Sawdust & Sparkle

08/08/2022

You learn a lot working with young people. For instance, did you know there was an anime series called Fairy Tails? No? Me either …. And a game called Genshin Impact? Nope? And a no from me too … but thanks to Gabe now you know! He did an amazing job on the scrollsaw.

26/05/2022

⭐️Now Booking⭐️
Please message me to secure a spot!

Strictly for the over 12’s who may attend a 1:1 workshop (drop off), or bring a grown up with for an adult and child experience (each make a pen!) or bring a sibling (also each make a pen!)

Availability is Monday, Weds, and Friday next week with a 1pm start time.
Workshops last up to 3 hours working at the student’s pace and with necessary break time allowed.

⭐️Cost: £60 for a 1:1 workshop / £100 for an adult or sibling duo.

I am fully insured and have advanced DBS clearance for working with children.

⭐️Please don’t attend if you have any covid symptoms (or other transmissible illness) - we will happily reschedule if necessary.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ only 3 slots available

02/05/2022

M was here to make a pen, but I had just got hold of some super-cheap key ring kits so we did one of those too. Spot the LEGO head! English lacewood on both.

17/04/2022

I’m starting to receive more enquiries about my woodworking experiences, so here is a brief breakdown. I’m also very happy to consider bespoke projects so drop me a line (DMs are open 💬)

- pen making, either 1:1 or as a duo ✨most popular✨
- make a set of book ends
- make a puzzle 🧩
- make a name plaque or hashtag sign
- make a yo-yo 🪀 ~ coming soon!

Workshops last between 2-3 hours (depending on the project) and are priced from £50. Dates are subject to availability; and the venue is my workshop in Basingstoke.

15/04/2022

A lovely article on Forbes about the benefits of handwriting, and handwritten letters. Do you like to write?

If you want to boost your brain, pick up a pen.

14/04/2022

My boy and his best friend want to come and make yo-yos, so I had to make one to figure out the process. It’s a little more involved than you might think. After centre drilling and parting the halves you need to check whether they roll without stopping in the same place each time. I used very uniform straight-grained Sapele which was good. Then you have to weigh each half and get them to an identical mass. The first one is easy - just urn, finish and weigh. But the second - not so much! You have to keep taking it off the mandrel to weigh and then re-adhere. After three weighing a they landed up one gram apart, so I sanded the inside face of the heavy one until they were identical. It was worth the effort, the yo-yo spins perfectly balanced.

13/04/2022

I’m really feeling this atm. My mom is very poorly in hospital, has caught COVID and is now in an isolation ward with no visitors. She gets easily confused and will be heartbroken not to see family. With her dementia she won’t use a telephone or an iPad. My dad, who is living without her for the first time in over 60 years, is not handling things well at all, but he is also in quarantine having visited her the day before she had the positive test. But life has to go on this side, so … I’m fine. Really … thanks for asking.

10/04/2022

Yesterday I had a father-son duo come in to do a pen making experience in my workshop. Dad chose a lovely piece of London plane (recovered from a tree felled for H&S reasons) while his son chose spalted beech (destined for the firewood) for their respective pens. Didn’t they do a marvellous job?! 🤩 Drop me a line if you’d like a similar workshop experience!

08/04/2022

Now we’re getting somewhere! I found a much more effective and repeatable way of separating the case from the strap lugs. Onwards!

01/04/2022

Sometimes prototypes can be SO frustrating! I had this one worked out in my head, but in reality the amount of hand work needed to turn this into a viable wristwatch would make the price prohibitive. So it’s back to the design fundamentals. The foal@is to have a 44mm watch case (an industry standard for men’s watches and many women’s watches too) with a skeleton movement that is only 26mm in diameter. First option is to ‘sleeve’ the case opening with a contrasting wood underneath the front glass. But this makes the case quite deep (currently aiming for 18mm full depth - quite chunky but more svelte than many ‘diver style’ watches out there). Which means I have to reduce the height of the strap lugs. But to carve each one out by hand - ugh! So prototype number two will try a quicker and more precise way to do that. Watch this space!

24/03/2022

Something’s brewing in the kitchen! How about that delicious burr London Plane?

23/03/2022

K was getting to grips with the scrollsaw yesterday. He works slowly and deliberately which is the best approach to the scrollsaw, so he was acing it. Penguin puzzle coming up in his next session.