles ideal for this purpose and I thought I might have a go at putting the 2 together. Very nice piece of turning in the goblet! My uncle used to carve the Welsh love spoons,of which I am lucky enough to have three, with the different parts all representing part of love/married life etc.I mamaged to buy another at a car-boot sale in UK but haven't seen another in over 15 years of looking.

Regards.

[Jonzjob]

Thank you G. I must admit that I do love working the lathe.

As for your staves have a look out for black thorn. It's the bush that sloes grow on. I've seen them growing in various places here. You can get fairly long straight staves. The wood is strong and very interesting in it's own right. I made a couple of short walking sticks and left most of the bark on, sanded the small off shoots and thorn bases almost flat and they look really nice... Failing that ash is good, straight grained and very strong. It's the wood used for good tool handles, axes, pick akes, hammers, etc.You may have difficulty finding the length you want and it will almost certainly be square. One of the advantages with the black thorn is that it's already round and tapers.

Let us know how you get on with them please.

John.

[Cassis]

I know nothing about it personally but a French friend told me that holly (houx) is also very good for handles and sticks - very strong and hard wood.  It is flogged off/given away by the foresters round here when they thin sections of the forest.

[Chris Head]

Great looking goblet John, do you buy blanks of that diameter or turn green and go from there? Look on the hunt for your timber as a good language excercise! I know you woodturners love to pick up your timber for nothing ( I used to be plagued by turners in the UK!) If you were close to me you'd have a field day with the heaps of offcuts I have for burning. I've never tried turning, I don't have the patience I'm afraid, I like big wood, aggresive machines and adrenaline! I'm don't know if you're planning to sell here but I'm sure you'd make some pocket money if you did.

I'm not sure about species of timber for your staff Gastine, John seems to have covered it pretty well, how about wandering around a deciduous woodland with a little pruning saw? You might even come accross some ceps if the time is right!

Chris

[Jonzjob]

I resemble that remark Chris, 'woodturners love to pick up bitz for nowt'. I am quite willing to pay a few centimes for a load of blanks!!! I used to get most of my wood from a very good copy turner in the Stroud vallies. There is some lovely stuff there including some wonderful elm blocks. I have most of them here now. I bought 3 cardboard boxes full (2 X 2 X 3 foot boxes). He wasn't cheap, he charged me £15 for a large sack full!! It was a trip of discovery to go round Ernies place.. I have turned green and have the book 'Green Woodwork' written by Mike Abbot. He works in Westonbirt Arboretum and watching him work with his pole lathe was something else!

We were on holiday in Devon and I discovered a haul of fresh cut rhodedendrum (spelling, what smelling?), some about 10" diameter. I found the owner and had a load to take home. I turned a bowl with the biggest, still green, and now have the most fascinating shaped, cracked bowl I have ever seen. Definately NOT round...

Honest Chris you don't need patience for turning, just the love of aprension of what is going to appear when you stop the lathe. You can see the shape, which comes quite quickly, but when you see the grain,,,,    well? I was once asked how I knew that a bowl was inside a blank. It made me look at each piece in a different way. The questioner was a child..

I too have a chain saw and a pair of Sthill trousres, boots, etc. Makes me a great gardner? In the U.K. we used to employ tree surgenz to get radio controlled model gliders out of the trees that jump out and snatch them. I came to the conclusion that the only difference between tree surenz and monkeyz is that the monkeyz don't have ropes. I can only admire the climbing skills of both. At my age I still love climbing, but am safer on the ground [+o(].. That's the same conclusion my OH comes to as well, no sence of humour?

John

John

[Chris Head]

I'll stick to my saws John until I get too old to throw them around! I'm still at an age where I like the adrenaline!

Talking about blagging timber, I got given these two lumps of Oak after the tree fell over a lane, all I had to do was dismantle the tree for the farmer (he didn't have a guide bar long enough) and hey presto two nice big carving logs!

       (click on 'em)

Now if you could mount them on a lathe that would be different!!!

Cheers, Chris

 

 

[Jonzjob]

You can get lathes that will turn 4 foot dia and more. A bit toooo rich for my pocket and too big for my workshop as well!

I've just finished my latest. They are a petty cadeau for the wedding of the daughter of a very old friend. The bowl is a dark elm and the goblets are ash. If I had waited for those logs of yours to dry I could have got a few more from that lot!!!

[IMG]http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f180/Jonzjob/Maryscadeau.jpg[/IMG]

I've made a few of this type of thing now. The biggest difficulty is getting the goblets the same(ish). I usually manage to get near... I have made a few Staunton chess sets and the most difficult part were the pawns with the easiest being the knights. 16 bits all the same  [:-))].

John.

[Christine Animal]

I like this thread.  It's really interesting seeing what you are all doing.  Amazing...  Jonzjob, how clever you are, so professional.  

 

[Jonzjob]

Thank you Christine, the tricky bit is that you have to turn the rings seperately, soak them for about 24 hours to soften them, then very carefully stretch them over the base and hope that they dry round [geek]. I love making them though.

As for what Chris does, we lived near Westonbirt Arbouritum, Gloucestershire and went along to the carving week they have there each year. The guys are there with their chainsaws and they are incredible to watch. I'm certain that they use special saws, 'cause mine will only cut trees down! Oh and into little bits too. There's is a special talent.

John.

P.S. The goblets are made in one peice realy and the rings are cut the same time as the stem is turned. Sorry, but it's one of my favorite stories. When I face folks and tell them I can't keep a straight face [6]...

[Meg]

   I like the goblets jonzjob. How long does it take to make one???

Also odd question, when you go to craft fairs etc, why are the woodworkers always making/selling wooden mushrooms??!! (varying in size up to the chainsaw lot!)

I have made some steel mushrooms though....................[:)]

Louise

[Gastines]

As an add on to the topic, there must come a point with some hobbies where the thought turns to," Well,if everyone likes them so much,will they buy one".  I would think it is near impossible to relate a selling price to the man/woman hours spent thinking/designing/making an item. Years ago I was fortunate enough to have the services of a very good cabinetmaker and an equally good french-polisher,albeit not from France but from the East End. As they were repairing/re-polishing victorian furniture, I was able to absorb part of the repair costs in the selling price of the finished article. However, on the occasion a customer would ask for a quote to re-veneer/repair/re-polish/or re-upholster an item, it was usually a case of shock,horror.I believe that unless you work with your hands, it is very hard to appreciate the thought that can go into a job before you actually start, it is also a bit difficult to go to B&Q and get some faded walnut veneer or some ebony stringing.

Back to the topic, how do you put a price on your work?

Regards. Hammer & nails  St.Malo.

[Chris Head]

John the 'talent' is the familiaraty with the saw. I'm quite sure that a typist is probably not aware of the keyboard when he/she types, any more so than an artist is concentrating on the brush in their hand over and above the painting they're doing. It's like that with the chainsaw, it's just like a keyboard or a brush to me, most often I'm not even aware of the saw, just like Twinks who sings...do you think that she's concentrating on the microphone or what she's singing? It's as simple as that.

Gastines, pricing is the most difficult thing. I wouldn't even know where to start. I've been lucky in my career that I pick and choose what I want to do, but money means nothing to me, I actually detest the stuff and Sarah deals with it. Money is the most prominent disease of the first world....passion is more important in your work, if you can portray that the money will follow.

Sorry to be a little elusive but your quesion is a 'fluid' one.

Regards, Chris

[Meg]

       I guess it is easier to price work when it is something you make

regularly, you know how long it takes, how much for materials etc. But

for something that you create for the first time that has taken hours

of thought and experimentation, it must be very difficult. If you are

very emotionally attached to a piece of work there is always the

thought that the price could never realistically reflect the processes

that went into making it. To be able to work and make as you wish (and

not get much money) must be more satisfying than producing things that

don't inspire you just to bring in the cash. Many artists/ craftspeople

i have met have 2 different work styles, the things that they want to

make and the other which are bread and butter pieces. It must be tricky

to find the right balance.

Louise

[Jonzjob]

My bread & butter/beer in the U.K. was making exercise rocker boards for a cyropractor. I made over 800 in about 5 years, not only for the chiro, but for a singing instructor and a swimming trainer. The boards are all over the world now. But as for pricing the only way I can do it is to have a stab at what I think people will pay. At the craft fairs it was a case of people not wanting to pay anything sometimes and other times they were falling over themselves to give me the money. Some actually gave me more than I was asking, but not many. They said that it was worth more. That made me feel quite good!

One of the tiny things I make are bookmarks. Just very thin slivers of wood, small yew branches are favorite because of the lovely grain and colour. At one fair I was pyrographing names, etc and one young girl bought 8 and had the names of her school mates on them as Christmas presents. At £1 a peice she was well pleased because she had something unique for each of them. A strange woman, dressed in big bikers boots, very short leather skirt, leather jacket, funny heavy tights, long lank scruffy black hair and not very clean smelling asked me to put "Freedom's just another word for nothing else to loose" and a blokes name! Just as well she picked a largish book mark and I was glad she didn't want the rest of the song  [:-))]...

I love the challenge of someone asking me if I can do something new, like making 5 dozen birds eggs for a falconary centre in Gloucestershire. Part payment for that was 2 large, very dry, logs. One yew and one holly, lovely wood too.

John.