Hello from a Newbie

[HillClimb]

New member here – and still consider myself a newbie turner. Been turning about 10 months now (when time allows) I enjoy doing small bowls and spindle stuff, but I don’t really enjoy the tiny intricate spindle finials yet (probably due to my lack of skill)  and so far self-taught via books, YT and the excellent DVDs from Glenn Lucas.
Based in Aylesbury, Bucks and have been to a few of the informal “Tuesday Turners” Club meets at Axminster High Wycombe and hoping to attend/join the club at Milton Keynes in the Spring. I am turning on a Axminster AVSL1000 which is crude but good to learn on – hope to get something bigger and heavy maybe one day.
I have a somewhat unique situation in that we took early retirement and we have a holiday home in Quebec Canada, so we spend a chunk of every year there and I have a small midi bench top lathe there too, it is the Rikon original which the UK Record DML320 is a clone of.
So my UK turning is all seasoned blanks etc (which all seems expensive to me) then in Canada I’m surrounded by acres of forest (mainly Maple, & Birch (both White and Yellow)) and I routinely fell/chunk and split 3 or 4 EOL/SDW trees for winter firewood so I am now laying aside any burls, crotches etc and I have a few buried under leaves hopefully to spalt. So I am hoping to gain some proficiency at turning green wood. – both roughing out->dry->re-turn but also turn it wet super-thin. Also aiming to master hook-tool greenwood end grain hollowing.
Photos are many of the things made to date

[GBF]

Some nice work there I am not really a lover of Goblets but the second from the left or third from the right is very very nice.

Regards George

[HillClimb]

Thanks George - I quite enjoyed the goblets - then i enjoy most forms of turning and I enjoy the variety - for me the challenge when using seasoned blanks (which I consider expensive) is how to make a thing without wasting a load of wood. Doing it the way many do on YT with a 10mm deep tenon (or bigger) and parting off a little way away from the chuck wastes far too much expensive wood - rather I work to hollow out whilst chucked then go back to turning between centres to complete - it can mean the difference between getting 3 finished pieces from a blank rather than 2 (whether a goblet, candlestick etc).

Another hobby of mine is decorative knot work, and one of the tools of that craft is a knotting Fid or (marlin) spike - so I made numerous of those too, variety of shapes as pictured - including some acrylic ones - these have made great gifts to my knotting freinds 

Yes that "tulip" shaped goblet is my favourite to date - I have a Padauk spindle blank and Pau Rosa blank lined up to make 4 more goblets from, so I want an 8 goblet set with  each one being sufficiently differently shaped from one another rather than numerous identically shaped ones - so I have 4 more goblets to make to look forward to

[georg]

   some nice work there thank you for sharing ...... looking forward to seeing more.
      Kind Regards Tony di

[Bryan Milham]

Well there is enough well turned their to stake your claim as a fairly accomplished turner.

I am fascinated by the leather and cord work, I only know one other turner in the UK who also works with cords and he is a member of the British Knot Tiers Association, would you be a member of that as well?

[HillClimb]

Thanks Tony Di and dr4g0nfly

Still loads to learn and I am sure my stuff takes me 10 times longer than all the guru's I've seen at demos and on YT. But pleased with the end results, staying safe and enjoying it so all good !!

dr4g0nfly - re the knot work. No I'm not a member of British Knot Tiers Association nor the International Guild of Knot Tyers, rightly or wrongly most tyers are fixated by FB Groups, they are more active and that is where many gurus hang out, the very best are the south American knotting groups - the stuff there is exquisite, complex, mainly done with tiny fine rawhide - mainly horse-tack, handle wraps etc and it's just jaw dropping - and of course I can't understand a word of descriptions/conversation either - just watch. I know a few other Knotting Turners/machinists in Norway, USA and Australia, but none in the UK. But these Fids are, in turnings terms, very basic - kind of like the gardening dibbers that all us newbies try early on