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Having been described as a creative woodturner, Mike's
fast growing preference for working with the whiter native timbers has led to his
regular and increased use of decorative
effects and colouring,
applying a wide range of coloured washes and metallic finishes to turned
items, these
in the form of spirit and water based dyes, some often embellished with
gold, silver and copper leaf supplied by leading companies Liberon and
Chestnut Products. Calling on his artistic background colour is applied by
the use of small airbrushes or spray guns driven by the workshop
compressor.
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Colouring and
texturing tuition is now available for beginners to advanced level.
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Spirit or water
based dyes, gold, silver and copper leaf add decoration.
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Texturing is
added by sandblasting, Sorby tools or the use of hand held grinders.
Texturing can
be added to turned pieces in many ways, these can include sandblasting
with different forms of grit, grinding as the object is turning with a
hand held grinder fitted with a special cutting wheel and using the
specialist tools that are available from the
Robert Sorby
company in Sheffield, tools are available for producing spiral and
chatterwork markings, this form of decoration can be seen on their web
site. Certain types of open grained
timber, Oak and Ash can benefit
from the addition of liming or patinating pastes, the pastes fill the tiny
little open grain pores and when the excess paste is wiped off leave a
very good effect either lightening or darkening the timber.
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Ash and Oak timbers can benefit
from the addition of lime and patinating pastes.
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Some forms of
colouring totally obscure the beauty of the wood. It's your choice.
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Colouring and
decoration of turned pieces is not yet fully accepted by many.
Colouring and
decoration has yet to be fully accepted by the majority of people
in the woodturning fraternity, a large number of turners still hold firm
the belief that the wood itself has its own natural beauty, this is true
but some of the whiter, blander timbers can often benefit from the addition of
decoration.
Often colouring
totally obscures the grain of the wood, some turners paint the wood and
then scorch it with blowtorches, if this is what you prefer, its a free
world, the choice is all yours. |
