The weekend
The arts trail in the village was a new event for Mr H Woodwork. I had previously done a craft fair, but this was slightly different.
One of our neighbours who was involved in organising the weekend encouraged me to apply to take part and as we had agreed to host one of the visiting artists the entry fee was considerably reduced.
I was involved in the setting up of gazebos and the display boards in the large marquees, then it was back home to set up my display in the front of the garage.
The usual collection of farmyard animals were there along with the cheese and chopping boards and Christmas decorations. The only new addition was the oak barrel stave fruit bowl.
I managed to get the sum up card reader working and even remembered my password, the device not having being used for several years.
I had a really successful weekend, on the Saturday I sold out of Christmas decorations, and had lots of favourable comments, one of our neighbours even put a post on the village facebook page encouraging people to come and see my work. Sunday although there seemed to be fewer visitors was equally busy for me, the sheep and one of the large chopping boards sold and some lovely comments from people who do woodwork for a living. I find it very encouraging when career carpenters like what I do.
Orders
After the weekend, everything got packed away ready for the next event, the only thing left was to prepare items which people had ordered.
As suspected the barrel fruit bowls proved very popular. I had orders for three, two to the original design and a third similar shape but smaller version. A customer also wanted a small cheese board.
The cheese board was already made, but having been in storage I felt it needed freshening up. A quick rub down with 320 grit sandpaper and a couple of coats of oil got it back to its original good condition.
The barrel bowls took a bit more work. Selection of the staves is the starting point, then put them through the thicknesser to get rid of the heavily burnt inner surface. I then check for the edge to edge alignment and adjust as necessary.
During this process I noticed that one set of staves must have come from similar barrels as both inner and outer surfaces lined up. I discussed this with the customer and she agreed that so long as I could get the outer surface reasonably smooth I would try to leave as much of the weathering as possible intact.
The result was a lovely golden oak inner surface, showing some signs of the previous burning, and an almost black outer surface which gave a lovely contrast. Something I will try to replicate on any future orders
Get in Touch
Call 07710 888611, or email mrhwoodwork@outlook.com.