Over the winter months Michael enjoys his time in the workshop making pieces for the summer season. It is our busy time, showing visitors following Orkneys Creative Trail, our Gallery and Workshop. He looks to make as wide a range of pieces as possible and draws his inspiration from multiple sources around our islands.
He also enjoys making a couple of larger statement pieces which generally show off a lot of different techniques and embellishments. These are often a challenge and take some time.
Marking out the bowl
Checking the fit
Stand ebonised
One of this years pieces is this stunning Neolithic Unstan ware inspired bowl turned from Orkney sycamore which sits in a carved ebonised elm base complete with spalted beech turned legs. The elm is from some old stock planks we have had for many many years. The decoration includes Unstan ware pattern hand applied using pyrography and an Edinburgh hallmarked and makers mark silver staple. The overall size is approx. 580mm long x 410mm at the widest and 230mm high.
Checking the height the legs need to be
All resulting in the finished piece…
The Longest day already
After a stunning evening the morning has arrived with cloud and a good breeze, standard longest day weather🤣 Still it's nice to start with a walk round the Ring of Brodgar and along the loch. It was early enough to have the place to myself, but when I arrived back at...
Techniques and processes
I have made up a video showing Michael working at some processes and using some of the techniques. YouTube It is just under 15mins long so grab a cuppa before you start. We hope you enjoy it.
Website Revamp
We have been thinking about updating the website for a while and we can now announce that it is done and launched. We had a lot of input but it was done professionally with some excellent input and advice. We hope it looks fresh and is user friendly. As part of the...