New Ashgate Exhibition

Syann and I spent last Thursday setting up our exhibition. Finished late. Had a good opening on Friday. Thanks for coming/ sorry you missed it. I should show Syanns work in the cabinets, but one can only see the jewellary in macro!

Exhibition at the New Ashgate Gallery

Syann van Niftrik and I have an exhibition at The New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham. We deliver next week. The picture is of work in progress. Come and see the exhibition during the month of February.

Carving Ash

Captains Chairs in Ash

I have finished both chairs in time to take them down to the local industrial estate at the end of Sunday to photograph. The weather is clear, so the light is good. There will be a frost in the night but the photographer in me doesn’t care. The two men raiding the skips and the builder returning things to his works all compliment me on the chairs. A good feeling. Here is one of the pics.

Scraping Seat

It is autumn and the sun is shining . I am finishing the second of a pair of chairs. I have sanded to 220 grit and now am scraping the seat to perfect the carving, before going over the whole chair at 400 grit and oiling some time this weekend. I might have finished today but I went off to Pepperbox Hill while the sun is out. I can work through the weekend in the rain.

Solent Raid

We signed up for a group holiday. We like to think of ourselves as individuals, not following the herd, doing different things, but there is a time for everything. We were going on a Raid in the Solent with forty open sailing boats. We persuaded John and Frances to come along. I need John’s expertise in sailing and they are good company.

George at Solent Raid head office linked us with John and Lainey who sail a Ness Yawl like ours, to stay with us for the home nights. Why does everyone we know who sails have the same name?

Getting 40 boats into the water in one tide at Keyhaven is not easy, but the people are nice. We tie up at the Key three and four deep and go for our pub supper trying to attach names to the faces (no they are not all called John). The next morning we are sailing across to the Isle of Wight and up the Medina. We spread out once we have left Hurst Castle. Why are they going faster than us? We skip the packed lunch at Newtown and press on for Cowes, fearing the tide stream being against us if we wait too long. Cowes in the week before ‘Cowes Week’ is a maelstrom of yachting affluence. We go ashore for a bit of lunch and the town itself is rather poor. The wind carries us upstream to the Folly Inn where we are to camp for the night. We Tie up 6 deep on the pontoons and eat the remainder of the packed lunches we neglected to have midday. Our tents arrive and we pitch them in the car park under the trees. Supper is good and fun. We are starting to communicate more. The ground is hard.

the support vessel and get a tow down the glassy windless Medina. Haul up all our Canvas (Dacron actually) and pray for wind. Slowly we all creep out from the island, drifting more with the tide than sailing. The wind picks up ever so slowly and eventually we approach Calshot Castle and are sailing rather briskly up the Solent to Ashlett creek for lunch. There are too many boats for the small creek and we eat our lunch at a mooring before setting off for Beaulieu River with the wind against us. We got stuck in the mud up Beaulieu River because of tacking wide in the channel and discovering how shallow it really was. What a waste of time when we are trying to prove to our compatriates how efficient we really are. We pick up our tents and tie up at the pontoon. We reluctantly pay the ferry that brings us back to the yacht club. John gets a refund later! We pitch tents in the drizzle and get a sit down meal for all 100 of us. The next morning we leave several of our tents in John and Frances’ tent for them to collect in the evening.

We tack against the wind to Lymington, making fast at the yacht club, where we are given a notable meal and Live music. We opted to sail up the Yar the next day. Tacking up to Hurst castle and across to the island. The masts came down for the swing bridge that was not swinging then. We sailed slowly and peacefully up the idyllic river and stopped at the bridge near Freshwater where we ate. Down to Yarmouth again and the warning was that the wind was up to force 5. So, Mizzen out and a reef in the mainand all our foul weather gear on. Safely back with George behind us in the Rib. haul the boats out and enjoy convivial barbecue!

Carving a doorway

I have been lucky,

I have been asked to carve one of my patterns on a doorway for a house near Lymington. The patrons had seen another door that I had carved and wanted more. This is an overall pattern and will give a texture and excitement to the front of the house. There was some hold up while they found a joiner to make the door and surround and I could complete a chair and then a shelving system. Then it arrived eight foot by ten foot of Framework and a door and two panels. This fitted in my double doors and onto the framework that I had assembled over my combination machine. I rigged up long trammels that arced from more or less where I had them in my drawing and traced arcs across the doorway. Michelle and Mark seemed pleased and were happy to let me chop into their investment. Now six weeks later I have carved the two side panels and am working on the door. I have tennis elbow and have to take frequent breaks when my arm seizes up. It excites me and is looking great. The end is in sight but I don’t want to carve this size area for ar least a year.